The Supplemental Kick

I think it might be a great help to me if I had some two-way radios that I could pass out to a few of my employees so we could always get in touch with each other with the push of a button when we are on the job. However, I am wondering if these are easy to use or not. How do we keep from hearing other people with radios? Which radio is the best one? Do they have a lot of channels so that you can keep from getting interference from others? What if we don’t want to risk other people hearing our conversation?

We are trying to determine what method of communication we want to use between employees who are on jobs but not right near each other at the site. Should we get two-way radios, or use cell phones with a walkie talkie function? Do two-way radios last a long time, or do they tend to break relatively quickly or easily? Most of the guys carry cell phones, but I think this might be a bit more expensive, so I am trying to look into other options as well, hence the questions about two-way radios. Are they very expensive to buy or can I get a good deal on them?

Trains are something that folk think of as very easy and fast to use, there’s no issues checking in, queuing to eventually get your bags and going through scary security checkpoints when you are trying to get to Croatia. It is simply good. You just go to the correct train station, step onto your platform and then you are travelling.

Trains are also comparatively green friendly sorts of general public transport. This is because trains might well hold tremendous volumes of clients at any one time. By transporting so many customers compared to the same number of cars it would need to drive them all, the co2 is notably smaller as a whole. Trains are incredible compared to cars.

It is consistently going to be required to travel from this country to the next by whatever means are potential and if this requires using a train for the reason that it has a decreased emission than a fuel guzzling plane, then this is a super decision to make, some may say its an awesome choice. So it is likely to go on a journey by train and continue to be be carbon footprint friendly. Just now it is likely to go by public transport to most countries in the world including St Tropez.

So if you want to keep your carbon footprint to a minimum, there is no contest, going by train is terrific compared to by car. Going by rail is a pretty green means of transport, and it is dead easy to stay safe on a public train if train travellers use common sense. The next time you yourself wish to go on holiday, see if you yourself will use public transport or another method of public transport to decrease and cut down on pollution. Lots of research has showed that jetting between London, Paris and Brussels generates over 10 times more fuel than going by Euro star, surely this is reason enough to go by rail, when clients are able to. Find out the facts on Breaks by Train to reduce your carbon footprint.

Using the train for sightseeing holidays is a brilliant way to lower your CO2, and you yourself may want to bring that same environmentally friendly thinking towards your morning and evening commute to work. Although transporting by public transportation has become more accepted in the last 2 years, there is still an amazing section of passengers that take their car to their work establishment.

Trains are something that the general public think as uncomplicated and speedy to travel on, there is no messing about checking in, queuing to see your holdalls and going through annoying security checks when you are trying to get to Croatia. It is simply terrific. You simply go to the train station, look for your train platform and then you are off in a green mode of transport.

Trains are also pretty green friendly modes of general public transport. This is because public transport will probably transport big volumes of customers at any one time. By transporting so many clients compared to the large number of automobiles it would require to transport them all, the carbon footprint is much less overall. Trains are superb compared to automobiles.

It is always going to be required to travel from this country to the next by whatever modes of transport are potential and if this requires picking a train since it has a lower emission than a fuel guzzling plane, then this is a super choice to pick, some may say its a wonderful choice. So it is achievable to take a holiday by rail and still be co2 friendly. At the moment it is achievable to go by public transportation to the majority of places in the world including Nice.

So if you want to keep your carbon emission to a minimum, there’s no contest, going by train is astonishing compared to by car. Going by public transportation is a relatively environmentally friendly sort of transport, and it is very straightforward to stay safe on a public train if you yourself use common sense. The next time you yourself wish to go on holiday, see if you will use public transport or another method of public transportation to cut down on transport gases. Loads of studying has identified that flying between Edinburgh, Paris and Belgium creates over 11 times more green house gases than travelling by the public transportation, assuredly this is reason enough to go by train, when rail travellers are able to. Discover Breaks by Train and keep your travel eco friendly.

