One Of The Smartest Things I Ever Did Was …
One of the smartest and most gorgeous people I know recently did a post by this title and I’d like for you to read it and link to it and subscribe to her feed, especially since it’s the #1 ranked blog for the term - self help blog - on Google.
Go read about the - Smartest Thing I Ever Did Was … and then go write a post about the smartest thing you ever did and maybe we can combat this propensity towards glorifying stupid stuff that seems to permeate the ‘net.
The smartest thing I ever did, besides the things she asks not to be listed is to learn to sell.
A smart man, who was not a very good human, once told me, ” Learn to sell and you’ll never need to look for a job. “
He was right.
And I give you the same advice.
Can You Put Your Business On Remote Control ?
Another reader here at Simplenomics, Greg Balanko-Dickson is a multi-book author, blogger and business coach.
Greg’s blog, The Remote Control CEO, is on my Blog Roll and he’s been asked to write some guest posts for us.
Click thru and check out his blog, his books and all of the other services he has to offer and tell him Mike sent you.
Finding A Reliable Contractor Just Got Easier
Some of you know that I’m also in the construction industry as a masonry consultant.
The toughest part of any construction job is the finding of contractors. Whether it’s a simple home improvement project or a total home building project, the task of finding a contractor is getting easier all the time due to the proliferation of websites designed to make that task easier.
One such website, findoha.com, asked me to look at their operation.
I found painters, electricians, plumbers, roofers, landscapers, heating and cooling and several other classifications of contractors listed on their site for my state.
Would I use this type of service ? Maybe. If I couldn’t find a friend to give me his recommendation, I consider using an online service.
Do I think that I’d get any educational info or tips from a local contractor ? Absolutely not. So the trade-off is that an online service can help you make an educated decision about the work you need performed.
At findoha.com, there’s a section devoted to education you the consumer, so you can make a good decision about what you need and just as importantly, what you don’t need.
There are so many home improvement articles on there that you’d need weeks to devour all the info in there. From Home Building articles, to the Top 10 Home Improvement Projects, to articles about Electricity and what to watch out for, to Painting tips and a lot more.
You can get an estimate for a particular project from local, licensed, insured and prescreened contractors.
There’s way too much info on finoha.com for me to tell you about in this sponsored review, so you’ll need to click thru to their website and see for yourself just how easy it is to find all the info you need on any construction related project you might get involved with.
A Business Blogger Teaches The ABC’s
My blog friend, Thom Singer, author of the networking skills book “ Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships ” and the Some Assembly Required Blog, will wrap up his popular two-month project “ The ABC’s of Networking ” this Friday.
The ABC’s of Networking began on whim and has dominated his blog since early April.
“ I didn’t think through the enormity of the project when I began, but I also did not know how popular the series would be with my readers ”
The response to his series has been so positive that Thom and his publishing company, New Year Publishing, have decided to expand the blog series and create Thom’s second book.
“ I know from writing ‘Some Assembly Required’ that writing a book is a big time commitment. This two month blog series will give me a great foundation to create the new book. But I also have learned that promoting a book is actually more work that writing the book in the first place ! ”
In “ The ABC’s of Networking ”, Thom used the alphabet as a template to walk his readers through tips on how to better build a professional network of business contacts that will lead to more success.
Thom’s book, “ Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships ” is available at Amazon, his website and selected book retailers. It’s also available as a 3-disk audio CD.
Thom has more than 16 years of sales and marketing experience. He’s an expert in branding, positioning and networking, and has trained more than 2,000 professionals in the art of building professional contacts that lead to increased business.
Don’t You Wish Your ATM Did This ?
Just got back from a visit to my local neighborhood ATM. I go there very often to withdraw the same amount of money. No, it ain’t $20. It’s three figures. I have to take clients out for lunch, dinner, golf, etc., and I want to always have enogh cash to pay for whatever comes up, in case their credit card machine is down.
It’s rare, but it happens. Happened last at Chariot Run Golf Course, a Caesars Indiana golf course pro shop.
Two of us had bought our ” been there, done that ” shirts and the third guy was paying for his when their card reader broke. We chipped in all our cash to make sure he could get his shirt without a half-hour delay.
Back to my great idea.
I believe most ATM’s are frequented by a core group of customers in a given area. Most of them withdraw the same amount most of the time. You’d think they know how many times a particular amount is withdrawn.
Why not make the amounts available for withdrawal the same as the 5 most frequent withdrawal amounts for an individual customer or for that individual machine ?
Surely the manufacturers or programmers can easily do that…can’t they ?
What do you think and can you improve upon that idea ?
Simply Good - Janice Myint At Technorati
I’ve been fighting for my blogging existance with Technorati for over 2 weeks. Tonight, after reading and responding with several comments to a post at Successful Blog, I found one of the best Go-To people I’ve ever had the pleasure to do business with, as far as the blogosphere goes.
Normally, the blogospherians are not as skilled as the offline business world, due to the fact that anyone with access to a computer can blog for little or no money. That ain’t always a good thing, nor is always true, but it’s a bigger part of the equation than I care for it to be.
I’ve had several emails with David Sifry, the Techno-czar there at Technorati and was not thrilled with the fact that they weren’t able to find the 13 blogs of ours that had disappeared from their index. They did email back and forth several times, but never followed up with me.
Tonight, my blog friend Liz Strauss, the blogging czarina behind Successful Blog, had a conversation with Janice over there and within minutes, she had all of our blogs back in the index. Minutes.
You’d think I should be ecstatic, and I am, but what I would like to know is why couldn’t anyone else perform this magic ? Minutes. That’s all it took.
I’ll tell you why. They didn’t care as much as she did. Plain and simple. And if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I can only do simple. I ain’t smart enough to be anything but simple.
Here’s something we can all take away from this… A Guide To Simply Solving Problems.
Here’s the 3 magic steps she took, more or less, and it’s not that big of a secret, but it’s effective.
1) Ask what the problem is. Don’t guess. It takes about 1% longer to clearly identify the problem. Never think you know what they need, ask what they want you to do.
2) Fix the problem. Solve the dilemma. Cure the crisis. Undo the knot. Whatever you gotta do, do it.
3) Let the person know you fixed the problem. Tell ‘em you’ve saved the day. Follow up and make sure you really fixed it. Don’t think you did, find out if you did.
If you care enough to try, go ahead and care enough to get it done. You’ll have invested about 1%, maybe 2% more effort and the payout is exponential.
Now, do me a favor and do a post, Trackback or whatever and let the world know that there is in fact an individual at Technorati who cares and who can get it done.
They’ve taken a lot of flak and some of it rightly so, but at least one person over there cares.
BTW - Do you think we could get some of the blogs tagged ” golf ” to actually be about golf. The #1 blog tagged ” golf ” is about a freakin’ VW car ! And most of the Top 20 is about something other than golf.
How about we find a person who contacts the blog owners and tells ‘em to re-tag their blog and if they don’t, de-index the heck out of ‘em !
Wouln’t that be better for the users who search for blogs tagged “ golf ” and find the #1 blog is about a stupid car ?
Sounds simply smart to me. And you know I like simple.
