To Know IRS Tax Code Section 179

... is really to love it.

Small Businesses should take advantage of such a useful process.

Section 179 (http://www.section179.org/) essentially allows your business to write off a qualifying technology purchase up to a certain limit (typically 250k) instead of writing off a depreciated amount over time each year.

The benefit to your business is obvious. Let's say you needed a new server and network overhaul. For a small business of 25 seats, this could be a process that costs anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000 on average. Section 179 would allow you to take a tax deduction equating to the amount spent on qualifying equipment. Instead of writing off 10k a year for 5 years on a $50,000 purchase, you may deduct the whole thing in year one.

Over the past few months, I have made a point of emailing my clients who have made investments in technology over the past year or are considering doing some year end work so they may take advantage of this section when filing for 2008.

It also has been a great way to drum up so new business!

Hire a Solution, Not a Tech

The other day I was over at a new client's office introducing my team when in walked the most stereotypical computer geek I had seen in a long time. This guy had to have been pushing three bills easy and looked like he "gamed" every Sunday night. It didn't take long to realize that the "IT staff" the owner had just got done explaining we were taking over for had just waddled out of the room.

Insults aside, I was once again dumbfounded at the sincere lack of management of the IT staff (who turned out to be two guys instead of just the one) for that organization. They are in health care which is a big grower in Michigan, they have added 20 employees over the past year and plan on adding another 20-30 in the next 8 months.

There was no antivirus. There were no backups. There was no disaster recovery plan. There was, however, plenty of their fortune 500 clients angry at them because they did not have a functioning email or telephony solution. This was essentially what these two gentlemen were getting paid $60k a year to do. Sit there and watch their technology blow up.

We were called because their email server crashed with no explanation. We spent 14 hours fixing the problem - essentially rebuilding a house of cards. We were the heroes, and now they will be replacing their IT staff with our company.

Don't go hiring an IT guy for your company because its the typical thing to do. Hire a solution, not a person. Have a look at managed IT services. This is a model that is much more cost effective for small and medium sized businesses.

The night that email server crashed, our managed support left the client site with everything fixed at 9pm... 3 hours after their own IT staff left for the evening.

For the win.

Face it, Mac is Perfect

Take a look at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=5617800&page=1

Funny how my fanatical Mac-Empowered friends never hesitate to tell me how inferior Microsoft products are (usually in an email composed within Entourage) however whenever Mac manages to screw things up bad I don't hear a word about it.

This whole iPhone thing distresses me. I could care less about the whole Mac vs. PC deal, I just think the thing looks cool and does fun stuff. With the advent of Exchange integration, it gave me a reason to finally justify the purchase. Mac couldn't seem to hop on to the 3G bandwagon without falling off the other side though so I will be waiting a bit on this purchase.

Hey Mac/iPhone people - quit annoying me. All technology no matter who makes it is flawed. So stop with the "Mac is Perfect" crap - technology in general doesn't work and I work in the business.

My Advice is to Get Yourself Moving

This is going to my engineers this weekend, although they don't have a copy of it yet.

Print this out and read it on the toilet this weekend-

The Power of Completion
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
-Larry Bird

A full day’s work in a day.
A full day of work does not have a time range. Time is a guideline for expectation. Manage yourselves – you know when you are capable of doing more in a day.

Before each of you leave for the day, I want you to ask yourself “Is there something else I can complete today?” It is very easy for us to hit a lull between jobs at 3-3:30pm and look to end the day. Using that last couple of hours effectively during the day, every day, is very important.

When on site, a job is not completed at 5 pm, a job is completed when the customer’s requirements are met and the business purpose is fulfilled. Vision looks out for their customers. If it is 4:30 pm and you see more work that could be accomplished while on site – offer to complete this work to the client – get your full day of work in.

Talk with the customers, it’s ok to small talk with them to give that personal feel to the experience. This is time well spent and not time that we have to include as a billable charge!

How to move yourself… without a U-Haul.
Let's form proactive synergy restructuring teams!

Don’t be afraid to take initiative. Managing yourself while being productive with your time is a much better use of everyone’s time. Take tickets, complete jobs, follow up with customers, manage accounts. Be diligent and take pride in your work.

…and speaking of pride!
The pride of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."
-Vince Lombardi

You spend as much time at work as you do sleeping. Work and your company should be something you take pride in. We are not McDonalds cook-line workers, we are highly trained IT Professionals and for as many jokes and stereotypes as people have about us – understand that you have much power at your fingertips. You make other businesses money, you have the power to grind that same business to a halt. You can show people how to send and receive information in such ways they have never conceived. You have the power to make people happy by flipping a switch, or make people angry by flipping the switch the other way. You have the power to fix problems caused by the ignorance and innocence of a person who will never understand and joke about it behind their back… all so you can go back and do it again tomorrow.

What we do and how we do it is better than anyone out there, and you all prove it on a daily basis. I know because our clients tell me that. Care about yourselves, your family, and your job – and show all three passion to do well.

Have a good weekend!

The FTP Turn Off

Because I am an avid fan of people who are better technical writers than I - This is an article from a gentleman who has posted something near and dear to my heart.

The insecurity of FTP.

This is going to sound a little weird at first considering what I do for a living, but I want you to stop using FTP.

There are too many aspects of it which have not kept up with modern computing environments. In particular:

Unless tunneled over a secure socket, FTP is 100% insecure. Your password, and the contents of all of your files are sent in the clear, free to be examined or captured by any network hop between you and your server.

The spec defines no way of setting the modification dates/times of files. A number of non-standard extensions have arisen to deal with this shortcoming. Some servers support one but not the others. Some support neither. Some claim to support one method but misinterpret the the arguments, treating the timestamps as local time rather than UTC. I've seen FTP servers simply drop the connection whenever asked to set a timestamp on a file. For such a simple and necessary operation, it's chaos.

The spec defines no reliable way of determining the string encoding used for file names. We are able to get it right some of the time using educated guesses, but it's hardly reliable. The Internet has made the world smaller than ever, and the world simply needs to use protocols that support international character sets.

FTP was designed to be used interactively by a human sitting at a terminal, not by a GUI application working on the human's behalf. The spec doesn't even define the output format that should be used for directory listings. Half of the work in writing a decent FTP client is being able to interpret the hundreds of different types of directory listings you might receive without much hint as to which type the server is sending. This leads to all kinds of subtle glitches. For example, for files more than a year old appearing in Unix style directory listings it's impossible to determine their modification date without using additional (and likely unsupported) non-standard commands. Sending such per-file commands kills performance. It's also impossible to reliably handle unusual cases such as leading/trailing spaces in file names without hints from the user about the type of server on the other end.

The spec defines no way of dealing with file metadata, such as Unix permissions, owners, and groups. Again, various servers have implemented extensions for working with this, but you cannot rely on their presence or interoperability.

