http://scoutforsuccess.com Ideas, Essays, Articles and Anecdotes from the Entrepreneurial Highway Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:37:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One of the beauties of being a website designer and content developer for small businesses is that I literally learn something (and often many things) new with each project.  Over the years I've worked in various capacities on websites for master knife makers, a knife collector and merchant, a storm water ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2009/12/03/i-love-my-work/ It's that time of year, when the trees are the deepest darkest, green they will be, before the first tiny splashes of color begin to appear.  This month is like a tranquil, sun-dappled porch in the late afternoon, lazy when we take the time to stop and enjoy, lazy and ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2009/08/19/high-summer/ It was 5:57 a.m. as I stood in line outside the designated polling place in the beautiful forest preserve near my home.  Dozens of people had arrived before me, and talked quietly or sipped their morning coffee as we waited for the appointed 6 a.m. opening.  The sun was rising up beyond ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/11/04/of-mastadons-and-voting-booths/ Studs Terkel Social Historian  May 16, 1912 - October 31, 2008 WFMT Radio - Best of Studs Terkel Official Studs Terkel Website sponsored by The Chicago Historical Society http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/11/02/thank-you-studs/ I recently added up the number of business-related hours that I have spent in front of my computer over the last couple of months.  I was surprised at the total. Like many small business owners who provide technology and Internet-related services I expected the number to be high, but not that high.  ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/10/28/techtrepreneurs-step-awaaaay-from-the-machine/ John R. DiJulius has written a book that I not only bought for myself, but have also gifted to a number of my own customers.  Secret Service is remarkable for both its common sense clarity and its numerous examples of real, household-name companies putting the principles defined in the book to work.  Sub-titled ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/10/23/secret-service-systems-for-successful-businesses/ About four years ago, my friend Billy Cochrane and I were sharing driving duties on a 10-hour roadtrip from Jackson, Mississippi to a trade show in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  In addition to being a great friend, Billy is also one of my first ecommerce website customers (VintageKnives.com) and the van was loaded with his ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/10/16/revisiting-the-e-myth-revisited/ Just recently I came across a business-to-business sales seminar I had developed back in 2001, "Panning for Gold - The Internet as a Sales Tool."  While some of the resource links were outdated, the basic premise of the presentation still holds true:  invest 15 minutes on the Internet learning about ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/10/14/panning-for-gold-in-your-marketplace/ Like many small business owners and entrepreneurs, I have a tendency to keep odd hours and workdays. That's one of the reasons it's very important to me to be able to rely on the service providers I utilize for my web-based applications, hosting services, and domain registration, no matter what ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/10/06/great-service-providers-online/ While I knew that the speech recognition program Dragon NaturallySpeaking had been around for a while, I was surprised to learn that it had originally been developed in the early 1980s. I've been considering buying the software for some time and finally ordered it last week. The intuitive interface and the ... http://scoutforsuccess.com/2008/10/06/dragon-naturallyspeaking-thumbs-up-for-great-speech-recognition-software/