Model Success

Sunrise in Hawaii

My daughter Chelsey gave me a great gift this past year. She and couple of friends began defining the successes that they plan on achieving by creating and posting video blogs intended to coach, teach and inspire young women. I was so impressed that I had to take the time to not only tell them how impressed I was, but to let them know how valuable I thought their information was, (when you feel impressed to compliment anyone, act on it before the opportunity passes). Some of their friends told them they were just being silly, implying that they were being grandiose, maybe even delusional in thinking that what they had to share was of any real value. I love a Will Smith quote..." I think that there's a certain delusional quality, that all successful people have to have." And from the movie Pursuit of Happyness" "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something, not even me." Nelson Mandela didn't start life as the recognized sage that he is recognized as today, and yet he was always Nelson Mandela. His greatness began the day he recognized who he was, and was formed by the challenges he faced throughout his life. So it was with Chelsey and her friends, as they recognized the value of their knowledge and experiences their greatness began to influence others. At any rate, Chelsey and her friends reminded me about a few principle of success that I was taught at an early age; VALUE, LOVE, SERVICE, GRATITUDE, GOOD ENOUGH and VISION. They modeled success for me and behaved like a coach. The best way to coach is to simply do what is right. When we engage in doing the right things, we can't help but influence others. As most of you know, I prefer to lead by doing and succeeding. Coaching allows me to remember and put into action the principles of success, as well as prove the value of the principles that I have been taught and continue to pass on.

Business startup in the economy of 2010 has been challenging, but the principles that I have been taught have proven themselves to be timeless and adaptable to any economic environment. Profitability was achieved within the second month. A major change in my largest trading partner’s business model forced me start at square one again in February of 2011. Once again those principles of success proved their value as we once again achieved profitability almost immediately. As we now face a seemingly great challenge again, I was reminded that coaching would help me to find and achieve the successes that I need.

As we begin a new year we see it full of promise and the opportunity to make new choices (if we’re not getting the results that we say we would like to enjoy), or choose new outcomes for this year, or commit ourselves to the choices and activities that have produced the desired, successful, results for us.

Let’s take this new year to focus on learning and applying principles of success, as opposed to focusing on strategies. What are the principles of success?

VALUE 

What do you value, what is your time worth, who shares those values in the form of Co-workers, Customers, and Joint Venture Partners?

SERVICE

Don’t ask how you can make money; simply ask how you serve the world best. What are your unique strengths? Remember the Hippopotamus that is my corporate logo. If you don't know the story behind that choice, no worries, we'll revisit it in February.

VISION

If you don’t know what success looks like, you may just walk past it, past him or past her. When you have enjoyed complete success, where are you, what are you doing, and who are you with; both at home and at work? Can you clearly communicate that vision of success? When you can, you will attract the right components required for that success. What does success look like, feel like, sound like, taste like? Experience that success daily, internally.

GRATITUDE

If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, you can’t have more – meaning that what is the point of accomplishment or gain when it doesn’t register with you? Lack of gratitude is at the core of a scarcity mentality. Lack of gratitude focuses on what you don’t have and provides all the excuses for failure. Gratitude allows you to recognize what you already have and allows you to leverage those assets for greater achievement.

CHOICE

Choose to produce the results that you value. Not getting what you desire, make different choices. Don’t want to make new and different choices? Learn how to be happy with the results that you’re producing. Those two choices are the core choices of our lives.

BALANCE 

Balance work and play, home and work, indulgence and discipline, limits and charity, effort and rest.

INTEGRITY

Keep all of your promises and make no promises that you can’t keep.

ATTENTION

Pay attention and listen to the most important people in your life, at home, at the office and in the marketplace. Give them what is important to them, and in a way that allows them to understand that you’re giving them what they ask for.

MUST DO

If I say it’s going to get done I will get it done.

GOOD ENOUGH

Don’t wait for the perfect amount of time, or the perfect set of circumstances to begin achieving your dreams. Start now, even if you only have 5 minutes, even if you only have $5, even if you only have 5 friends or 5 potential customers.

ACCEPTANCE

Accept what is as good and beautiful, and right for the moment, even if “what is” seems painful.