FTP requires a minimum of two socket connections to transfer a file: the control connection, which is established first, and then data connections which are created and destroyed every time you transfer a single file, or request a directory listing. This is deadly to your overall throughput, especially on a high-latency Internet connection. And worse, it leads to the next problem:

FTP is not friendly with firewalls. Because it constantly needs to establish new connections, this has led us to "passive mode" which might as well be black magic as far as most people are concerned. Briefly, passive mode means the client initiates data connections to the server, rather than the default where the server makes connections to the client (yes, really). Worse still, data connections occur on varying high port numbers (usually 49152-65335) which means sysadmins would have to open over 16,000 ports in the firewall, almost defeating the purpose of a firewall in the first place. It's a mess, and it's really hard to understand. Firewalls are a necessary evil for today's Internet, and our transfer protocols should be able to deal with them.

So, if not FTP, what should you use instead? Of what's available today, I'd recommend everyone switch to SFTP if you possibly can.

It's secure, it's consistently implemented, and it's machine-readable. That all adds up to a more reliable, future-proof transfer client for you.

I've talked to a lot of people who didn't even realize their host supported SFTP. If your hosting service supports SFTP, you usually don't have to change anything except for switching your client protocol from FTP to SFTP. If it doesn't work, you should ask your host if there's anything else you have to do (such as use a different port number).

If your host doesn't support SFTP, you should find a different host. It's not hard to support, and it's ridiculous to force people into using insecure protocols in the year 2008. Ask them, for example, why they don't support telnet. FTP is no better.

FTP has served us well, but it's time to move on. You wouldn't use a 23 year old computer to do your work, so don't use a protocol from the same vintage. Demand modern transfer protocols from your host.

Update
Several people have taken issue with me calling out the age of the protocol. After all, Ethernet, IP, Unix, HTML, and so on are also quite old, but seem to be holding up OK.

I guess it was a silly point to bring up. I hope it's at least obvious from the article that I'm not suggesting that FTP's age is its primary problem, but rather the issues in the bulleted list.

The difference between FTP and other old-but-still-useful tech is that the others have been updated periodically to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the industry.

Ethernet now has CAT6. IP is (sort of... slowly...) mutating into IPV6. Unix has had so many mutations it would be hard to name them all. HTML is coming up on version 5.

FTP is just FTP, pretty much same as it was when Jon Postel & co. wrote it. We've wrapped it in secure tunnels and thrown countless proprietary extensions at it (that nobody agrees on how to implement). But it's my opinion (and certainly not everybody's) that it's broken at a fundamental level for its intended purpose for today's Internet.

So, yes, the age of the protocol BY ITSELF is a non-argument. It's that it has languished for that long without any cleanup from any standards organization or committee. SFTP seems the best candidate to replace it since it is widely deployed, solves pretty much all the problems I mentioned, and in most cases is an easy substitution for end users to make. Of the realistic solutions to the problem (not "let's write a new protocol!") it's the most accessible.

Folks, I'm a Newton user. You don't have to tell me that age does not necessarily equal irrelevance.

(Note: Technically speaking, I even understated FTP's age. I was going by RFC959, which is the implementation still in use today. However, a reader reminds me that the core FTP functionality dates back to RFC354, drafted in 1972, and was designed for the trusted environment of ARPANET. It predates both TCP/IP and the internet as we know it today.)

Update 2
There is some confusion over what I mean by "SFTP". I'm referring to the SSH File Transfer Protocol, not FTP-over-SSL which is informally known as FTPS. FTPS addresses FTP's lack of encryption, but is otherwise exactly the same protocol as FTP, with exactly the same problems.



Originally at: http://stevenf.com/archive/dont-use-ftp.php

Make Those Proposals Cheaper Without Lowering Your Price

In Michigan, with economic times the way they are it forces us to find more and more ways to provide competitively priced technology solutions. If I am a company to stay in business, and dare I say, grow - then it requires us to seek ways of keeping the quality in the solution, keeping profits in our coffers, and keeping prices competitive. Unfortunately, we do not live in the most conducive environment.

It is quite common for me to consult for a small business and provide 10-30k worth of equipment and labor. That said, even if the client is in desperate need of this proposed solution a lot of the time they have no idea or expectation of cost and I don't think I need to state how difficult it can be sometimes for a small business to write such a large check.

Offering financing options are a must. We have offered financing options for years and many clients of mine have decided to take advantage and exercises these options. There is, however, a new flavor of financing that I am now offering to my small business clients.

We have partnered with a nation-wide telephony and Internet provider to partially or fully subsidize the cost of a client's technology solution - assuming they also sign up with the provider's services. A lot of the time when a business signs up for Internet and phone service, they are also looking in to things like computers, servers, network additions, etc. Doing this work concurrently with the new phone/Internet service and taking advantage of this subsidy program will allow a business owner to purchase all products and services for less than if they bought these items directly from me. In some cases, we have quoted work and our client purchased enough service from the vendor where they paid for the entire project. The client received a server and 10 new computers at no charge because the subsidy amount received from the phone service vendor was equal to the payment for the equipment. At the end of the day, my client ended up paying for the normal Internet and Phone service, and receiving all products and services free of charge.

This type of financing has allowed technology providers like us to remain competitive and also benefits our clients. We all have to live in this harsh economic environment so this type of program helps us all.

Be Fly

What is it about airports that rub me the wrong way?

The smell, perhaps. Maybe when the dude next to me decided to take his shoes off in the plane on the way to LGA (I don't care how long the flight is I don't want to see your feet). Maybe it's the fact that I have been sitting in the WorldPerks room for 4 hours now waiting for a standby flight.

How about the fact that I never seem to have a problem leaving Detroit, it always seems to amount to a delay or issue, though, in trying to return. This could be a sign to stay away from Detroit. I suppose I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Anyhow, this sucks and it's time to go walk to the gate so I can get denied once again.

Cavalier and C2: Small Businesses Enter at Your Own Risk

There have been few vendors out there that have angered me as much as the infamous Cavalier/LDMI/Talk America - whatever, take your pick on what their name is this week. Being a small business IT consultant part of my job is to find decent, affordable telephony and Internet service solutions and I have had the unfortunate first hand experience of working with this company. To be fair, in the first 3 months of working with them (over a 18 month process) things were fine. The remainder of the time was a nightmare for my clients. Installations were botched, service was shaky at best, telephone and technical support were next to nonexistent. When you did receive support it took 4 days for a ticket to get completed. There wasn't a single facet of the Cavalier service that was good.

Well, let's talk about their people then. If I thought their service was bad, their CSR's and salespeople were worse. I have since spoke with peers that worked at Cavalier in sales and they told me first hand about their terrible sales tactics and lack of ethics. Things like making empty promises, changing contracts after signatures were given, and long contracts with no way out clauses were a common business practice. This is why people are filing complaints with the State of Michigan because Cavalier's gig is up.

