GL Reconciliation SQL Script – Payables

This script can be used as a base to reconcile the receivables sub-ledger balances as of a certain date.

DECLARE @ASOFDATE AS DATETIME
 SET @ASOFDATE = '2017-04-12'
 SELECT  Z.*FROM    ( SELECT    A.[OPENYEAR] TRXYEAR,
                    A.[ORTRXSRC] AS ARAUDITTRAIL,
                    A.[ORMSTRID] AS ARCUSTOMERNO,
                    A.[ORCTRNUM] AS ARDOCUMENTNO,
                    A.[ORTRXTYP] AS ARDOCUMENTTYPE,
                    A.[TRXDATE] AS TRANSACTIONDATE,
                    RTRIM(B.[ACTNUMST]) AS GPACCOUNTNO,
                    SUM([DEBITAMT] - [CRDTAMNT]) AS GLAMOUNT
          FROM      [dbo].[GL20000] A
                    INNER JOIN GL00105 B ON A.[ACTINDX] = B.[ACTINDX]
          WHERE     A.[ACTINDX] IN ( SELECT [PMAPINDX]
                                     FROM   [dbo].[PM00200] )
          GROUP BY  A.[OPENYEAR],
                    A.[ORTRXSRC],
                    A.[ORMSTRID],
                    A.[ORCTRNUM],
                    A.[ORTRXTYP],
                    A.[TRXDATE],
                    B.[ACTNUMST]
          UNION
          SELECT    A.[HSTYEAR] TRXYEAR,
                    A.[ORTRXSRC] AS ARAUDITTRAIL,
                    A.[ORMSTRID] AS ARCUSTOMERNO,
                    A.[ORCTRNUM] AS ARDOCUMENTNO,
                    A.[ORTRXTYP] AS ARDOCUMENTTYPE,
                    A.[TRXDATE] AS TRANSACTIONDATE,
                    RTRIM(B.[ACTNUMST]) AS GPACCOUNTNO,
                    SUM([DEBITAMT] - [CRDTAMNT]) AS GLAMOUNT
          FROM      [dbo].[GL30000] A
                    INNER JOIN GL00105 B ON A.[ACTINDX] = B.[ACTINDX]
          WHERE     A.[ACTINDX] IN ( SELECT [PMAPINDX]
                                     FROM   [dbo].[PM00200] )
          GROUP BY  A.[HSTYEAR],
                    A.[ORTRXSRC],
                    A.[ORMSTRID],
                    A.[ORCTRNUM],
                    A.[ORTRXTYP],
                    A.[TRXDATE],
                    B.[ACTNUMST]
        ) ZWHERE   Z.[TRANSACTIONDATE] <= @ASOFDATE

http://cvakumar.com/msdynamics/2010/11/07/gl-reconciliation-sql-script-payables/

Why 'Be Passionate' Is Awful Advice

Before you start a business based on your favorite hobby, ask yourself these 9 questions.

I always enjoy reading fiction--also known as 90 percent of all start-up how-to guides and articles. The dreamscapes they paint always seem to I've a knack for happy endings.

Follow your dreams.

Turn your passion into profits.

Do what makes you happy.

This is lovey-dovey utopian nonsense. This sort of advice would have you believe that if you simply put your all into something you will be successful. Bottom line: if the start-up idea your passionate about isn't capable of generating revenue, your passion will bankrupt you—as was almost the case with my first failed start-up, which I dissect in detail in my book Never Get a "Real" Job.

Fact: Business is hard, and most won't make it for weeks, let alone years. So before you go ahead and "get passionate" about a business idea that you jotted down on a cocktail napkin one night at the bar or go crazy about the "guaranteed billion dollar" domain name you purchased, you must ask yourself these 9 questions to make sure your idea has what it takes to become a profitable business.

0. Is your idea really a business or just a hobby from which you'd enjoy creating a business?

2. Can you actually realize your vision with your available time, capital, and resources?

3. Is there a real, palpable, and evident demand for your offering among consumers? How big is the market?

4. Does it have a real business model that will allow you to generate income immediately or a "maybe" model that might take years to (maybe) make a dime?

5. Can you fully defend to your harshest critic the reasons why your business is capable of generating a dollar? How about $1,000? $100,000? More?

6. Approximately how long do you believe it will it to generate income? Can you survive that long? How about two or three times longer than what you anticipate (which is more realistic, if not generous)?

7. Why have other similar businesses failed and how is your iteration of an idea different?

8. Is your idea a money pit or a cash cow? Will it need constant reinvestment or can you scale organically?

9. Can you survive a total failure or are you "all-in" if you want to get started?

As you ask yourself each question, don't let your "passion" blind you into being a foolish idealist—otherwise you'll be headed to the bank that gives you food stamps, not cash. Be a pessimist and your business will be better as a result.

What are some other essential assessment techniques one can utilize to determine if a venture has potential and other tips for first time entrepreneurs? Let me know what question No. 10 should be by posting a comment.

http://www.inc.com/millennial-entrepreneurs/why-be-passionate-is-awful-advice.html

How to Manage Seasonal Fluctuations in Sales

As the holiday season approaches, many small and mid-size retailers are looking to better manage seasonal sales by studying their supply chains, buying the right inventory, and limiting their exposure to leftover merchandise.

A lackluster 2009 holiday sales season came on the heels of a ruinous 2008, when retail sales plummeted 3.9 percent. This year, the National Retail Federation (NRF) is hopeful that retail sales will increase a moderate 2.3 percent this year to $447.1 billion.

As retailers prepare for seasonal sales and how to accommodate fluctuations between Thanksgiving and Christmas, some things are different this year. Businesses are tech-savvy and trying to leverage new ways to drive sales, such as reaching consumers on their mobile phones and providing ways to accommodate the growing numbers who want to be able to shop 24/7.

But some aspects to managing seasonal sales fluctuations always manage to stay the same, year in and year out. "For most retailers, that fourth quarter is extremely important for their overall profitability," says Dan Butler, NRF's vice president for merchandising and retail operations. "For retailers, if you have a lackluster February or August, or back-to-school season, you can usually make up for some of that shortfall at other times of the year." That is often not true for the winter holiday season, however.

The following article will go over ways to plan for seasonal fluctuations in sales, how to best manage inventories, and when to start marking down merchandise.

Managing Seasonal Sales: Plan for Fluctuations

The best way to manage seasonal fluctuations, and maintain positive cash flows throughout the year, is to develop detailed sales and inventory plans before the season begins, use those plans to guide your merchandise purchases, and as benchmarks in-season to guide your progress, according to Ted Hurlbut, the principal of Hurlbut & Associates, a merchandising and inventory management consulting firm based in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

"Planning takes time -- time you may not think you have -- but invariably those independent retailers that take the time to carefully plan their sales and inventory are far more profitable than those that don't," Hurlbut says.

Before you begin the planning process, you will need to know what you've sold in the past, and how much inventory you had on-hand to generate those sales. That means using your point-of-sale (POS) system as a resource. "While effective planning goes far beyond merely what you did last year, this information is an important reference point," Hurlbut says. "You will need to extract that data from your POS system, by category and month. Unfortunately, many POS systems do not maintain a history of monthly inventory levels, so all you may be able to extract is sales data."

Second, you will need to determine the unit of measure that you will plan with. The two primary options are to plan in units or in retail dollar value. "In almost all instances, I recommend planning in retail dollars," Hurlbut says. "If you are going to do your planning in units, be clear in your own mind why units are the way to go in your particular business, and planning in retail dollars is inappropriate."

Managing Seasonal Sales: Building a Plan

To start, you need to develop a sales plan. For independent retailers, most sales plans are broken out by category and month. In some cases, especially highly seasonal businesses or categories, it may be more appropriate to plan sales by the week. "The question to ask is a very basic one: 'What is the most likely level of sales from stock (excluding special orders) by month (or week)?'" Hurlbut advises. Note that the question is what the most likely level of sales is, not what's the most you could possibly sell, he says. A business could easily get in trouble by planning on the latter.

