October, 2008
Your Stats Are Meaningless
Election season always bring various stats from polls, interviews and anecdotal evidence. However, you don’t need to look to politics to see meaningless stats.
Let me just give one example.
Xerox has a press release about receiving the “Best” in Annual Survey of Office Workers. The survey indicates that Xerox color printers and multifunction systems are the best. Period.
You can read the full release here if you are so inclined.
There is one key problem about the designation that is lost among all the rhetoric. continue reading...
Why Meetings Are Bad
I hate meetings. Meetings are a pain. Meetings tend to waste time. In my opinion, most meetings are the least efficient method for sharing and disseminating information.
I had a number of meetings today and as I was waiting for at least half of them to start (late), I got to thinking about why you should avoid meetings at all costs.
I am not naive enough to think that you can do away with all meetings all together, but not everything requires a face to face. As our world moves more to distributed teams and electronic communication, we are all going to need to find better ways to share information. I understand that some meetings are very productive. I actually had three of them today that I left glad I attended.
Here is my top 10 list of why I think that meetings are bad. Now, not all may apply to all meetings. But, if your meetings incorporate even a few of these elements, you shouldn’t have them. continue reading...
Have Fun With Your Product
Irreverence as a business model can be very effective. It can help you to create a buzz. It especially works when you have a product that lends itself to innuendo.
My sister used to sell piping systems to cities and water districts. The most common application of her systems was to revitalize old sewer pipes. So, she told everyone that she sold sewers. It always caused people to ask her to elaborate.
Why Your Arguments Fail to Win Hearts and Minds
I listen to people “trying” to be persuasive all the time. In politics, the democrats and republicans try to prove that the other person is wrong using the same rhetoric. They both use the same words to define why the other is wrong in so many cases.
“He voted for this 94 times.”
“Oh yeah, well he voted for that 123 times.”
When they don’t claim victory on the same topics, they argue their point as though it is natural to assume that everyone agrees.
“You’re American so you know that I must be right!”
Liberals try to convince the world they are right by spouting liberal logic and conservatives try to convince the world the same using conservative logic.
This doesn’t work because they never try to come to a common point of interest. They don’t try to illustrate where they agree and use the logic of the person they are talking to in order to sway public opinion.
Do you see the problem yet? Do you understand yet why your argument doesn’t win hearts and minds? continue reading...
You Always Have a Choice
How often do you hear people say that they simply don’t have a choice? They have to do something. They have to stay in their dead end job. They have do this or that.
The fact of the matter is that you always have a choice. You are never compelled to do something that you don’t choose to do.
Once you make a choice, you have to be prepared for the consequences. That really is the challenge of all choices. Something will happen based on the choice you make. Usually the consequence is beyond your control and reduces your options. If you don’t face your consequences, your choices become more difficult.
Many time people will find themselves in a position where they are being exploited, used or abused. The challenge that these people face is that they simply don’t know they have a choice. They don’t know that they have options. They don’t know that they can make a choice to change their situation.
Sometimes the options seem bleak. Sometimes the hard decision is the right one.
Always there is a choice. continue reading...
The Sky Is Falling. The World is Coming To An End! NOT!
The bill passed just over 1 week ago and since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 2,000 points. That is not far from 20%.
Now, the same politicians that promised a failure if they didn’t do anything are saying that the market will take time to adjust.
Duh… it would have taken time to adjust if they didn’t do anything.
Every where you turn you will hear people talking about how bad everything is. People just can’t cope because, after all, the world is in a credit freeze (yet I received 5 pre-approved credit offers this week.) Energy is a problem because the cost of oil is so high (yet, prices there have dropped as well… wonder if we’ll ever really see that reflected at the pump.)
We have people defaulting on their mortgage (most likely because they should never have qualified in the first place.) We have home values dropping (I know, I have two homes). We have retirement plans going away (I know, mine lost 16%… but it is a long term investment, so… so what?). continue reading...
How Do You Create a Buzz?
Creating a buzz is about doing something unique. You can’t be unique if you do the same thing as everyone else.
Sure, that sounds like an obvious statement, but I hear business leaders all the time talk about how they are differentiating by how they conduct business when all they do is change the name of a service or the title of the person offering the service.
Creating a buzz is about making people take notice. Creating a buzz is about making people talk about you for any reason at all.
A buzz is positive or negative talk. If you do something stupid that is unique, people will talk… you’ll have a buzz, but you probably won’t be as happy about the results.
The old cliché of “thinking outside the box” is really what it takes to create a buzz. You need to come up with something new or a different way to do the same old thing.
The fact is that you never know what will create a buzz. You never know why people will want to talk about you. So, you have to continue to innovate. You have to continue to find new ways to do things. Constantly improve. You’ll be amazed at how much people will start to take notice.
Are you interested in the back story of the picture?
I received it via email and, as I understand it, here is the back story. continue reading...
New Client Site Launches - Altek Business Systems
I am very excited to announce the launch of Altek Business Systems' new website. I am really pleased with how the design turned out. It is proudly built in Drupal.
I just posted a news release over at OfficeProductNews.net.
Here is an excerpt from the press release:
“We have made substantial investments in new areas to enhance the services we provide to our clients,” commented Ray Derstine, President. “We wanted to make sure that our website communicated the value that we were able to provide.”
Over the past few years, the company has expanded its capabilities in offering document management solutions. This allows clients to create secure, searchable repositories of information scanned from multifunction systems. The new website explains the benefits of these solutions and features Altek’s primary software partner, DocuWare. continue reading...
Is It Really The Economy, Stupid? Or, Barstool Economics.
I know that it is rough out there for a lot of people. I am fortunate to be in a profession that is growing very fast. Our business is increasing and I am happy to say that we are able to employ more people… it only seems to be growing for the foreseeable future… unless congress does something stupid (which is bound to happen in one form or another).
To be honest, I am not really concerned about the economy. I, like many entrepreneurs, make my own rain and I want to bring as many people along for the ride.
I received an email today on barstool economics. This is attributed to David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Profession of Economics at University of Georgia. I have seen in in various formats around the web, so I don’t know if the author is attributed properly, but I like it. It is the primary reason why I want to bring a lot of people to wealth with me… so I don’t have to pay all the taxes. continue reading...
