The 100 Best People to Work With

Most of us don't work at one of the 100 best companies to work for. Netapp, this year's #1, is in a place called Sunnyvale. Really, isn't this too good to be true?
People often wonder why their companies don't get it. I mean, articles have been written, documentaries have been shot, legions of consultants have been trained, all to share the secrets of how to be a top 100 workplace. There are valid reasons and not so valid reasons why companies cannot simply copy the formula. Too many to list here.
Organizations are made up of people. And like people, they are all over the place when it comes to how they choose to perform in the workplace. They might be great at some things, not so good at others. They might lose focus. They might just be an ok place to work, not a great place.
You may not be able to control your company's performance but you can control where you work and how you perform. If your company is a consistently terrible place to work, leave. Too many people tell me that leaving is not an option. OK, maybe there are temporary reasons for this but there are no long term reasons for staying in a terrible place. None.
If your company is a good company, then set about to be one of the best people in the company to work with. An average place to work can be a great place to work when you are one of the best people to work with.
One simple step can get you started on the way to being highly sought after by your colleagues. First, invest energy in the success of people you work with. Pay attention to what is important to them. Ask them about their work, their goals. Good listeners are rare. Let them know what you value about their work and about them. Do this especially when you don't need something specific from them. If you do not value other people, they will de-value your work.
Be one of the best people to work with. The fastest horse in a slower race still takes home the the biggest prize.

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Companies Need More Leaders During a Recession - How to Develop Them Fast

Over 50 percent of employers are experiencing a leadership shortage so severe that it is negatively impacting their company's performance. Companies must simply do a better job of accelerating the development of leaders throughout their organization if they are going to survive and thrive during the current recession. Leadership development initiatives are one very important avenue for developing these needed resources quickly.
Having spent over 20 years as an executive coach in Silicon Valley, I have had the opportunity to participate in many leadership coaching programs. Some of these efforts became core to the company's success; others quickly died off or became programs without widespread support or participation.
Follow these ten recommendations to increase the likelihood that your leadership development initiative will produce the leaders you need quickly.
Make it relevant to the company culture. Launch an organizational survey and collect data to determine how leadership, coaching, and development are viewed at your company and what organizational obstacles may exist. Your overall design of the program should mirror the culture of the organization and take into account the survey data. Relevance is key to success.Develop a business case. Specifically outline why leadership development is needed, share information on the impact of leadership development activities, and clarify the metrics on how you will measure that impact. You need to have evidence that the effort is a good return on investment to get needed support
Focus on what is most important. Determine what competencies are critical to your business model and make them the foundation of what you do. Focus on what is really important and avoid buying a "one size fits all" model from a training vendor. Use the competency model to drive your efforts. This will insure consistency across the organization and the ability to leverage and align other training methodologies and content
Differentiate between Performance Counseling and Coaching. Don't make the mistake of unintentionally branding your new initiative as charm school for problem children. Performance coaching addresses problem behaviors or gaps in work performance. The program must be seen as a positive perk for managers, executives, and employees. If seen negatively, employees will avoid participating.
Run a pilot to work out the kinks before launching the initiative to a wider audience. Be selective about your initial participants to influence how it is viewed.
Don't overdo the launch. Launching the effort with a lot of fanfare can create backlash and saddle the program with unreasonable expectations.
Involve all levels of the company. Don't let the activity be seen as just another Human Resources strategy for the chosen few. Have a model that addresses different levels of leadership to address the needs of your various stakeholder groups. Have the leadership of the company participate in all aspects of the effort.
Ensure confidentially. Clearly articulate the privacy boundaries between the coaching resources, the company, and Human Resources. Everyone should know what they are getting into. Rigorously stick to the confidentiality guidelines.
Pick skilled coaches and get them aligned with your models and practices. Regularly review performance metrics and get ongoing feedback from participants about the effectiveness of the coaches.
Build your coaching bench strength by having those who have successfully completed the program become coaches to the rest of the organization.

