e-Text Editor Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Here is a list of e-text editor shortcuts. Hope it helps.

File Operations

Ctrl+N : New file
Double-Click tab bar : New file
Ctrl+O : Open file
Ctrl+S : Save file
Ctrl+Shift+S : Save as
Ctrl+W: Close file
Ctrl+Shift+T : Go To File dialog

Editing

Ctrl+K : Delete to end of line; if the caret already is at end-of-line it deletes the newline.
Ctrl+Shift+K : Delete the entire line
Ctrl+Backspace : Delete to start of word (same as Ctrl+H)
Ctrl+Delete : Delete to end of word
Ctrl+(Shift)+U : Change case on word/selection
Alt+G : Inverse case on word/selection
Ctrl+Alt+U : Title case
Ctrl+T : Transpose, for swapping words or chars.
Ctrl+Alt+R : Run current line/selection
Ctrl+C : Copy (or: Ctrl+Insert)
Ctrl+V : Paste (or: Shift+Insert)
Ctrl+X : Cut
Ctrl+Z : Undo
Ctrl+Y : Redo. If there aremultiple branches to choose fromundo history will be displayed.

Selection

Ctrl+A : Select all
Ctrl+Shift+arrow : Select entire word
Alt+Left-mouse : column selection
Ctrl+Left-mouse : Multi selection
Shift+Home : Selects to the first non-whitespace char on the line, second time the white spaces will be selected as well
Shift+Ctrl+Home : Selects to the beginning of the document
Shift+Ctrl+End : Selects to the end of the document
Shift+Ctrl+L : Selects current line
Shift+Ctrl+W: Selects current word
Shift+Ctrl+Space : Selects current scope. If you keep hitting it, it will cycle through the available scopes.

Folding

F1 : Toggle current fold
Alt+F1 : Open current fold and closes all others
Ctrl+F1 : Fold all
Ctrl+Alt+F1 : Unfold all
Shift+F1 : Select current fold
Left-mouse : Fold end or fold indicator: Select fold, twice to fold
Mouseover : Fold end: Show fold preview Fold indicator: Highlight fold (useful for nested folds)
Navigation
Ctrl-Tab : Go to last active tab (or next tab if used repeatedly)
Ctrl-Shift-Tab : Go to previous tab
Alt+Ctrl+R/L-arrow : Next/previous tab
Alt+Ctrl+Up-arrow : Go to header/source
Ctrl+L : Go to Symbol
Ctrl+G : Go to line
Ctrl+F : Find
Ctrl+G : Find next
Ctrl+R : Replace
Home : Move cursor to the beginning of the line
End : Move cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl+Home : Move cursor to the beginning of the document
Ctrl+End : Move cursor to the end of the document
Ctrl+Up/Down-arrow : Scroll up/down, withoutmoving the caret
Ctrl+1-8 : Go to tab
Ctrl+9 : Go to last tab
Ctrl+0 : List open tabs

View

F3 : Show/hide revision history
F4 : Show/hide visual undo
Ctrl+Alt+P : Show/hide web preview
Alt+Shift+T : Show TODO list

Document

Ctrl+M:Makemilestone
Bundle
Ctrl+Shift+B : Show bundle editor
Ctrl+Alt+T : Select bundle
Esc : Kill current running bundle command

Projects

Ctrl+P : Show/hide project pane
Ctrl+Shift+P : Switch focus between editor and project pane (opening it if needed).
Arrow keys : Up/down and expand/close folder
Enter : Open file in editor
F2 : Rename
F5 : Refresh project view
Shift-F10 : Show contextmenu

Mouse Shortcuts

Double-click : Select word
Triple-click : Select line
Alt-doubleclick : Select scope

Top 10 Reasons to Join a Startup

Joining a startup company is a no-brainer. The pros far outweigh the cons. Whether you’re just graduating, or you’ve done your time “working for the man” now is the perfect time to make the jump.

Go work for a startup company.