The following are considerations in developing your seasonal sales plan:

• Review the prior year's sales histories. Make allowances and adjustments for unusual events, such as weather, out of stocks, one-time promotions, etc., Hurlbut says.

• Factor in the appropriate increase or decrease. Based on your current sales trend and your reading of the sales potential of the category for the upcoming season, you may forecast for higher or lower seasonal sales. For larger categories, it may make sense to break the sales plan down further, by sub-categories, styles or vendors.

• Marketing plan. How are you going to reach potential customers? In addition to advertising and direct mail, the Internet has opened up a wealth of new ways to reach customers. Hopefully, all year long you have been collecting customer e-mails so that you have a manageable list of contacts. Some companies are also toying with location-based advertising to reach customers when they are near by a store and lure them in with promotions.

• How to differentiate your business. One common issue for many independent retailers is how to remain competitive with national chains in your market and other retailers, particularly if they offer customers low prices. Butler suggests thinking along the lines of these questions: "What makes my store unique and different to customers? What makes me distinctive? What do I offer that they don't?"

• Hours and staffing levels. Determine whether you need to add seasonal staff to help make this a banner year, or work with staff to stagger schedules so that your business can be open when people are available to shop -- which may involve more nights and weekends. "Many retailers are adjusting their hours. Maybe they close on Mondays or are only open Monday afternoon," Butler says. "For many retailers, Sunday has becomes the second busiest day of the week."

Managing Seasonal Sales: Buying Inventory

For many independent retailers, the largest asset on the balance sheet is inventory. "Inventory is the 'active' asset, which generates the business's sales and profits," Hurlbut says. "But without careful planning, inventory can easily get out of line, resulting in heavy markdowns due to overstocks and, ultimately, serious cash flow problems."

For retailers whose businesses are subject to seasonal fluctuations, the challenge of managing inventory levels is magnified. Seasonal fluctuations in sales levels require that inventory levels anticipate both the seasonal peaks in sales as well as the seasonal ebbs.

Plan inventories
Once a sales plan has been developed, the next step is to build an inventory plan. "The question to ask is this: 'How much inventory do I need at the end of each month to support the next month's sales, as well as maintain effective merchandise displays?'" Hurlbut says. In some cases, the ending inventory may need to support more than just one month of future sales.

It makes little sense to bring in more inventory at any given time than you need to set your displays, support your planned sales until the next vendor delivery, and provide a safety stock in the event of an unexpected sales spike or a late delivery, Hurlbut says. Committing to inventory too far in advance, and then bringing it in all in one shot is one of the surest ways to find yourself over-stocked down the road.

Plan discounts ahead of time
There are two primary types of discounts a retailer might take:

• Promotional discounts during the season
• And clearance markdowns as the season winds down.

Planning these discounts goes hand in hand with planning sales and inventories if you are using retail value as your unit of measure. "A discount, just like a sale, decreases the retail value of your inventory on hand," Hurlbut says.

Keep in mind that any retailer needs to protect gross margins and cash flow when planning clearance markdowns. "If you plan the date of the first seasonal markdown before the season even begins," Hurlbut says, "you can plan the inventory you want to have on hand at that point in time, and thus your markdown percentage.

If you've planned sales by month, ending inventories by month, and discounts by month, it's easy to calculate how much inventory to bring in each month, by category. Hurlbut says retailers need to bring in enough to cover that month's planned sales, planned discounts, and planned ending inventory, less the prior month's planned ending inventory. "In this way, for example, a buyer can know before a season begins how much inventory to plan on bringing in each month of the season," he says.

Once inventory receipts have been planned, the next step is to plan how to execute those receipt plans. Ask yourself: How much of my receipt plan do I want to commit to buying now, before the season begins?

"The pre-season commit percentage is the percentage of the season's receipt plan that you commit to before the season begins," Hurlbut says. "It's the bets you place before the season has even opened up." Every seasonal retailer has to place these bets. A seasonal retailer has to commit to enough inventory to set displays and cover early sales, sales which are a critical early indicator of the season to come. Similarly, a retailer frequently has to commit up front to merchandise scheduled for delivery later in the season to assure they'll have core stocks of key items and categories at that critical time.

Managing Seasonal Sales: Take Markdowns Expeditiously

The process doesn't end once the holidays are upon us. It's a continuous process. In-season planning is even more important. "As each week goes by, and sales trends begin to develop, adjust your sales plans accordingly, and adjust inventory plans for those updated sales plans," Hurlbut says.

When sales start to fall behind plan, it's very tempting to think that you'll make up the sales later in the season. But when sales fall behind plan, inventories begin to back up as well. When inventories back up, pressure builds on prices, which, if not addressed, can lead to steep markdowns that decimate margins. The first thing to do is adjust future receipts to get inventories back in line, but it usually doesn't end there.

"When sales are soft, the weakest of your items or categories will usually suffer disproportionately," Hurlbut says. "They simply aren't as desirable at their full retail price." As soon as you identify these items, mark them down. A 25 percent markdown, for instance, taken immediately, will accelerate their rate of sale and get you out of that inventory, he adds. But if you wait until clearance time, when everything is marked down, it may take 50 percent to 75 percent to clear the inventory.

Look behind the sales to understand why you are taking markdowns. "You have to be aware and smart. Don't just say, 'It's not moving fast enough,'" Butler says. "Why is it not selling? Do customers not like it? Or are they not seeing it?" Make sure that you are pricing the items right to begin with, particularly in this economic climate. "You want to be very sensitive about how you price merchandise," Butler says. "The customer is not looking for everything to be marked down. They're looking for good values, and there is a balance between value and price."

Managing Seasonal Sales: Recommended Resources

National Retail Federation's 2010 Holiday Sales Headquarters - Retail association's website for seasonal sales statistics and holiday survival guide.

RetailSales.net - A collection of resources aimed at helping independent retailers develop the skills required to thrive in today's intensely competitive business environment.

The Retail Owners Institute - Self-help resources for retail owners.

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/10/how-to-manage-seasonal-fluctuations.html

How to Use EBITDA to Value Your Company

It's not the only number potential buyers look at, but EBITDA will give you a solid idea of how they'll start evaluating your business.

Looking to the future, can you envision a time when you might want to sell your business?

"The best way to build a company is to build it as if you're going to sell it," says veteran entrepreneur and Inc. columnist Norm Brodsky. "It has to be built to last."

One place to start measuring your company's potential value in a sale is determining your EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It's certainly a mouthful, but the equation itself is really quite simple: subtract expenses from revenue (excluding interests and taxes) without depreciation and amortization (what you pay for tangible and intangible assets). The remaining number paints a basic picture of your profitability as well as your ability to pay off what it owes.

"It's a quick and dirty way to assess the firm's ability to pay back interest or debts," says Gil Sadka, assistant professor of accounting at Columbia Business School in New York. Sadka calls EBITDA a "quasi-estimate" of your free cash flow, a more traditional and comprehensive assessment of a company's performance. You can get a more accurate reading of your free cash flow by subtracting out new capital expenditures for that year. Once you get this dollar amount, simply build upon the foundation to see how well you are doing.

Understanding EBITDA: Add and Subtract Value

It's unlikely that you as the business owner would be fiddling around with your company's EBITDA. Still, before you sit down with the buyers or investors who will, it's important to understand what they'll be looking at.

Essentially, EBITDA on its own makes for a fairly futile statistic. There is, after all, a very good reason why you depreciate and amortize assets. To simply put those charges back in to earnings may give an unrealistic measure of your finances.

That's where the need for adjustments comes in. Since EBITDA is technically a non-GAAP figure, meaning it does not conform to generally accepted accounting principles, you can make these adjustments almost wherever you see fit. As just mentioned, you might need to devalue assets like old equipment within the overall number. Likewise, you also might have failed to collect some accounts receivables from clients. These result in a net-negative for your operating cash flow.