LOVE

Learn to love and care for yourself as you would love and care for those most important to you. There is no integrity to beating yourself up while extending love to others. You can’t love anyone more than you love yourself. Until you can show yourself patience and acceptance, you can’t show it to anyone else, at least not to the highest levels that you are capable of.

I have not been producing all of the results that I value most; chief among them is the coaching that fulfills me.  One of the reasons that I value Coaching so much is that it allows me to revisit the principles of success that have been taught to me. And frankly, I need to hear those message more than most of you need to hear them. While it appears that I am better at applying the principles of success, it is simply a matter of the fact that I hear the messages more often than the rest of you, because I repeat them over and over again in coaching sessions with my clients, my friends. That said, I choose to post to this blog on a bi-weekly basis, and I will use these principles as my curriculum. Let me know if these posts are meaningful. In fact, take the time to post links to these blog posts on your blogs. I promise to pay attention to what you say to make these posts as productive for you as possible. Let's take our "Knowing" this year and apply it in wise ways to produce much good for ourselves, our families, our friends  and our communities throughout the world.

Make this “THE BEST YEAR EVER!”™
Coach Frits

and remember... "Once a Client, always a friend!" Get in touch with me my friends, let me know what you're grateful for.

With Every Bad Comes the Good, and Vice Versa

An interesting fact reported by the Harvard Business Review today; JUNE 16, 2010

Swedish Papas Get Generous Paid Leave

With 85% of fathers in Sweden taking extensive paid parental leave, companies there have come to expect new dads to disappear for months at a time, and the leave-takers aren't penalized at promotion time, according to The New York Times. The country's generous paternal-leave policy is seen as contributing to lower divorce rates.

Source: The New York Times According to a Wikepedia article, the combined Employer and Worker tax rate in Sweden is about 63%. Yet quality of life, as compared throughout the world is ranked as #10 of best rated countries to live in. USA Ranks #14 best Country with Honolulu coming as the #31 best city to live in, in the world. New York is the median ranked as the #49 best city to live in in the world. This according to the Mercer survey (Vienna scores 108.6 and Baghdad scores 14.7. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city…). Whether we agree with the survey, or not, is not at issue – it has long been known that quality of life in Sweden is high. Indeed, in my last visit to Stockholm, I was amazed at the relative "elegance of the populace. The food was remarkable. Culture is at its highest. I awoke one summer morning around 4AM; the lights were blazing through my window. It was a manmade "land of the midnight sun" as it were. Upon looking out my hotel window, I was amazed to see a scene of families enjoying the weekend, parents and even small children, having fun together as if it were a typical Saturday afternoon in any small American town. Understandable, considering how brutal the winters can be. Winters are so challenging that my hosts told me that theirs is a shrinking population. But their summers are filled with pure joy, regardless of the time of day or weather conditions. Along with their brutal taxes come some great joys of life. Yin and Yan, opposite forces always at play. My point is, that none of us have anything to complain about, if we take the time to see "what's good" in our daily existence, regardless of where we live. Witness one of the International students in our town, who though being raised in the brothels of India (ranked on the lowest end of the Mercer survey). I have only seen her a few times, but each time, she has had a smile. She is helping my wife over the summer. Regardless of the assignment, she does not complain. My wife tells me that she goes about happily doing what is asked of her. Many in our society have grown jaded. That attitude was summed up so well in a conversation with a teenager when he said "I Didn't ask to be here." Au contraire mon frère...what we have we have somehow asked for, a controversial truth open to argument, but unchangeable. Do we ask for tragedy or accident? No. Although, I refuse to watch what we commonly refer to as "wrecks" in bull riding (a really bad ride that generally ends in injury to the cowboy) because I don't want those images it in my mind as they can create fear and other unwanted outcomes. If I were to picture it in my mind, I might start looking for a "soft place" to land, as most cowboys do. If you get an opportunity to watch, especially amateur bull riding, see if you can notice where the cowboy is looking when he comes out of the chute. The cowboys that "fall" off the bull, (you never really fall off, you get slammed off by 2,000lbs of muscle) as they come out of the chute, are probably looking down at the ground. In bull riding we like to say you're going where you're looking. In that instance, we can create our reality. But accidents are just that, we don't create them, they really just happen. Anyway, when you feel that you're dealing with "bad," look for the opposite force at play, the Yin and Yan. Trust me, it's there. Know that there is good in your business. If your business is "off," it represents an opportunity to improve your marketing efforts. Indeed, when sales numbers remain constant, we may be missing a huge opportunity to find more markets, or improve our marketing efforts such that we increase our business dramatically. When the sales numbers at your company "fall off," it presents an opportunity or motivation to look more closely at what it is that you value most, and then follow up with a question as to whether or not you're serving those values. You may produce greater personal fulfillment in your work as a result of going through the process of evaluating your business from the perspective of "do we want to keep doing this?" At the least, as you become more clear on what it is that you value most you will better communicate those values to your Partners, Associates and Employees. This will only serve to create a work environment that produces more joy and satisfaction for you. As you become aware of, and grateful for, that "good" your life is immediately enriched. You will find yourself more energized, and in the right place at the right time to enjoy the good accidents of life. Namaste, Coach Frits