Sitting at home the other night, I see a corny, low-budget commercial for something called C2. This just happens to be Cavalier's home telephone and Internet service. I laugh out loud at their proclamation of how they are "partnered with Google" and how using their service you get access to Google Apps. Obviously, anyone has access to these tools and I highly doubt Google would waste their time with such a joke of a company. Amazing on how such an example for the "C2 service" marketing speaks to their business practices by making such deceptive "offerings."

Cavalier, in any environment, is a joke. They have no room in the small business, home, or any market until they make some serious infrastructure changes and clean up their act. I received a phone call from a friend who is high up at AT&T the other day - he was giving me a heads up that Cavalier is apparently not paying their bills to AT&T and they are in danger of being shut off for all LDMI based customers in any state. What a laugh I had at that. Cavalier can't even pay their bills for the copper they rent from AT&T and as usual, their customers will pay for it.

My advice - when looking for phone or Internet service - avoid LDMI, Cavalier, Talk America (whatever) like the plague.

Lean and Mean in Michigan

Michigan's economy flat out sucks and in times like these it is more important than ever to run your business lean. Lean - cut the fat. Lean has no fat and fat is waste. Small businesses that have too much waste end up out of business. Waste (fat) equates to time, money, and loss of business. In a hostile economic environment, too much fat will make you sink.

Being lean doesn't mean not spending money. The name of the game is quality and efficiency and if your company can provide great service while maintaining both quality and efficiency then you are lean. I prefer to let my company's service speak for itself versus dumping resources in to aggressive mass-marketing. As a matter of fact, Vision's biggest source of new business is referrals and that is marketing you can't beat.

A lean business hires the best people and pays them what they are worth while maintaining high expectations. Being lean means wearing multiple hats and wearing them well. Lean companies will put the customer first and do what it takes to make them happy. Lean companies will also identify and fire "problem customers."

If you are a small business in Michigan and rely on other Michigan businesses; if you are still in business today then you are doing something right. I prefer to think of this as "survival of the fittest." Let all the marginal companies fall by the wayside - more business for us to serve and when the economy swings I will be ready to hold on for the ride.

Hosting Your Services

Hosted services are becoming a more attractive and realistic options to the small business owners. Realizing that proper client/server setups and hardware can sometimes carry a significant investment - many small business owners are opting to take the monthly fee approach.

A hosted solution provides a user or users with the power of a larger software package for a fraction of the cost. You also offload the responsibility of administrative tasks to the hosting company. Management items such as updating, monitoring, troubleshooting, securing and backing up servers are delegated to the host and not the customer.

Some examples of hosted solutions are:

1. Mail - from simple email POP3 hosting to Exchange hosting services - email has become a staple of the modern business world. Exchange hosting is extremely beneficial to small businesses because it allows you to take advantage of the full capabilities of Microsoft Exchange. This includes features such as calendar and contact sharing.

2. Web - most small businesses do not want to bother hosting their own web site. With so many web hosting options and companies nowadays, there is no common reason that a small business needs to take on the responsibilities of hosting their own website.

3. Sharepoint - An up and coming software suite in the eyes of the small business. Sharepoint is a powerful collaboration utility that is very customizable to suit the needs of almost any business. It allows for a company intranet right out of the box and offers many free templates and user community online.

4. Anti-Virus - Yes, even anti-virus is offered as a hosted solution. If you have multiple computers but have no server, the benefit of using hosted antivirus is the control you have over those particular AV installations and the ease of keeping licenses managed (i.e. renewals). Most of the time, not only is hosted AV easier to manage and more effective, but cheaper too!

5. Backups - Automated off site backups are a convenient way of making sure your data is protected and backed up with little to no intervention on your part. Online backups can be a "set it and forget it" type of deal - simple to implement but invaluable to have.

For more information on different types of hosted services, please visit http://www.vcsolutions.com

Google - The Operating System

I have a theory. Imagine a Google Operating System - GoogleOS.

I don't think anyone is going to release an OS that runs on an end user computer that will take the place of Windows anytime soon. Even given all of the criticism surrounding Windows Vista, and Microsoft's recent decision to extend the availability of Windows XP - realistically I do not see Ubuntu, Novell Desktop, or even Mac making a huge dent in the market share of Microsoft's Giant, Windows. Microsoft Windows is too entrenched in to the corporate and home markets and even if Apple is making great progress in to the home market, they have big time difficulties with the business environment.

The answer is you need a paradigm changing technology - a structured technology solution that offers benefits in the form of lower cost of ownership and ease of use. This is where I think the "GoogleOS" will become the Giant Killer.

The proliferation of high speed access across the world has exposed us to possibilities never available before. So what is the next step? Hosted Operating Systems.

With all of Google's online applications - currently offered free of charge - it is easy to see the foreshadowing of hosted solutions to be offered by Google. Instead of offering free, online version of applications, like a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar and email - how about offering the whole package online? How about a hosted Operating System?

This, of course, is pure speculation, but I think it makes logical sense in terms of the next evolution of computing and if Microsoft's Jolly Giant, Windows, is to be taken down then it will have to be done by changing the landscape of typical computing.

Small Business Technology Consultants

Technology for small businesses has managed to become both more simple and more complex at the same time. A well done technology solution from the beginning may be complex, but the payoff to you as the business owner manifests itself in a solution that is simple to use - allowing you and your user to become more efficient in their day to day activities.

A good technology consultant will take all the complexity out of the technology setup. A good technology consultant will sit with you and listen to what your wants are, then tell you what you need to make that happen. You should have your expectations fully set by the time you make your investment in your technology solution.

Good technology consultants do exist for the small businesses. If you need an example - please have a look!

The Value of Design

Just recently, I had a project close on a rather negative note. This project was designed in the beginning, and for the sake of speed there were a bunch of extra tasks and materials added on at the last minute without being properly designed or researched. The end result was a lot of headaches during setup, additional time that was unaccounted for, and a frustrating experience for everyone involved.

This experience, although aggravating, has proven to me once again the value of a good design. Many times I have walked in to a business owner's office to find them asking for a quote on the spot for a "new network." Let's put it this way, if a technology company is able to drop a quote on your desk the second you tell them you need a new server, new network, new computers... etc. Then chances are you are about to experience frustration and headaches like I described above.

My process is simple in nature, but very effective. When I stick to it, failures almost never occur. Assess the current state of the client's existing technology along with evaluating their current needs. Design a full, turn key technology solution that suits their needs. Explain the design and detail out what the client's expectations should be. Finally, deliver the solution. All changes or modifications of the project should be documented and approved.


I will not being skewing from this process again any time soon.