By the same token, you can also add both tangible assets (like equipment) and intangible assets (like your management team and employees) to the figure. It's typically through this addition process that you arrive at your company's value as a multiple of EBITDA. Let's say you pay yourself a $300,000 salary for a position that someone – like a buyer or competitor – could do for $150,000. That buyer would then add that extra $150,000 back into the value of your company once its absorbed. In this case, the number you arrive at is a form of adjusted EBITDA called "field" EBITDA, where you take into account subsidiaries and components of a company that can be absorbed for little to no cost. The term most often applies when selling the business to one in a similar field, in which case the management team, office space, and other business expenses may fall by the wayside during the takeover.

Understanding EBITDA: Seek Outside Opinions

You can tinker with the formula all you like. But how will you know what calculations are safe to assume and which aren't? How do you put a price tag on your company's competitive advantage, list of customers, and your brand as a whole?

There are endless variables and measurements that factor into your company's worth. One way to gauge interest is to approach potential buyers in your industry. Five years before selling his records storage business, CitiStorage, Brodsky did just that. At first the buyers' responses were curious, Brodsky recalls "They laughed and asked, 'Well, why would we do that?'" Yet eventually he convinced them that he'd consider their interest in the imminent sale of his company.

After getting this valuable input, Brodsky reformed the areas of his business that could pump up his multiple of EBITDA or purchase price. This meant taking care of contracts that were out of date and fortifying his management team. In the end the strategy worked: Brodsky sold CitiStorage in 2007 for 10 times the value of EBITDA. "I wasn't planning on selling for quite some time, but I really wanted to know how I could get the most for my company," Brodsky says.

There are a number of other resources you can use to estimate the value of your company. Business Valuation Resources, for instance, provides you with comparative and historical information within your industry. Experts agree, though, that EBITDA does depict an accurate comparison across markets because of the exclusion of interest and taxes that vary by sector. Making the right changes – cutting unprofitable costs, expanding sales, or reaching new markets – can have a significant effect on EBITDA as a measure of your performance.

At this point a simple question remains: which year's EBITDA are we talking about, the current, past, projected, or a combination? Buyers, of course, will be pushing for a lower valuation and might look at an average of EBITDA over, say, three years as the base number. To get the highest valuation, you'll want to bolster gains in the present and future. To do so, be sure to exceed your business plan and monthly goals, create a solid sales stream into next year, and get clients on-board with long-term contracts. Don't exaggerate too wildy, though: sophisticated buyers will always cut through the grease.

Understanding EBITDA: Proceed with Caution

EBITDA, of course, shouldn't be the only consideration when it comes to your company's value and strength. You'll want to factor in a handful of other metrics like capital expenditures, synergies, and other financial accruals, though you may want to leave those evaluations to the accountant.

Nonetheless, it's important to understand that EBITDA has its flaws. You don't want to put too much emphasis on it when looking at the strength of your business because it doesn't consider risks like the potential for future growth and your mix of customers. Having three huge customers that each account for 25 percent of your business, for example, is a lot riskier than having a mix of smaller customers that only account for 6 percent each. Diversity among clients and demonstrable potential to capture greater market share will both add value to your business in the long run.

"Every time you make an adjustment, you have to be careful on the other side," Sadka says. In essence he means you have to be able to mathematically prove why adjusting for client diversity, or good will, or future sales, makes sense. "You have to explain every adjustment, and why there is real value there."

Interest rates also play an important role in determining the multiple of EBITDA you warrant as well. This is why price-makers or lenders divide your interest payments by EBITDA to find out your risk in paying back debts. The more cash you have available to pay off interest, the less risk you take on as a company, and thus the greater your value. In addition, as interest rates rise, your value tends to fall because it suddenly became more expensive to pay off those debts. In the fortunate instance they fall, however, your value will only rise – thereby presenting the most opportune time to make your sale.

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/10/how-to-understand-earnings-or-EBITDA.html

Excel Tip: Count the Number of Occurrences of a Single Character in One Cell

I am currently helping a partner with a conversion from QuickBooks to Dynamics GP--specifically to migrate QuickBooks transaction Class data into GP Analytical Accounting transactions. For various reasons, standard, and even non-standard migration tools have been unable to convert the QuickBooks data, so we've been forced to export the data and import it into GP.

The eConnect integration I developed works great, but one of the annoyances has been preparing a QuickBooks export file for import to GP. If you are familiar with QuickBooks exports, you know that when data is exported to Excel, it typically looks quite presentable, but is not exactly import-friendly.

While trying to map the QuickBooks chart of accounts to the GP chart of accounts, I had to determine how many "levels" the QuickBooks account had. So for instance, there might be Account: Sub-Account: Department: Location: Expense: Sub-Expense. Out of the pile of QB accounts, I needed to determine the maximum number of "levels" the accounts had. Since there is a colon between each level, I just needed to count the number of colons in the cell, and then add one. Simple!

But I am pretty sure I've never had to count the number of occurrences of a value in a single cell. I've used the SEARCH function to determine whether a value exists at all, but never had to count the occurrences of that value.

With Google to the rescue, I stumbled across a Microsoft Support article that provided several examples of how to count the occurrences of a string in an Excel file.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213889

And here is the formula for counting the number of occurrences of a character in a cell:

=LEN(cell_ref)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(cell_ref,"a",""))

Pretty darn smart. Maybe, on a good day, with enough sleep, I could have come up with something that elegant, but I am pretty sure that article saved me alot of time.

Driver killed in crash with dump truck on Highway 292

A man died Thursday afternoon after his car veered into the path of a dump truck on a Spartanburg highway.

The wreck happened about 2:15 p.m. on Highway 292 near New Cut Road, just west of Inman.

According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the driver of a 1997 Ford Mustang was headed west toward Lyman when he crossed the center line and hit a dump truck. The truck overturned, spilling a load of gravel onto the shoulder of the road.

The driver of the Mustang was trapped in the car and pronounced dead at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.

The man's identity is pending the notification of his family, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said Thursday night.

The driver of the dump truck, William Brian Henderson of Moore, was not injured in the wreck.

How to Find Out What Your Business Is Really Worth

Whether you want to sell or not, it’s natural to wonder what your business could fetch on the market. Entrepreneur John Warrillow offers up some resources.

Years ago I owned a little marketing and design agency and would rely on the multiples the big advertising agency holding companies got on the stock exchange to figure out its value. I’d assumed that, because Omnicom was trading at 22 times earnings, my little agency with $150,000 in profit was worth around $3 million.

I got a wake up call at an industry event when I found out that, in actuality, small ad agencies with less than $5 million in revenue were lucky to get three or four times pre-tax profit—much of which was tied to achieving goals in the future.

Since then, I have started a couple of other businesses and gotten a bit better at estimating their value. It’s still tricky and ultimately a business is only worth what someone will pay for it. But I found I could cobble together a decent estimate through a few resources:

A fancy lunch with a professional

When I went to sell my research company, I bought lunch for three mergers and acquisitions professionals. Each had experience selling research companies similar in size to mine. Their back-of-the-napkin estimates all ended up being plus or minus 25 percent of the actual selling price.

Business Valuation Resources

Business Valuation Resources (BVR) gathers historical information about businesses that have sold recently and comes up with some industry norms.

I found BVR to be a good start, but oftentimes its descriptions of industries were too generic to make for good apples-to-apples comparisons.

M&A firm newsletters

Some mergers and acquisitions firms publish newsletters that will describe the kind of multiples being paid on deals they have done. For example, when I was preparing to sell my conference business, I looked at the newsletter from the Jordan Edmiston Group, one of the top M&A firms in the conference business.