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. More influence. With a smaller team, each person at a startup has more say. You should have more opportunity to voice your opinion and influence key decisions. And you want that, right?
2. More ownership. You might not be the founder, but you’re darn close. You should have some equity (or stock options.) Both a sense of ownership, and actual ownership are wonderful things; they’ll give you one more reason to work better and harder.
3. More meaning. The best startups are built on top of a strong purpose and vision; a raison d’etre that truly resonates. It’s a startup’s rallying cry and it provides other likeminded people with true meaning in their work.
4. More comraderie. Startup teams have to gel beautifully to succeed. Doesn’t mean you’ll always get along, but a little Saving Private Ryan never hurt anyone.
5. More diversity. There shouldn’t be much pigeonholing at a startup; you’re going to do and see a lot of different things. You will be thrown out of your comfort zone. You will get a chance to expand your horizons.
6. More learning. Startup environments are crash courses in business and life. You’ll learn more in 6 months at a startup than you will in 4 years at university.
7. More connectivity. With less (or zero) levels of bureaucracy, everyone is closer to one another. You should be well connected to your CEO as well as the network of customers, vendors, VCs, friends, etc. that surround the startup.
8. More emotion. Working at a startup isn’t a constant high. Far from it. But it is intense, and the emotional charge you’ll get on a regular basis is a worthwhile learning experience.
9. More future success. I don’t have any statistics to prove this, but I bet you that startup employees go on to bigger and better things. Whether it’s higher paying / more interesting jobs or starting their own companies, your resume and personal story benefit considerably from living the startup experience.
10. More fun. Startup employees have more fun. It’s just the way it is…

The job market for startup and early-stage companies is very strong. There’s no shortage of opportunity. Top talent can pick and choose amongst a slew of startups eager to hire. The risk is low.

Granted, not all startups are created equally. Not all startups may give you the benefits described above. You can’t dive in eyes closed and expect to find the perfect fit. Make sure you ask the right questions before joining a startup. Plenty of smart people have suggestions on the questions you should ask before joining a startup, so you shouldn’t have a problem being prepared.

But make the leap. Join a startup. It’s worth it.

Firefox Recommended Add-ons

Thriving ecosystem

Since its inception, Firefox has been a great platform on which web developers can build on top of. Recognizing that the core browser must be lean, the Mozilla team put together the infrastructure for creating add-ons. In this single decision, Mozilla created not just a fine browser - but a thriving community and a free marketplace, which links add-on developers directly to browser users. The developers are free to be creative and the users are free to choose the add-ons that they like. Such an ecosystem gives rise to innovation.

Add-ons point to the future of the web browser

Looking at the add-ons that were selected for the Firefox 2 showcase, in some ways they show us what the browser of the future may look like. Indeed that is something that Chris Beard himself alluded to - they view add-ons as a kind of test bed, pulling ideas from the best of them into the core product over time.

The majority of add-ons are focused on integrating web services into the browser, to boost user productivity. In a nutshell, add-ons are about shaving off clicks - but to be fair they do so much more. They create an enhanced, smarter, better browsing experience and ultimately save users' time.

Music, Weather and Maps

The FoxyTunes add-on integrates with your favorite music player and allows you to control the music you are listening to, right from within the Firefox status bar. There are a lot of handy features, my favorite being the ability to change the language and encoding - so that if you are listening to music in a language other than English, the title and the artist are displayed correctly.

Forecastfox brings the weather channel right into Firefox. On the install you select the zip code or city and the add-on does the rest. It relies on AccuWeather.com to bring you the latest current weather conditions, as well as a forecast of the upcoming weather. It is highly customizable and just perfect for the status bar.

Maps+ uses the Yahoo! Maps API to help the user look up addresses. To see it working, highlight any address - we tried a restaurant on this page - then right click and select View map from the context menu. The layered popup with the map appears right next to the address. You can control the zoom level of the map and customize the add-on in various ways.

Bookmarks 2.0

Storing and sharing web content is one of the most fundamental online activities. del.icio.us started the web 2.0 revolution by introducing tagging and social bookmarking. Since then del.icio.us itself and many other companies have enhanced bookmarks in many different ways. Let's look at the latest add-on advancements featured in the top twenty add-ons - and note there are a lot of bookmarking services amongst the add-ons.

Yahoo! released an updated version of the del.icio.us plugin, which replaces browser bookmarks with a view of del.icio.us posts. The StumbleUpon add-on is essential for fans of this service - it features a handy toolbar that lets the users rate and discover web sites. The Clipmarks add-on lets you clip pieces of the page, instead of bookmarking them. This is useful when you are not interested in the entire page but just want to store a paragraph or an image.

The Foxmarks add-on is seemingly simple - it synchronizes your bookmarks between all your Firefox browsers. What's great is that it works in the backround and does not require any input from the user, beyond creating an account. The JetEye addon in some ways is similar to Clipmarks, because it allows the user to collect clips. But it also enables arranging these clips by topic. Yoono is a social recommendation engine for discovering interesting or related sites. The BlueOrganizer add-on, developed by my company AdaptiveBlue, helps users to interact with books, music, movies, restaurants and other everyday things.

