-•- HomeOfficeDigest.com Newsletter - Issue 147 -•-
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THE HOME OFFICE DIGEST NEWSLETTER
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BE YOUR OWN BOSS
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Being your own boss sometimes means that you have to be the bad
guy. In this field there are a lot of people who just don't have
what it takes to earn any money. Just as some people can't be
doctors, and some people can't be professional athletes, there
are some people who can't succeed working for themselves. Time
really is money, and if you spend too much of your valuable time
on all the lost causes out there you will regret it. You don't
have to be mean when letting someone know that you'd rather not
work with them any longer, but make sure you are firm and clear!
I know it can be tough sometimes letting someone go, but you are
responsible for making sure your time generates money. Spending
time on a lost cause is no more better a use of your time than
playing minesweeper!


FEATURED ARTICLE
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WHAT?  No Telephone?
By jl scott, ph.d.

I saw an interesting shop down the street yesterday.  Today, I
tried to call to see if they carried something I wanted.  But,
I couldn't do it.  They had no telephone number listed.

Do you believe that?  Well, don't!  It wouldn't happen with an
off-line business.

Every brick and mortar company has a telephone number for
receiving business calls.  Can you even IMAGINE a business with
no way for customers to contact them by phone?  What kind of
business is that?

Yet, what do we have on the Internet?

We have people setting up home-based businesses.  Then, they
seem to feel that since they are working from a home office,
they don't want to provide a telephone number on their web
sites.  What's the thinking here?

Some online business owners believe that they will be inundated
with hundreds of calls per day and receive telephone calls from
cranks.  Not true.  Only a TINY percentage of your web site
visitors will EVER call you.  And you'll probably get just
about as many crank calls as you would with an unlisted private
number from cranks dialing randomly.

If you DO get a crank call?  That thing in your hand is a
receiver - hang it up!

Some people work online during hours that may not be considered
"business hours."  They don't work 9 to 5.  So what?  Any
business can set its own business hours and they can be
anything you wish.  Post your hours - and the time zone!

Oh, they'll just call anyway - day or night?  So turn on the
answering machine after hours.  What's the problem?

One person actually told me that they "hate the phone."  This
person objected to answering the same questions that were
answered on the web site.  All I can say to that is, "Then, get
out of business."  You can't build a company without customer
interaction.  If you don't like people, then you'd better get
out of marketing!

At least in the USA, most telephone companies have a service
called, "Personalized Ring" - or "Distinctive Ring."  They give
you a second number for about $6 per month.  It uses your main
line - but when a call comes in on that number, the telephone
rings differently from your main number.  Hark!  A business
call!  You can now answer your telephone with your company name
- and you don't have to answer it at all "after hours."

How can you run a business without allowing potential customers
- or business associates - to contact you personally?  You
can't.  If you refuse to provide a telephone number, trust me,
smart people will refuse to do business with you!

If you expect your business to be taken seriously, you need to
take that telephone seriously and provide a number on your web
site.  If you refuse to provide a telephone number, don't try
to tell me you even HAVE a business!  You don't.  No legitimate
business hides from potential customers and/or business
associates!

Same ol' rule of thumb:  How to they do it down on Main Street?
Are you in business - or not?


jl scott, ph.d.,  Author
© 2000,  All Rights Reserved

This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
following resource box:

----------------------------------------------------------------
dr. jl scott is the Director of the International Council of
Online Professionals (iCop)  http://www.i-Cop.org - and also
the publisher of MONDAY MEMO! - the ezine dedicated to upgrading
Professionalism on the Web.  For your FREE subscription:
mailto:Monday-Memo-on@MondayMemo.org


DOWNLOAD OF INTEREST - SPECIAL EDITION!
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This week the download of interest is more of a warning! There is
a new virus spreading like wildfire that could potentially give
a hacker access to your credit card information, passwords, or
any other information you've ever used on your computer. If you
don't have anti-virus software yet, or you haven't kept your copy
up to date, now is the time to do so!

The following is from McAfee.com -

Once running, the Trojan attempts to mail the victim's IP Address
to the author. Once this information is obtained, the author can
connect to the infected system via the Internet and steal personal
information such as usernames, and passwords. In addition, the
Trojan also contains a keylogger program which is capable of
capturing other vital information such as credit card and bank
account numbers and passwords.


WHAT ARE THEY THINKING
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How many times have you seen in the news, or been told by friends
not to open email attachments? Keeping that number in mind, how in
the world is it possible for all these email viruses to spread so
quickly? The only way any for any of these email viruses to spread
is if a person sitting at home or work makes a choice to open one
of these attachments. What are these people thinking? Do not ever
open an attachment that you aren't expecting. It's no longer good
enough to only open attachments from friends, with the way email
viruses work now opening any attachment can be dangerous! Please
don't let yourself become of the thousands of idiots out there
who gets nailed by a virus that is so easy to prevent.


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