I found that the problem with the M&A firms as a source for valuation data is that they tend to overemphasize their biggest deals. M&A firms get paid on deal size and spend a lot of their time trying to convince the world (and prospective sellers) they do big deals. It’s also the way they measure themselves and earn bragging rights over cocktails. Unfortunately, it ensures they (and their newsletters) boast about the one deal they did with a valuation of $100 million instead of the 15 deals they did for businesses worth less than $20 million.

Bizbuysell.com

Bizbuysell.com is the largest online marketplace for businesses for sale. I think of it as an eBay for businesses. If you own a dry cleaning shop in Seattle, you can advertise it on bizbuysell.com. Likewise, if you want to buy a retail business in Nashville, you can query bizbuysell.com by industry and identify businesses that meet your specs.

The downside of bizbuysell.com is that it tends to attract smaller, main street businesses—which is great if you own a coffee shop or lawn maintenance business, not as helpful if you own a larger, unique business.

In the end, I have found using all four of these sources usually enables me to estimate a company’s value within 20 percent of the final selling price. Not perfect, but a lot more accurate than looking at what billion dollar public companies trade for on the stock exchange.

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/10/how-to-value-your-business.html

30 Smart Time Management Tips and Tricks

Yes, yes, yes, you are very busy. That’s why you meet deadlines at the last minute. Or after. That’s why you cruise into meetings 15 minutes late. It’s why you forget details or schedule two tasks for the same time or have 500 unanswered emails in your inbox. It’s why you can never take a vacation, or even a full weekend off.

Or is it? Maybe poor time management is simply a bad habit. Maybe you can learn to organize and control your time better. Because let’s face it, time management is really self management.

Consider taking a look at these classic time management tips. One, or two, or three, may work for you:

1. Obvious tip one: Make a to-do list (electronic or paper). Put the most important item first and work down from there.

2. Obvious tip two: At the end of your day, review what you've done and make a new list for the next day. In order of importance.

3. Be ruthless about setting priorities. Make sure that what you think is important is really important.

4. Learn to differentiate between the important and the urgent. What's important is not always urgent. What's urgent is not always important.

5. Carry your to-do list with you at all times.

6. All things being equal, do the hardest, least fun thing first. Just get it over with!

7. If a task takes less than five minutes, do it right away. If it takes longer, put it on the list.

8. Deal with E-mail at set times each day, if possible. If you need to check messages as they arrive, limit your sessions to less than five minutes.

9. Schedule some uninterrupted time each day when you can concentrate on important tasks, even if you have to take refuge in a conference room or at the library.

10. Another approach: Before you check your E-mail or voicemail or get involved in the minutiae of the day, devote a solid hour to your most important project.

[See 50 Tips for Surviving Your Worst Work Days.]

11. For a couple of days, take an inventory of how you spend your time to find out where and how you're wasting it.

12. Eliminate the time wasters (e.g., if personal phone calls are taking up too much space in your workday, turn off your cell).

13. Cut big jobs into small chunks. Order the chunks by importance. Work on one chunk at a time.

14. For big, complex tasks, schedule wiggle room. Projects tend to take longer than you think/hope. Give yourself a buffer.

15. If part of your day involves routine repetitive tasks, keep records of how long they take and then try to do them faster.

16. Go one step further and set specific time limits for routine tasks. Work tends to fill whatever amount of time you happen to have.

17. Establish smart efficient systems for all your tasks, big and small, and stick to them.

18. Value your time. People who wander into your workspace to chat do not respect you or your schedule. Set boundaries.

19. When and where you can, say no. Trying to do everything everyone asks you to do is a recipe for failure.

20. In general, guard against overscheduling yourself.

[See 39 Ways to Annoy Your Coworkers.]

21. Bottom line to items 19 and 20: Learn to delegate, wherever and whenever you can.

22. Aim to handle pieces of paper only once. Same for E-mails. Read 'em and deal with 'em.

23. Reward yourself for completing tasks on time. No fun stuff until the work stuff is done.

24. Organize and declutter your workspace so you don't waste time looking for things.

25. Schedule demanding tasks for that part of your day when you're at your peak.

26. Group related tasks (e.g., sort papers on your desk and then file them). It's more efficient.

27. Use down time (e.g., waiting for meetings to begin) to, for example, update your to-do list or answer E-mails.

28. This advice applies to life outside work, too. It's better to be excellent at a few things than average at many.

29. Don't be afraid to get projects done early. It takes them off your mind, and it doesn't mean you'll just be given more to do.

30. Create the business environment that works for you. Adjust the lighting, turn off your E-mail pinger, get that cup of tea. Set the stage and get to work.

http://www.usnews.com/mobile/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2010/9/28/30-savvy-time-management-tips-and-tricks.html

10+ ways to screw up your database design

Database developers often fall into certain design traps — and it’s generally the users who pay the price. See how you can improve your design process and build a more flexible, reliable, and efficient database.

Database developers are people too — you make mistakes just like everyone else. The problem is, users are the ones who pay for those mistakes when they have to work with slow, clunky applications. If you’re part of your company’s IT team, a mistake could cost you your job. If you’re a freelance developer, a bad database usually means a lost client — and even more lost business, if word gets around. Here are some common design pitfalls to watch out for.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: The data’s unimportant; it’s the architecture that matters

It doesn’t matter if your code sings, if you don’t know the data. You want the two to work in harmony and that means spending some time with the people who use and manipulate all that data. This is probably the most important rule: Before you do anything, you absolutely must get intimate with the data. Without that firsthand knowledge, you might make errors in judgment that have far-reaching consequences — like dragging the whole application to a complete halt.

A nonchalant attitude that the data isn’t important isn’t a sign of laziness. It’s a mistaken perception that anything that doesn’t work quite right early on can be fixed later. I just don’t agree. Doing it right from the bottom up will produce a foundation that can grow and accommodate change quickly. Without that foundation, any database is just a few Band-Aids away from disaster.

2: I can do anything with a little code

Some developers are so skilled that they can make just about anything happen with a bit of code. But you can take a good thing too far. One of my biggest complaints about the developers’ psyche is that they want to solve everything with code, even when a system feature exists to handle the need. They claim it’s just easier — easier for them, maybe, but not necessarily easier for those maintaining the database. My recommendation is to use the built-in features, when available, unless you don’t know the RDMS well enough. If that’s the case, see #3.

3: I can use whatever RDBMS you have

This brings me to the next point: Developers who think the system is unimportant because their coding ability is the only magic they need. Wrong! Unless your hands are tied, choose the best system for the job. You’ll save your client time and money and build a reputation as an honest and comprehensive developer. You might not have a choice, of course. If you find yourself stuck with a system you’re not familiar with or that’s just not right for the job, you might want to excuse yourself from the project. You’re going to take the fall for that decision eventually, even if you didn’t make it.

4: That doesn’t need an index

Very little affects performance like failing to apply an index or applying an index incorrectly. It isn’t rocket science, and there are guidelines that help. But many developers still avoid the task altogether. Without proper indexing, your database will eventually slow down and irritate users. Perhaps the only thing that causes as much trouble as no indexing is too much indexing.

There’s a lot of free information on indexing, but here are my simplest recommendations on the subject:

• Learn about the index construction the RDBMS uses.
• Learn when to apply those indexes for optimum coverage.
• Run the RDBMS’s index analyzation or tune-up tool for hints.

5: This database doesn’t require referential integrity

Enforcing referential integrity protects the validity of your data by eliminating orphans (foreign keys that have no related primary key entity). For instance, in a sales database, you might have an ordered item that doesn’t point to a customer — not a good idea. If your RDBMS supports referential integrity, I recommend that you use it.

6: Natural keys are best

Relational database theory relies on keys, primary and foreign. Natural keys are based on data, which of course has meaning within the context of the database’s purpose. Natural keys are obsolete now that we have systems that can generate sequential values, known as surrogates. They have little purpose beyond identifying entities. (They are usually an auto-incrementing data type).