2009 Onward - Examine and Recreate the Cornerstones of Your Success

A Personal Invitation from Darby Checketts: There is no doubt that this New Year is an exceptional one. It will challenge us all and bring out the best in each of us as we re-invent our businesses and create the new circumstances we need to assure future prosperity. As business owners, business builders, business operators, and as professionals, there is no more fundamental goal than to retain valued customers and to successfully engage new prospects with the products and services that will benefit them.
It has been my privilege to work with over 300 client organizations in the past 20 years. As our own Cornerstone products and services have evolved, the chief value-added we have come to represent for our customers is the proven ability to support them in building a Culture of Service Excellence. There are four major components of a typical Service Excellence project.
1. Assessment. Together, we will undertake a straightforward assessment to determine the current level of satisfaction your customers are experiencing along with the issues and opportunities that you and your team members recognize. Once crystallized and consolidated, these valuable insights will become the common baseline from which to move forward.
2. Engagement. We will engage your team members with the idea that "a satisfied customer is no longer enough." We have entered a new age wherein customers must be positively astonished by your commitment to them. This is the WOW factor in its most substantive form. We will conduct a full-day Customer Astonishment workshop or a half-day Customer Astonishment rally that will be the most professionally energizing and insightful training your associates may ever experience.
3. Environment. I will join with your leadership team to undertake an examination of those "S&C Factors" (Systemic and Cultural Factors) that are operating within your organization, which can either accelerate or hinder your progress. A plan for managing these factors will be put in motion.<
4. Assurance. Together, your team will set forth to build and sustain the Culture of Service Excellence. Leaders will extend their leverage to lift the sights and lift the spirits of those whom they serve. Individual employees will be invited to qualify as Customer Champions and thereby re-affirm their customer commitments, enhance their credibility as customer care professionals, and receive the formal recognition they deserve.
This is a process of enlightenment, energy building, and determined follow through that will streamline your operations and strengthen your all-around commitment to those who depend on you. In view of current economic circumstances, our proposal will be especially straightforward. The required investment will be feasible and certainly results-driven. The project fee will be a three-part fee where 30% is required to put our resources in motion and to adapt our materials for your use. A second 30% payment will be made at the midpoint of the project as you determine that we are making a difference for your team and bringing tools that represent added value. The remaining 40% will be paid only as you see a return on investment in terms of employee engagement, improved customer satisfaction, and a more sustainable strategy for moving your business forward.

IT Consulting Firm Thrives on Single-Point-of-Contact Value Proposition

Do you own an IT consulting firm? To develop sophisticated solutions and build lasting client relationships, you need to understand your clients' biggest business problems and be able to respond to their many needs.
Continuing relationships with clients are essential to the longevity of your business. These relationships help you get steady revenue so you don't have to be on the edge of your seat wondering when you'll be getting your next new project. These long-term clients also help you get the career satisfaction that comes from working with the same accounts for a long time and seeing your technology plans really work long term.
Developing relationships means understanding what your small business clients need and also knowing what they expect from you. A major part of what small business clients will need from your IT consulting firm is the guarantee of a single point of contact to make managing all elements of their complex IT infrastructures as simple as possible.
The following 4 tips can help you be a single point of contact for your clients so you can build strong relationships that will be the foundation of a successful business.
Small Business Clients are Very Different than Fortune 1000 Clients. Fortune 1000 IT managers typically know enough about their computing environments to determine, at least on a basic level, which technology provider or vendor to call for various services. However small business owners and managers are largely non-technical. They are not career IT professionals and rarely have the skill set required to understand the many intricacies of their IT assets. Therefore, they will lean heavily on you to understand how to coordinate important technology issues.
Know What a Small Business Owner Wants to Understand. All a small business owner or manager usually knows or wants to know is that something is broken with his/her computer system and that your IT consulting firm is needed immediately. Your clients will not want finger pointing or someone that will pass the buck to multiple providers. They will want a simple, single point of accountability and will typically have the mindset, "I don't care what the problem is ... just fix it! Now! And the cost better be reasonable!"
Small Business Clients Need a Virtual IT Department. Your small business clients will usually not have formal IT departments. This means your IT consulting firm will have to step in and act as a virtual IT department. Even clients that have no idea of what a corporate IT department does or what "IT" means will generally expect the type of arrangement where you provide on-going maintenance, oversight and services. They want you to be a single point of contact for everything and anything even remotely related to supporting their systems and networks.
Know Which Services You Need to Provide. If you want to truly be a single point of contact, you need to know which responsibilities you will have. In a large IT organization, separate departments typically exist for the following services: help desk; network administration; desktop support; software development; standardization; research and development and security. However if you really want to be a single point of contact, your IT consulting firm will have to wear these multiple "hats" on any given day with your small business clients.