Small Business Technology Budget Tips

A staggering amount of small businesses that I have worked with in the past have made a major mistake year after year in doing their budget. They simply created no area in their budget for technology purchasing, maintenance and support. When you sit down to do your budget for your business, you must take in to account quite a few things. Don't ever treat IT as a "we'll just buy it when we need it" type of situation - plan for it and accommodate for the costs in your bill rate.

1. Purchases - Some will have to purchase new computers, some will have to make a larger investment in a server (this usually is a depreciated asset). In any case, you should always allocate fundage for the purchase of computers, printers and other equipment.

2. Software costs - More and more software today relies on renewable licensing. Software such as anti-virus will cost your company a certain amount each year. This type of software is the easiest to plan for. Other things to look at are newer versions of software you currently use or if you are making plans to migrate to a different package. Always keep in mind that software requires a license for everyone!

3. Maintenance - If you have any kind of technology investment in your company, then understand that those assets require maintenance in order to keep at their optimal performance level. Always keep room in your budget for maintenance costs. Maintenance minimizes costly down time and service costs.

4. Service - Even with maintenance, there will be times when you experience problems requiring the assistance of a technology professional. Typically, this is not a set amount but it is very helpful to accommodate for some type of reactive service cost. The better the maintenance plan, the less you will hopefully have to spend in service. Keep in mind, growth requires service!

Technology has a very real cost, one that the better you plan for, the less it will hurt when you are writing those checks. Don't skip over this part of the budget - realize the value of your technology and understand that technology deserves investment every year.

No City For Young Men

I just watched the State of the City.

I am nauseous at the "State of the City."

I am constantly disappointed by the lack of leadership in this city and state. Both the State and the City have been run into the ground due to bad decisions, lack of foresight, poor investments, and wasteful spending. Now, young professionals like me and citizens of this great state are paying the price (don't even get me started on automotive and real estate). If the state of Michigan was an actual business, it would have declared bankruptcy a long time ago. Interesting that government is never held accountable for their bad choices - after all, the citizens have the power of choice, right? So I guess it's all our fault.

No, this isn't about technology today. Just keep this little tidbit in mind when running your business...

And if you currently live in Michigan - be strong and do what I do.

Load up on antacids.

There's a Time and Place For a Server

Purchasing a server can be a scary proposition for some small business owners. Sometimes I will meet with a client and he or she will outline what their expectation of a technology plan for their company is and just throw the term "server" into the mix. The question is typically "how will I know when I need one?"

If you have a small business that runs five or more computers on a peer to peer network, chances are you are a great candidate for a server. As a matter of fact, if you fall under this category, if you have not already budgeted for a small, business-class server then you should begin this process soon.

A good technology provider can help you with this process. Although the cost of the actual hardware can be moderate, the actual implementation of a server has more costs than just the purchase of hardware. Your IT infrastructure will experience a paradigm shift in the way it functions and operates on a daily basis. Your users will experience a change in how they do things and require simple training. Moving to a server environment will bring you many conveniences and open up a lot of doors for expansion and capability down the road, but it most be planned and designed accordingly. Never expect a technology company to just drop a quote in your lap for a server without doing their homework ahead of time!

Backups: The How and Why

How important is data that resides on your computer or your server? Are you a habitual Word and Excel user? Perhaps, your company is managed by using financial software such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. Maybe you and your workforce rely on the operations of E2 software in order to do your daily work. Let's say you show up to the office tomorrow and all of your data had vanished; of course you have a verified, reliable backup solution in place!

Wait, you aren't sure if you do or not? You think you do but how do you know? Is someone changing tapes? Have I tried to do test restore jobs from those tapes? Am I even backing up all of the data that needs to be backed up? OK, maybe I am not backing things up.

Disaster recovery and data backup; two aspects of your technology solution that you should never ignore. Most people will not give this a second thought until they actually lose information that they need to recover and then it is all the sudden priority number one. The smart move is to understand that data backup and your disaster recovery plan is an insurance policy that you can ill-afford to go without. The cost of integrating a solution vs. the potential cost of not having it makes it well worth having.

1. Raw data backup/copy: Having your files simply copied from one location to another is a big step in the right direction.

2. Backup Application to manage you backups: Using software such as ntbackup or Veritas BackupExec to manage backup sets, media sets, and data retention policies can give you many layers of data redundancy and versions of your information. This also is a great way to backup files that may be in use or open. Reporting features built in to this software are also great to keep up with anything that may have been missed.

3. Imaging software: Symantec and Acronis have great imaging software that allows you to take snapshots of your assets. If you suffer from a failure or crash you can essentially be up and running within a matter of hours instead of days.

4. Secure online backups: Automated, secure online backups are a great, convenient way to go. No tapes to change, no managing the backups - just a simple email stating what was backup up and when (see: our page on these services).

By integrating any or all of these solutions you will grant yourself the peace of mind in knowing that your precious data and information is safe and available in the event of a failure or deletion. Believe me, it happens to the best of us!

The Cheap and The Good

Don't be fooled by the creative marketing of the major computer manufacturers such as Dell or HP. No computer applicable in the business environment costs $499. When you purchase a new computer for your business, you ideally want it to be a 3-5 year investment, especially if you are making an investment in a server. Some things to make sure you include in a build when purchasing a new computer:

I. Memory - 1 GB if you will be running Windows XP, 2 GB if you want to run Windows Vista or plan on upgrading to Vista. Memory makes the biggest noticeable impact on computer performance.

II. Video Card - I usually tell people to at least include a card with 128 MB of memory, although 256 MB is much better if you plan on running Vista.

III. Warranty - This is kind of a love or hate option. Most people consider this insurance - and no one really likes insurance. That said, I typically recommend at least a 3 year warranty with on site support. All it takes is one hardware failure and this will pay off itself.

IV. Office Suite - Purchasing an OEM version of MS Office will be the cheapest license of this product that you will probably find. Consider purchasing the new version of MS Office when you buy a new computer. Remember, OEM licenses live and die with the computer so if you plan on "transferring" Office from your old system to the new, chances are legally you cannot do this.

If you follow those guidelines you will be very happy with your new computer. Most of the other options are preferential but are not as essential. The trade off is you will be looking at a more expensive computer, however it will last much longer and your experience with it will be much more positive!

Remote Connectivity Options for the Small Business

A common discussion I have with small business owners is how to provide remote access to their office network for them or their staff. Most people think this is a difficult capability to provide, but the reality is with a little know-how and proper design, there are different ways to provide this access.

I. VPN - Virtual Private Networking (VPN) can be established in many different ways. My preferred method is to use an actual appliance such as the Cisco ASA5505 firewall as the VPN concentrator (the point that you connect to). I prefer this over using the actual server as the point of contact, although this feature is built in to many Microsoft server operating systems. With VPN access and proper configuration, you have full access to all of the resources on your network as if you were sitting in the office. The downside is you are not sitting in your office, thus everything happens over the Internet and consequently speed becomes a factor.

