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    8 Dumb Things to NOT DO on the Job During the Holidays
    If you work in one of the majority of offices that sees extremely slow business and low productivity during the holiday season, it can be mighty tempting to ‘make use’ of all that downtime. But if you want to end up the year in good standing and shine in the new year, here are eight dumb things to not do while on the job during the holidays:1. Shop online: this might be the biggest temptation of them all. Maybe you have a much faster connection at work than at home and figure you’ll get your shopping done so much more quickly if you sneak it in between small projects or meetings at work. Don’t do it!2. Catch up with old friends via email or phone: probably the next biggest temptation you’ll have. You may feel that it’s a terrific use of quiet downtime at the office plus, hey, the calls are free! But these days many, if not most, employers are monitoring all your calls and emails in one way or another. Don’t do it!3. Compose your family’s annual letter: besides the fact
    won't want to be without are:

    Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org - Formerly Star Office, this open source application is the best rival to Microsoft Office. You can use it to do everything from convert your documents to PDF, to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. There's also a version for MAC, making this a must see application when you can't afford other expensive applications.

    Banana Cash Books - http://www.banana.ch/banana4/eng/bc4_cashbook.shtml - Although this single entry accounting program accepts just about any currency, if you want to use the accounting method the IRS recommends for small business, this nice little free program will definitely do the trick.

    7. Business Education.

    Once you have your business up and running, it's a good idea to stay up to date with your business and marketing knowledge.

    There are a lot of great ways to do this including forums, article directories, mailing lists, and newsletters.

    There are also some great resource heavy sites out there you can benefit from. Below are three of my favorites:

    My 1st Business - http://www.my1stbusiness.com - Run by Ben Botes, you'll find plenty of ecourses, seminars and more covering small business, ecommerce, marketing, and other topics. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free, and definitely worth a look.

    Free Marketing Resources - http://www.jdbmail.com/ - Run

    Market Your Business Free for Just $99.95
    Everywhere we go we see or hear the word 'free' attached to every label of every product or service. Yet, time has taught us that everything comes at a price and our minds are subconsciously programmed to steer-clear of the sinister that is called 'free'.Your email account is free online, your cell phone is free with your phone line subscription, your soft drink refills are free at any fast food restaurant, and even your wireless Internet access is free in most public places. But how much does 'free' really cost you?Considering that at least half of us wouldn't even bother purchasing many of these products if it weren't for the free added bonuses we receive, there would be a whole lot spent on 'free'. You may buy a $3 meal to get free refills with your soft drink, but there's only so much one person can drink at a time. So you end up returning to that place of business -- time and time again -- assuming you're the winner. In time, however, they'll make more than enough money off of the meals you pa
    So you want to start a business but you don't have a lot of money? Start your business online, and it won't be a problem.

    There are some pretty terrific resources you can use. Some of them you have to pay for, but they are inexpensive and can get you started quickly and easily.

    1. A domain and web hosting. If you want others to see you as a professional and take you seriously, then you need to invest in your own domain and web hosting.

    Purchased separately, the cost can add up very quickly. Here are some very low cost solutions to help you put your name on the map.

    Dot Easy - http://www.doteasy.com - For only $25 per year, you can purchase your own domain. The web hosting is completely free. Although this hosting account is stripped of all the bells and whistles like CGI, you still get 15MB of bannerless hosting for free, and if you build minisites, this is a really cheap way for you to get started. Buy a domain a month, and before you know it, you have your own empire of products set up for a lot less than if you had bought all of this separately.

    Go Daddy - http://www.godaddy.com - Although as far as I know they offer domain names for the cheapest price on the Internet at $6.95, their service is pretty good. I buy all of my domains here, and I've never had any problems.

    Free Web Space - http://100best-free-web-space.com/ - If money is a real problem right now, but you still want to make a good impression, then this site can help you find the most affordable web hosting or even bannerless hosting that's free.