Are Your Clients Experiencing Any Kind Of Economic Recovery?

A multi-millionaire friend of mine asked that question of me the other day. I thought that my answer was worth sharing with you as well. In response to his question I said that many of my small business owners have been enjoying, and continue to enjoy economic success, regardless of national or worldwide economic conditions. People are still spending what money they have. Tires still wear out, books are still being read (indeed, witness the overwhelming success of the iPad), people are still buying computers and technology, people are still buying houses and getting mortgages. Regardless of the community that they are in, I am witnessing client successes throughout America.

SUCCESS IS AS EASY AS WE ALLOW IT TO BE, OR AS DIFFICULT AS WE CHOOSE TO MAKE IT – THE PRINCIPLE OF ALIGNMENT

Raji Rykert (her nickname is Superwoman) lives in Southern California. She has been enjoying success on two fronts. Real Estate Investing (how many people can say that today) and a new business startup (www.3facesmedia.com) signing new clients like Shari Belafonte the actress daughter of Harry Belafonte. I had the opportunity to sit and coach Shari briefly. What a remarkable person. Shari is introducing Raji to her best celebrity friends and growing Raji's business for her. How has Raji enjoyed such remarkably rapid success? It's not by hiring a great sales team or implementing an aggressive sales approach. Surely, Shari had many options when it came to hiring a Publicist. The traditional approach would have been costly. But by simply "seeding" the success of others, Raji seeded her own success. This is consistent with the behavior that I model in "Once a Client, Always a Friend." Would you like a friend who will be there for the long term? Give me a call at 801-755-6823.

There's a wonderful article about Augie Nieto, the founder of LifeCycle which grew to become a $550 Million business. Augie started out with a national sales tour that would ultimately cost a great deal and show no success. He found his success was much easier when his efforts came into alignment with his value of "Reciprocity." Read the article HERE and buy his book.

Mike B owns a towing and auto shop service in small town USA (population 4,505). When we began the coaching process he told me in our third session "I got mad at you for getting me to dream again. I had grown to accept my situation." Because of our work together he became aware of business losses that would ultimately force him to shut down his business (as so many small business owners do in America). By getting clear on what he values most, we are now identifying remarkable profit enhancing opportunities for his company. How many of you have struggled with business expansion opportunities when cash flow just isn't what it needs to be? Do you go out and finance your inventory, only to further erode profits? Have you offered products and services at deep discounts, not only eroding profits – but devaluing your products and services further? Or have you implemented measures that allow for profitable growth, like Mike?

STEP 1: GET CLEAR ON WHAT YOU VALUE

How can we align with our values if we don't know what they are? Stanford University research points to this as the fundamental reason for lack of success in peoples' lives. We have a great free tool available to help you get clear on what you value, and document them in a way that adds to more exercises that will grow your business. Again, IT'S FREE. Just email me at coachfrits@gmail.com for your copy.

But to get you started, answer this question. If you were admitted to the emergency ward today, and were coherent, what would you make sure got done before you went to sleep tonight? The answers to this question will give a huge head start on getting clear on your values.