II. Remote Web Workplace (RWW) - This is a feature built in to Microsoft Small Business Server. It allows for connecting directly to your computer at work from a remote computer right through Internet Explorer. You essentially control your office computer remotely and this enables you to perform all the usual functions that you are used to on your office computer over the Internet through the browser.

III. Outlook over the Internet - Most people think you need a VPN setup in order to access email remotely, but in truth the latest version of Exchange and Outlook provide for what is known as Outlook over the Internet. This basically allows you to open Outlook and use it on any remote computer and have it connected to your office Exchange email server.

IV. Freebies! - Logmein.com has a great free piece of remote control software that once you install it on your computer, you can connect to it from virutally anywhere through their website using a password. This is a nice solution because it is free and it requires to firewall or router configuration. There are many providers out there now of software like this.

V. Hosted Network Drives - A service we provide at Vision provides software that you can install that will allow all users to access the same data via a mapped drive (i.e. F:) right through the "My Computer" shortcut. This requires a small software installation but gives users access to the same data without having to purchase or design a server.

The list goes on. There are quite a few ways to provide for remote access and they do not require a lot of time or money. The payback, however, can be great for those who want to work from home or define a vacation as "working from a tropical location."

Small Business Networks Platform Diving

Watching the commercial for the new Macbook Air for the 400th time is not what necessarily bothered me. This new system is cool, very lightweight, and let's face it Mac computers are pretty. I have had firsthand experience with the new Macbook Air and they are nice! No, I think what bothers me is the music on the Macbook Air commercial, New Soul (the name of the song). If there is one thing I have learned about any Mac commercial is that they have the uncanny ability to make me dislike certain songs - songs that I may have found myself liking if only I had been exposed to them in a different manner. Once I hear the same clip from the same song for the 400th time I can effectively say I will never like that song. Unfortunately, due to Apple's repetitve mass marketing efforts, pretty much any song from any Apple commercial I would now rather not hear.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised then when I walked into a client's office to find him with his freshly unpacked Macbook Air, whistling that tune - asking me to connect it to his Windows network. Don't get me wrong, I love Mac computers. I am not a fanatical Windows user who hates any other system. Actually, I think most people fall into Pro-Microsoft or Anti-Microsoft but I couldn't really care one way or another. What I do care about is the fact that this business owner who wanted me to connect up his new Macbook Air now expected to be able to access everything on his company network seemlessly as if he had a Windows XP computer sitting in front of him. Well without getting into the gory details, let's just say it took much more training and time then he wanted to spend on it and eventually he just took it home to use as a home computer; effectively replacing it with a new Dell laptop.

Does Mac have a place in the business networking environment? I get asked this a lot because more people are starting to see the value and steadiness (and simplicity!) of the Mac. My answer is typically "no" to these people. Can it be done? Absolutely. Is it seemless? Nope! Most (above 80%) small businesses that run at least one server do so on a Microsoft operating system. Mac and Windows, althought competitors, can talk to each other but it isn't seemless. The next natural question then is "Well can't I run an Apple server?" Sure, and this practice is becoming a little more common, but for simplicity, support, and familiarity most people want to stick with Windows.

In a business, I tell people that if you are going to purchase and use a Mac then it should be for graphics and multimedia purposes (even though a PC can handle these functions just fine). Other than that, until Mac makes more of a footprint in the market share then my clients will not be the pioneers who are forging ahead with this effort. Simply put: for small business networks, use Microsoft products. Cost is relatively low, and provided the design is sound you will have a network that hums along with no problems.

Mac is beautiful, but it's not curtains for Windows. Not just yet.

Windows *Bleep* and My Small Business

Microsoft Windows Vista.

"Vista" can almost be classified as a four-letter word if you talk to most of my clients. Over the past year it has managed to be negatively hyped more than any other Microsoft-related product in recent memory. Nine out of ten business owners are interested in Vista, but typically precede their questions with "I heard Vista is really bad, but..."


Here's the deal, as a Microsoft Gold Partner our company has been "required" to run Vista on all of our computers 6 months prior to its release and I have found it fine to work with. As many complaints as I have seen about the UAC prompts and all the other "annoyances" that supposedly protect users from themselves, I have yet to encounter a Vista issue that has prevented me from being productive. Understanding that we are still waiting on SP1 and there are plenty of bugs to be squashed, Vista is fine, Vista works well on hardware that is appropriate for running it.

Nearly every complaint I have discussed with clients can be attributed to:

I. Lack of user training on the new look and feel

II. Something that is being caused by design or new feature i.e. UAC prompts when the person decides to try to install spyware through a website

III. The software they are trying to use has not been developed for Vista, or is not Vista compatible yet. In other words, that is not Microsoft's fault - after all, its only been over a year since it has been released.

Over the next couple of years, the major manufacturers will start eliminating Windows XP as an offering, so when a client asks "When do I need to move to Vista?" my response is usually simple. Whenever you can begin planning for the financial and training costs. The key word here is "planning" - in other words, we will all have to make the move to Vista at some point so do it on your own terms, not because Dell or HP won't sell you Windows XP Pro anymore and you are forced to Vista.

Plan on cost of new hardware, licensing, upgraded software costs, and most importantly training costs. All of these things will be major factors in "when and how" you upgrade your organization to Vista. Understand that in order to do it right, migrating requires adequate planning and design by your technology firm - just going out and buying Vista computers will not cut it.

With proper assessment and design, your Vista migration can be smooth, allowing you to deal with the unending complaints because you moved the cheese. Technology can only help you so much so do not let your users fear changes!

The Simple Spam-Killer

Nothing is a more monumental waste of time then sitting at your desk in the morning and filtering through 157 viagra, cialis, levitra, and get rich stock emails. I estimate that a person could essentially waste 1-4 seconds a day per spam mail they have to deal with, either by deleting or by adding to a "junk mail filter." If you have 50 of these a day on average, then realize you could inevitably we wasting a good amount of time just deailing with junk.

A client of mine sat with me and did a calculation, once, on how much time he spends dealing with junk email each day. Turns out, he was burning almost 20 minutes a day dealing with the incessant spam that came to him. His company employs about 150 people - so let's say all 150 spent the same amount of time dealing with that junk each day. How much time is being wasted?

I am a big fan of efficiency. Everything I do with my business is process and document driven. When I go in to an organization and see such a blatant waste of time in terms of dealing with junk mail it blows my mind because spam is such an easy thing to eliminate and the payoff is huge!

