julyan.biz

Starting your Own Business

Gavin Julyan — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:27:51 +0000

Call it what you like. Procrastination. Fear. Necessary preparation. The fact is that many new business owners fall into the trap of staying ‘busy’ without actually doing business.

Designing business cards and setting up spreadsheets are just some of the tasks that, though necessary, make it tempting to put off doing business. After all, it’s more fun to choose fonts than to make cold calls.

It’s true that starting a business requires a certain amount of preparation, or as Robert Spiegel, author of The Shoestring Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Best Home-Based Businesses, calls it, ‘pencil sharpening’. Here are ten ways to move past pencil sharpening and put those pencils to work.

Read the full article at 3 Steps to Starting your Own Business Today | Entrepreneur Magazine.

Shifting the Monkey

Gavin Julyan — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:33:15 +0000

Everyone has responsibilities, obligations, and problems to deal with in the workplace and in life. Some people, however, have mastered the art of shifting those monkeys onto the backs of others. They claim they don t know how to solve a problem or do the task, they say they don’t have time, they complain, they perform poorly, they find any and every way to avoid the work – and yet somehow, they’re never held accountable. Instead, hardworking, loyal employees who care about results end up shouldering those burdens for their lazy or unmotivated colleagues. The slackers get just what they want – less work – while the best employees become alienated and overworked.

This summary is about a book that every manager should read. See it on Amazon.com: Shifting the Monkey: The Art of Protecting Good People From Liars, Criers, and Other Slackers 9780982702970: Todd Whitaker: Books.

Free and Serious Web Presence

Gavin Julyan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:22:50 +0000

A lot of my clients and potential clients have been asking me how they can get started on the web.

I believe the point is to get familiar with the various aspects of a web presence without paying high university fees.

Below is the 7 step process that will give you a serious web footprint and all for free.

Enjoy the journey.

Build up your connections on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com as a regular habit (or Facebook – if you prefer)
Find Groups on LinkedIn to join. See http://www.linkedin.com/directory/groups/
Create your own website (preferably as a website that details your new business you wish to start) using http://www.wordpress.com and note in particular the comment on http://en.wordpress.com/features/ where it states “WordPress.com has a feature called “pages” which allows you to easily create web pages. For example, you could add an “about me” page with your biography, and a link to that page would be automatically added to your sidebar. You can even create an entire web site using pages on WordPress.com, with a custom home page and your blog as one of the sub-pages.”
Once you have your website started, then use the “Press This” option to help get content on your site (See http://en.support.wordpress.com/press-this/).
Also share your website content on LinkedIn using http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=browser_bookmarklet
Join www.Mailchimp.com and create a web signup form for your website using mailchimp.
Link your website blog automatically to your mailchimp subscribers by using http://mailchimp.com/features/rss-to-email/

Please feel free to chat to me if this gets confusing, boring, pointless, exciting, wonderful or any other adjectives you can think of.

Have fun

Gavin Julyan

The Seven-Day Weekend

Gavin Julyan — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:06:36 +0000

I posted comments about this book in August 2007 (see post) and am finding that its message remains relevant, especially when business and political leadership is looking for more ways to control people instead of trusting them.

The extract below comes from the Amazon site -

Email and paperwork have invaded homes. Most people know how to work on Sunday evening. But no one yet knows how to go to the cinema on Monday afternoon. A new way to work is needed. Since “Maverick!” was published, the growth and success of Semco have been explosive: it’s now five times bigger than it was four years ago. It has embraced the internet world, expanded in services, and employs 2,300 people, compared to 350 when “Maverick!” was written. A new way of working has emerged at Semco of which the tell-tale signs are: hammocks where people rest during the day, Retire-a-Little Plans, the end of the head office, the abolition of control and boarding school mentality. The results: inordinate success for 20 years, practically non-existent staff turnover, and an organization that covers an enormous range of business activity, from machinery to environmental consulting, and from real estate advisory services to new business start-ups, smoothly and coherently. It’s time for a new way to work to be created, and Semco is leading the way. “The Seven Day Weekend” tells the fascinating and unlikely story of how this can be achieved.

Have a look at Amazon.com: The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works: Ricardo Semler: Books.

15 Spreadsheet Formatting Tips

Gavin Julyan — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:21:34 +0000

Basic spreadsheets don’t generally look that great – like everything, Excel gives you the tools, but leaves it up to you to use them.

Here are 15 tips that can help you step up your spreadsheet design So let’s jump right in and create some sweet looking spreadsheets!

Have a look at the full article on Guest Post: 15 Spreadsheet Formatting Tips « PowerPivotPro.

New Year’s resolutions: Just pick one

Gavin Julyan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:55:37 +0000

If you make too many new year’s resolutions, it all becomes rather overwhelming. This, of course, then makes the temptation to be fair and ditch all of them rather than choose which ones to hold onto, somewhat irresistible. In vowing to achieve everything, one invariably fails to achieve anything.

Read the full article at New Year’s resolutions: Just pick one | Leader.co.za.

Financial Modeling

Gavin Julyan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:03:09 +0000

Your financial model is nothing more than certain inputs producing certain outputs. By designing the model correctly, a user should be able to change certain inputs to assess the impact of these changes on the related outputs commonly referred to as a ‘what if analysis’ or ‘stress testing’ a model.

By way of a simple example, your sales revenue line for any specific month should be a function of the number of products sold, at a specific sales price. For ease of use, both you and a potential investor should be able to adjust either of these variables in order to see how resilient the business model is, should your assumptions be incorrect.

Read more about this at Build a Financial Model | Entrepreneur Magazine.

Appointment slots on Google Calendar

Gavin Julyan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:00:50 +0000

The Appointment slots feature lets you set time slots on your calendar that other people can book.For instance, a professor could allow his or her students to reserve time during office hours each week. A hair salon could let anyone visiting their website schedule an appointment during set business hours.This is a handy tool with many possibilities!

Have a look at Using Appointment slots – Calendar Help.

Be Your Own Boss

Gavin Julyan — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 13:30:35 +0000

The Be Your Own Boss franchise and biz ops directory will assist you in researching the large variety of opportunities available in South Africa to those looking to start their own business. Have a look at BeYourOwnBoss – Franchise Directory – Franchise & Biz Ops Finder.

Instant screenshots and screencasts

Gavin Julyan — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:41:31 +0000

Add notated screenshots to all your online conversations, or create a quick tutorial video you can share with the entire company. Get everyone on the same page with Jing.

Have a look at TechSmith | Jing, instant screenshots and screencasts, home.