The developer add-ons

The showcase also contains three add-ons that help Firefox developers.

GreaseMonkey is an add-on that lets technically savvy users customize the look and feel of web pages. It has been very popular with the community, as it brings impressive possibilities for creativity.

FireBug is an essential debugger which supports JavaScript, CSS, HTML and much more. The Web Developer add-on contains an entire toolset, which is a must have for anyone who is doing web and add-on development for Firefox.

Blogging and RSS

Performancing add-on is a fully fledged blog editor built right into Firefox, which integrates with TypePad, Blogger, WordPress and LiveJournal (amongst others). Sage is a powerful feed reader - with the ability to subscribe to feeds, manage them and import/export via OPML.

Utilities

There are some very nifty utilities that can be integrated into Firefox:

• FireFTP integrates FTP into Firefox
• ChatZilla integrates IRC into Firefox
• Download Statusbar helps you manage downloads right in the status bar
• FlashGot is another download productivity add-on
• Adblock Plus lets you do away with advertisements

Other add-ons in the showcase

• Pronto is comparison shopping add-on which alerts you to potential price savings
• Jaja wires telephony right into the browser
• LinkedIn integrates the popular professional social network into the browser
• Cooliris lets the user preview a page by hovering over links
• Answers is a time saver add-on that lets you lookup information on Answers.com

Fun, useful and exciting

This Firefox showcase is full of interesting and useful add-ons that focus on helping users save time, by integrating web services into the browser. These add-ons point to a future of smarter, better browsers - that will be more aware of the patterns and use cases of interacting with information online.

So that's our take - let us know which of these and other add-ons you use and recommend!

Living on Loyalty, Trust and Big Ideas

There are plenty of reasons to work at a startup. But what those reasons fail to address are some of the core principles that drive startup success.

Not everyone is suited to working at a startup. Even if the reasons entice you, it takes a considerable amount of intestinal fortitude. The ride can be rough. And many of us are programmed to believe in an “us versus them” work environment — the relationship between employer and employee has to be at odds, fellow employees can’t be trusted, it’s a “dog eat dog” world.

All of that is true, to a certain extent, but you can’t succeed in a startup with that mentality.

Startup teams can’t succeed without immense amounts of loyalty, trust and faith in big ideas.

Alexis, an employee at reddit, nailed it perfectly in a recent blog post:

“At a startup, no one needs motivational posters. You work because it’s your damn job and you don’t want to let down the person at the desk beside you.”

“There’s something special about being in that always-sinking-boat of a startup and being able to count on all the folks sinking with you.”

Many people say sacrifice is a requirement of startup success. And in some ways they’re right, because you’re going to make sacrifices. You’ll work weekends, you’ll live on ramen noodles, you might get paid poorly…hygiene is always an issue. And yes, the grass is always greener on the other side. But none of that is really a sacrifice, because you want to be there. If you’re constantly looking at what you’re doing as a sacrifice, get out.
What do Loyalty and Trust mean to you?

Loyalty and trust are necessities if you’re going to build a great startup.

Each person in a startup team has to:

* be there for the greater good
* trust that the other guys will be there
* feel that everyone is putting in the same effort (note: founders put in more time & lead by example)
* be responsible for everyone else’s success
* be responsible to everyone else.

Employees have to trust that the founders know what they’re doing. Founders will make plenty of mistakes, but if a startup employee isn’t prepared to follow, things break down quickly.

Alexis won’t use the “going to war” metaphor for a startup, and he’s right - startups aren’t war. No one dies. No one’s maimed. No one’s tortured (well…) But the camaraderie that must exist within a startup team is very much the same as a unit in the army. You have to trust wholly and completely that I’ve got your back. If you don’t, you can’t succeed. And in a startup team, where each person is insanely important because the team is so small, if one guy isn’t on par with everyone else, you’ve got serious trouble.
Big Ideas are really about big challenges

Lots of startups are founded by dreamers. But in this day and age, when many people believe that web startups are becoming commodities, it’s not just about big ideas and dreams, but really about big challenges. And even a web startup that’s basically a commodity will still encounter big challenges. Succeeding will be a huge challenge.

And you can’t excel in a startup without having a deep desire to take challenges head on. In this case, having an “us versus them” mentality makes perfect sense — you are fighting against the rest of the world, so get ready. More than being ready, you have to want that challenge, otherwise you won’t succeed.

