Small Office, Home Office Information

Here is a excerpt taken from a press release that hit my inbox today. I’m not sure that this idea is going to work for everyone - in fact I’m not sure that it is going to work for very many people at all but anything that challenges you to think is worth looking at.

One thing I definitely don’t agree with is something that Joe says in his introduction (and I elected not to post the introduction) and that is:

Forget about blogs. They’re so 2004.

Nice hype Joe but blogs are not a thing of the past and that line almost made me hit the delete button before I finished reading the rest of your message.

Working in his small home office over the garage, Joe Chapuis knows the next big thing is upon us. Internet video has arrived, and it presents the opportunity of a lifetime - especially for the little guy.

For less than $2,000, Joe Chapuis has built a mini-studio at home where where he produces his new video newsletter for entrepreneurs and small business owners, The HotBizz Report His topics include ecommerce, internet marketing and inspirational success stories.

“It’s amazing. Just a few years ago, this would have been nearly impossible,” he says. “Now, anyone with a decent camera and the right software can brodcast digital-quality video to millions of people around the world.”

Using a $650 digital camcorder, and several low-budget software programs for video production and editing, Chapuis produces two 3-4 minute video shows each week. His only other overhead cost is for web hosting. “I’ve got a dedicated server that runs me $99 month,” he adds, “But I’ll probably have to upgrade to a more expensive package to handle the increased bandwidth usage as my audience grows.”

However, the fact that anyone can now create their own home-grown video show for global distribution doesn’t mean that every production is going to find a sizable audience. “The number of vloggers is growing daily,” he says. “People aren’t going to waste precious time watching your show just because it’s there.” He adds, “The content has to be good if you want to stand out from the crowd and make a name for yourself.”

Printing And Design Online (http://www.printinganddesignonline.com), an online color offset printing company, has created Printing and Design 101 (http://www.printinganddesign101.com), a graphic design and commercial printing online guide to the best printing on the web.

The free site assists individuals interested in learning to design their own commercial print projects. A design-it-yourself section highlights free template software available through the Ultra Design Studio and teaches new designers what they need to know to submit files for commercial printing.

The site addresses the growing need that small and mid-sized businesses have to create professional looking pieces without spending additional funds on graphic design services. With the advent of desktop publishing the commercial printing world has become more confusing than ever and Printing and Design 101 can help by giving individuals the tools they need.

In addition to software and template resources, the site features a FAQ section that provides answers to the most common design questions and is updated frequently as new questions arise.

Common questions include dealing with rgb and cmyk color spaces, resolution settings for photographs, and which software is best for designing. The Hot Topic section features an in-depth look into a new topic of interest and visitors are always welcome to submit design questions for inclusion in the online guide. Visitors are also welcome to sign up for the free newsletter that highlights popular design questions, discusses new developments, and lists current sales on print products.

Printing and Design 101 is a service of Printing And Design Online, a fully automated, state-of-the-art printing facility located in Southern California with administrative and customer service offices in Florida.

CONDOLEEZA RICE SYNDROME ALIVE AND WELL IN AUSTRALIA

Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor, US maintains that President George W Bush is her work husband. In response to this statement, research conducted by LinkMe.com.au , Australia’s first peer driven online career networking site shows that 17% of Australians also boast work husbands/wives.

One quarter of all CEO’s who contributed to this research said they have a work partner, married in all but name and physical relationship, someone who supported them through all the trials and tribulations of daily working life, who bolstered them through the tough times, leant a shoulder to cry on during times of emotional upheaval and conversely who leapt for joy when the good times rolled.

Most real life partners tend to be ok knowing that their spouse has a work husband/wife, but some says it’s bothersome, awkward and weird.

Mr Glyn Brokensha of LinkMe.com.au says women are more likely to feel bothered by the fact that their husband has a supporter at work whilst men are more trusting with most saying they feel ok about this professional relationship.

“Interestingly enough, only 13% of both males and females said this work partnership would last beyond their current jobs, although 18% of CEO’s said they believed their relationships would continue beyond this job and the next”.

A recent survey here in Australia asked 520 people if they worked for an arrogant, incompetent or sexist boss and 82% agreed that they did.

Other comments about people in charge were that they:

Never gave positive feedback

Where critical of employees

Judgmental

Sexist

Inflexible

As a spokesman for LinkMe - the company that carried out the survey concludes:

If bosses expect people to want to work for them, let alone remain loyal to the company, then they need to check their attitude and behaviour at the office.

What message does your small business logo - or the sign outside your business - send. Is it effective, does it say too little or does it say too much?

You will find some interesting thoughts about small business logos here at Duct Tape Marketing

Sometimes you just have to wonder about luck. Today we’re off to Brisbane and back again so that Toni can have another appointment with her endocrinologist to make sure that she is recovering from the illness that really did bring her much closer to death than either of us ever want to be.

Travelling is good because it means that she will have to sit for around six hours. And she needs to sit because last Friday she broke two toes as she tried to avoid a very large spider that was trying to escape by running between her feet.

The broken toes are the two smallest ones on her left foot and there is nothing that can be done to make them heal faster or ease the pain and swelling except resting.

That was a bit hard to do because over Christmas and right up until today we had a house full of guests and Toni is one of those who can’t sit back and let others do the work.

The other good thing about the trip is that it will take us away from our computers and telephones and shut us away from the world for long enough to chat about where we want our business to go in the coming year. That was something that we tried to do while the guests were around but never quite managed to achieve.

There are a suprising number of small businesses here in Australia who earn the majority of their income overseas … and particularly in US Dollars. In the small town where we live there are at least five or six that we know of.

Since 2001 our income levels have been slowly eroding because of the value of the Aussie dollar compared to the US dollar and at last we have some good news. Here is a quote from something I wrote in another place.

If you’re one of the many people in Australia who live here but earn their income overseas this last week or so has brought some wonderful news.

The Aussie dollar is beginning to drop in value against the US dollar.

For those of you who don’t earn your income overseas that news is not a cause for panic - the impact on you will hardly be noticeable - but for those of us who have watched our income slide by almost 60 per cent as the Aussie dollar has continued to gain in value the news is wonderful.

You can read more here

Toni and I were challenged the other day by a post on on Darren Rowse’s blog, Problogger

The post was a reflection by Darren on the way Problogger had gone for him during 2005 and I’m sure it will give you some food for thought too.

Problogger is just one of Darren’s blogs. The others earn him a six figure sum each year but Problogger earns him hardly anything. To make matters worse it is the blog that takes up most of his time.

Now you and I might think that a project like Problogger would deliver a very poor return on our investment of time and effort and we would probably kill it fairly quickly but Darren is not like the rest of us.

Instead he sees Problogger as an investment in the future because, through Problogger, he has managed to establish himself as a person who is obviously very talented in his chosen field. By establishing that he has been able to open up some great opportunities that he sees as being very lucrative in the year ahead.

I wonder how many of us are prepared to think that far ahead?

Well, to start 2006 off on the right foot let me share with you this lesson about branding. It all started when one guy in an industry with a bad reputation wanted to branch out into franchising.

You can read about it right here