Terence's jottings

Just dawned on me - Cyberspace Virtual Services has been in business 10 years. As they say - time flies. The following article by David Coursey relates very strongly to small business owners.  TK

Avoid Small Business Mistakes

by David Coursey

If you've been in business for very long, you've made mistakes. In fact, the longer you're in business, the more mistakes you'll make. It's just that the ratio of good decisions to bad ones improves over time.

Like everyone else, I've made mistakes. I've learned from them, both about how to run a small business and more than a little about myself. My most serious mistakes have always involved trust-trusting the wrong people or not trusting my employees enough. This column is about trusting the wrong people.

It is easy, in the early days of the relationship with a big new customer to think everything is going to work out just fine for everyone. So how did I end up with a client owing me $150,000 they had no intention of paying ? and later couldn't pay if they wanted to?

Too much trust

It happened because I trusted them and didn't appreciate the inequity that exists between a tiny business (mine) and a $20-million-a-year business (them). When the relationship ended, I had a contract that specified what I'd be paid for specific work I did, when I would be vested with stock options, and what fees and ownership rights each party was entitled to if the relationship ended. I was also supposed to receive a share of future profits from specific projects.

Nearly a year and $20,000 in lawyer fees later, my lawyer stopped returning my calls. Two additional months passed before my lawyer told me he'd left private practice and that I needed to find someone else to represent me. At that same moment, a major investor foreclosed on the company that owed me the $150,000 and that was that. Did I mention I had about a million dollars in stock options in the dead company?

While $150,000 is a lot of money, it was a payment for work I'd already done and had no ongoing expenses tied to it. I got over it. (That is, until I start thinking about it again and fly into another rage over the CEO who stole my money!)

My loss was nothing compared to some of the company's other vendors, at least one of whom was owed so much money that he ended up losing his house when he didn't get paid.

In retrospect, I realised my relationship with the company soured when they started having serious cash-flow issues and decided, wrongly as it turned out, that they could do what my company did for less money in-house. When that failed, the money problems grew worse and the downward spiral accelerated.

To be continued ...

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David Coursey is CEO of his own small consulting business and has written for a number of technology publications, websites, and blogs. Write to him at david@coursey.com . He's happy to answer reader questions in his spare time.

My favourite links

FileInfo

How about a searchable database of file extensions with detailed information about the associated file types? Each entry also contains information about the file format, a description of the file, and the program or programs that can be used to open the file.
http://www.fileinfo.com/ .

Quotation of the month

"Don't wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there and light the bloody thing yourself."

-- Sara Henderson

Technical tips

Microsoft Excel

Adjusting text to fit within a cell

Often you will find that text is too long to display in a label cell. Enter Excel's AutoFit feature to enlarge the cell enough to fit the contents.
However, this can result in excessive white space in the rest of the column, or row.

So, instead of fitting the cell to the label size, use Excel to resize the text to fit within the cell; as follows:

• Select the cell containing the text that is too long to fully display; press "Ctrl+1"
• In the displayed "Format Cells" dialog box click on the "Alignment" tab.
• Select the "Shrink To Fit" check box.
• Click OK.

But, there's more ... sometimes, using that method, the text will be shrunk to the point of illegibility. In this case an alternate method is to wrap the label text within the selected cell by selecting the "Wrap Text" check box on the "Alignment" tab of the "Format Cells" dialog box.

Remember that this method will increase the height of the cell.

Microsoft Word

Keep Word from spell-checking specific text

If you are in the habit of using Word's spell checker to check only selected text, did you know that you can also turn off spell checking for selected text.

For example, if you're typing a table of names and addresses, or a price list complete with parts numbers, the spell checker will probably flag the entire text as incorrectly spelled.

Prevent the spell checker from checking selected text altogether by following these steps:

• Select the text you don't want to be spell checked.
• Go to "Tools / Language / Set Language".
• Select the "Do Not Check Spelling Or Grammar" check box.
• Click OK.

NOTE: This process will not only exclude the selected text from spell checking but also from grammar checking and "AutoSummarize" procedures.

Microsoft Access

Backing-up data

Always back-up your databases regularly. This is particularly important prior to making major changes to the data or the design.

Open the database to be backed-up and close all database objects (queries, reports etc);

Access 2003:

• Select "File / Back Up Database".
• Select the destination for your backup.
• Click "Save".

Access 2007:

• Click the "Microsoft Office" button.
• Click the "Manage" menu item.
• Click the "Back Up Database" menu item.

In both cases Access gives the backup file the same name as the original file, followed by the backup date.  

These, and other, tips have been garnered from many sources over the years. My grateful thanks to the originators.

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Time management

Some time
management facts

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

80% of employees do not want to go to work on Monday morning. By Friday, the rate drops to 60%.

The average person uses 13 different methods to control and manage their time.

The average person gets one interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour, or 50-60 per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totaling about 4 hours or 50% of the average workday.

80% of those interruptions are typically rated as “little
value” or “no value” creating approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.

20% of the average workday is spent on “crucial” and “important” things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have“little value” or “no value”.

In the last 20 years, working time has increased by 15% and leisure time has decreased by 33%.

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For free Time Management articles to help you get more done in less time, with less stress, visit our website now at: http://www.balancetime.com

Don Wetmore | Professional Speaker | Productivity Institute Time Management Seminars 127 Jefferson St, Stratford, CT 06615 | (203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773 | Fax: (203) 386-8064 Email:ctsem@msn.com

DISCLAIMER: Neither Cyberspace Virtual Services nor Terence Kierans endorse the quality of any products obtained by you as a result of following any link or recommendation published in this newsletter. Please perform your own due diligence before purchasing any product.