My advice is simple - do one of the following:

I. The best option is to invest in a service that filters and tests your email before it even gets to your organization, whether or not you are hosting your email in your office. This is typically one of the most expensive options, but also the most effective. Good anti-spam services will typically run anywhere from 30-60 independent spam tests on each email that comes through.

II. Having anti-spam and anti-virus services on the server that provides your email services is the next best thing. If you host email in your office, then this requires you purchase software to provide the filtering. This costs less than option I, however understand that the spam still gets to your server in some fashion and you are relying on software to eliminate it.

III. Running anti-spam software on your personal computer is the cheapest in terms of software costs, but I would say most of my clients who do this end up seeing little value over time. The software has to be maintained and tweaked by the user and is usually not very intuitive. I never usually recommend this option unless we are talking about a single user with little spam.

If you are having spam problems, stop procrastinating and do something to eliminate it. Honestly, with all the facets of your business that require fine tuning and improvement - eliminating spam has big and immediate payoff compared to its minimal solution cost. For more information, have a look at http://www.vcsolutions.com/spam_filter.php to see how my company does it.

Michigan IT Consulting Firms: Choosing the Right Partner for your Business

Your business relies on technology and computing systems that are becoming more complex by the second. Trusting mission-critical systems to simple backups and upgrades is no longer enough Many small to medium-sized businesses are finding themselves in need of a solid IT firm to manage their technology needs rather than relying on their “friend of a friend”, or part-time computer technician. Here are some tips to greatly increase the odds you choose the right IT consulting firm for your business.

1. Determine your company’s high-level technology needs. Do you have any specific wants or needs, such as email, a website, or a server? Are you concerned about data security or disaster recovery plan? What is it about your significant business processes that can be improved on by technology? What kind of growth do you expect in the next 1-3 years and how will your current technology solution handle it? Is someone even helping you plan for this growth? These are the types of overarching questions you should consider before you consult with an IT firm. Having a list created is key to relating your desires to the IT firm and also provides good basis for a conversation that can be elaborated on. You may not be familiar with your technical options that exist so let your IT firm help you. The IT firm with which you contract should provide a technical assessment that identifies the current state of your technology and learns how it interacts with your day-to-day business functions. How can an IT firm support you in a cost effective manner if they are not familiar with your specific setup?

2. Make sure the IT firm you select has adequate resources. Your business probably needs 24/7, 365 day support. What does the IT firm have in place to accommodate this level of service? Do they proactively monitor? Do they have offer expedited service? Computers crash at the most inopportune times and your computing needs often do not take holidays. If you contract with a sole proprietor you will be putting your business operations and data at risk by relying on a single individual that can become ill, be out of town, etc. Making sure they are an established firm with a good track record of service to numerous clients is an invaluable, mandatory step in choosing your IT service provider.

3. Ask IT firms about their processes. Like any business, an IT firm should have established business processes and procedures on how they operate on a daily basis. If these core processes are non-existent then how will the IT firm bring any type of order to your chaos? During the initial meeting, a IT firm should be able to quickly describe their maintenance, repair, service, and support processes and show examples of documentation. Ask about their company’s philosophy, mission statement, and examples on how they practice that mission statement every day.

4. Check references and certifications. Ask potential IT companies for at least 3 corporate references and speak to them. Trust is a difficult asset to hand out to a new IT firm, so speak with someone who has already made the leap. You can also ask for a list of certifications such as Microsoft’s Gold-Certified program which assure the company has been through intensive training and quality control programs.

5. Evaluate the personalities. Ask to meet the folks in the company with whom you will have the most interaction. Are they condescending tech geeks or friendly and approachable professionals in whom you can trust. Remember these folks will have access to all your company data – choose carefully. You are looking to create a trusting relationship so make sure you like them!

Peter Marsack is the Director of Technology for Vision Computer Solutions – a Michigan IT consulting firm based in Northville, MI. Founded in 1995, Vision Computer Solutions offers computer and technology services to businesses and residential customers in southeast Michigan. Headquartered in Northville, Michigan, Vision Computer Solutions is a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner and Microsoft Small Business Specialist.

Cited Works: 10 Reasons You're Not Getting Your Work Done

A colleague of mine sent this one over to me after a recent discussion we had on why we never can seem to get anything done! I suppose this can be considered as the typical nature of the small business, but sometimes it just gets annoying!

Anyhow, I immediately related to this article even after point #1 - I now am in the process of never using email again! (I joke, but man that would be nice).


Are you having trouble getting all your work done? Is there a project you can't seem to find time to finish, or something you haven't been able to get started? If it doesn't seem you'll ever be able to cross everything off your "to do" list at work, see if any of the following are keeping you from getting your job done.

1. You have too many distractions. A recent survey by the research firm NFI Research found that 66 percent of senior executives and managers say e-mail is one of the biggest distractions in the workplace, followed by the crisis of the day and personal interruptions. According to the bosses surveyed, other workplace distractions include unexpected meetings, phone calls, Web surfing, socializing, instant messages and noise.

2. You don't have the resources you need.A carpenter needs a hammer, an accountant needs an adding machine and most office workers need a computer. Nevertheless, new employees don't always have what they need to hit the ground running. (An employer once took a month to supply the software needed to do the job I was hired to do.) Likewise, if your co-workers aren't providing you with the data or assistance you need, your work may suffer. Before you blame your co-workers for not helping, consider if they are facing similar challenges getting their own work done.

3. You don't know what you’re doing.Clayton Warholm, an expert on workplace miscommunication, says there are two main reasons employees may not know enough to do the job. Either the assignment wasn't clearly stated by your employer (you don't know what to do) or you haven't been trained properly (you don't know how to do it). Training will only help, however, if you have the talent needed to do the job.In their book 'First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently,' Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman reported findings of interviews conducted by the Gallup Organization of more than 80,000 managers in over 400 companies. They found "the right talents, more than experience, more than brainpower and more than willpower alone, are the prerequisites for excellence in all roles" and, unlike skills and knowledge, "you cannot teach talent."

4. You have too much work.Some people have so much work on their plates they couldn't do everything on their "to do" list even if they worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This may happen in any job, but particularly in fields facing a shortage of workers. The result: the frustration of trying one’s best to get everything done but not being able to do so.

5. You have poor time management skills.Workers with good time-management skills do what’s most important, while those with poor time-management skills work on what looks most fun or easy -- then frantically try to catch up on important work that has become urgent because the fun and easy work was done first. Hint: Work is rarely easy or fun if you end up missing deadlines and have to deal with an irate boss or customers.

6. You're procrastinating.Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Actually, you may have a good reason -- to avoid pain. When we procrastinate, it's often because we’re afraid the job or the outcome will be unpleasant. For example, if you’re afraid of failure and fear that no matter what you do it won't be good enough; chances are you'll avoid doing anything. If your own need for perfection is holding you back, realize most employers and clients would prefer that you do an imperfect but good job, rather than not do the job at all.

