My Home Office
Posted: September 11, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »I’ve just finished reading a great guide on how to set up your ultimate home office (available for download here: http://www.ultimate-home-office.com/home2.html). I was really surprised by some of the gems of information in there.
For a start there was a link to this cool site that help you work out how high your chair, desk and computer screen should be, you just pop-in some numbers. There were also some cool bits of software and hardware mentioned, which I’m going to have a go with (EverNote and ScanSnap).
Lots of things are included, and there’s a handy checklist to make sure you don’t forget anything. It made me think about call handling, how the family react to my home office, and how to plan to move out of the house in the long term should I need to.
Now to go and implement some of the advice!
Waiting outside women’s clothes shops
Posted: June 18, 2011 Filed under: Self development | Tags: relationships, Shopping Leave a comment »My new paradigm is to constantly ask how what I’m doing is positively influencing the world. So, caught clothes shopping with my wife and mother-in-law I decided to take this opportunity to learn what I can, and share it as I stand outside Phase Eight in The Grand Arcade, Cambridge UK.
I feel about women’s clothes shops a bit like my wife feels about Maplin, there’s not a single item of any I retest in there. However, I doubt (hope!) she ever imagines men dressed up in soldering irons and widgets.
My wife is here to support her Mum (a professional musician) with finding the perfect outfit to play at a wedding. I’m here to support my wife in turn by looking after our 2y old daughter.
After my 10k run this morning, I’m a little sore of the foot so I’ve just decide to sit in my daughter’s buggy… which is amusing passers-by.
It’s about this point that I start to wonder why anybody would care to read this far, I certainly wouldn’t. As I’ve finished my holiday I won’t engage in pure hedonism. I could read an e-book, such as the great “Your Body: The Missing Manual” but I just feel like creating.
In have so much to teach the world: acting through fear, intuiting physics ad you learn it, testing and measuring your marketing, techniques for self love, everything home computing (although one of my companies – EmbraceIT satisfies this need).
Where was I, oh, how to create a wonderful looking FaceBook Page, how do you even uncover the mountain of value you are standing on? What do people ask you about? What do you find easy?
Ohh, gotta run…
Are you uniquely qualified?
Posted: May 23, 2011 Filed under: Business Ownership, Self development Leave a comment »Well, I’m finally doing it… I’m stepping outside my comfort zone and speaking to camera – to the world!
I would like to share the importance of doing what you are uniquely qualified to do. Whatever you’re doing thing to yourself “am I the only person who could be doing this?”, because if you’re not chances are somebody else could do it quicker and better than you. Really focus on what doing what you’re uniquely qualified to do.
Of course this includes being a father, mother, brother, sister, family member. All these things only you can do, but where you can replace yourself… do!
Remember: “Am I uniquely qualified to do what I’m doing right now?”. It’s a great question and thanks to Art Berg in his wonderful book The Impossible Just Takes A Little Bit Longer.
Until tomorrow, see ya!
My tips on how to FOCUS
Posted: April 29, 2011 Filed under: Business Ownership, Self development Leave a comment »I was once told that FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Successful.
This really reverberated with me, and here’s the 10-step process I currently use…
1. Turn Skype OFF
2. Turn email notifications off
3. Turn your phone to airplane mode
4. Take your other phone off the hook
5. Cut-off all other possible distractions
6. Set a timer for 20 minutes
7. Unless the house burns down, do NOTHING else until the timer goes off
8. At 20 minutes decide whether to…
- Carry on for another 20 minutes
- Have a short break (e.g. return a phone call)
- Have a long break (e.g work-out, bath, etc)
9. Repeat until you feel you it’s right to stop
This was partially inspired by the concept of “wiring-in” in the excellent film, Social Network. Also backed-up by an article I read but can’t re-find right now!
Enjoy the power of FOCUS.
P.S. Anyone spot the deliberate error?
The Physics of Company Value
Posted: April 28, 2011 Filed under: Business Ownership, Science Leave a comment »In my work as a Virtual IT Director, I often think about how companies can improve their value by embracing information technology.
A common way to value is to talk about the annual profits, multiplied by some number (typically between 1 and 5).
