First, a reminder… Don’t forget to organize all your “G” files today (as described in the Alphabet Strategy post a few days ago).   Now on to our next letter…

Dec 7.  “G” is for Google Alerts…

Google Alerts is an amazing Free Tool that uses the power of the Google search engine to watch 24/7 for information that is of value and importance to you.

How much would it cost to have an employee search the Internet continuously for new information related to your business? Google Alerts will do it for free and never whines or asks for a personal day off… 

Here are some uses where you can setup Google Alerts:

Here is a link to a simple two-page step-by-step instructions I put together on how to setup Google Alerts so you can put the power of the Google Spiders to work for your business…

Google Alerts Action Instructions…

Everyone go there now and setup a Google Alert on the term “Kevin Hogan” and also on your own name, and one keyword topic of interest to you. Do it now and you’ll see how this amazing tool can help you…

Next, we will move to “H” and we will be discussing the how you can use “Habits” are vital to your business and personal success…

First, a reminder… Don’t forget to organize all your “E” files today (as described in the Alphabet Strategy post a few days ago).   Now on to our next letter…

Dec 5.  “E” is for E-Mail

E-Mail (or electronic mail) is both a blessing and a curse.  It is a fast, free way to send even large amounts of information around the world at the click of a button.  The fact that it is so fast and cheap has led to rapid increases in the amount of “spam” (unsolicited commercial email) clogging up our inbox and wasting millions of hours of productivity.

Here are my most important tips regarding email…

1. Check it at certain times during the day, and do not be a slave to email.  (Unless your job is to respond to emails in realtime).  I find that checking every couple of hours is fine, and it allows me to get uninterrupted blocks of 90+ minutes to actually get work done.
2. DO NOT check e-mail as your first priority in the morning.  We will be discussing this a bit more in a future Alphabet post, but you should not let your first thing in the morning be something that you are reacting to.  Email is usually reactive.  I like to have at least 45 minutes worth of pro-active work done before I open the e-mail up.  And you should decide what this task will be the night before.
3. Have a junk e-mail account that you can use when signing up for stuff that requires an e-mail address but that is not vital, core information.  Then check that once a day or every couple of days, this keeps from clogging up your primary account.
4. Get a gmail account, they do a nice job of removing spam, and this is a great way to manage google alerts as discussed in an earlier post… The Power of the Spider…Google Alerts
5. This is a key point…DO NOT use your Inbox as a place to store things. You want to try to end every day with your Inbox empty.  You need to create Folders that you move things into to get them out of your inbox and into places where you can access the files.  I have several… Action (means I need to do something with the file), Print (means I need to print, or download when I get a chance), Waiting (means I am waiting for something else to happen before I can take action), Read/Review (means I need to read or review when I get a chance).  When something comes into my Inbox it gets put into one of these folders and I work from the Action folder when I am doing e-Mail stuff a couple of times a day.
6. Have a good folder system for filing away emails that you might need in the future, and put things in their proper places as soon as they are no longer Action items…
7. Try to respond quickly to email where possible, a quick short reply is often much better than the long delayed one.  Be smart about this but not everything requires a lot of thinking about it.
8. Acknowledge receipt of emails with a terse note at least so that people know you received it and appreciated it.
9. Use e-Mail effectively in your marketing.  It is a killer tool.  I will talk more on this in a future post about Autoresponders…

 Tomorrow, we will move to “F” and we will be discussing the greatest of all the F words… “Family and Friends”…

First, a reminder… Don’t forget to organize all your “B” files today (as described in the Alphabet Strategy post a few days ago).   Now on to our next letter…

Dec 2.  “B” is for Backup

In most businesses today, there are so many files on our computers that represent hundreds or even thousands of hours of effort.  In some cases, the information is simply irreplaceable. 

If you have ever looked at the insides of a hard disk, you know that they are very complicated mechanical devices.  They are also very reliable but “very” is not the same as “100%”.

That is why you must have a BACKUP strategy that protects this very valuable asset.  The first step in my opinion is to make a list of all the information that is on your computer that needs to be preserved…

A side note, I NEVER let my family (or anyone) touch my work computer, even for a quick search.  There is too much danger of an inadvertent spill or accident– and the resulting loss of data.  Or they could pickup a virus.  They all have access to their own computers so there is no reason to use mine.  I explained why this is the case to them a long time ago and it is just a rule. 

My list includes:

§       password data (saved in Roboform files)

§       contacts list and notes (in Act)

§       financial records (Quicken files and spreadsheets)

§       e-Mail files (Outlook files)

§       Spreadsheets (Excel spreadsheets)

§       Websites (XSitePro files)

§       Word documents (including Corporate veil Pro)

§       Audio recordings (Corporate Veil Pro, and Bold Calling, assorted other MP3s)

§       Photographs (family and business)

§       Videos (testimonials)

§       Etc…

You should do this list to wake yourself up to the danger that you are in if that $100 hard drive decides that it is tired and wants to retire…

There are several good ways to backup your system, and it is beyond the scope of this post to give you specific advice.  I know that a lot of people like to use off-site backups from people like Carbonite which offers a popular $50 a year service with a Free Trial Offer. 