An ancient story is told of a General living in peacetime, only to discover the enemy's preparations for a new war. The General was wise and caring, and desired a short war with minimal casualties, on both sides. In his wisdom he decided that the way to ensure a short conflict was to gather around him seasoned warriors who valued the same things that he valued. He knew that they would have experienced many of the same things that he had already experienced. He also knew that he would avoid having to convince those warriors of his strategies and tactics, saving additional time and avoiding loss of lives. With the lives of his friends and family in the balance, he wrote down the principles that he valued most, on an animal skin, and raised it as a standard. Military standards are used as a rallying point. As long as the standard flies, is held aloft, in the heat of battle it provides an inspiration to keep working towards the goal. Listing his values attracted warriors of similar value to his cause. A standard is also valuable as it allows us to measure progress – ground gained or lost relative to the standard. So a standard also provides a sense of direction, especially in the disorienting moments of a melee.

So it is in our communities and our companies. Success is so much easier, the challenge reduced, when we are surrounded by others of a like mind and value. You can save yourself significant hours and dollars when you are surrounded by those who value what you value. Get clear on what you value and then communicate it to your universe of employees, associates, partners and customers. You'll discover how much easier success becomes at this point.

Coach Frits

Are Your Clients Experiencing Any Kind Of Economic Recovery?

A multi-millionaire friend of mine asked that question of me the other day. I thought that my answer was worth sharing with you as well. In response to his question I said that many of my small business owners have been enjoying, and continue to enjoy economic success, regardless of national or worldwide economic conditions. People are still spending what money they have. Tires still wear out, books are still being read (indeed, witness the overwhelming success of the iPad), people are still buying computers and technology, people are still buying houses and getting mortgages. Regardless of the community that they are in, I am witnessing client successes throughout America.

SUCCESS IS AS EASY AS WE ALLOW IT TO BE, OR AS DIFFICULT AS WE CHOOSE TO MAKE IT – THE PRINCIPLE OF ALIGNMENT

Raji R (her nickname is Superwoman) lives in Southern California. She has been enjoying success on two fronts. Real Estate Investing (how many people can say that today) and a new business startup (www.3facesmedia.com) signing new clients like Shari Belafonte the actress daughter of Harry Belafonte. I had the opportunity to sit and coach Shari briefly. What a remarkable person. Shari is introducing Raji to her best celebrity friends and growing Raji's business for her. How has Raji enjoyed such remarkably rapid success? It's not by hiring a great sales team or implementing an aggressive sales approach. Surely, Shari had many options when it came to hiring a Publicist. The traditional approach would have been costly. But by simply "seeding" the success of others, Raji seeded her own success. This is consistent with the behavior that I model in "Once a Client, Always a Friend." Would you like a friend who will be there for the long term? Give me a call at 801-755-6823.

There's a wonderful article about Augie Nieto, the founder of LifeCycle which grew to become a $550 Million business. Augie started out with a national sales tour that would ultimately cost a great deal and show no success. He found his success was much easier when his efforts came into alignment with his value of "Reciprocity." Read the article HERE and buy his book.

Mike B owns a towing and auto shop service in small town USA (population 4,505). When we began the coaching process he told me in our third session "I got mad at you for getting me to dream again. I had grown to accept my situation." Because of our work together he became aware of business losses that would ultimately force him to shut down his business (as so many small business owners do in America). By getting clear on what he values most, we are now identifying remarkable profit enhancing opportunities for his company. How many of you have struggled with business expansion opportunities when cash flow just isn't what it needs to be? Do you go out and finance your inventory, only to further erode profits? Have you offered products and services at deep discounts, not only eroding profits – but devaluing your products and services further? Or have you implemented measures that allow for profitable growth, like Mike?

STEP 1: GET CLEAR ON WHAT YOU VALUE

How can we align with our values if we don't know what they are? Stanford University research points to this as the fundamental reason for lack of success in peoples' lives. We have a great free tool available to help you get clear on what you value, and document them in a way that adds to more exercises that will grow your business. Again, IT'S FREE. Just email me at coachfrits@gmail.com for your copy.

But to get you started, answer this question. If you were admitted to the emergency ward today, and were coherent, what would you make sure got done before you went to sleep tonight? The answers to this question will give a huge head start on getting clear on your values.