7. You feel undervalued.If you think you're underpaid and unappreciated, chances are you aren't giving 100 percent. Consciously or not, many employees try to “balance the scales” to ensure that what they give the employer is equal to what the employer gives them. According to Louis V. Imundo, author of 'The Effective Supervisor's Handbook,' when the negatives of a job outweigh the positives, "employees may put less effort into their jobs, be absent more frequently, be careless or psychologically withdraw from work while being physically present."See Also: Work From Home Jobs That Pay

8. Your company's priorities keep changing.You are working on Project A when the boss says, "drop everything and work on Project B." When this happens, it may feel you’re not getting any work done, but your employer may feel otherwise. As the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (the most widely used personality assessment) shows, some people are flexible and find it easy to change direction and exciting to start new projects, while others find it frustrating to not complete projects. If you are the latter and work in an industry where change is constant, you may want to consider a career change.


9. You’re burned out.According to the Web site of the American Psychological Association, burnout is emotional exhaustion resulting from overwhelming stress at work. It may be caused by a hostile work environment or fears about job security, but it is often results from long hours, stressful deadlines, high expectations, worrying about a project or taking on more work than you can handle -- in other words, working too hard. Because it can lead to serious conditions, such as depression and heart disease, you should seek professional help if you are experiencing burnout.


10. Your "reward" for completing the job will be more work.What happens if you consistently go the extra mile to do exceptional work ahead of schedule? Oddly enough, many companies "reward" their hardest working employees with more work. Instead of time off, a bonus or another benefit, productive employees are only given more work to do. If this happens in your company, it's no wonder you're not feeling motivated to work hard.


http://jobs.aol.com/article/_a/10-reasons-youre-not-getting-your-work/20080221112109990002?ncid=AOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001

The Staggering Evil of My Phone Company

One of the value added services I provide to my clients is to have a look at their phone and Internet bills in order to hopefully give them an option that saves them money or gives them more of a bang for their buck. Only after reviewing no less than 200 plans and bills have I begun to realize that the telephone companies do their best to make these plans and services as confusing as possible. To make matters worse, in their attempts to clarify their billing and itemizing charges they actually confused the consumer more. I get to say this because the review and renewal of my own plan just came up and I find myself looking for someone to explain why I made the switch to AT&T from TDS Metrocom to begin with.

I was offered a plan that saved me money for one whole year, and now I either get to argue over rate hikes or I get to go through the hassle of changing providers again.

Here's a thought, be competitive and be fair with your pricing. Then try laying information out in a manner that can be easily understood. You would be amazed how successful this makes you and the high level of customer retention you maintain.

Internet Advertising, Revision 2

Banner ads and intrusive pop up ads have become as much of a part of the Internet as my daily search engine use. Unfortunately, we are now so inundated with advertising on websites that it has all meshed together to become no more than annoying white noise. I sometimes wonder about the effectiveness of website banner ads or pop ups. I mean do people really click on all of that garbage? My assumption is that if you are looking for something in particular you search for it, you don't decide to purchase Viagra while reading up on the coming NFL Combine on ESPN.com.

The whole point of effective Internet advertising is to catch and hold attention and this has become lost in a confusing, annoying sea of ads. Much like the commercials on TV, though, people find ways to ignore them. With the advent of TiVO and DVR's, most people will either fast-forward through the commercials, or change the channel all together and "keep checking back" until their show is back on. Instead, I would rather close a pop up, ignore it, or go to a different website. In other words i always skip the ad.

Internet advertising, revision 2. Understanding how important time is to people, why not figure out a way to pay a person to view an ad or commercial? There are many sites that have now appeared that basically pay you to watch or take surveys, but there is a particular type of site that has hit the scene that I am impressed with.

A few months ago a stumbled on to a site called moola.com. The premise is simple. The site gives you a penny, and by playing games against other human players, or a computer bot, you can risk as much of your balance as you would like. The bigger the risk the bigger the payout. However, what happens if you lose all of your money? The site will keep replenishing your first penny. In other words, you can never go broke. Where, then, does advertising enter the picture? Before each game you play the players are subjected to a sponsored video, usually 20-30 seconds long. Once the video completes, the game begins. Sometimes you will even be asked a question about the ad and if you fail to answer correctly, it replays it - this makes it very hard to ignore else you will have to watch again. How does the site afford to keep replenishing people's pennies - the advertisers, of course. They have essentially found a way to show people ads and commercials, maintain their attention, and pay them for their time. This made for an effective combination and after a few weeks playing, I knew what commercial I was about to see within the first couple of seconds. The site also fosters a great community of players where people spend just as much time talking as they do playing. I found the way this site keeps people in their seats to advertise to them revolutionary. Moola.com (a link that contains a reference code to my account - shameless!).

Another example of this is a site that I recently discovered called centsports.com. The premise is the same, except the site emulates actual sports betting. Real lines, real bets, but the money is given to you and you watch an ad before every bet you submit. This is the safest betting I have ever seen because if you lose your money the site gives you more.

It's interesting to see how these types of sites avoid being classified as gambling websites because they do not let people deposit money into their accounts, thus the money that is being used is all generated by the site. That aside, I think we are seeing the next evolution of Internet advertising in sites like these.

Provided the site keeps your attention, the ads will too.

Social Networking Websites

On the advice of my marketing company and many numerous friends who took the courageous leap long before I did, I begrudgingly joined the sites of MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Myspace? Complete waste of my time. I see almost no value in the use of Myspace. Yes it is a very popular site, with many adolescence minds collaborating over what Britney's next move should be and what they are currently watching on TV while sitting on the couch. I truly wanted to like being a part of it, unfortunately I was immediately bored and decided to move on.

Then came facebook. Now that they have opened the doors to anyone; no longer limiting their membership to college or high school students, I was able to sign up. As opposed to Myspace, I found myself intrigued more with the interface, usage, and the applications that you can decide to use. I even managed to find quite a few people I have known in my life on there and was able to reconnect with those people whom I had no contact with for years. The look and feel of the site along with all the little fun to-do's it offers had me hooked. Every day I find myself checking my Facebook page wondering what my "network" is doing today. Such a simplistic idea for a site and yet so entertaining. Maybe spending 5-10 minutes a day on it proves that the site is not history changing, but for a site that is growing by tens of thousands a day - that is a lot of time people are spending on their site!

LinkedIn is my favorite from a professional standpoint. I was amazed how many of my peers were on this site, allowing for communication between everyone and the sharing of thoughts and ideas. It's also interesting seeing how everyone is "linked" together - turns out some of my friends and peers know people that I deal with but I never would have known it. LinkedIn allows for quite a Google indexed listing - turns out Google gives LinkedIn a pretty high priority in their search rankings.