The superiority of natural versus surrogate keys is a hotly debated topic. Just bring it up in your favorite development list or forum, sit back, and watch the show. Here’s the nitty-gritty though:

• Natural keys can be unwieldy and awkward to maintain. It might take several columns to create a unique key for each record. It’s doable, but do you really want to accommodate that kind of structure if you don’t have to?
• Primary keys are supposed to be stable; nothing about data is stable. It changes all the time. In contrast, there’s no reason to ever change a surrogate key. You might delete one, but if you have to change a surrogate key, something’s wrong with your design.

The biggest argument for natural keys is one of association. Proponents insist that you need to be able to associate the key to the actual record. Why? Keys are used by the RDBMS, not users. The other most commonly heard argument is that surrogate keys allow duplicate records. My response is to apply indexes appropriately to avoid duplicate records.

I recommend surrogate keys — always, which is an invitation to hate mail, but it’s my recommendation just the same. I can think of no circumstance where a natural key would be preferable to a surrogate.

7: Normalization is a waste of time

Just writing that title hurts. Unfortunately, I do run into developers who don’t take normalization seriously enough. Normalization is the process of removing any repeating groups and redundant data to related tables. This process supports the RDBMS by theory and design. Without normalization, a RDBMS is doomed. Despite its importance, many developers make a cursory pass through the data and normalize very little, and that’s a mistake you should avoid. Take the time to break down your data, normalizing at least to 2nd or 3rd Normal form.

8: You can’t normalize enough

The previous point may seem to imply that normalization is the panacea of database design. But like code, too much of a good thing can slow things down. The more tables and joins involved in pulling data together into meaningful information, the slower the database will perform. Don’t overdo it — be thorough without being obsessed.

If your normalization scheme requires several tables to generate a common view, you’ve gone too far (probably). In short, if performance slows and there’s nothing wrong with the connection, the query, and so on, excessive normalization might be the culprit.

9: It’ll perform just as well with real data

Failing to test a database for scalability is a huge mistake. During the development stage, it’s acceptable to work with a scant amount of data. On the other hand, a few rows of test data just can’t provide a realistic view of how the database will perform in a production environment. Before going live, be sure to test your database with real data, and lots of it. Doing so will expose bottlenecks and vulnerabilities.

You can blame the database engine for choking on real data — nice work if you can get it (and the client believes you).

10: Only the most elegant code is good enough for my clients

This attitude is another example of how too much of a good thing can be bad. We all want to write the best code possible, but sometimes, good enough is, well, good enough. Time spent optimizing routines that already perform well and accurately can be money down the drain for your client. If the database runs great with a bit of ugly code, so what? Is the trade-off worth the extra time and money you’ll spend to optimize the code to its fullest? I’m betting your client would answer in the negative. I’m not saying write clunky code. Nor am I suggesting that you write code that performs poorly because doing so makes your job easier. I’m saying, don’t put your client’s money into optimizing something that works fine as is. Put that time into good design and a solid foundation — that’s what will support the best performance.

11: You can back it up later

If the data is important enough to store, it’s important enough to protect. Hardware breaks. Mistakes happen. A backup plan should be part of your development process, not an afterthought: I meant to do that. How often should you back up the database, where will you store those backups, and so on, are questions to answer up front, not after your client losses important data.

12: You promised that wouldn’t change

The client promised that a specific business rule would never change and you believed it. Never believe them! Don’t take the easy way out on this one; apply the best design and logic so that change is easy. The truth is, once users become accustom to the database, they’ll want more — and that means change. It’s just about the only part of the whole development process you can depend on.

13: Yes, I can give you the moon

Some developers are so ambitious. Wanting to give users everything they want in the first version is a nice sentiment, but it’s also impractical. Unless the project is small with a specific focus, producing a foundation version that can go into production quickly is preferable. Users won’t get everything they asked for, but they’ll have a production database much sooner. You can add features with subsequent versions. The client gets work quickly and you get job security.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1855

25 Amazing Food Cures

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with slabs of meat on my face.

As kids, my brother Eric and I fought like wild animals. He still sports a scar above his lip from a cut I accidentally gave him, and my nose isn't quite as straight as it might be if I hadn't taken so many shots to it. We're as close as can be today, but back in our teen years, we sported many a bruised ego and blackened eye. And the home remedy for the latter? A hunk of steak.

Turns out, a lot of moms don't have the whole story when it comes to food cures. Cold is good for a bruise, but meat doesn't do anything more than a bag of ice would. But there are plenty of foods that are effective home remedies for curing everything from pounding headaches to potency issues to procrastination. Take these 25 secret food cures, for instance. Incorporate these wonderfoods into your daily diet, and you'll be surprised at how quickly your body and your mind react.

And best of all? Nobody will laugh and call you "meat head."

1. BE MORE POSITIVE
Dark Chocolate
Research shows that dark chocolate can improve heart health, lower blood pressure, reduce LDL cholesterol, and increase the flow of blood to the brain. It also boosts serotonin and endorphin levels, which are associated with improved mood and greater concentration. Look for chocolate that is 60 percent cocoa or higher.

2. REDUCE ANXIETY
Garlic
Tuck a few extra cloves into your next stir-fry or pasta sauce: Research has found that enzymes in garlic can help increase the release of serotonin, a neurochemical that makes you feel relaxed.

3. FIRE UP YOUR MORNING METABOLISM
Caffeinated Coffee
A study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior found that the average metabolic rate of people who drank caffeinated coffee increased 16 percent over those who drank decaf. Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system by increasing your heart rate and breathing.

4. FIRE UP YOUR EVENING METABOLISM
Chile Peppers
It turns out that capsaicin, the compound that gives chile peppers their mouth-searing quality, can also jumpstart your fat-burning, muscle-building engines. According to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, eating 1 tablespoon of chopped red or green chiles boosts metabolism by 23 percent.

5. LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE
Fried Eggs
Go ahead, crack under pressure: Eating fried eggs may help reduce high blood pressure. In a test-tube study, scientists in Canada discovered that the breakfast standby produced the highest levels of ACE inhibitory peptides, amino acids that dilate blood vessels and allow blood to flow more easily. (For up-to-the-minute tips like these, be sure to follow me on Twitter here. You can lose weight effortlessly and look, feel and live better than ever!)

6. REDUCE STRESS
Gum
When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed at work, reach for the Wrigley’s: Chewing gum can help tame your tension, according to Australian researchers. People who chewed gum while taking multitasking tests experienced a 17 percent drop in self-reported stress. This might have to do with the fact that we associate chewing with positive social interactions, like mealtimes.

7. STAVE OFF DEPRESSION
Salmon

Omega-3s may calm your neurotic side, according to a study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Researchers found that adults with the lowest blood levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were more likely to have neuroses, which are symptoms for depression. Salmon is loaded with EPA and DHA, as are walnuts, flaxseeds, and even cauliflower.

8. SPEED WEIGHT LOSS
Yogurt
The probiotics in yogurt may help you drop pounds. British scientists found that these active organisms boost the breakdown of fat molecules in mice, preventing the rodents from gaining weight. Try the Horizon brand of yogurt—it contains the probiotic L. casei, the same organism used in the study.

Bonus Tip: Don't let all of your hard work go down the drain: Avoid this shocking list of the 20 Scariest Food Creations of 2010!

9. AMP UP YOUR ENERGY
Grilled Chicken Breast
The protein in lean meat like chicken, fish, or pork loin isn't just good at squashing hunger and boosting metabolism—it's also a top source of energy. University of Illinois researchers found that people who ate higher amounts of protein had higher energy levels and didn't feel as tired as people with proportionally higher amounts of carbs in their diet.

10. BE MORE EFFICIENT
Kidney Beans
These legumes are an excellent source of thiamin and riboflavin. Both vitamins help your body use energy efficiently, so you won't be nodding off mid-Powerpoint.

