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“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men Gang aft agley” Robert Burns.

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” - General Dwight Eisenhower.

Robert Burns was probably a project manager, to express it so vividly. General Eisenhower as the chief of the Allied Forces, certainly managed many projects successfully.

Traditional project management techniques derived greatly from the World War, with focus on logistics and resource mobilization. Today, with IT driving development across industries, the traditional techniques aren’t enough. You need smarter project management to manage situations where people work around the world, the resources are the skills of the project team, and communications becomes either the bottleneck or the enabler.

Smarter project management doesn’t mean that you do away with old techniques. Rather, you build on them, adding building blocks like data repositories for knowledge sharing, standardized templates for smooth handover, communication practices for bringing everyone together when required, and training new entrants to ramp up to speed.

The most important element of smarter project management is the metrics used to measure success. Instead of a single cost or time measure, metrics are tailored to users, the company, and the project team.

For users, it’s about ease of adoption and use. In the background, training and maintainability are also factors.

For the company, it’s about time, budget, and return on investment.

For the project team, it’s about team working, sense of accomplishment, acknowledgment of contributions, and shared learning.

Ultimately, the success of the project is evaluated based on success on all these measures, which requires smart project management.

If you are planning to refurbish your office, or even open a new office, then consider calling Rapid Office Solutions for your office furniture. They provide space planning services so that you can determine your optimum furniture configuration regardless of your office size. Services for partitions, ceilings, flooring and electrical wiring design are also provided for offices as well as conference rooms and relaxation areas.

You can take advantage of Rapid Office Solutions’s hot desking advice to allow your workforce to choose where they work in the office space. This keeps your team happy, as well as giving flexibility to members of the workforce with specific requirements.

In this day an age, we know we need to look after our backs when working in an office environment. Rapid Office Solutions can advise you on orthopaedic chairs and height adjustable desks so that you can look after your business team.

Regardless of your office furniture requirements, give Rapid Office Solutions a call to see how they can help you.

Being an Entrepreneur! That’s a dream for many; to have your own business that’s profitable, providing you with not just money but also the opportunity to work the way you please, on things that you like to do.

Many people take the plunge, and it’s indeed fulfilling for a great many. Yet, for every success that is seen, there are many failures. Most of these can be traced to a few common factors such as not planning the business strategy, or ignoring the revenue model, or even selecting the wrong activity in the first place.

Another important factor, and a common fallacy is to assume that being an entrepreneur means that you have to “go it alone”. Not necessarily - the best entrepreneurs succeed through the efforts of others, having a whole support system to guarantee success.

Entrepreneur Support provides you with advice, information and resources to help YOUR venture succeed. The business resources section provides information on sources of funds, marketing assistance and business guides. Business Articles on strategy, marketing, finance and management share insights from experts. Find checklists for startup tasks where the secret of success lies in systematically taking care of all the little tasks that otherwise torpedo your dreams.

Entrepreneur Support is the partner your new business needs.

Since 1995, members of the CreatiVerve team and its founder Daniel J. Rocca have been meeting clients and potential clients at area coffee shops. Daniel explains… “I initially preferred to meet clients at the coffee shop because I didn’t have an office and I wanted the arrangement to be equal; no one sitting behind a desk and no one sitting in front of one. No office phone or company personnel to take the attention away from either side of the discussion. I continue to prefer the coffee shop for the initial client/provider meeting because there is no better place to learn about a person than at a neutral setting.

Our business is about people and to do our job correctly we need to know as much as we can prior to getting started. An office and its environment can be very misleading; it can also cause one to make unfair judgments prior to learning about the people involved. Standing outside the box, when the situation allows; I highly recommend meeting with people over a cup of something hot at a neutral setting.”

Specializing in Marketing Consultation and Creative Direction, the CreatiVerve maxim reads… “Marketing is the Answer… for your business, product, service and you.” After reviewing the CreatiVerve website at: www.CV360.com (which for the record is a very impressive, clean and professionally designed website) I am thoroughly convinced that CreatiVerve is worth reaching out to. I would also have to agree that Marketing may very well be the answer regarding anything to do with the success of a product, service, business or you!