    Remember, you get what you pay for, so eventually, when you can afford it, upgrade. There are some good budget web hosts out there like Dot Easy, but for the most part, you get what you pay for.

    2. Web Site Creation Tools.

    There are some fantastic tools on the Internet you can use to build your web site, and they're all free.

    Considered to be the best HTML editor online, Front Page 2000 will give you hundreds of scripts, as well as a free FTP client you can unzip into the directory and upload your files directly from the HTML editor.

    There are four different modes, including beginner and expert, so no matter what level at creating HTML you are, this free editor will definitely help you.

    You'll find it here: http://www.evrsoft.com.

    While you're there, make sure you check out the free metatag creator, as well as some of the other great free online tools you'll find there.

    3. Scripts.

    If you want to get the most from your web site, scripts will help you do this. You don't have to be an expert in installation either. You can quickly and easily learn how to install them. I taught myself from reading some of the webmaster sites online.

    You have two choices when it comes to installing scripts on your site:

    You can install them yourself, or you can use remotely hosted scripts. Remotely hosted scripts are great when you don't have a CGI bin on your site.

    This site is offering scripts for free: http://site-by-design.com/affiliates.php - Scripts include: Autoresponder Script, Fly-In Ads Script, Paid To Read Emails Script, Safelist Script, Rotator Script, Homepage Traffic Script. Definitely worth a look.

    Two resources that offer a wide variety of scripts in different formats are:

    http://www.cgiextremes.com/ http://www.hotscripts.com

    If you want remotely hosted scripts, the best sites I have found are:

    http://www.cgispy.com http://www.bravenet.com

    4. Autoresponders. Autoresponders will help you in two ways: you can use them for your opt in lists and ezines, and you can also use them to follow up with your customers.

    With opt in lists and ezines, an autoresponder will save you the trouble of handling subscribe and unsubscribe requests, which can become very tedious after awhile. This will allow you to automate the mundane part of building a relationship with your customers and newsletter subscribers, providing you with the credibility you need online to make the sale.

    Two sites that offer free autoresponders that are very reliable are: http://www.getresponse.com/ http://www.sendfree.com/

    Please note: when using free autoresponders, the site owner will send his/her ads with your messages. This is valuable message real estate. It's better to pay for your autoresponders, if possible, so that you can place your own ads in the headers and footers of all your messages.

    5. Online Tools.

    There is a whole host of online tools you can use to help you with your business including email formatters, newsletter formatters, sales letter and press release formatters, as well as wizards to help you build your web site.

    Below are some of the best:

    Pertinent Inc. - http://www.pertinent.com - Offers a free press release creator, as well as a sales letter generator.

    Free Online Wizards - http://www.thesitewizard.com/wizards/index.shtml - This site offers everything from a wizard to help you syndicate your content to form creators and drop down menu creators. Lots of tips and articles too.

    Email Formatter - http://www.formatit.com - Tired of getting emails with a ton of >>>>> in them? You can use this site to strip those tags out, as well as reformat your emails to any width. Great for formatting articles too.

    6. Business Software.

    You can find thousands of dollars in free software to help you build your business by searching through software sites online.

    My favorite is Freeware Home: http://www.freewarehome.com. You'll find over 7,000 applications at last count here, and they're all free, full sized versions of the program.

    Two applications you won't want to be without are:

    Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org - Formerly Star Office, this open source application is the best rival to Microsoft Office. You can use it to do everything from convert your documents to PDF, to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. There's also a version for MAC, making this a must see application when you can't afford other expensive applications.

    Banana Cash Books - http://www.banana.ch/banana4/eng/bc4_cashbook.shtml - Although this single entry accounting program accepts just about any currency, if you want to use the accounting method the IRS recommends for small business, this nice little free program will definitely do the trick.

    7. Business Education.

    Once you have your business up and running, it's a good idea to stay up to date with your business and marketing knowledge.

    There are a lot of great ways to do this including forums, article directories, mailing lists, and newsletters.