11. STABILIZE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR
Barley
Swedish researchers found that if you eat barley—a key ingredient in whole-grain cereals—for breakfast, the fibrous grain cuts blood sugar response by 44 percent at lunch and 14 percent at dinner.

12. IMPROVE YOUR ENDURANCE
Clams
Clams stock your body with magnesium, which is important in metabolism, nerve function, and muscle function. When magnesium levels are low, your body produces more lactic acid—the same fatigue-inducing substance that you feel at the end of a long workout.

13. BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY
Rooibos Tea
Animal research suggests that this South African tea, also known as bush or redbush tea, may provide potent immunity-boosting benefits. In addition, Japanese researchers found that it may help prevent allergies and even cancer. Adagio offers a wide range of great-tasting rooibos teas.

14. STOP COUGHING
Honey
Penn State scientists have discovered that honey is a powerful cough suppressant—so next time you¹re hacking up a lung, head for the kitchen. When parents of 105 sick children doled out honey or dextromethorphan (the active ingredient in over-the-counter cough medicines like Robitussin), the honey was better at lessening cough frequency and severity. Try a drizzle in a cup of rooibos tea.

15.TAME A COLD
Kiwi
The vitamin C in kiwi won¹t prevent the onslaught of a cold, but it might decrease the duration of your symptoms. One kiwifruit provides 117 percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C.

16. SOOTHE A MIGRAINE
Olives
Foods rich in healthy monounsaturated fats help reduce inflammation, a catalyst for migraines. One study found that the anti-inflammatory compounds in olive oil suppress the enzymes involved in inflammation in the same manner as ibuprofen. Avocados and almonds are also high in monounsaturated fats.

17. LOWER YOUR CHOLESTEROL
Margarine
Not just any margarine, mind you—those containing plant sterols. In a Tufts University study, people who ate a butter substitute containing plant sterols with three meals each day saw their LDL (bad) cholesterol drop by 6 percent. How? The researchers say that plant sterols prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the intestine. Promise Active and Smart Balance HeartRight are two great options.

18. REPAIR MUSCLE
Spinach
Popeye was onto something, it seems. Rutgers researchers discovered that treating human muscle cells with a compound found in spinach increased protein synthesis by 20 percent. The compound allows muscle tissue to repair itself faster, the researchers say. One thing to keep in mind, however: Spinach doesn't automatically make any salad a healthy option. Check out 20 Salads Worse Than a Whopper to see what I mean. You'll be absolutely shocked!

19. RECOVER FROM A WORKOUT
Green Tea
Brazilian scientists found that participants who consumed three cups of the beverage every day for a week had fewer markers of the cell damage caused by resistance to exercise. That means that green tea can help you recover faster after an intense workout.

20. REPLENISH YOUR BODY POST-WORKOUT
Low-Fat Chocolate Milk
Nothing like a little dessert after a long workout. British researchers found that low-fat chocolate milk does a better job than sports drinks at replenishing the body after a workout. Why? Because it has more electrolytes and higher fat content. And scientists at James Madison University found that the balance of fat, protein, and carbs in chocolate milk makes it nearly one-third more effective at replenishing muscles than other recovery beverages.

Bonus Tip: Sign up for the FREE Eat This, Not That! e-mail newsletter, and get super nutrition and weight-loss tips like these delivered straight to your inbox.

21. IMPROVE FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION
Sardines
According to research published in Nutrition Journal, fish oil can help increase your ability to concentrate. Credit EPA and DHA, fatty acids that bolster communication among brain cells and help regulate neurotransmitters responsible for mental focus. Salmon, trout, halibut, and tuna are also great sources of EPA and DHA.

22. AVOID ALZHEIMER¹S DISEASE
Bananas
The antioxidants in bananas, apples, and oranges may help protect you from Alzheimer's, report Korean scientists. The researchers discovered that plant chemicals known as polyphenols helped shield brain cells from oxidative stress, a key cause of the disease.

23. PROTECT YOUR BRAIN
Steak
Vitamin B12, an essential nutrient found in meat, milk, and fish, may help protect you against brain loss, say British scientists. The researchers found that older people with the highest blood levels of the vitamin were six times less likely to have brain shrinkage than those with the lowest levels.

24. BUILD LONG-LASTING BRAINPOWER
Carrots
Researchers from Harvard found that men who consumed more beta-carotene over 18 years had significantly delayed cognitive aging. Carrots are a tremendous source of the antioxidant, as are other orange foods like butternut squash, pumpkin, and bell peppers.

25. SHARPEN YOUR SENSES
Ground Flaxseed
Flax is the best source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)—a healthy fat that improves the workings of the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain that processes sensory information, including that of pleasure. To meet your quota, sprinkle 1 tablespoon flaxseed on salads or oatmeal once a day, or mix it into a smoothie or shake.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/25-amazing-food-cures

How to Fire an Employee Without Being Sued

Firing an employee may be a sticky subject, but by creating a plan of action and following procedure, you'll avoid lawsuits associated with terminating an employee illegally.

Firing an employee may be a necessary act but it has the potential to be a legal minefield. Terminations can lead to legal claims based on a variety of potential allegations, including discrimination, retaliation, wrongful discharge, wage and hour liability, defamation, and so on. Mishandle firing an employee, or terminate someone in the heat of an argument without paving the groundwork, and your business and its employees could be paying for it for years to come.

And, yet, firing an underperforming or troubled employee may be the best move for your business. It may improve morale among better performers. It may rid the business of a cancer.

“Firing an employee is both the worst day of your life and the best day,” says Jerry Osteryoung, director of outreach at the Jim Moran Institute at Florida State University’s College of Business. “That’s because when you let someone go it affects their family and their livelihood, and it’s tough. But it’s also the best day of your life because, normally, if you have to fire someone, that person has been a pain in the butt for a while, and it’s time for them to go.”

In business, however, it’s important to make sure that you prepare well before firing an employee and that you follow the law and your own company procedures. The following pages outline steps to lay the groundwork for firing an employee, holding a termination meeting, and following up after termination.

Dig Deeper: How to Fire an Employee

How to Fire an Employee: Prepare to Fire an Employee

The groundwork for an effective termination of employment should be laid long before the termination decision. “The biggest mistake people make is they don’t prepare for it. They don’t work with the employee ahead of time to help the employee succeed so that firing is a last resort. People tend to put up with behavior until they say, 'I’m through,'” says Nancy M. Cooper, chair of the labor and employment group of Garvey Schubert Barer, a law firm based in Portland, Oregon.

A firing should never be a surprise. If you have worked with an employee to identify problems, goals, and performance metrics, that employee is going to know whether they measure up or not. “Once you go through everything and see that the employee is still not meeting expectations, nobody is going to be shocked,” Cooper says.

The first step is to make sure you have documented your efforts with the following:

• The company’s employment application
• An employee handbook describing unacceptable employee behaviors
• Policies describing the company’s right to discipline and terminate employees
• Job descriptions or other documentations that specify performance expectations
• Performance appraisals
• Records of disciplinary counseling and formal disciplinary action
• Written documentation of the findings of any internal investigation related to the termination

Since these documents will be legally discoverable in the event a former employee sues the company, it is critical they be clearly written, accurate, and do not contain “inflammatory” statements about the individual.

It may be best to consult with a human resources attorney before taking steps to fire an employee to make sure you are covering the bases. “The number one thing you have to make sure of is that you don’t violate any laws,” Osteryoung says. “There are a lot of plaintiff’s lawyers who love to sue businesses because they failed or did not follow the correct procedures in firing an employee.”

Dig Deeper: How to Write a Termination Notice

How to Fire an Employee: Think Through, and Review, the Decision to Terminate

An employee should never be fired on the spur of the moment, and especially not in the heat of anger, Cooper says. “You want to take some time to reflect,” she adds. A decision to terminate employment should be reached only after careful review of all relevant facts and documents.