It was a positive experience visiting CreatiVerve Online, if you have the time to do so I suggest you drop by and bookmark the site; you never know when you or a friend might need a forward thinking Marketing Solutions Company! I also recommend reading the article entitled “A Balancing Act” by Daniel J. Rocca, it told me a lot about him as a person and I found it to be a very refreshing read.

Daniel Harrison is an upcoming webmaster trying his hand with a number of techniques for running websites. His principle is simple, make the most with the least work. This does not mean that he doesn’t work hard. The core idea is to work smart, not long hours. Therefore the techniques he employs are designed to be efficient, with high financial returns as an incentive to learn and work hard!

The JagoNetwork features Daniel’s collection of websites, from a practical money making ideas website to his personal website JagoHarry.co.uk. As time goes on, I expect this collection of websites to be distilled to a small collection of highly efficient money-making machines!

When looking for work one of the most important things is your résumé. This is one of the first thing that the person who will decide if you will get called to an interview will look at and sometimes it only takes one or two minutes before the decision if you will be able to go to the interview or not is done.

Therefor it is important to have a good written resume that will get you that interview. At Get Resume they offer the perfect service for you who wants to have the best possible resume and CV when searching for work. All you have to do is the register to start creating your resume.

Get Resume also has an newsletter that you can subscribe to for free and it will help you in your job searching so that you will be able to find the perfect work for you. You can continue to read more about GetResume.com.

Have you ever received an advertising email about business card or colored business cards? Ever wonder how this item sells like pancakes over the net? For some, they may be wondering why does someone need a business card when you think it’s just an added trash to your office desk or such cards doesn’t matter to you anymore.

Well here’s what I think about this:

I was one of the organizers for a job conference when I got tons of business cards from different companies and department heads. At first I was wondering what I should do with those cards.

I noticed that there are many different kinds of business cards available from simple to complicated and color business cards. After scanning those cards it reminds me of people whom I meet and possibly be useful for future references.

Good business cards imply how the company is doing so far. Though, colored and complicated business cards are good signs for company stability. Loud colors and pictured business cards would remind you the impression of the people you met. So a business card would be a valuable asset for you and for the company.

Here are some valuable information needed for a better business cards.

Make sure all basic information elements are on there. Name, Title, Phone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses.

Put photo on it. This would help your business card stood out from other business cards.

Use standard size cards. Make sure that your card could fit on the business card holder.

Hope these simple tips and ideas helped everyone.

Setting up a merchant account

Whether you can believe it or not, businesses that are offering customers the opportunity to pay with a credit card will sell more products and increase their revenues. Customers like the idea of being able to instantly purchase products and the convenience and protection that credit cards offer allows them these advantages. But in order to process such payments, you will need to have the right tools in place - namely, a merchant account.

There are several questions that you will want to ask before you begin the process of setting up a merchant account for your e-commerce business:

- What credit cards will you accept?
- What fees and rates are within your budget?
- Where will you be able to accept credit card payments? Where do you want to be able to accept them?
- Are there any specials or packages that are geared toward your needs?
- Have you talked to your bank about the services that they can provide?
- What kinds of fraud protection do they provide?
- What kinds of sales numbers will you need to be processing?

But the last question is actually the first one that you will want to ask yourself - are you a high volume or a lower volume merchant? This isn’t about where you plan to be over time, but where you are right now in terms of how many credit card transactions you will need to process each month. If you’re on the lower side, you may want to delay the use of a merchant account and stick with a simple third party processor (like PayPal or 2Checkout).

You will want to start to figure out what you want from a merchant account provider and then narrow down the list of options that you find based on price, services, and requirements. By having these options listed side by side, you can start to make the right choice for your particular business needs. However, you don’t want to base your entire choice on the lowest prices either - be sure to look at reliability and reputation before cost.

You will also want to check to see what kinds of fraud protection the merchant online account provider has in place. Services like preCharge can help you eliminate chargeback fees and reduce the number of chargebacks altogether.

Once you have chosen a merchant account provider, you will need to fill out an application to see if your business is someone that they will want to work with. Be sure to read any and all fine print prior to setting up the final contract and see if you can have a trial period in which you survey the merchant account provider to be sure that they are really doing all that they promised to do. If not, it’s time to move onto the next option so that you can be the best e-commerce business for your customers.