Maybe being 30 I do not fully appreciate the power of some of these online social networks - I know there are hundreds more that I will never see or experience, but it amazes me that through the use of technology, we have found better and more efficient ways to be both closer together and further a part at the same time!

G'n'R Wasn't Singing About This

Just a little time for an update today - ironically, it will be an excerpt from a Wiki article:

"Patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties.

Impatience is an opposite of patience or having a lack of patience."

When leading a business, it always seems that these two come as a package deal.

Follow the Leader?

It astounds me at the stories that I hear concerning managers and their employees. I sometimes wonder what the purpose of such titles are as "Manager" and subordinate. How is it that a word as simple as "Manager" provides a person with a means to treating others negatively? Understanding that all businesses need structure and hierarchy, I find it confusing how some manage to find their way to a role of leadership when they lack even the simplest of people skills. It makes me wonder how many people need to be elevated to a level of status just to feel as if their day or their lives are complete versus having a passion for what you do and showing it in your daily work.


Leadership is a piece of a puzzle - one necessary to complete the big picture but without the other pieces is incomplete in itself. Leadership is respecting your team members and your employees, not barking orders and dictating with an iron fist. Being a leader of a team doesn't mean you should be good at giving orders, it means you should be good at identifying the best facets of your teammates' skillsets and putting them in positions where they will be most effective and even enjoy. Leaders can spot true talent, not pretenders. Jim Collins ("Good to Great") is a big believer in "getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus (http://www.jimcollins.com/lab/firstWho/p2.html)." I couldn't agree more. With the right people on the bus, management is easy.



Next time you are in the position to lead your peers, instead of getting angry or issuing commands try getting opinions and asking what they would do. Examine process, not individuals. Improve your methodology and process so you don't make the same mistakes repeatedly. You will be surprised what a calm, methodical approach will accomplish instead of acting like a hot-headed idiot.

Peace.

Insert Name Here, Small Business Tech Celebrity

Clarity Quest has gone and done it now...

A couple months ago, Kevin Mooney and I attended the recording (can you not say "taping" anymore?) of a local community television program that was titled at the last minute "Technology in the Home and Small Business." This was brought to us from the efforts of our aforementioned marketing company. I have to admit, it is exciting to contribute to such a historic event considering I have never been on TV (/sarcasm). I did work on stage in a previous life, but watching yourself on TV is a little different.

It was a great little Q & A session with our host, Mr. Bob K. I wish they would have left in a bit more of the content - we delve in to some pretty informative issues regarding the small business, specifically although these apparently made the cutting room floor.

It reminded me that my company has made itself a great name with our clients and with all of the new customers we bring on board, by giving them the best in skilled technical and customer service. While I painfully watched myself in this clip, it reminded me that to be a truly good technical company, all it takes is passion for the business - everything else follows suit. Customer service and listening to your clients is what makes the difference. The technical skill should be there no matter what. Set yourself apart by being the "ungeek."

See the video here - it will also be added on the sidebar content. Be nice!

Cited Works: Four Secrets to Always Being Employable

A good quick read - this was stumbled on by my peer at the company:

Never before have Americans been as responsible for keeping themselves skilled and employable as they are today. I tell people to expect to have as many as nine different careers in their lifetime, with an average of three jobs in every one. In short, for those who don't keep a focused eye on their abilities to adapt and grow with the changing workplace, a day could come when it becomes tough to find a "good job."
How do some people always manage to be employed and on track for continued success? They follow the four secrets to staying employable.

1. Keep your definition of a "good job" reasonable.

As we progress professionally, we acquire skills and experiences that often afford us greater opportunities in terms of salary and benefits. The problem lies in making the assumption that once we are offered a larger compensation package that it becomes the starting benchmark for any job we take in the future. The result is the "golden handcuff effect" - a sense that we are held hostage by our current job because there's no place else to go.
Smart workers know each job opportunity provides criteria that must be weighed differently against our wants and needs. Staying employable means simplifying our list and planning for the day when we won't have the same level or type of perks. This keeps job options more plentiful and movement to new positions easier.

2. Use the "3x3x3 rule" to create and implement your own professional development strategy.

Forget about waiting for your annual review; smart workers take the review process into their own hands. Assess your professional strengths and weaknesses. Then build a game plan to leverage the first and minimize the second, you can identify how you plan to stay employable. I encourage individuals to follow the "3x3x3 rule" for skill development:
A. Choose three skills you want to enhance.
B. Identify three ways in which you could learn and grow each skill.
C. Articulate three examples of how you can demonstrate your enhanced skills in this area to your employer.
By taking professional development into your own hands, you remain focused and in control of your employability.

3. Be the "go-to" person for something employers need.

Like depositing into a retirement fund, employees use the early part of their careers to develop skills to accumulate professional wealth. Sadly, after a decade or so, some employees believe they've earned the right to live off of the interest accrued from their efforts. Mid-life often brings about changes in how an employee wants to allocate his or her time (ie. want more time with a spouse, family, home, hobby, etc.). Smart employees know this doesn't have to diminish the quality of the time they put into their careers. To stay employable, focus on being the "go-to" person for a particular problem, task or technique. Building subject-matter expertise in a specific area that's in demand within the workplace will create a personal insurance policy that ensures you'll always be the "go-to" employee who's in demand.

4. Create a board of advisors for your company-of-one.

Smart individuals don't do surgery on themselves, pull their own teeth or represent themselves in legal matters. They defer to professionals who have the training and expertise that gets the best results. Smart employees do the same with their careers. In an age where employees are in essence a company-of-one -- responsible for keeping the services they deliver in demand -- doesn't it make sense to seek the counsel from those who can help you make the best career decisions? Smart employees solicit the advice of individuals they feel approach career success in a manner they admire. Whether it's a relative, co-worker, former manager or even a professional career coach, seeking advice from those who know more than you will give you the perspective needed to be proactive and successful at staying employable.
Career paths are full of twists and turns; they're rarely straightforward. To avoid roadblocks, use the four secrets outlined above and you'll be able to make course corrections that will help you stay employable.

J.T. O'Donnell, career development specialist and co-author of the nationally syndicated workplace column "J.T. & Dale Talk Jobs" distributed by King Features Syndicate.
Copyright 2008 J.T. O'Donnell

(http://jobs.aol.com/article/_a/four-secrets-to-always-being-employable/20080130112709990006?ncid=AOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001)

A great article- one that my team will be seeing very soon! (No I did not see this hunting for jobs!)

The Evening Television Patience Tax

In my watching of American Gladiators: The Grand Finale, did I realize that slowly but most assuredly my patience was slowly seeping from my body - through the couch and floor. I reminded myself that I like this show, yet still feel like I should be doing something more productive on my Sunday evening. I miss the writers - but more importantly I need something better to do!