An ancient story is told of a General living in peacetime, only to discover the enemy's preparations for a new war. The General was wise and caring, and desired a short war with minimal casualties, on both sides. In his wisdom he decided that the way to ensure a short conflict was to gather around him seasoned warriors who valued the same things that he valued. He knew that they would have experienced many of the same things that he had already experienced. He also knew that he would avoid having to convince those warriors of his strategies and tactics, saving additional time and avoiding loss of lives. With the lives of his friends and family in the balance, he wrote down the principles that he valued most, on an animal skin, and raised it as a standard. Military standards are used as a rallying point. As long as the standard flies, is held aloft, in the heat of battle it provides an inspiration to keep working towards the goal. Listing his values attracted warriors of similar value to his cause. A standard is also valuable as it allows us to measure progress – ground gained or lost relative to the standard. So a standard also provides a sense of direction, especially in the disorienting moments of a melee.

So it is in our communities and our companies. Success is so much easier, the challenge reduced, when we are surrounded by others of a like mind and value. You can save yourself significant hours and dollars when you are surrounded by those who value what you value. Get clear on what you value and then communicate it to your universe of potential customers. The customers who value what you value, will allow you to make a profit. You'll discover how much easier success becomes at this point.

Coach Frits

From Miracle Monday last week, to today, the miracles keep rolling in

I want to share some powerfully valuable truths with all of you. The important thing to note is that they will only become valuable and true for you when you choose for them to be valuable and true for you. Interestingly enough, I have already shared these ideas with most of you, but I thought you might find it valuable to hear these ideas from someone who has earned great credibility with the world at large, the actor Will Smith.

"There is a redemptive power to making a choice"

"The first step, before anyone else believes it, is that you have to believe it"

"There's no reason to have a Plan B because it distracts from Plan A"

"I think that there's a certain delusional quality , that all successful people have to have"

"You have to believe that something different, from what has happened for the last 50 million years of history; you have to believe that something different can happen"

"Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity"

"Why would you be realistic? It's unrealistic to bend a piece of metal and fly people across the ocean, fortunately the Wright brothers thought otherwise. I'm gonna do it, it's done. It's already done the second I decide I'm going to do it"

From a Will Smith  interview with Charles Osgood

As I shared my "delusional" spirit with one of my clients today, Bill Sturman in Minnesota, he was quick to thank me for the delusional attitudes that I both possess and impress upon others to adopt in their lives. Bill is a software engineer by profession. About 5 years ago, he closed the doors of his own software engineering company, and went to work for a much larger company.  Towards the end of 2009, he went to the hospital with what he thought was a heart attack. Wow, talk about a wakeup call. Fortunately it turned out to be an acute anxiety attack (okay, better to be relaxing on the beach in Tahiti – but definitely better than a heart attack), the product of working for a company that put sales revenue ahead of customer satisfaction. Bill was getting stressed by long hours and too many meetings with unhappy clients, because his employer couldn't deliver on promises made. Most of you know that I believe that there are no accidents in life. So Bill said to me this morning, "Because of your coaching Frits, and I really do mean that, …the (School) Board was very complimentary of the strategic plan that I presented, and they went on to approve the first half of my 6 month project for them. That represents about $80,000 that I'll put in the bank. Not bad for 6 months of work." Continuing on as he spoke about a Budgeting system he had created for Vo Tech and 4 Year Colleges, and in reference to the "fire sale" strategy that I had shared with him he said; "I actually helped wrap up a project on that. This afternoon I go out to one of my old customers (5 years ago) to establish a maintenance/improvement service contract. There are ½ dozen Universities that are using my budget management software, that will yield $20k to $50k annual contracts." So Bill will enjoy his best income and his "Best Year Ever"™ in 2010. From stress to joy in about 4 months flat, that's faster than a Ferrari's 0 – 60 performance.

Witness Raji's, (my awesome Publicist) successes in finding great new clients, or Mark's success in the corporate world as he "rises to the top" of a large multi-national pharmaceutical company "I put more money in the bank this year Frits." They provide additional evidence that what you dream is within reach, as long as you follow five simple rules; Ready for those "rules?"

1.       Dream, or as my friend Chris Nelson the famous Jamaican bobsledder of 1988 says, "Dream Big." Be delusional and unrealistic. Regardless of what your life has been like, good or bad, you are allowed to have more. Get clear on what "Success" looks like.