Brought to you by MerchantTalk

VoIP

VoIP. Many articles have been written about VoIP and much has been said about VoIP. What about some of the points of VoIP? What questions can we ask about VoIP that if we can find the answers for, how can it benefit us as end users?

I had a quick browse through a great web site called Tech Faq which just about nails all details about anything technical. Be sure to bookmark this site for future reference on any technical advice you are seeking. What drew my attention at first glance was the VoIP FAQS menu on the left. I had no idea so many questions could be asked about VoIP!

The Tech Faq highlighted several areas of VoIP. Some basic facts are VoIP is short for Voice over Internet Protocol. Simply meaning being able to transfer our voice as data over the Internet. Generally, there are three ways to use VoIP. Using a special VoIP telephone. Using a standard telephone with a VoIP adapter and using VoIP through your computer’s software, microphone and speakers. For more technical information, Tech FAQ can help you to no end.

Web Conferencing

You have always dreamed of ripping that killer presentation in the office to sell your idea but isn’t always difficult to try and tie down all members you want to be present in that presentation? Just one hour is all you need to nail the deal of a lifetime. We have all been there and done that.

Now you can make that killer presentation and no need for any gathering. All you need is the right application and hardware and you are set! How? Netspoke web conferencing allows you to host online meetings to deliver dazzling visual presentations in a real-time environment.

Just think of it. There you are sitting in front of your laptop with a web camera sitting on top. You have an ear-piece and a boom mic. You set up the conference call as the camera pans around and zooms when you get up, walk around, all at the same time as you speak to your colleagues and business associates. You deliver a killer setup and then just click on a high quality video presentation with slick graphics and sound for the big finish.

Bring a shiny aspect to your online meetings with Netspoke web conferencing and online meeting solutions.

Conference Calls

Conference calls are a must have facility these days for any business that need to communicate with members of staff, management, clients and other businesses. Speed is the key issue here and we all have nowhere near enough time to spend waiting for snail mail, faxes or emails. We want live communication and we want it yesterday!

What live communication setups are available today? Star Conferencing provides quality audio conferencing for businesses of all types and is available anytime and anywhere. Star Conferencing specializes in a variety of toll-free communications solutions, facilitating thousands of conference calls each year offering first-rate, cost-effective conference call services. Star Conferencing uses nothing but the latest technology and bridging systems to bring you high quality, cost-effective conference calls in order to meet and even exceed customers’ expectations.

Connect all your business associates together whether they are on a land line, cell phone or even a PC. Star Conferencing offers the complete communications package.

Affordable Audio and Web Conferencing Services

When it comes to business dealings in this day and age, technology must be at the forefront of the pivotal list of things required for each business. Most businesses now want things done lightning quick. Faxing and posting by mail is almost non-existent. Email, instant messaging, mobile phones and VOIP are the quickest and most effective ways for communicating live!

SaveOnConferences.com provides the best quality, the most reliable and ease of use service for conference calls. Whether it is a telephone conference call or if it is web conferencing you require,
SaveOnConferences.com is your source for audio and web conferencing.

You can trial SaveOnConferences.com’s services for 60 minutes worth of conference calls for free! Below is what is offered:

Whatever your conference requirements, we offer a service to meet your needs:

• Reservationless Dial-In : fully automated, available immediately
• Reservationless International Dial-In : International access
• Reservationless Dial-Out : fully automated, available immediately
• Reservationless Web Conference: fully automated, available immediately - FREE with conference calling. Attend a FREE Demo of our Web Conferencing service. It’s easy and free!
• WebEx^TMMeeting Center^TM: Share applications, documents - even your desktop with WebEx^TMMeeting Center^TM. Attend a FREE Demo of WebEx^TMMeeting Center^TM.

Some of our features include:

• Free Web Conferencing with each conference call (no downloads needed)
• Automatic Volume Discounts on Toll Free conference calls
• Pay only for what you use
• Flexible payment methods including company check
• Control your Audio Conference from your desktop
• 24/7 operator assistance
• Online account management
• Free signup - provide your contact and billing information and you’re ready to go
• … and much more

P potter is a fresh new yellow pages in town. It has more than 5 million business listings from various types of business like air conditioning, business to business, advertising agencies, business solutions, business consultants and other types of businesses.

They also have a section on labor organizations. Ppotter is committed to become the biggest business listing yellow pages providing free listings to businesses.