    There are also some great resource heavy sites out there you can benefit from. Below are three of my favorites:

    My 1st Business - http://www.my1stbusiness.com - Run by Ben Botes, you'll find plenty of ecourses, seminars and more covering small business, ecommerce, marketing, and other topics. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free, and definitely worth a look.

    Free Marketing Resources - http://www.jdbmail.com/ - Run

    Helping Mid-Life Employees Find Meaning
    People work to live, but most also live to work. A study on the meaning of work conducted back in 1987 revealed a strong attachment to work as a way of life. The study found that 86 percent of people would continue working even if they had enough money never to work another day. There could be no better indication that work is not simply a matter of putting food on the table, but is core to the being of most adults.Adults in mid-life in particular often find this sense of work as a central component of their lives under direct assault from a business culture that undervalues personal fulfillment as an essential driver of productivity.I believe the next wave of workforce management for enlightened corporations will be to focus on “softer” indicators of productivity. Fulfillment, meaning, satisfaction, and that intangible sense that the job is about more than a paycheck are what will make all workers, in particular those in mid-life, more productive.The alternative to paying attention to these issues is to suff
    l want to make a good impression, then this site can help you find the most affordable web hosting or even bannerless hosting that's free.

    Remember, you get what you pay for, so eventually, when you can afford it, upgrade. There are some good budget web hosts out there like Dot Easy, but for the most part, you get what you pay for.

    2. Web Site Creation Tools.

    There are some fantastic tools on the Internet you can use to build your web site, and they're all free.

    Considered to be the best HTML editor online, Front Page 2000 will give you hundreds of scripts, as well as a free FTP client you can unzip into the directory and upload your files directly from the HTML editor.

    There are four different modes, including beginner and expert, so no matter what level at creating HTML you are, this free editor will definitely help you.

    You'll find it here: http://www.evrsoft.com.

    While you're there, make sure you check out the free metatag creator, as well as some of the other great free online tools you'll find there.

    3. Scripts.

    If you want to get the most from your web site, scripts will help you do this. You don't have to be an expert in installation either. You can quickly and easily learn how to install them. I taught myself from reading some of the webmaster sites online.

    You have two choices when it comes to installing scripts on your site:

    You can install them yourself, or you can use remotely hosted scripts. Remotely hosted scripts are great when you don't have a CGI bin on your site.

    This site is offering scripts for free: http://site-by-design.com/affiliates.php - Scripts include: Autoresponder Script, Fly-In Ads Script, Paid To Read Emails Script, Safelist Script, Rotator Script, Homepage Traffic Script. Definitely worth a look.

    Two resources that offer a wide variety of scripts in different formats are:

    http://www.cgiextremes.com/ http://www.hotscripts.com

    If you want remotely hosted scripts, the best sites I have found are:

    http://www.cgispy.com http://www.bravenet.com

    4. Autoresponders. Autoresponders will help you in two ways: you can use them for your opt in lists and ezines, and you can also use them to follow up with your customers.

    With opt in lists and ezines, an autoresponder will save you the trouble of handling subscribe and unsubscribe requests, which can become very tedious after awhile. This will allow you to automate the mundane part of building a relationship with your customers and newsletter subscribers, providing you with the credibility you need online to make the sale.

    Two sites that offer free autoresponders that are very reliable are: http://www.getresponse.com/ http://www.sendfree.com/

    Please note: when using free autoresponders, the site owner will send his/her ads with your messages. This is valuable message real estate. It's better to pay for your autoresponders, if possible, so that you can place your own ads in the headers and footers of all your messages.

    5. Online Tools.

    There is a whole host of online tools you can use to help you with your business including email formatters, newsletter formatters, sales letter and press release formatters, as well as wizards to help you build your web site.

    Below are some of the best:

    Pertinent Inc. - http://www.pertinent.com - Offers a free press release creator, as well as a sales letter generator.

    Free Online Wizards - http://www.thesitewizard.com/wizards/index.shtml - This site offers everything from a wizard to help you syndicate your content to form creators and drop down menu creators. Lots of tips and articles too.

