For those that are considering switching to a Mac, I’ve written a short article that will help you with the 7 Questions and 7 Steps to moving to a Mac.
Macs: To Switch or Not To Switch can be downloaded, and it’s free.
Let me know if I can be any more help.
Hey all,
Thanks for stopping by, take a look around and if you like something make a comment. Have a good weekend.
Kevin
For those of us that have been in the IT field for any number of years, it is not unheard of that computer technology fails us at certain points in our lives. As an Entrepreneur, your business will grow and you may or may not need computers to provide more and more help, but the article “Univ of Wisconson CIO discusses IT failures” helps show where some of the problems lie.
Bottom line: it’s most the “soft” issues of people that is the bottleneck. People do the work and work the problem.
Here’s a site that has put together some of the essential tools that web developers use for their craft. So check out the 23 Essential Tools for Web Developers article and see if something fits your niche. Make a comment about what you use.
Here’s a list of 100 free Mac applications that can help you with “tidying up” how you use your Mac. Take a look, you might find something that can help you with your Mac. But keep away from the eye candy, you’ll spoil your Mac’s appetite and will get fat from it and act like Windows: bloated.
Today is the day that President Bush hands peacefully the office of the Presidency to President Obama and very few places in the world offer such transfer of power. But in the familiar words of most politicians in Washington D.C. they talk about “reaching across the isle” to work together, Democrat and Republican, toward helping our nation get back on track in the age of economic crisis. But what I find interesting is what the more liberal leaning people of the US are stating on Facebook comments and blogs across the US internet: “Today is the day. We take back America. GOBAMA!”
I think that those that write such things are ignorant, childish, selfish, or consider those with differing ideas as an enemy, in which it becomes a win/lose situation, not a win/win. But it also says something deeper about people that think like this.
It HAS BEEN, IS, AND WILL ALWAYS BE your America, just like mine, so where have you been the last eight years?
What prompted, prevented, or just down right stopped you that you could not have engaged with those that have been elected to contribute even during these last eight years? Take a look at the economic rankings of the world’s countries and you’ll see that those nations that have the best economies have the freest markets, and produce the best jobs.
Just because President Obama is now my President does not mean that I’m going to watch him fail, time is of the essence here and any wrong move by our federal government will delay any recovery of our nation. You and I can’t wait to help.
I’m reminded of the story of a hotel that was trying to install a new elevator in the hotel and the engineering company and hotel management were discussing the costs associated with installing a new elevator next to or near the current ones. The costs and timeframe that the hotel would be “hindered” by the work was going to cause much loss of revenue and other issues. Up walks the janitor who listens in on the conversations and finally speaks up and states “Why don’t you install the new elevator at the end of the hall?” And that’s exactly what they did.
But you know what, according to Seth Godwin in his book “Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us” each of us has the opportunity to lead, the opportunity of leading has ALWAYS been there. He shows, and I wholeheartedly agree, that everyone can lead in some area of their life, by way of your work, by way of your time, by way of your interaction with others. The janitor lead in the example above and he did not have a title. But more importantly, Seth demonstrates and Martin Luther King states ”If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”
It is time now to broaden our viewpoint of American and reach out now:
When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you’re slamming the door in the face of God - Charles L. Allen
Where have you been with your life? Time has not stopped you, you have stopped yourself.
Lead!
I came across this blog about how to convey to those that you are giving presentations to data via charts and it’s a great source of information. Check out the Extreme Presentation by Andrew Abela where he gives you a visual sense of how to use charts. A great intro for using charts in Keynote, Numbers, and Pages in iWork.
For those that want to get more detailed in their analysis of data, you can visit processtrends.com and take a look at how Excel by Microsoft , R Project, and Google tools with Excel can help display your data visually on Google Maps. These latter site are not for the simple charts but are rather extensive and sometime complicated.
If you follow Guy Kawasaki’s PowerPoint (and Keynote) presentation guidelines called 10-20-30 you’ll maybe find the more detailed info beyond the needs of an entrepreneur, but they are here for your information.
You know, the Japanese think differently than Americans do in how they view business in most cases, they think long term. They think in terms of cycles, there will be up cycles and there will be down cycles, one after the other like clockwork. And because of this viewpoint in most cases they have a better approach to handling crises. What is this approach?