The First Dual Mode Phone With 1 RUIM and 2 SIM Built in In World

2cardphone is pleased to announce that the first Tri-SIM dual mode phone launched in China. The handset is built in 1 CDMA-RUIM card and 2 GSM-SIMs working and standby simultaneously. With the 3 cards inside, the phone supports two GSM networks and one CDMA network. Besides full multi media features such as 2.0 M pixel camera, MP3, MP4, Bluetooth and FM radio, the phone support a analogue TV reception function.
"Since more and more people have more than 1 card and some of them get 3 or 4 sim cards, we believe that there is a demand on the dual card phone or even triple card phone" said by Mr. Raymond Briggs, the director of 2cardphone.cn. He add that the mass production of this model will be in beginning of March and it is estimated that the total delivery worldwide will be about 150,000 units in 2009.The mass production of this model will be in beginning of March and it is estimated that the total delivery worldwide will be about 100,000 units in 2009.
About 2cardphone:
2cardphone is an established mobile phone manufacturer in Hong Kong with its R&D Center and production facility in China. The products cover CDMA Phones, GSM Phones, Dual SIM Phones, Dual Mode Phones and TV Phones. Founded in 2003 with its first Gemstone designed GSM phone launched in China, the company is now providing more than 20 models for the global market. Its suppliers are from multinationals like Qualcomm, TI, MTK and customers include the worldwide mobile phone service operators and local distributors in regions of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Green Restaurant Tips - Managing Equipment For More Efficiency

Going green is a hot buzzword these days, and everyone, including the food service industry, is jumping on board the environmentally friendly bandwagon.
The great thing about going green in your restaurant is that you can cut costs and save yourself considerable money while improving customer loyalty and visibility at the same time. In a time when cutting costs might mean sinking or swimming, going green might be the thing that helps you stay afloat.
This series is intended to help you cut costs and improve your business' bottom line while making legitimate green restaurant claims to your customers. And you just might save the planet in the process.
How To Manage Equipment
The equipment in your restaurant or commercial kitchen uses thousands of dollars worth of energy every year. Running this equipment is essential to your business, but it can also be a drain on profits if not managed properly. Some tips to help you manage equipment:
Reduce idle times. Cooking equipment like broilers, steamers, ovens, holding cabinets, and fryers all take time to heat up for optimal use.
Because your kitchen staff is usually more concerned with food preparation times than energy efficiency, they tend to leave equipment running during downtimes to avoid being slowed down by heat up time.
Obviously, you also want to minimize food prep time, but striking a balance between time and energy use is easier than you might think.
Things like broilers and connectionless steamers don't take very long to heat up, so shutting them down during even short lulls can save you money. Ovens and fryers can be reduced to an idle temperature that uses less energy than constantly maintaining peak cooking temperature. Newer fryer models even offer an automatic idle temperature feature. And warming cabinets are often left on overnight, wasting energy.
Utilize efficient cooking strategies. Using energy hogs like salamanders or broilers is necessary to cook and serve a quality product.
But that doesn't mean you have to use the least efficient weapons in your cooking arsenal all the time. Evaluate how each menu item is prepared and devise strategies to employ the most efficient equipment in your kitchen as much as possible.
Steamers, convection ovens, griddles, and microwaves are more efficient than ranges, broilers, standard ovens, and salamanders, so if you can substitute one for the other without compromising the quality of your product, do so.
Here are some more tips on how to make sure your restaurant equipment is performing at maximum efficiency.
Perform regular equipment maintenance. Simple parts on cooking and refrigeration equipment break down or degrade over time from constant use, reducing energy efficiency and equipment performance.
Usually these parts are so easy to replace you can do it yourself:
Door gaskets. The constant opening and closing of oven, steamer, and refrigerator or freezer doors leads to wear and tear on the gasket that helps seal in heat or cold.
Replace these gaskets as they become worn to reduce leaks.
Thermostats. The thermostat on your freezer, refrigerator, or fryer can lose its calibration or wear out, meaning the machine isn't operating at optimal temperature.
Check thermostats regularly with a commercial thermometer and recalibrate or replace them as needed.
Check pilot lights and clean burners. Pilot lights are convenient but also represent a constant use of energy in your kitchen. Make sure they aren't using more energy than needed by checking them regularly.
If the flame is taller than a couple inches or yellow in color, adjust the flame until it's small and blue. Also clean oven and range burners regularly and replace burners that have worn out to maximize their efficiency.
Train kitchen staff. Implementing the tips above sounds good in theory, but unless you train your staff to think about energy efficiency, these strategies will remain just a theory.
Set idle time and shut down procedures for all your equipment to minimize their energy use. Train head staff to check for bad door gaskets and thermostats. Make sure full racks of dishes are going through the dishwasher instead of half full or mostly empty ones.
Most importantly, get your staff to understand why energy savings are important, and incentivize them to act efficiently.
Buy Energy Star rated restaurant equipment. Replace old equipment in your kitchen as quickly as possible. When shopping for new equipment, look for Energy Star ratings. Most restaurant equipment has annual energy usage statistics. Use this information to compare units and purchase the most efficient one.
No matter what, new equipment is going to be more efficient and perform better than old equipment. Often the annual energy savings from new equipment will recoup the cost of purchasing it within a few years.
Also check for rebates from your local, state, or federal government for purchasing energy efficient equipment.
Carefully calculate capacity. One of the most common mistakes restaurant or commercial kitchen managers make when purchasing new equipment is buying too big.
Ice machines, refrigerators or freezers, and dishwashers are big energy users and are the most common units where this mistake is made. Of course, buying too small is just as bad, and that's why it's important to accurately calculate your production needs.
Start by analyzing peak demand. Once you know how many people or how many meals you serve per hour at peak demand times, you can better analyze what size equipment you need.
However, you should also take into account future growth.
Most restaurant equipment, if properly maintained, should last 5 - 10 years. In that time your business should grow as well, meaning peak demand 5 years from now is going to be more than peak demand right now.
In general, overestimate equipment capacity by 10% - 20% to make sure it can meet your needs over the entire lifetime of the unit.