    Email Formatter - http://www.formatit.com - Tired of getting emails with a ton of >>>>> in them? You can use this site to strip those tags out, as well as reformat your emails to any width. Great for formatting articles too.

    6. Business Software.

    You can find thousands of dollars in free software to help you build your business by searching through software sites online.

    My favorite is Freeware Home: http://www.freewarehome.com. You'll find over 7,000 applications at last count here, and they're all free, full sized versions of the program.

    Two applications you won't want to be without are:

    Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org - Formerly Star Office, this open source application is the best rival to Microsoft Office. You can use it to do everything from convert your documents to PDF, to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. There's also a version for MAC, making this a must see application when you can't afford other expensive applications.

    Banana Cash Books - http://www.banana.ch/banana4/eng/bc4_cashbook.shtml - Although this single entry accounting program accepts just about any currency, if you want to use the accounting method the IRS recommends for small business, this nice little free program will definitely do the trick.

    7. Business Education.

    Once you have your business up and running, it's a good idea to stay up to date with your business and marketing knowledge.

    There are a lot of great ways to do this including forums, article directories, mailing lists, and newsletters.

    There are also some great resource heavy sites out there you can benefit from. Below are three of my favorites:

    My 1st Business - http://www.my1stbusiness.com - Run by Ben Botes, you'll find plenty of ecourses, seminars and more covering small business, ecommerce, marketing, and other topics. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free, and definitely worth a look.

    Free Marketing Resources - http://www.jdbmail.com/ - Run

    Why Having A Niche Automatically Boosts Your Credibility - Become The Expert by Getting Focused
    Yes, yes, we've heard it all before... loads of life coaches, consultants and therapists are struggling to make a decent living but still stick at it because they love their job.Want to know why nearly every coach or consultant out there will always struggle?...if you're one of them then you're not going to like this one little bit...It's a lack of CREDIBILITYBUT before you hit the DELETE key just bear with me...This lack of CREDIBILITY has a cause...lack of FOCUS.If I have a particular thing I'd like to improve in my life or business, wrongly or rightly, I will seek out and trust the advice of a SPECIALIST over a GENERALIST any day of the week.And that's the problem - LIFE, MARKETING and BUSINESS - is just too general.If you want to become truly attractive and have CREDIBILITY you need to stand for something. If you're a generic life coach then know this. People want to be able to turn to someone for a specific area of LIFE - this could be relationships, health, weal
    stall them yourself, or you can use remotely hosted scripts. Remotely hosted scripts are great when you don't have a CGI bin on your site.

    This site is offering scripts for free: http://site-by-design.com/affiliates.php - Scripts include: Autoresponder Script, Fly-In Ads Script, Paid To Read Emails Script, Safelist Script, Rotator Script, Homepage Traffic Script. Definitely worth a look.

    Two resources that offer a wide variety of scripts in different formats are:

    http://www.cgiextremes.com/ http://www.hotscripts.com

    If you want remotely hosted scripts, the best sites I have found are:

    http://www.cgispy.com http://www.bravenet.com

    4. Autoresponders. Autoresponders will help you in two ways: you can use them for your opt in lists and ezines, and you can also use them to follow up with your customers.

    With opt in lists and ezines, an autoresponder will save you the trouble of handling subscribe and unsubscribe requests, which can become very tedious after awhile. This will allow you to automate the mundane part of building a relationship with your customers and newsletter subscribers, providing you with the credibility you need online to make the sale.

    Two sites that offer free autoresponders that are very reliable are: http://www.getresponse.com/ http://www.sendfree.com/

    Please note: when using free autoresponders, the site owner will send his/her ads with your messages. This is valuable message real estate. It's better to pay for your autoresponders, if possible, so that you can place your own ads in the headers and footers of all your messages.

    5. Online Tools.

    There is a whole host of online tools you can use to help you with your business including email formatters, newsletter formatters, sales letter and press release formatters, as well as wizards to help you build your web site.