Using the public transport for vacations is a nice way to try reducing your co2 emissions, and passengers may wish to bring that same green thinking towards your work journey to the office. Although going by public transportation has become more fashionable in the last 5 years, there is still a wide section of customers that take their car into the office.

Daily disinfecting of sex aids is essential to stop bacterial transmission or infection. of STD’s. Whilst some sexual infections kill off once the body fluid the sexual infection lives in dries, other sexually transmitted diseases such as Hep C and HIV should survive for many weeks or many months outside of the groin. If ladies desire to prevent pregnancy, it is furthermore key to remove any sperm that might well be on the vibe before using close to or actually the vagina. It is essential to keep the vibrator instructions for washing the dildo and to follow them properly. If you yourself feel that disinfecting the sexual toy justifiably would be too much hard work or unrealistic for you, think about securing a different sex aid. The information provided below gives a very general overview for disinfecting particular varieties of marital aids and is not meant to replace the vibe makers instructions. Pick up a bargain with Cheap Vibrators from Sex Bomb.

For basic dildo care, remove any batteries. Use a wet soapy sponge to wash your sex toys, usually with anti-bacterial soap. Please never put electrical components in water. Keep sensual aids stored in a pouch or container to keep it clean and in a cool, dry place. Sex toys can be lovely toys to play with so please make sure women are safe and clean with your sessions with sex toy cleansers.

Probably the biggest problem with being a small business owner is right there in that phrase. Small.

Small means few or no employees. Small means you end up doing most, if not all, business tasks yourself.

Whether or not you’re any good at them.

But even if you ARE perfectly capable at completing those tasks, is doing them really a wise use of your time? (Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD.)

As a business owner, you should be focused on the big things – a vision for your business, putting together a plan to reach that vision, developing new products, spending time with your clients and marketing. In other words, those “big picture” tasks that grow your business.

What you should NOT be doing is worrying about getting your invoices out, mailing products, providing troubleshooting help, scheduling your time and all those other administrative duties.

In fact, the more time you spend on all the minutia of running a business, the less time you’ll spend on tasks that can actually grow your business.

It’s a vicious cycle. Maybe you feel like you don’t have enough income to hire help. So you do the work yourself. Because you do the work yourself, you don’t have the time to work on growing your business. So then you don’t feel like you have the income to hire help. And so on.

The same cycle exists if you feel you don’t have enough time to locate and train help. You end up doing the work yourself because there isn’t anyone who can help. And because you’re so busy doing things you truly have no business doing, you’ll never have the time to locate and train someone to help you out.

In either cycle, you’re probably discovering you feel overwhelmed, drained and with zero creative energy. Instead of jumping out of bed excited at being in business, you wake up each morning facing a to-do list longer then War and Peace and wanting to crawl back into bed and put your pillow over your head.

So what’s the solution? Hire a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants, also known as VAs, are freelancers who specialize in taking care of the “busy work,” freeing you up so you can focus on why you started your business in the first place.

Because they’re freelancers, you pay them for the hours they work. And you don’t pay for overhead, vacation, taxes, office supplies, a desk, etc. It’s a perfect win-win for everyone.

VAs can break you out of both those cycles and put you on the path to building a successful business. They can help you with just about every business task imaginable (with the sole exception of filing – you’re probably stuck doing that yourself). Some examples include:

* Bookkeeping, including invoicing, paying bills and following up with unpaid invoices

* Product fulfillment

* Customer service

* Answering e-mails and phone calls

* Scheduling business and personal appointments

* Maintaining databases

* Updating Web sites

* Submitting articles to article databases

And much more.

In fact, if you want to see a list of what a VA can help you with, check out IVAA.org (International Virtual Assistants Association) and AssistU.com. These organizations can also help you find the right VA for your business. VAs specialize in different business services, such as marketing or bookkeeping, so make sure you find a VA who focuses on what you actually need.