Loyalty, trust and big ideas — That’s what great startups are built on.

The Pros and Cons of Freelancing

Freelancers will often tout the benefits of freelancing. Just as much as people working full-time might do the same (It’s true! Some people love their jobs!) Startup entrepreneurs will rant and rave about the benefits of starting companies and working at startups. Assuming we like what we’re doing, we’ll promote it as “the way to go” and happily list numerous reasons to support our argument.

So what are the pros of going freelance?

Freelancers will rattle off a number of them as “accepted truths” - but let’s look at things a bit further.

The Pros of Freelancing

1. You get to be your own boss. This is 100% the case…until you land your first client. Then say a big happy hello to your new boss! Many freelancers do have more control over their work lives than people with day jobs, and this certainly can be a pro to freelancing, but oftentimes this argument is taken a few steps too far. Clients are bosses (regardless of how badly you want to call them “partners”) and they can be as, or more demanding than anyone else.

If possible, freelancers will gain the ability to set their own work schedule, determine their workload, and have more control over their careers. So there is a certain element of “being your own boss” that’s attainable through freelancing.
2. The money is better. Many people choose to freelance in order to work less hours, in which case it’s very hard to argue that the money is better. For those that are planning to freelance full-time they’ll often cite this as a significant pro to freelancing.

Your hourly rate should be higher as a freelancer. And if you were doing billable work 100% of the time, you should be making more money. But this is where you may run into issues. I always think about cab drivers in this circumstance. Cab drivers (in Montreal) make somewhere around $40-$70/hour based on the rate per minute or kilometer. That’s not too shabby…except for the fact that cab drivers aren’t collecting fares 100% of the time.

As a freelancer, you can’t possibly bill for 100% of your time. You’ll be doing sales (unless it all comes in as referrals, in which case you still have to do a certain amount of negotiation, pre-project legwork), administrative work, etc. Keep that in mind when you’re thinking about the bags of money you envision hauling to the bank vault.
3. You get to work on a variety of projects. This is very often the case. And for many this is an exciting prospect. Even more exciting is the possibility of choosing what projects you get to work on, as opposed to having a boss handing them to you. Just remember: With variety comes uncertainty. Will the new client be reasonable? Will they pay? Will you be stretching yourself too thin? For some, uncertainty is the spice of life (or at least one of them), but it’s important to realize its potential impact.

If you get to the point where you can pick & choose projects, this can be a huge advantage. But it takes time to get there. When first starting out, you may be accepting projects that are less worthwhile, interesting or rewarding (personally and cashflow-wise.)
4. You get to work from anywhere. For many freelancers, the appeal of working from home (or the cafe nearby) is too hard to resist. And I certainly see the appeal. But working from home is not without its challenges. You need a good office setup. You need to minimize distractions. You may get roped into doing chores around the house which you previously escaped from since you weren’t around! And you might become isolated. Oftentimes when people return to the world of day jobs from their freelance careers they point to a need for more camaraderie, and a greater opportunity to work with, and socialize with others.

If you are working at a day job and having the freedom to work anywhere (or at least from home) is important to you, I’d suggest you negotiate telecommuting time. More and more employers are amenable to this type of work setup.

My goal isn’t to burst any bubbles, only provide a perspective that may differ from what many freelancers espouse. Let’s take a look at some of the cons of freelancing…

The Cons of Freelancing

1. You do less of what you really like doing. That’s a pretty broad statement, and certainly won’t apply to everyone. In your day job you may be doing very little of what you really enjoy. But, when it comes to freelancing, there’s no doubt that you’ll do a fair amount of work outside of your expertise, in order to maintain and build your business. Think: Business setup, taxes, accounting, bookkeeping, sales, marketing, contract negotiations, project management, etc. Even worse, wait till a client doesn’t pay on time and you have to hound them — collections is miserable.
2. You have to manage yourself. Some might consider this a pro, but freelancers will often talk about the need for a ton of self-discipline. More than that, freelancers have a huge amount of responsibility resting on their shoulders. The buck stops with you. There’s nowhere to hide. You can’t blame office politics, bad bosses or co-workers, or anything else. It’s much more difficult to have a bad day or even take time off (ask freelancers if it’s harder to go on vacation…) because of the responsibility to keep things chugging along.
3. You have a lack of security. This is one of the most common “cons” people will point out about freelancing. There are three issues when it comes to security: job security, income security and.