2.       Wake up, get dressed and leave the comfort of your home. You don't need to know what it is that you will do after "leaving home," simply step out in faith, with no preconceived notion of what the "steps to success" have to look like, just be clear on what success looks like. After you take the first step, the next step will be revealed. Some of the steps of success won't even be visible until you move forward a bit.  Just be sure to "wake up" from your dreaming, and "go to the well." Regardless of whether or not the bucket comes up empty or full, keep going to the well (or perhaps find another well to go to).

3.       Be delusional, unrealistic and demand the best for yourself and all that you love (like Lynda who loves millions of people in Peru).

4.       Remember that life and success are both simply the product of choices. Don't like the life that is being "produced?" Make different choices. Don't want to make different choices? Love the life that has already been produced. That choice, to love what you have, brings you "more" in the very moment that you make that choice.

5.       Destroy the expectations of perfection, great joy and beauty can be created from that. For example, through the years, many of you have seen "horrific" typos in my communications with you (I thought I was going to be a professional football player, so I skipped typing class – for you youngsters, that's what we called it back in the day, you know it as "keyboarding"). Today, my beautiful wife is sometimes addressed as "Oyu" [sic], and it's a designation that we both have come to appreciate as a result of "good enough."  As my new friend, Dr. Brian Alman, said over dinner last week; "I am perfectly good enough." Everything really is as it should be. In this moment, you are what you need to be. Your life is what it needs to be. Or, as the great teacher "Sandy" Meisner taught his students to say to themselves, say to yourself "I am enough." Each of you has great beauty and value, I know, I've seen it. If you can't see it, allow me to help you "see it."

I cherish what I was told today (some of you will recognize this). "It's working, Coach! Every day you're getting closer! Everything you've ever wanted is being pressed toward you. Everything is clicking. Don't let the illusions trick you. Don't let the events of today dampen your spirits. Things couldn't be any better than they now are. You couldn't have more reasons to celebrate. Now! Do it! The hardest work is done! Just show up, be present, open every door and let events unfold. Life is your stage. This is your parade."  I say these exact same words to you today.

What's the hard part of success (the hardest work that I was told was already done)? Dreaming Big, being delusional and unrealistic. But those aren't very difficult, are they? When that stuff becomes easy, life becomes easy. I hope your 2010 is as exciting and rewarding as mine. Thanks for being a friend of mine.

 

Make this "THE BEST YEAR EVER!"™
Coach Frits

Here’s a Great Profit Improvement Tool – Part 2

As an update that underscores the ease of use and versatility of this tool, I want to report that I have made 22 new blog posts in under an hour. Pretty cool. So let's consider how this tool saves you the added expenses of upgrading your office computer system or systems.

Forget the fact that software now costs more than the computers that we're buying, the biggest expense of a new computer system in the office is learning to use the new productivity tools, especially if you are the only "employee" of your Small Office/Homes Office based business. If you aren't familiar with "opportunity cost," it is simply defined as the possible profits that you could have earned by using a resource differently; in this case it's the resource of time that we are considering. As the only employee of your company, you need to be busy doing whatever it is that customers pay you for. If you don't have enough customers yet, then the most valuable activity that you can be engaged in is Selling. Even if you are a tech support company, your time is best spent fixing other people's computers, or improving other businesses computers, rather than working on your own computers. There is a legend that great businessman Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic (known as the god of manufacturing," I'll post his story later) once walked into one of his manufacturing plant offices and saw a "computer" sitting on an employee's desk (it was actually the monitor). Legend has it that he picked up the "computer" and in front of his astonished staff walked to a window and threw it out. He proclaimed that "computers do not work, people do." I am certain he was aware of the power of the computer, but he wanted to make the point to his employees that they could get bogged down. Certainly, the learning curve of a new system is just like that. Some of you may remember WordPerfect, after they took over WordStar's market (yes anyone who remembers WordStar and Lotus, and even Word Perfect is as old as Steve Jobs and me. Of course I remember when word processing was an electronic typewriter with a small 1x4 lcd)? If you do, you'll remember how we had a new learning curve. We used keyboard templates, and competing software companies had "WordPerfect commands" capabilities wherein we could switch back to WordPerfect commands because it was too difficult to relearn the new Microsoft commands. It seems almost laughable to today's generation of computer literate workers. But that reality helped us to understand that when new technology was purchased, we had to pay attention to the training element of learning how to use the new equipment.