They keep track of all the changes on your computer so that it can quickly back everything up.  ( I have signed up for their affiliate program and I will change the above to an affiliate link as soon as I am approved, but don’t let that stop you from clicking on the above now, and starting your free trial, this is too important to wait).

Other people get external hard drives (like the Iomega Prestige 1 TeraByte Ext Hard Drive) and just backup their information locally, either by selecting the files to backup manually or using a software program.  It is your choice, but do something now to get your most vital data to a safe place.

As part of the Asset Defenses line of information products, I plan to add a product on Laptop and Computer Security for the small business owner in the next 3 months… I will interview experts and give more detailed advice at that time…   What are your thoughts on this?

Tomorrow, we will move to “C” and we will be discussing “Cashflow”…

How many letters are there in the alphabet?

How many days are there in a month?

What I like to do every December is go through all of my customer files and clean them up, and make sure that I haven’t left anything to be handled heading into the New Year.

Monday is December 1^st and I have developed this simple strategy that I call the Alphabet Strategy to break this project into smaller chunks and get it done.  Here’s how it works:

On Dec 1, I work on my customer files that start with an “A” and I go through each one looking for papers that I can throw away and I make a small one or two line comment about the customer in my ACT database about my plans for the new year.  I also go through my Outlook email files and clean up all the “A” customers there….

On Dec 2, I work on the “B” customers.

On Dec 3, I work on the “C” customers.

And I do this every day until I hit Dec 26^th and finish off the “Z” customers.  (Actually I usually do the X, Y and Z customers all on the 23^rd and I am done for the year at that point.

And yes, I do this on Saturdays and Sundays too… If I want a day off, I do the extra days on the day before I want to take off.  Some of the letters are pretty sparse anyway and it is easier to get ahead… 

Then on the last four days for the year, I have another strategy that helps me prepare for the new year which I’ll talk about in a week or two…

This Alphabet Strategy can be used for many other things as well, just think about what you need to “chunk” into smaller pieces and assign yourself one chunk a day… and then do it. 

Seize the Day,

Rob Northrup

Is Your Corporation Protecting You?

There was a job opening for a new lumberjack and there were two candidates for the position…

Both men had almost identical resumes, with identical experience, and identical references…

The lumberjack boss didn’t know what to do, so he hatched a plan…

The boss said, “Both of you report to the woods at 6am tomorrow morning and we’ll have a contest, the one of you that fells the most trees and splits it into cord wood will win the job”…

The day arrived and the two lumberjacks—one all muscle and brawn, the other a bit smaller were set to work in adjacent parts of the forest.  At 6am the boss fired a starting shot and both men started to work, and work and work…

The contest was set to run for eight hours and give each man a fair chance to show his strength and endurance.  At the end of the eight hours the size of the wood piles would be measured and a winner given the coveted job…

All day long the men cut and cut and cut at a furious pace until the clock struck 2pm and the ending shot was fired to signify that the contest was over.

The boss went to the first pile and measured out “25 and a half cords!”, an amazing production for one man in only eight hours…

They went together to the second smaller man’s pile and the boss measured it and found it was an amazing “27 cords! You are the winner!”. 

The first lumberjack went ballistic and accused the man of cheating, and getting help.  “I was in the forest next to him and I didn’t stop a single time for all eight hours, and this guy took a break every hour or so for five minutes or more.  There is no way he beat me taking all those breaks”…

The winning lumberjack said, “I don’t know what breaks you are talking about, but I did stop every hour or so when my axe got dull, and I sharpened my axe”…

I am in St Louis for a four day weekend to sharpen my axe and immerse myself into the world of Sales and Marketing at the Dan Kennedy summit.  As I said previously, this next four years I am choosing to vote for myself.  I can make more difference in my life than any politician.  And I recommend that all business owners should take some time to “sharpen the axe”—its not all about brute force and hours, effectiveness and productivity are critical too…

Find time to sharpen your axe, even if it is just reading a good non-fiction book or listening to a tape set on personal development…

Google Alerts is an amazing Free Tool that uses the power of the Google search engine to watch 24/7 for information that is of value and importance to you.

How much would it cost to have an employee search the Internet continuously for new information related to your business? Google Alerts will do it for free and never whines or asks for a personal day off…

Here are some uses where you can setup Google Alerts:

□   your competitors company names

□   your own company to see if anything is being written about you

□   your own name

□   keyword searches on things related to your business (ie: “solar energy tips” or “municipal waste”, etc).

□   keyword searches on things you are researching (ie: “numerology” or “sales leadership”, etc.)

Here is a link to a simple two-page description of how to setup Google Alerts so you can put the power of the Google Spiders to work for your business…

Google Alerts Action Instructions…

Everyone go there now and setup a Google Alert on the term “Kevin Hogan” and also on your own name, and one keyword topic of interest to you. Do it now and you’ll see how this amazing tool can help you…

Seize the Spider,  Rob

PS: DO NOT INSTALL INTERNET EXPLORER 8 BETA VERSION, It is very buggy and it took me two hours to get rid of it…