When times are very good, they don’t go overboard and over spend what they are earning, they spend to PREPARE for the next downturn. They’re conservative in spending. They don’t over hire because of the growing economy, they don’t create new and bloated system, processes, and personnel and new spending with the intent of following America’s constant boom and bust cycles. Or as Warren Buffet states, you don’t follow the crowd, you do what the crowd is NOT doing and you’ll make it. You spend only enough to improve your competitive position during the next downturn cycle because just like now, everyone is “selling” or getting out of things that are not critical to their business.
While this recession will force our economy and companies to get back to the “critical few” and drop the “trivial many,” much like a heart attach telling you need to eat healthy and exercise, it remains to be seen if Americans will take heed to time honored advice and spend only what is necessary during times of plenty, or will we be duped once again but the drunkenness of easy profits and money.
So, think long term, what do you intend to do AFTER this recession? Knowing what you are to do when things are good will better prepare you for something like today.
We’ll get through this for sure, but we need to learn lessons of the past so that we don’t put ourselves in a pinch again.
We can’t spend out way into prosperity, someone will have to pay for this trouble we’ve gotten ourselves into.
Do you need help in saving time and money in your small business processes, let me know.
Hey all,
I finally found a great web site of free Excel Spreadsheets for Entrepreneurs, about 150 of them. As a Mac user you’ll definitely be able to use them for MS Office on the Mac, but with Numbers there might be some issues with any conversion. Be aware that the more complicated the spreadsheets are the more chance there might be issues.
Here’s the link to Jax Software and the free Spreadsheets for Entrepreneurs. Since they are free, there is no support for them, but verify their usefulness for your situation.
Enjoy.
Ok, I’ve been using Twitter for a little over a month now and I’ve come to admire the technology and the people that are on it and it seems that it’s heading down the same path when the internet began to take hold and begin to grow. Originally, it was great for businesses until other, less than proper or honorable organizations began to take advantage of what the intent of the internet is and was going to become. Even today, the internet can be used from doing tons of good to not so good stuff and even downright stupid stuff to pure evil, no matter where you turn. So the same goes for Twitter.
Part of the reason for joining Twitter is not unlike the internet, it’s a sense of community that takes down barriers for those that have limitations, such as disabilities, social problems, or just those that are hard core introverts that don’t like to be around people but can still make a living.
Doing Good. We just saw how Twitter got the message out about the Miracle on the Hudson River yesterday and most “citizen journalists” posted info that the Main Stream Media had to catch up with but was able to follow along with us. And like someone stated on a recent blog about this news, it changes the game for the MSM. But for whatever it’s worth Social Media is changing the way doing good can happen.
Doing Rude. Just like the internet, rude is just around the corner. I responded to one of the Twitter followers because I was eager to see what they were doing. I sent in my contact info, of course my email address, and they stated that they would respond shortly. Nice, when some companies take longer, this I thought was a change. However, after getting some info and doing some research I found that I did not want to advantage of what there were offering. Why? Because it was just not me to be involved with what they are doing, not my values, just not me at all. Sort of like medicine, I can be involved, but I don’t want to do it for a living.
Well, I emailed the person and told them politely that I did not want to be involved, here is exactly what I said to them “Thanks for the info, but you don’t need to call, I do not want to sell what you are selling.” Short and sweet and I considered that I was being responsible by respecting their time. They responded back ”What exactly am I selling that you’re not interesting?[sic] :)”. I did not have time to respond before another email showed up stating:
“Hi, and thanks for your information request.
Well, I was serious about making money, most people are, it’s just a matter of degree of how much they want to make and the products and services that are sold. It’s a matter of what you intend to DO to make money. But this company does not have to be so rude to a person if they say no.
Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame has made a name for himself doing things that most of us would gag on, and most of us would not set foot into his shoes, let alone doing the jobs his clients do. I’m a potential customer and this company have just placed a foul smell over their organization which now has become a “dirty job” to me.
Doing Not So Good. You may see them, but these are the companies that put not enough info on their Twitter BIO to give the impression that they are legitimate, but since there is not enough information about them, you questions whether or not their are a real company.
Doing Evil, Coming Soon to an Account near You. This is more of a short note to fellow Twitterers that this could happen in the near future. If the speed for doing good like yesterday’s Miracle on the Hudson River can happen, so can the opposite in the same speed if some caution is not applied. Disinformation, rumors, etc, may cause irreparable harm to others.
So here’s to keeping Twitter clean, or at least as much as possible.