I can tell you from experience that once you take the plunge and hire a VA, you’ll kick yourself for waiting so long. You’ll have more time to devote to the tasks you most enjoy (rather then struggling with the ones you hate), you’ll be less stressed and have much more creative energy. Plus you’ll probably find yourself making even more money.

Creativity Exercise — Hire a VA

Ready to try a VA but not sure how to begin? I suggest starting small. Like five hours a month.

Make a list of everything you do in your business each day. If you get stuck, keep a notebook on your desk and write down things as you do it.

Now look at the list. Pick something you could delegate to a virtual assistant and would take around five hours a month.

Once you find the right VA and have freed up those five hours, make sure you use those hours to do something to grow your business. Maybe do some more marketing or develop a new product line.

Now after you’ve started seeing more income, take some of that extra money and add to your VA’s tasks. Again, use the time you’ve freed up to continue to grow your business. Before you know it, you’ll have a built a thriving, successful business with less stress and have more energy and income then ever before.

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and
Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency.
She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers
combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and
copywriting principles to become more successful at
attracting new clients, selling products and services
and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com

Friends are always passing my name along to people who are doing a job search or building a practice. They usually tell the person about my coaching practice and recommend that the person call me. (I love referrals!!)

Last week people in my network referred three different people who were at three different stages in their careers. What struck me was how similar my response to each of them was.

One young woman, Karen, who recently graduated from college, is now embarking on her first job search. The second person was Jen an attorney with a significant law practice who asked for help in building a new specialty into her practice. The third was Bob who had recently closed his business after 20 years. Bob is also now in the middle of a job search. (Names make it easy to write about but are not the actual names of my clients.)

Karen had no experience doing a job search before. She had a resume and had been answering online job ads but said she felt that was going no where. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to do! When I suggested she do some informational interviewing, she told me she would like to do that but, “How can I find people to talk to when I’ve just graduated college and haven’t lived in this community very long?”

Jen has built a substantial and growing real estate law practice in her 10 years in business. She did this by forming close relationships with the banks and realtors in her area. Now she would like to begin to add cases in small business law to her practice but isn’t quite sure how to get started finding clients.

Bob is in the middle of his job search. He has focused in on three or four jobs that he has applied and interviewed for. As he waits for responses he wonders what he could do to differentiate himself from the others applying for the same job.

Whatever you do today you need relationships with others to help you find work or customers now and in the future. Who is currently in your network? How recently have you contacted them?

For those who are just starting out like Karen, you can begin with your college. Professors, alumnae, and friends are the beginning of your network. Building a spreadsheet with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of acquaintances, friends and colleagues will also be very helpful now and in the future when you want to look for another job or to start a business. People who live outside your location may still know people in your area. Karen could also tap into her parents network.

If you have built a small network as Jen has then think back to what worked for you in the past and do it again. Jen plans to grow the small business part of her practice by approaching the banks and some of the clients that she has had a relationship with. In addition she needs more direct contact with small business owners so she agreed to join some business organizations like the Chambers of Commerce. Since she uses Outlook in her practice I suggested she add her new contacts to the address book in that.

As a former business owner Bob has lots of contacts. In his previous life Bob used ACT! so he was able to go back to that database for some ideas. He was amazed to see that at least a dozen people he knew worked in the companies that he had interviewed with. He could see that contacting those people could certainly positively impact his application especially if the contacts were willing to put in a good word with the hiring manager for him.

Building and maintaining good relationships with people is a skill we all need. Those relationships can be used in many ways. Some of the people in your network may become close friends, others will be colleagues and peers, and still others will be people who are a few steps ahead of you in their careers. Your relationships are important both in your personal life and your work life. Taking good care of them is an important life skill.

Take Action:

1. Take stock of your network and how you keep track of the people in it. Do you know how to contact them and what they do for a living? Create your own database if you don’t have one.

2. Check that database for people you are out of touch with. Commit to reconnecting to one or two people in your network each week. The holidays are a great time to start this.

3. Join an online networking group such as www.linkedin.com. Here is a way to use your network to reach people in their networks. While you are there link to me too!