    Below are some of the best:

    Pertinent Inc. - http://www.pertinent.com - Offers a free press release creator, as well as a sales letter generator.

    Free Online Wizards - http://www.thesitewizard.com/wizards/index.shtml - This site offers everything from a wizard to help you syndicate your content to form creators and drop down menu creators. Lots of tips and articles too.

    Email Formatter - http://www.formatit.com - Tired of getting emails with a ton of >>>>> in them? You can use this site to strip those tags out, as well as reformat your emails to any width. Great for formatting articles too.

    6. Business Software.

    You can find thousands of dollars in free software to help you build your business by searching through software sites online.

    My favorite is Freeware Home: http://www.freewarehome.com. You'll find over 7,000 applications at last count here, and they're all free, full sized versions of the program.

    Two applications you won't want to be without are:

    Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org - Formerly Star Office, this open source application is the best rival to Microsoft Office. You can use it to do everything from convert your documents to PDF, to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. There's also a version for MAC, making this a must see application when you can't afford other expensive applications.

    Banana Cash Books - http://www.banana.ch/banana4/eng/bc4_cashbook.shtml - Although this single entry accounting program accepts just about any currency, if you want to use the accounting method the IRS recommends for small business, this nice little free program will definitely do the trick.

    7. Business Education.

    Once you have your business up and running, it's a good idea to stay up to date with your business and marketing knowledge.

    There are a lot of great ways to do this including forums, article directories, mailing lists, and newsletters.

    There are also some great resource heavy sites out there you can benefit from. Below are three of my favorites:

    My 1st Business - http://www.my1stbusiness.com - Run by Ben Botes, you'll find plenty of ecourses, seminars and more covering small business, ecommerce, marketing, and other topics. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free, and definitely worth a look.

    Free Marketing Resources - http://www.jdbmail.com/ - Run

    The Six Sigma Approach
    To put it in layman language, the Six Sigma proposition is all about improving capabilities of business process to such an extent that there in no margin for poor quality. Customers value unswerving, consistent, predictable and world-class quality from a product or service. More often than not however, businesses measure their performance on averages and average-based measures of the recent past. With a Six Sigma approach the organization ensures that the customers are not presented with a variant experience of the service or product every time. The idea is to reduce variation and improve business processes to such an extent that customers are delighted with the consistency of the product or service quality.The Six Sigma approach recognizes and eliminates defects through a structured, data driven, problem solving method by using painstakingly collected data which is further subjected to statistical analysis. Quantitatively, a Six Sigma approach means fewer than 3.4 defects per million opportunities, where an opportunity i
    messages. This is valuable message real estate. It's better to pay for your autoresponders, if possible, so that you can place your own ads in the headers and footers of all your messages.

    5. Online Tools.

    There is a whole host of online tools you can use to help you with your business including email formatters, newsletter formatters, sales letter and press release formatters, as well as wizards to help you build your web site.

    Below are some of the best:

    Pertinent Inc. - http://www.pertinent.com - Offers a free press release creator, as well as a sales letter generator.

    Free Online Wizards - http://www.thesitewizard.com/wizards/index.shtml - This site offers everything from a wizard to help you syndicate your content to form creators and drop down menu creators. Lots of tips and articles too.

    Email Formatter - http://www.formatit.com - Tired of getting emails with a ton of >>>>> in them? You can use this site to strip those tags out, as well as reformat your emails to any width. Great for formatting articles too.

    6. Business Software.

    You can find thousands of dollars in free software to help you build your business by searching through software sites online.

    My favorite is Freeware Home: http://www.freewarehome.com. You'll find over 7,000 applications at last count here, and they're all free, full sized versions of the program.

    Two applications you won't want to be without are:

    Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org - Formerly Star Office, this open source application is the best rival to Microsoft Office. You can use it to do everything from convert your documents to PDF, to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. There's also a version for MAC, making this a must see application when you can't afford other expensive applications.