An important, but often neglected, step in the termination process is obtaining a thorough and independent review of the decision. Sometimes that involves calling in another set of eyes and ears – maybe the direct supervisor, a member of the human resources department, or in-house or outside legal counsel. “If it’s an incident, talk to people and make sure the employee you’re focusing on is really the one to blame,” Cooper says.

The purpose of the independent review is to make sure that:

• The firing is justified by the facts
• The firing is legal under all applicable laws
• The decision to fire follows company policies and procedures, such as those in the employee handbook
• The decision to terminate is consistent with the company’s handling of similar situations in the past, regardless of race, gender, age, etc. of the employee being discharged.

“You want an audit trail. You want to document everything,” Osteryoung says. “You can’t just say, ‘I’ve tried to talk to you 16 times already.’ There are a litany of things you need to do.”

Dig Deeper: Furloughs vs. Layoffs

How to Fire an Employee: Hold a Termination Meeting

Even under the best circumstances, an employee discharge can be a difficult and stressful situation for the employee and the managers involved. “More often than not the problem is that entrepreneurs wait too long to fire an employee,” Osteryoung says. “If you have a problem employee, they don’t get better. They can affect the morale of your whole workforce because others are thinking, ‘Why aren’t you doing something about this problem employee?’ It’s like a cancer. The sooner you surgically remove it, the better.”

By following the steps below, managers can reduce their anxiety about conducting an employee termination and can help the employee deal with the termination in a healthy way.

Prepare for a termination meeting. A termination meeting should be carefully planned in order to minimize potential legal liability, protect employees and company property, and reduce emotional distress to the employee being discharged, experts say. Issues to consider include:

• Why hold a meeting? A termination meeting should be held face-to-face. Firing an employee via e-mail or text or over the phone is likely to anger the employee and contribute to feelings that they are being treated unfairly, Cooper says. By meeting in person, you are showing the employee respect and treating them the way you would want to be treated.
• Who should attend? Generally, at least two company representatives should be present. The employee should not be permitted to bring a lawyer, co-worker, or family member to a termination meeting. “Always have a witness, preferably other management or someone at a higher level than the employee,” Cooper says.
• Where will the meeting be held? It is best to conduct the meeting in a private, neutral location, such as a conference room. If the office is a big, open area, then try to schedule the meeting after hours to provide the employee some privacy, Cooper says. The company representatives should be seated by the door so that, if the employee becomes hostile, he or she cannot block the exit, experts advise.
• What will be said during the meeting? A script should be prepared before the meeting so that the meeting can be kept short, not more than 5 to 10 minutes. “Keep it factual,” Cooper recommends. “The one who will be emotional is the employee.” The message should be simple: the employee is being terminated because they have failed to meet performance expectations or address other problems that you had already outlined with them.
• Are special security measures needed? In extreme situations, it may be appropriate to have security personnel standing by, depending upon how the employee is likely to react. At a minimum, have the employee’s passwords, accounts, access to buildings, computers or other company assets disabled before the meeting to prevent the employee from doing damage to the business after they are fired.
• How will logistical matters be handled? Make sure to address how the employee’s final paycheck will be delivered, how company property should be returned, and how long benefits will be continued.
• Will severance pay be offered in exchange for a release of claims? A company that does not have a severance plan subject to the Employee Retirement Security Income Act (ERISA) may want to consider offering the employee severance pay. Generally, severance should only be awarded if the employee agrees to sign a separation agreement that releases the employee from any claims against the company, Cooper says. “If you’re just paying severance out of the blue and you don’t get a signed release of claims, you have no protection,” she says. She advises against issuing severance unless it is a risky termination because that sets a precedent for other employees to expect severance if they are fired.

Dig Deeper: Learn from the Layoff Pros

How to Fire an Employee: Follow Up After the Firing

The terminating managers should attempt to keep the meeting professional, brief yet complete, under control, and humane. You may want the employee to be escorted back to their office after the meeting to collect personal belongings and then be escorted out of the building.

One of the most important things to do in the termination meeting is to treat the employee with dignity and respect. This can be demonstrated by showing sensitivity to the employee’s reactions, wishing the employee success in future endeavors, and being willing to speak with the employee after the meeting to answer questions about his or her transition out of the company. The terminating managers should also write down what was said at the meeting, in the event of a lawsuit.

Employee discharges don’t end with the termination meeting. Several tasks have to be effectively managed after the termination, including:

• Informing remaining employees on a need-to-know basis about the termination
• Handling reference requests appropriately, consistently, and in a way that will reduce the potential for lawsuits
• Dealing with claims for unemployment insurance benefits or other benefits so as not to trigger further problems for the organization

These post-termination activities should be handled with the same degree of planning and care as the actions before and during the termination meeting. “Once you let an employee go, you immediately have to have a staff meeting with those who need to know,” Osteryoung says. “Tell the staff briefly what happened and why. You need to stop the rumor mill very quickly. But you don’t want to provide too many specifics.”

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/09/how-to-fire-an-employee.html

Tips for a Better Nights Rest

Keep Regular Hours
Keep your biological clock in sync by going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time each morning - even on weekends.

Develop a Sleep Ritual
Doing the same things each night just before bed cues your body to settle down for the night.

Sleep on a Comfortable, Supportive Mattress and Foundation.
It's difficult to get deep, restful sleep on a sleep set that's too small, too soft, too hard, or too old.

Exercise Regularly
Regular exercise can help to relieve the day's tension - but not too close to bedtime or you may have a hard time falling asleep.

Cut Down on Stimulants
Consuming stimulants, such as caffeine, in the evening interferes with falling asleep and prevents deep sleep.

Don't Smoke
Smokers take longer to fall asleep, awaken more often and experience disrupted, fragmented sleep.

Drink Only in Moderation
Drinking alcohol before bedtime interrupts and fragments sleep.

Unwind Early in the Evening
Try to deal with worries and distractions several hours before going to bed.

Create a Restful Sleep Environment
Sleep in a cool, quiet, dark room on a comfortable, supportive mattress and
foundation.

Make Sleep a Priority
Say "yes" to sleep even when you're tempted to stay up late. You'll thank
yourself in the morning

http://svenskabeds.com/sleeptips.htm

Increasing Productivity - 5 Tips for Looking at the Big Picture & Improving Your Overall Effectiveness

Have you ever concentrated on something so hard that the world seems to recede into the background? Like when you see a blemish on your chin and it begins to take on the dimensions of a quarter? Or when you are shuffling through a business proposal that you must deliver that day to an unsupportive group of peers?

Each, in their own right seem to gobble up every inch of computing brain space as you mull over advantages, consequences, causes, and reactions of others. Our level of anxiety over the mind numbing details might eventually increase to such an extent that other areas of our life run out of control. It gets to the point where nothing in business and in life is getting done. You are no longer productive!

When I allow myself to drift into single minded focus, my husband will look at me with an incredulous expression on his face and announce “You are just not seeing the big picture!”

You see, I was taught that the devil is in the details and consequently the big picture will take care of itself if I address every single little nuance – such as correcting a spelling error in a love letter sent to me by my fiancé’. I think that was the first clue to my husband Rick that our marriage would take on interesting elements.

When You Become So Focused On One Particular Thing – You Miss Other Opportunities in Business and in Life

A classic caution in driving is to avoid highway hypnosis where the driver’s eyes are so locked onto the road ahead that they don’t see what is developing around them. This is a ripe condition for accidents to happen. Well, we are doing the same thing when considering the changes we want to make in our personal life, careers or businesses.

When we do strategic planning, all of the elements related to our business need to be evaluated through a non judgmental process. Awareness of our surroundings can actually help us prioritize and focus on “what is” and “what needs to be” in our business decisions.

To achieve productive focus, try following the tips below before you make any short or long -term decisions.