How You Can Use Time to Your Advantage to Be a Successful Saleswoman

Sales people are often looking for what they can do to give them the edge over their competition. Sometimes, however it is not that important to have a different skills or asset. Rather it is more important to be able to use what you have to your absolute best advantage.
So what is the one asset that you have in common with every other salesperson? The answer is "time". In fact the bottom line is we all have the same amount of time in each day as the next person, no matter how talented, successful or wealthy you are.
So what does a successful salesperson do with their time that is different to all the rest? Well they have mastered how to manage their time.
But it is important to say here that it is not how many hours you work that is the key to peak performance or profitable revenue growth. I am certainly not saying you need to spend every waking moment working just to get ahead. Instead it is the way you use your hours and how intelligently you allocate our hours to the tasks at hand which has the maximum impact on your sales career.
So in today's fiercely competitive marketplace you need to be the best manager of time that you can be. Because best use of time means increased sales and higher earnings. Or put bluntly, lost hours means lost sales and lower earnings.
Consider Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule: Focus 80% of your time and energy on the 20% of your work. This is really important. Don't just work smart, work smart on the RIGHT things.
All successful salespeople spend most of their time doing what makes them the most money. They are disciplined time managers. In fact the top 10% of all sales people treat their time as their most precious asset and use it wisely.
You have to face it, in sales there are only 2 types of time; time that makes you money and time that does not. The time that makes you money is the time you deal with or handle customers and most of them are available between 9am and 5pm, unless of course you are selling in different time zones. So any activity that is not directly related to meeting people, building relationships and closing business should be done out of this time.
To determine of you are a master manager of time do a simple check. Over the next few days keep an accurate record of everything you do in your day. Just write short bullet points that reflect what you did and include everything, even when you stopped to grab a coffee or chat with a neighbour. Then go back through your notes and highlight the activities that were profitable actions. That is the actions that contributed to you making a sale or a profit. Then compare the time spent on these things to the time spent on non profitable actions. This exercise can be very revealing and help you decide if you need to rethink the way you plan or run your day.
Of course once you have done this exercise you then need become aware of what you do in your day and discipline yourself to stick to profitable actions during business hours and follow the Pareto Principle. Do this and the impact on your sales career will be amazing.