    Banana Cash Books - http://www.banana.ch/banana4/eng/bc4_cashbook.shtml - Although this single entry accounting program accepts just about any currency, if you want to use the accounting method the IRS recommends for small business, this nice little free program will definitely do the trick.

    7. Business Education.

    Once you have your business up and running, it's a good idea to stay up to date with your business and marketing knowledge.

    There are a lot of great ways to do this including forums, article directories, mailing lists, and newsletters.

    There are also some great resource heavy sites out there you can benefit from. Below are three of my favorites:

    My 1st Business - http://www.my1stbusiness.com - Run by Ben Botes, you'll find plenty of ecourses, seminars and more covering small business, ecommerce, marketing, and other topics. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free, and definitely worth a look.

    Free Marketing Resources - http://www.jdbmail.com/ - Run

    Making Your Pages Look Good - How to Use The Right Typeface the Right Way
    Good typography is an art. There is a lot to know about type, from typeface design, to using appropriate typefaces, to learning typesetting rules and conventions. How you use type has everything to do with how your pages communicate and engage the reader. I could write about type for the rest of the year and still have more to tell you.As computers have rapidly taken over the task of typesetting, everyone, including the designer, has had to learn typesetting rules and conventions in order for their printed work to look its best and draw readers in. And now the World Wide Web has come along to challenge all of it. I don't think there will ever be a time when I feel like I know all there is to know about type.In his book, Using Type Right, author Philip Brady writes "Designing with type means controlling all the visual signals so how a typeset piece looks reinforces what it says." The typeface chosen; the size of type; placement on the page; letter, word, line and paragraph spacing; white space; type and page c
    won't want to be without are:

    Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org - Formerly Star Office, this open source application is the best rival to Microsoft Office. You can use it to do everything from convert your documents to PDF, to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. There's also a version for MAC, making this a must see application when you can't afford other expensive applications.

    Banana Cash Books - http://www.banana.ch/banana4/eng/bc4_cashbook.shtml - Although this single entry accounting program accepts just about any currency, if you want to use the accounting method the IRS recommends for small business, this nice little free program will definitely do the trick.

    7. Business Education.

    Once you have your business up and running, it's a good idea to stay up to date with your business and marketing knowledge.

    There are a lot of great ways to do this including forums, article directories, mailing lists, and newsletters.

    There are also some great resource heavy sites out there you can benefit from. Below are three of my favorites:

    My 1st Business - http://www.my1stbusiness.com - Run by Ben Botes, you'll find plenty of ecourses, seminars and more covering small business, ecommerce, marketing, and other topics. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free, and definitely worth a look.

    Free Marketing Resources - http://www.jdbmail.com/ - Run by Jimmy D. Brown, one of my all time favorite marketers, and quite frankly, one of the best, you'll find audio, ecourses, and other resources in plain English that can teach you how to market online. Jimmy doesn't just teach you what to do; he shows you how to do it, and he spells it out. It doesn't matter if you are a complete newbie, or if you have been marketing for some time. You'll benefit from Jimmy's excellent teaching.

    Ebook Directory - http://www.ebookdirectory.com - Run by Noel Hynes, this is the most comprehensive collection of small business and Internet marketing ebooks on the Internet, and they're absolutely free. You'll also find plenty of other ebooks here including motivational, writing, and a whole lot more.

    There are plenty of free resources on the Internet to help you build your business. The trick is learning when you should buy products and services for your business and when you can get a freebie that will do the job just as well and sometimes better.

    A quick search of Alexa, http://www.alexa.com, will help you find some of the best.

    HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
    <a href="http://www.addyou.info/article/43937/addyou-7-Essentinal-Resources-for-Small-Business.html">7 Essentinal Resources for Small Business</a>

    BB link (for phorums):
    [url=http://www.addyou.info/article/43937/addyou-7-Essentinal-Resources-for-Small-Business.html]7 Essentinal Resources for Small Business[/url]

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