Today, that challenge is made so much greater as we have to learn how to integrate all of the equipment in our office, while at the same time learning how to get it all to work with the Internet, Networks - both physical and virtual, email and email Clients. It has simply gotten to be too complex. Have you ever felt like you have become the Computer Help Desk or Tech department in your small business? Have you ever felt like tech requirements and technical support (calling up the mobile technicians and paying them to fix a problem that wasn't' there yesterday)is draining your working capital as well as your precious time? The entire Office 2010 suite seems to have the potential of eliminating most of that. Buy Word 2010 (of course, you're already seeing that I would recommend buying the entire suite), and you won't have to go through reading a "Cloud based" service's "help pages" trying to figure out how to get it and your word processor to talk to each other. With the growing cloud computing model, it was time that a software company figured how to simplify all of that for us. Once again; bravo to you Microsoft, for getting it right for us and making it so we can focus on our businesses not our office equipment.

Last, but not least, it seems that Microsoft's marketing department has been working in unison with the Developers, and made "getting Office 2010" as east as using it. The new pricing model is in line with our needs as small to medium sized business owners. In addition to being a more affordable pricing model, Microsoft has made it possible to "try it, before you buy it" buy allowing free downloads of the Office 2010 beta. The new suite of tools is scheduled to arrive on store shelves in June, 2010. I strongly suggest that you download it now, and see if you aren't as excited about its features as much as I am.

Here’s a Great Profit Improvement Tool

If you're like me and millions of business owners around the world, you are trying to use "Social Marketing" to your advantage. In your Social Marketing mix, you probably have a blog that you manage, just like this one. I manage 12 Blogs, along with 2 Social sites. That would seem a giant task, too large for anyone to manage. I'm no "superman," I have just found tools and advisors that help me, and I'd like to share one of those great tools with you. If you own a small sales company, you'll love this tool. It will allow you to quit dealing with office equipment (computer) problems, and get back to what is more valuable to you, face time with your customers.

Microsoft Word 2010

This may read like a tech page, but believe me, it's a very important part of our businesses toady. I strongly encourage you to read this to the end, unless you're already a raving fan of the new software, and are pretty confident with it's new features. Why didn't I refer to the entire set of work productivity tools now named Microsoft Office 2010? A great new marketing approach by Microsoft is that they will offer each Office 2010 product as a standalone application. So now, if you choose, you can buy just Microsoft Word 2010 by itself. Additionally, the entire suite of products is being offered under some great new pricing models. Along with "Upgrade," you'll also find "Card Key" which allows you to unlock pre-installed Office 2010 software when you buy a new computer. Lately, software prices have been higher than some new computer prices.

I am so excited about the tight integration and ease of use of Office 2010 that this may appear to be a Microsoft commercial, or ad. I assure you that I am not on Microsoft's payroll. Why am I so excited? I was just complaining to my wife how computers and software require a technical level of expertise to "keep it all working." Microsoft is changing all of that. A new standard is coming back to the tech industry. That new standard will only bring us, as consumers and businesspeople, ever improving ease of use and reliability standards we could only dream of (wait 'til you see how easy it is to set up your e-mail accounts in Outlook 2010 – but that's another story).

You will marvel at how easily you can link all of your blogs to Word's new "Blog Post" feature. No more "running around" the net logging into your one or many blogs. You're in control from the "Blog Post" tab in WORD 2010. Gone are the days when you had to learn different ways to spell check or format your bog post when using different service providers. All of the spell check, insertion, formatting and other features that you've become so comfortable with; are now all available to you when you're typing that next blog post. This is all possible from within the comfort of Word. Have you ever experienced the frustration of "fixing" spelling errors, or formatting errors, only to lose the entire document because your blogging server timed you out? That won't happen with Word, because the only time you will interface with the server is when you click on "publish." Combined with the power of your voice recognition capabilities, it won't get any easier until Microsoft figures out a way for us to think it and get it on the page. It's that good. More in the next blog.