ISO 9001 Quality Management - Corporate Manual

Current practices create inconsistencies
Through my work as a Lead Auditor with major registrars, I observed dozens of large multi-location companies struggling with connecting their corporate policies and manuals with the supporting, location-specific documents. To develop a manual for a company with numerous facilities, organizations take two routes. Some companies create site-specific manuals either as copies of the corporate manual or site-specific manuals that are different from the corporate manual.
In the first case when a site-specific manual is a copy of the corporate manual with modifications specific to a given site, mechanisms to keep these documents coordinated are rarely defined and followed. Difficulties of keeping these documents in sync are due to the fact that corporate manuals are controlled by the home office, while local manuals are responsibility of site's documentation control departments.
Another approach organizations take is to allow their satellite locations having their own quality, environmental or other policies and manuals independent from the corporate policy and manual. This technique very often leads to major disconnect of the corporate and local policies and manuals. From the corporate identity and simply business consistency points of view, an organization should not find itself in a position of having different or conflicting commitments of its facilities to quality, environmental issues, customer satisfaction, safety hazards and other requirements of applicable standards. One of our large customers demonstrated this point well. The corporate quality policy and manual addressed majority of the requirements of applicable standards and referenced appropriate regulations. At the same time, one location did not reference required ISO 13485 standard, another missed a commitment to compliance with regulatory requirements, yet another one failed to document their quality policy all together!
As we can see, both approaches to creation of location's manuals as copies of the corporate manuals or independent manuals do not appear to be practical. Besides, if a company has already spent time on developing a manual, why should another employee in the same organization spent more time to create a similar or duplicate document?
Corporate manuals can be used by all locations
To address this issue, let's review, as an example, ISO 9001 quality manual model, specifically supporting document reference structure and the application clause. As a common practice, a manual references supporting documents within the text of the manual. For example, clause 5.5.1 of the manual, Responsibility and authority, may read:
QW Enterprises, LLP's Management Team ensures that the responsibilities and authorities are defined and communicated within the organization per the Resource Management Procedure and the Organizational Chart.
The same model will also work for a multi-site organization for those documents that are used at all locations. For example, such processes as Management Review, NC-CAPA Procedure, Documentation Management Procedure, Audit Procedure, and others may be the same for all locations and therefore be referenced in the quality manual as shown above. However, what if our locations have different exclusions, use their own organizational charts, product realization procedures, and other site-specific documents? If we use the model above and want to keep a common manual, we have to reference in the manual corresponding documents for all locations which may not be practical.
Below we will explore how a corporate manual can practically reference location-specific documents to support commitments of the company's common manual. Let's start from referencing documents. The same reference structure as for a single-location company can be used if the number of locations is small, let's say two or three. In this case, clause 5.5.1 of our corporate manual may state:
QW Enterprises, LLP's Management Team ensures that the responsibilities and authorities are defined and communicated within the organization per the Resource Management Procedure, Organizational Chart HO and Organizational Chart Ontario.
This example shows references to the common Resource Management Procedure and site-specific organizational charts for the Home Office (HO) and the Ontario locations. While this model works well for a limited number of facilities, it becomes impractical when the number of locations is significant.
Manual Reference Matrix
For companies with a large number of locations, where we need to reference numerous documents including those controlled by satellite locations, we have another option. We can establish a document to connect corporate manual commitments with the site-specific supporting documents. Let's name this document a Manual Reference Matrix and consider the following document reference structure: Corporate Manual element > Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents (ToC) > Site-specific Manual Reference Matrix > Corresponding site-specific document. To illustrate this model, let's document the same element 5.5.1 of our corporate manual with references to site-specific organizational charts:
QW Enterprises, LLP's Management Team ensures that the responsibilities and authorities are defined and communicated within the organization per the Resource Management Procedure and site-specific organizational charts per the Manual Reference Matrix ToC.
This statement tells us that the company uses common Resources Management Procedure and site-specific organizational charts. To locate a site-specific organizational chart, we need to refer to the Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents (ToC). This table of contents is simply a list of all locations' Manual Reference Matrixes, as shown in the illustration below:
Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents Home Office (Denver, Colorado, USA) Ontario (Canada) St. Petersburg (Russia) Guanajuato (Mexico) Port Williams (Chile)... etc,
Following the hyperlink "Ontario (Canada)" we will find a site-specific Manual Reference Matrix. Locating element 5.5.1 in the Ontario Manual Reference Matrix, we will find that Ontario location uses for this clause of the manual a document called Organizational Chart Ontario. A Manual Reference Matrix may be formatted as a three-column form. The first two columns are titled "Corporate Manual section No." and "Corporate References"; the third column is called "Location references". For the element 5.5.1, the Matrix indicates that manual references Organizational Chart HO for the corporate office and the Organizational Chart Ontario for the Ontario facility.
Now, when we successfully resolved the issue with referencing site-specific documents, let's see how we can address different scopes, exclusions and other similar elements. Let's say that our corporate office maintains an integrated management system compliant with ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 standards. The corporate office management system satisfies all requirements of ISO 9001 standard and therefore does not declare any exclusions.
At the same time, our Ontario facility is certified to ISO 9001:2008 only and does not perform design function, therefore excluding design from its scope of certification. These differences can be documented within the same Manual Reference Matrix. Section 1.1, Purpose and scope of the matrix references ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 standards for the corporate office, while Ontario facility references only ISO 9001:2008. Similarly, element 1.2 of the matrix, Application, states for the corporate office: "Application, QW Enterprises LLP's Management System satisfies the full range of requirements of ISO 9001:2008 Standard.", while for the Ontario facility this element reads: "QW Enterprises LLP's Ontario facility does not perform design function, therefore, design is excluded from the scope for this facility." For a sample of a Manual Reference Matrix check the link below.
Controlling Manual Reference Matrix
It is a good idea to make your Manual Reference Matrix ToC a part of your Corporate Manual. It is also beneficial to control your Manual Reference Matrix Template through the corporate documentation management system to ensure consistency of the matrix format used by different locations. Each of your facilities will use this template matrix to document their site-specific references addressing requirements of the corporate manual.
After completion of the Manual Reference Matrix by a given location, this document, as any other, will be given a document title and be released through the local documentation change process. Any changes to the corporate manual should trigger review and, if necessary, changes to the Manual Reference Matrix Template and Manual Reference Matrices of all locations.
Copyright Quality Works
Figure 1- Quality Management - Manual Reference Matrix.
Mark Kaganov was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. He graduated from Moscow University of Radio-electronics and Automation, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in design and technology of electronic equipment. While attending the university, he worked for the Institute of Plastics, the former USSR's leading organization in the research and development of plastic materials.
In 1981, Mr. Kaganov immigrated to the United States and continued his professional career in Quality Management Systems and Research & Development in the plastics, electronics, and medical device manufacturing industries. He has worked for major US corporations such as Capitol Records, RCA, COBE Laboratories and Medtronic.