4. Does the idea of going to networking events or calling people to set up informational interviews scare you? A coach can help you overcome fear, eliminate blocks and address beliefs that are holding you back.

About Alvah Parker

Alvah Parker is a Business and Career Coach as well as publisher of Parker’s Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an ezine. To subscribe send an email to join-roadtosuccess@go.netatlantic.com.

Parker’s Value Program© enables clients to find a way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. She is both a Practice Advisor and Coach to attorneys, managers, business owners, sole practioners, and people in transition. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com She may also be reached at 781-598-0388

A new BBC site has launched a new huge green domain. It focuses on combating climate change and focuses into organic foods. Sales of organic soups are definitely booming on the back of supposed benefits to the UK’s health and the British environment. Organic pepers are definitely produced according to a harsh production standard. Historically organic farms have been reasonably little family run farms- that is why organic soups was once only available in small retailers and markets. Manor House Market in South London is one of the greatest farmers markets around. On a Monday dinner time there is a vast queue of starving people at the organic salad bar. Nowdays you yourself should get organic leeks from a wide range of organic outlets.

Since the early 19 nineties organic apples has had growth rates of around eight % a year, far ahead of the rest of the food industry, in both developed & developing countries. For loads of customers there is a belief that eating organic lettuces might improve your health, various people have different opinions on that. One fact that can be proved is that organic farming makes use of a smaller amount of pesticides than established agriculture. Buying organic plums aint just about health, for legions of folks it’s about helping to save the world. Some organic farming certifications schemes are stricter than others. The Soil Association are most rigid, particularly for turkey & ham. Soil Association certifies chickens are secured in smaller flocks, and enjoy more space indoors and out than others. Most other organic chicken standards are really closer to free- range.

Organic shower gels is now something that is popularly used. With organic it means it is all natural and no manmade ingredients. Organic skincare are really much farther likeable and more effective than some ingredients apparent in normal day to day skincare. With natural ingredients organic beauty products will work in harmony with your body & skin to enhance your body’s natural healing and regenerative capabilities. Just like when you feed your body fried food, it will let you know its not happy- your skin is no different. What exactly are organic foods, find out by clicking here.

Some of the top gammers who drive their Xbox 360 Machines hard due to their intense level of play have found themselves over heating their systems. The answer for these Top Guns of the virtual world and heroes of their own augmented reality to do? The answer is liquidity; that is to say a liquid cooled Xbox 360 system made by Cool IT Systems.

That’s right liquid cooled for those who run their machines full tilt for hours on end with the fastest and most exhilarating games. As long as they have enough brainpower and quick reflexes to go beyond what normal mortals can do, now they have a viable solution. A word of advice for those gammers, you also need to cool your human brain and feed it properly. We recommend high calorie, protein and glucose intake in an environment well ventilated with plenty of oxygen too.

Currently the standard Cool IT Systems Xbox 360 Intercooler with liquid cooling technologies uses the power from the Xbox 360, but in future models it may need to be hooked up to its own power source as the games get more robust and the gammers become even more intuitively aggressive. Xbox 360 is just too hot to handle, too hot to stay on the shelves and way too hot for Sony Play Station to ever catch a clue that they are about to be lapped. CoolIT Systems liquid cooling; install this in 2006!

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Home buyers have many worries when purchasing a home, especially if it’s the first time. After finding the dream home , reality can set in after a property inspection has been completed. A hot water heater near the end of it’s useful life, a furnace that runs but hasn’t been properly serviced and a dishwasher that could have a mind of it’s own can make for some sleepless nights for home buyers before they sign the mortgage papers.

Home warranties offered by many national companies can make for restful sleeping by new home buyers. These warranties can be purchased by either the buyer or a seller of a property. They typically run for one year and can insure against unexpected repairs on a homes appliances and mechanical systems. Mark Nash author of four books including his latest 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home and as a regular columnist for RealtyTimes.com. explains why a home warranty might be right for your new home.