Value = Profit x Multiple
There are a wash of business coaches out there who will help you to increase your profit. I’m far more interested in how you can increase your Multiple.
Today I decided to look at this equation in terms of basic units. Value is in £, Profit in £ per unit time (e.g. £ per year), and therefore the unit of Multiple must be time. The simple proof is at the end for those who are interested.
What does this mean, how can a multiple have units of time? Pondering that question in the garden today, I decided it makes perfect sense. If you were going to buy a company for a large number of times it’s annual profits, you’d want to be sure that it could produce those profits (or higher) for a long time.
So, my next goal is to start working out the elements of Multiple, particularly in relation to information technology, and business processes. Answers on a postcard.
Workings of how we get to the units of Multiple (a bit geeky)…
In physics there’s a concept that an equation must have the same fundamental (e.g. SI) units on both sides. For example…
Distance = Speed x Time
[Distance] = [Speed] x [Time] <– [] represent “the fundamental units of”
meters = (meters / seconds) x seconds
meters = meters… and all’s well in the world of maths 
I figure we can apply this same logic to our value equation above as follows…
Value = Profit x Multiple
[Value] = [Profit] x [Multiple]
[Multiple] = [Value] / [Profit] <– Simple re-arrangement
[Multiple] = £ / (£/time)
[Multiple] = time
… or in English: “The units of Multiple are time”
FileMaker Pro Separation Model: My Experience
Posted: April 14, 2011 Filed under: Database, Technology Leave a comment »
One of my company‘s projects is coordinating the development of an exciting FileMaker Pro database. I leant what I know about FileMaker by watching John Osbourne’s excellent VTC Tutorials, and by reading The Missing Manual.
We’re deciding whether to design our solution as a single, or as a dual-file solution, and I want to share what I’ve learnt so-far. We’re setup with two files, DATA.fp7 and INTERFACE.fp7. ALL of our tables are currently in DATA.fp7, and they are linked into INTERFACE by adding to the relationship diagram.
Value lists: I’m glad to report that value lists are accessible across files, although you have to name them a 2nd time in INTERFACE.
Validation: Validation pulls through just fine. Where we’ve created special table instances just for validation, like in this very helpful example, we do this in the DATA file as the validation relates to core data. Where table instances are just used for interface purposes, they go in the… well… INTERFACE file!
Sharing: With both DATA and INTERFACE open on one computer, it seems that if INTERFACE is opened as a remote database on another, that it all works just fine.
Relationships:
That’s it for now, still not 100% settled on single or dual files, but I just wanted to share what I’ve learnt so far.
10 Ways To “Increase Your Vibration”
Posted: April 11, 2011 Filed under: Self development, Vitality Leave a comment »
Now as somebody with a background in physics, I feel a little funny about using terms like “increase your vibration”. However, I can feel what it means, therefore it’s important to me. I’m talking about upping your mental energy levels so you can perform your best.
These 10 ways are taken from Napoleon Hill’s famous book, Think And Grow Rich (TAGR). Recently I posted one method a day for 10 days on FaceBook and Twitter, and here’s a summary of what I wrote for keepsakes…
Method 1: TRANSMUTATION OF SEXUAL ENERGY. How do you divert yours into good?
Method 2: LOVE. The more love we have in life, the more love for live. xxx
Method 3: FAME & POWER. How do you use your fame and power as a force for good
Method 4: MONEY. Respect money and it will bring you wonderful freedom.
Method 5: MUSIC. What music helps you get “wired-in” and really cranking?
Method 6: FRIENDSHIP. “Love your family, choose your friends”.
Method 7: MASTERMIND. Get in a group. @karlpearsall is an expert on this.
Method 8: MUTUAL SUFFERING. First of the negative ways, don’t indulge in this.
Method 9: FEAR. False Expectations Appearing Real. Motivating but destructive
Method 10. NARCOTICS & ALCOHOL. These addictions will fulfil you, get help.
In particular I watched the film Social Network recently, and it introduced me to the concept of getting “wired-in”. When I now want to FOCUS (Follow One Course Until Successful), I use sound-isolating headphones and high-energy music to really get things done.