Property Management Overview - The First Steps of Property Management

How many of you ever thought about owning your own rental property? Do you ever wonder about what it takes to start the project from beginning to end? Well if so then I am going to go over some of the basics for owning a property and getting the all important renter in the home.
The first step for someone who owns a rental property and has a vacancy is to advertise their property for rent. You should use the internet and local newspapers. Not everyone always uses the internet when searching for a home and a lot of people prefer the good old fashioned newspaper. If you want to make sure you get the most out of your rental then you should always use whatever means available for advertising. This will ensure that you have the highest number of applicants possible.
The next step is the application process. Make sure you have applications ready to hand out to interested tenants. This can be very critical as this is the only way you are going to be able to background check and screen your potential renters. Make sure that you are asking important questions that are going to give you a better view of what the person is like and how they handle their obligations right now. You don't want to waste your time with such silly questions as what color are your eyes but instead you need to focus on what you really want to know.
The next step after you have received all of the applications for the property is to run credit checks and, if you think necessary, background checks. This will help you to receive a copy of the prospective tenants history when it comes to paying their bills and give you a broader picture of who they really are. Background checks will let you know if they are an upstanding citizen or someone who likes to go out and get into trouble a lot. Both of these are going to help you to ease your mind and make sure you are picking someone who is going to be a good fit.
This is just the first few steps when dealing with rental property but they are the ones that will help you to get a renter into your home. Once you have established a renter you can move on from there to the next phase of signing the all important lease and collecting your first months rent and security deposit. The journey of owning a rental can be long but it can also be very rewarding in the end.