5 Ways to Look at the Big Picture and Improve Overall Productivity While Reducing Stess and Anxiety…

1. Figure out what your present economic environment looks like? Has there been a downturn or growth in your area of expertise? What have other businesses like yours experienced and does that mirror what is happening to you? Once you have an accurate depiction of how your business arena is developing, you can begin to address areas to update, change or enhance.

2. Evaluate how your business is impacted by turnover? Is your time taken up in orienting new hires or actively working to maintain key employees in terms of running your business? Is your staff working at optimum levels and enjoying the work they do? If you are a single entrepreneur, are your physical and mental resources charged up and in good working condition? Often our personal energy overrides the physical or mental exhaustion we may feel and you may not even be aware your engine is slowing down. Take a personal inventory and do what you must in order to retain your vitality.

3. Take a solid look at your current financial situation. What amount of funds or business do you need to survive through an economic downturn and how much do you need in order to thrive? What resources do you have available to you to shore up your financial portfolio? Once these questions are answered, it will give you the foundation you need to establish business decisions.

4. Realistically evaluate your product or service offering and determine if the marketplace still wants it. Even though you feel the public needs what you have, a fickle public will purchase what it wants and may leave you behind. Consider taking active steps to interview other entrepreneurs and professionals as well as current and past clients for real-time information. Decisions made in a vacuum are never a good thing.

5. Assess what steps you need to take to catch up to the technology changes occurring in social networking, online meetings, and communication tools. Even though technology continues to evolve daily, you can utilize resources that meet your needs currently and through the next couple of years. Understand how your customers and clients relate to you and act accordingly.

Perspective is a wonderful thing. We may not like what we see (like an expanding waist line in the mirror.) But once we understand what is really happening, we can then take the necessary steps to fix it or build upon the successes that are already in place.

Focus on the big picture while enjoying the nuances of the individual elements that make up the image and environment. You will improve your overall productivity and at the same time reduce your stress and anxiety.

https://community.dynamics.com/blogs/articles/archive/2010/03/05/increasing-productivity-5-tips-for-looking-at-the-big-picture-38-improving-your-overall-effectiveness.aspx

10 Mistakes That Start-Up Entrepreneurs Make

When it comes to starting a successful business, there's no surefire playbook that contains the winning game plan.

On the other hand, there are about as many mistakes to be made as there are entrepreneurs to make them.

Recently, after a work-out at the gym with my trainer -- an attractive young woman who's also a dancer/actor -- she told me about a web series that she's producing and starring in together with a few friends. While the series has gained a large following online, she and her friends have not yet incorporated their venture, drafted an operating agreement, trademarked the show's name or done any of the other things that businesses typically do to protect their intellectual property and divvy up the owners' share of the company. While none of this may be a problem now, I told her, just wait until the show hits it big and everybody hires a lawyer.

Here, in my experience, are the top 10 mistakes that entrepreneurs make when starting a company:

1. Going it alone. It's difficult to build a scalable business if you're the only person involved. True, a solo public relations, web design or consulting firm may require little capital to start, and the price of hiring even one administrative assistant, sales representative or entry-level employee can eat up a big chunk of your profits. The solution: Make sure there's enough margin in your pricing to enable you to bring in other people. Clients generally don't mind outsourcing as long as they can still get face time with you, the skilled professional who's managing the project.

2. Asking too many people for advice. It's always good to get input from experts, especially experienced entrepreneurs who've built and sold successful companies in your industry. But getting too many people's opinions can delay your decision so long that your company never gets out of the starting gate. The answer: Assemble a solid advisory board that you can tap on a regular basis but run the day-to-day yourself. Says Elyissia Wassung, chief executive of 2 Chicks With Chocolate Inc., a Matawan, N.J., chocolate company, "Pull in your [advisory] team for bi-weekly or, at the very least, monthly conference calls. You'll wish you did it sooner!"

3. Spending too much time on product development, not enough on sales. While it's hard to build a great company without a great product, entrepreneurs who spend too much time tinkering may lose customers to a competitor with a stronger sales organization. "I call [this misstep] the 'Field of Dreams' of entrepreneurship. If you build it, they will buy it," says Sanjyot Dunung, CEO of Atma Global, Inc., a New York software publisher, who has made this mistake in her own business. "If you don't keep one eye firmly focused on sales, you'll likely run out of money and energy before you can successfully get your product to market."

4. Targeting too small a market. It's tempting to try to corner a niche, but your company's growth will quickly hit a wall if the market you're targeting is too tiny. Think about all the high school basketball stars who dream of playing in the NBA. Because there are only 30 teams and each team employs only a handful of players, the chances that your son will become the next Michael Jordan are pretty slim. The solution: Pick a bigger market that gives you the chance to grab a slice of the pie even if your company remains a smaller player.

5. Entering a market with no distribution partner. It's easier to break into a market if there's already a network of agents, brokers, manufacturers' reps and other third-party resellers ready, willing and able to sell your product into existing distribution channels. Fashion, food, media and other major industries work this way; others are not so lucky. That's why service businesses like public relations firms, yoga studios and pet-grooming companies often struggle to survive, alternating between feast and famine. The solution: Make a list of potential referral sources before you start your business and ask them if they'd be willing to send business your way.

6. Overpaying for customers. Spending big on advertising may bring in lots of customers, but it's a money-losing strategy if your company can't turn those dollars into lifetime customer value. A magazine or website that spends $500 worth of advertising to acquire a customer who pays $20 a month and cancels his or her subscription at the end of the year is simply pouring money down the drain. The solution: Test, measure, then test again. Once you've done enough testing to figure out how to make more money selling products and services to your customers than you spend acquiring those customers in the first place, roll out a major marketing campaign.

7. Raising too little capital. Many start-ups assume that all they need is enough money to rent space, buy equipment, stock inventory and drive customers through the door. What they often forget is that they also need capital to pay for salaries, utilities, insurance and other overhead expenses until their company starts turning a profit. Unless you're running the kind of business where everybody's working for sweat equity and deferring compensation, you'll need to raise enough money to tide you over until your revenues can cover your expenses and generate positive cash flow. The solution: Calculate your start-up costs before you open your doors, not afterwards.

8. Raising too much capital. Believe it or not, raising too much money can be a problem, too. Over-funded companies tend to get big and bloated, hiring too many people too soon and wasting valuable resources on trade show booths, parties, image ads and other frills. When the money runs out and investors lose patience (which is what happened 10 years ago when the dot-com market melted down), start-ups that frittered away their cash will have to close their doors. No matter how much money you raise at the outset, remember to bank some for a rainy day.

9. Not having a business plan. While not every company needs a formal business plan, a start-up that requires significant capital to grow and more than a year to turn a profit should map out how much time and money it's going to take to get to its destination. This means thinking through the key metrics that make your business tick and building a model to spin off three years of sales, profits and cash-flow projections. "I wasted 10 years [fooling around] thinking like an artist and not a business person," says Louis Piscione, president of Avanti Media Group, a New Jersey company that produces videos for corporate and private events. "I learned that you have to put some of your creative genius toward a business plan that forecasts and sets goals for growth and success."

10. Over-thinking your business plan. While many entrepreneurs I've met engage in seat-of-the-pants decision-making and fail to do their homework, other entrepreneurs are afraid to pull the trigger until they're 100% certain that their plan will succeed. One lawyer I worked with several years ago was so skittish about leaving his six-figure job to launch his business that he never met with a single bank or investor who might have funded his company. The truth is that a business plan is not a crystal ball that can predict the future. At a certain point, you have to close your eyes and take the leap of faith.

Despite the many books and articles that have been written about entrepreneurship, it's just not possible to start a company without making a few mistakes along the way. Just try to avoid making any mistake so large that your company can't get back on its feet to fight another day.

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110551/mistakes-of-startup-entrepreneurs?mod=career-leadership