I hope this list has got you thinking, I welcome any comments.
Improving your pitch
Posted: April 9, 2011 Filed under: Business Ownership Leave a comment »
If you found this hoping for a lesson on singing, I’m afraid I’m exactly the wrong person to take that advice from!
I’m talking about your so-called elevator-pitch. If you wound-up in an elevator with just the right person to help you fulfil your goals, what would you say? How do you really get your idea to stand-out? How do you catch their attention?
If you want your big idea to really make it out of the box, you need to remember first impressions really do count. You’ve gotta grab them by the, well, just grab them in the first few seconds.
A week or so ago I met a wonderful chap at a networking event. When I asked him what he did his response was: “I have a corporate massage company”. Now 5 years ago that would have been novel, today I just yawned internally and thought “not another one!”
I suggested a re-vamp of his opening-gambit, to something like this “I offer a service to medium and large corporations that, pound-for-pound, is more effective at increasing employee morale than anything else you could spend your money on”. Which are you more likely to be interested to hear more about?
Another example of pitch was cited by a business coach. Rather than responding “I’m a business coach”, he responds “I can help you get more free time, and make more money faster than anyone in the world – guaranteed”
Remember you need to be…
- Specific. In this day of global audiences and information overload, you’ll only get noticed if you’re really specific about who you want to hear your message.
- Enticing. There’s just no substitute for sex appeal. Your pitch must be dripping with juicy words that create emotion. Avoid being wordy, and focus on positives.
- Need-focused. People don’t wake in the morning wanting a corporate massage, or a business coach. They wake with a desire to have more productive employees, or to have more free time.
Enjoy experimenting with the words of your wisdom.
Fundamental Choices In File Storage
Posted: April 5, 2011 Filed under: Technology Leave a comment »If you work with more than one computer (e.g. you have a laptop and a desktop), or with other people, it’s important you choose the appropriate technology for each document. They all work together well, so you can change your mind later.
Working through the diagram from top-left. If it’s just you making changes to the document your one computer just save as “normal”, to your local drive. Be sure you have a backup of course, but otherwise this is the simplest, fastest and most secure method.
If you have more than one computer, but are generally the only person who edits the document (or at least the only person who edits it at one time), then a sync service like DropBox or SugarSync are both excellent. They also serve as a basic backup system. Try one out for free now.
It’s rare that many people edit the same document on one personal computer, but if they do it’s probably easiest to just save locally.
More and more people want to collaborate simultaneously on a document, perhaps during a Skype chat or similar. In this case check-out the live document options from both Google and Microsoft. These are known as cloud services because the document exists only on a web server. Because of this many people can work on it at exactly the same time, which is pretty awesome.
Enjoy experimenting with the technology, I certainly do.
Why Digital Is Taking Over
Posted: April 3, 2011 Filed under: Technology Leave a comment »You may have noticed digital technology is taking-over from analog practically everywhere. Ever wondered why, is it just a fad or is there something fundamental going on?
I believe there are three reasons…
- It’s “in-vogue”, people do actually buy things because they have the label digital. Hype alone can count for a lot, even in this day and age of information and sharing. Hype may not last as long as it once would before it dies out, but it’s still a hell of an effective fire-lighter.
- Digital resists decay. Everything decays, just think what your kitchen would look like if you never tidied it! Because it’s as simple as possible, on or off, one or zero, digital information is about as unambiguous as it can be. This means that when old-man entropy (the tendency towards disorder) plays his part, he’s less likely to muck things up in a way that can’t be both detected and corrected.
- Computers dig digital. Computers are fast, like really fast, at crunching 1′s and 0′s. They are their staple diet, and they need no translation. Computer are cheap, computers are everywhere, and software makes what they can do limited only by imagination. Digital and computers are a symbiotic partnership from birth. They strengthen one-another’s benefits.
So, next time you feel digital is taking over – it is. I love simplicity, boiling things down to their simplest form, and digital is the perfect manifestation of this. It’s here to stay, it’s wonderful, it’s elegant and it’s game-changing.
Enjoy your computer!