-Costs for one year of coverage range from $350-$1,000, depending on size of home and optional coverage chosen.

-The typical standard coverage is for these items: Heating system, heat pump, air conditioning/ cooler, ductwork, plumbing system, sump pump, whirlpool tub, water heater, electrical system, exhaust fan, dishwasher, garbage disposal, built-in microwave oven, range/ oven/ cooktop, trash compactor, garage door opener and ceiling fans.

-Optional coverage includes: Washer/ dryer, refrigerator, water well pumps, swimming pool and spa equipment.

-If you need to make a claim with your home warranty provider, there is always a fee for a service call, typically less than $75. You must use contractors provided through the warranty provider.

-Home warranty companies provide 24/7 toll-free numbers to request service. If they service repair work fails the warranty company will repair work at no cost for 90 days on parts and 30 days on labor.

-Read the fine print carefully before buying a home warranty. They cover some parts of the above mentioned systems and appliances but not all and not in every situation. Example: Most warranties cover dishwashers entirely except for racks, baskets and rollers.

-Home warranties cover only single-family resale homes and not new construction.

-Warranties are renewable at the one year expiration date, typically these warranties begin the day of closing or escrow.

Recently, I was reviewing our website statistics. One of the sites that had a link to mine caught me by surprise. Since this is a family publication, I won’t include the name of the website. But, let’s just say it contains a four-letter word that people do not use in most business circles.

The website was basically a bulletin board for people to rant about other companies. The posting about my website started out with the subject, ‘Is this website just a little too slick?’ The postings went on to say that my website had a lot of sizzle, but no steak.

My first thought was, ‘How dare they say something so rude after I worked so hard on my site. Are they trying to say that my business has no substance? They know nothing about me and what I do. I can’t believe they would attack MY business image.’

You see, those of you who have met me know that I am a small business image consultant. I work on everything from customer service to documentation and training. Basically, all the behind-the-scenes things that affect the business image. How could MY website have a bad image?

Then I took a step back. And, with a huge gulp of reluctance, I admitted to myself that they were right. Earlier that week, I had started to redefine my business services. Small business image consulting no longer ‘fit’ the real me. And somehow that was showing through on my website. It WAS a bit too slick. It was not getting to the essence of what I wanted to say.

Instead of just changing my website, I decided to take on a more important endeavor. I took a look at my identity and my brand. I found this amazing book called Make A Name For Yourself by Robin Fisher Roffer. This was the wake-up call that I needed. After pouring over the book, I began to get in touch with my natural gifts.

While documentation has always been a part of my business, it wasn’t the part that I ‘played up’ at networking meetings. Small business image consulting sounded exotic and sexy. It got people talking about customer service and the importance of it. It got me speaking engagements. It got me lots of press. This was all of the sizzle that they mentioned on that bulletin board. But, it didn’t get me what I needed most. The steak – more phone calls and emails requesting my services, and ultimately, more satisfaction.

I decided to put my writing services in the forefront. In addition to my technical writing, I now specialize in lengthy documentation and press releases. The process of redefining my business was a scary one. All these feelings of fear and inadequacy appeared. I started to wonder what people would think of the change. Would they think that this was bad for my business image?

Then, I started to wonder how many other business owners are just offering what sounds good. How many of them aren’t expressing their natural gifts through their business. How many are afraid to make a change?

None of us should be afraid to redefine our services or to create a brand where there wasn’t one before. Now I am more secure in what I do. I am true to myself, my passion, and my gifts. It’s a freedom and a liberation that I’ve never felt before.

My services no longer have an exotic and sexy sound to them. But, at least now I can offer the sizzle AND the steak.

—

Leila Johnson owns Johnson Solutions Group in Rio Rancho, NM. She acts as Your Virtual Documentation Department. Leila is a versatile writer who works with those small businesses that don’t have the time or expertise to handle their documentation. Leila can be reached at 505-896-9379 or through her “new and improved” website at http://www.johnsongroups.com