Stealing Business Secrets

Imagine that your business is going through a very competitive tendering process and in the process of trying to secure a very lucrative contract. You would like to keep all your information away from the competing companies wouldn't you? I know I would. Let me tell you about a company that didn't.
Expression of interest
This company decided to submit a tender for a contract that its main competitor was also tendering for. Tendering for contracts is a long process and needs to comply with various requirements throughout the entire process. At the EOI stage every business knew who else was tendering for the contract because they met at the EOI meeting with the prospective client.
What happened next?
All of the tendering companies went back to work on developing the tender documents with their management team. All except for one company, who also decided to go one step further. This company decided to see if they could get some idea of the tender proposal from their competitor so they could adjust theirs where required to increase the likelihood of success.
A month of two goes past
A new cleaner is going through his induction training in a large corporate building. The induction process shows him how to move about the building and clean all the offices. The cleaning supervisor assigns him the top floors because of his impressive English skills and dedication to cleaning. He picks up the duties fast and seems keen to get to work.
Graveyard security detail
The new cleaner goes to the security guard on nightshift and asks for his ID card and keys to clean the executive offices tonight. The guard is watching TV and slides across an old key register for the master keys and hands a generic master access ID card to the new cleaner. The guard doesn't notice that the cleaner just signs the pages with no name in the appropriate columns.
Getting dirty
The new cleaner gets his equipment, including a rubbish trolley, and makes his way up to the executive floor. During the night there are only the two cleaners and one security guard, so the cleaner is feeling confident that it will be over shortly.
Going down
After a couple of hours the cleaner is back down and heading out to the bins to empty his rubbish bags and have a smoke. The security guard opens the loading bay shutter and leaves the cleaner to his smoke. After the guard has left the cleaner takes a rubbish bag and walks down the road to his parked car and puts the bag in the boot. The cleaner goes back to work and finishes his shift.
Months Later
The company lost the tender bid due to its competitor beating it on price and having similar OHS processes in place. Management thought it was strange that the competitor beat its price by a very close margin on all its schedule rates.
© Copyright 2008 by Paul Baker
Information supplied by Paul Baker
Over twenty years security & risk management experience across Australia to protect corporate clients from critical incidents and security risks.
Previously served in the Military and expert in explosives, weapons, and information gathering techniques.
Achieved formal qualifications in a wide range of security risk management skills and commendations for crisis response operations

The Truth About Internet Scams

Internet Scams

The Truth About Internet Scams.

Internet scams are more plentiful than ever. Most online scams have origins in the off-line world and they have been brought on board the net by con artists and frauds.
Internet scams come in all shapes and sizes. But I'm going to show you some proven methods for sniffing out and identifying most scams on the net. Just read below and you'll be one step ahead of the scammers!
The first and easiest way to identify a fraud, scam, or con artist is to simply check for a phone number listed on the website in question. Con artists and scammers almost never list a phone number. And in the rare event that they do list a phone number, it's usually not answered. So even if you see a phone number listed, be sure to call it just to talk to a representative from the company. If you get a voice mail message, be sure to leave your name and number. Don't do business on that website until you get a call back from a representative. And even if you get a call back from a rep, be sure to ask questions such as this:

How long have you been in business?

Can you give me some references from your past customers?

What is your physical location and would you mind if I drive by to look at your building?

What is your refund policy?

What can you tell me about your products?

Lastly, be sure that the website in question lists a physical address on their website.

If all they list is an email address or a contact form for you to fill out, I'd be extra cautious in doing business with them. There are plenty of other companies out there that do list a physical address and answer their phone all day long. And that's exactly the kind of business you want to work with.

You can also go to www.deja.com which will take you to google groups where you can type in the name of the business, company or individual person in question to see if there are any complaints floating around the net.
Yes, everyone tends to be a complainer on the net, so you have to take your search results with a grain of salt, but it wouldn't hurt to look and see. Right about now, you're probably saying "Why not just call the better business bureau?"

You should understand that the better business bureau is not a government agency like the F.T.C.(Federal Trade Comission) and they don't have any authority like the FTC. In fact something most people don't even realize is that the better business bureau has complaints against itself!
Yes, there are people that have called the police on the Better Business Bureau! I have been mislead and mis-informed by the BBB on several occasions.

I've heard so many bad things about the BBB, that I don't give them much credit anymore. In my opinion, the FTC is the most powerful agency policing the internet and they're the only one I trust.
You can also go to websites such as www.OnlyReviews.com to investigate and look up companies before you do business with them.

Be sure to only do business with companies offering at least a 30 day money back guarantee.

You may think about this. The Better Business Bureau will say things good about you if you become a member. They are in business to make money!
Just my 2 cents!

Wear your Blnders and Stay Focused and YOU WILL MAKE MONEY!

My name is Randall Stafford and I have been on the internet since 1994. I have been involved in most every kind of scam, doubler, matrix, MLM program, or ponzi scheme out there. It wasn't by my understanding by no means. I was under educated. I do not want this to happen to you. Learn from me. Get into my ezines now and learn what not to do. Almost every Marketer can tell you what to do. I want to tell you what not to do. My focus is Blinders. " Keep the Focus" You will Make Money.