Personally, I don’t believe in job security. Unless you’re part of a union, you don’t have a lot of job security. And to rely on job security as a means of keeping your job is a good way of finding yourself unemployed in a hurry.

So I don’t consider the “security” offered at day jobs to be much of a pro versus freelancing except when it comes to the steadiness of the income generated. Freelancers need to plan for uneven income. And this goes beyond having some money saved. Think about when your prospects set their budgets and spend their money. Map out month-to-month your busy and slow times, so in following years you’ll be more prepared.

Freelancers also have a lack of security when it comes to health benefits. Simply put, freelancers are at a disadvantage when it comes to benefits, pensions, and other rights given to full-time employees. Recently in Quebec (and perhaps in all of Canada), they changed the rules governing maternity and paternity leave, so that freelancers could take paid leaves just as employees can. But in most places around the world, those types of benefits are not given to freelancers.
4. You don’t own your work. This is the biggest con of being a freelancer. You’re doing work for someone else, and when you’re done, it’s handed over and that’s that. You retain the knowledge gained, and you may even be given some rights to reuse work you produce for a client, but ultimately you don’t own it. You will most likely not gain any future value from the work (although there are opportunities to negotiate equity deals for work, etc.) Still, it’s not really yours any longer.

As a result, you’re not building up any equity or long-term value as a freelancer. Your rates might go up. You might get more work. You might earn more money. But at the end of the day you’re still a mercenary going from contract to contract, hand-to-mouth.

This is why I’m an entrepreneur more than a freelancer or consultant. By starting a company I’m creating the opportunity to build value in something beyond just myself. I want to own what I do (or at least a piece of it) so that there’s something more tangible to hold onto at the end.

Deciding to go freelance is a major step. It has personal and financial implications that go beyond “simple” benefits like working from home, or setting your own schedule. You need to go into freelancing with your eyes open, aware that it’s not the panacea some claim it to be.

The pros of freelancing are attainable, but they’re goals not givens. If you succeed, then you will be working on projects you’re passionate about, you will be setting your own schedule, you will be making more money. Those opportunities exist, but like starting a new company, the amount of personal, emotional and financial investment can be extremely high and needs serious thought.

Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Your business is great. You’ve invented something better than sliced bread. You offer such an amazing service at such a great price that people should be knocking your door down.

And they might be. But they’re all asking for a proposal.

Proposals are a fact of life. We all do them, and we’re all trying to blow our prospects away.

But most proposals are bad. Here are 10 reasons why proposals fail:

1. They’re too long. Proposals aren’t meant for “shock and awe” - don’t try and overwhelm the prospect into submission. Edit and cut. Cut and edit. There’s no perfect length for a proposal, but how many of your prospects really read the whole thing? They scan and skim till they get to the price and timeline. Keep it short.
2. They don’t reference the prospect’s pain. Why did the prospect ask you for a proposal? You better have a crystal clear answer to that question. Too many proposals don’t reiterate the pain properly. Skipping that makes the prospect feel like you don’t get it.
3. They’re too technical. I know you’re the expert in your field, that’s why I asked for a proposal. You don’t need to inundate your proposal with buzzwords and industry-hooey. A prospect only knows a smidge of what you know about your business, and they don’t really want to know more. Your proposal fails when it sells industry mastery using language I won’t understand.
4. They’re not selling benefits. Proposals that miss out on #2 and focus too much on #3 invariably aren’t selling benefits. If you’re not selling benefits you’re sunk. And for the love of everything that is holy, spell these out as clearly as possible.
5. They’re not well structured. Proposals are stories. And every story has a beginning, middle and end. Think of your proposal as a story and write it accordingly.
6. They’ve got spelling and grammatical problems. A proposal with spelling errors is unacceptable, it’s as simple as that. Grammatical problems may be harder to catch. Three tips: Read it out loud. Write short sentences. Have someone else read it.
7. They’re poorly formatted and packaged. Style counts! On top of that, your proposal isn’t the only game in town. You want to stand out right? Take some time to format things nicely. Add some pictures. Use bigger headers, smaller paragraphs, and color where appropriate. Think jazzy. If you’ve got substance, sell it with nice packaging.
8. They’re missing testimonials and client references. I’ve rarely seen a proposal with testimonials or client references. It makes no sense. Pepper in a few testimonials to spice it up and add a feeling of success. Add in some client references with contact information to give your prospect a clear message, “you know what you’re doing and you can prove it.”
9. They’re missing a thank you. Proposals are personal. You’re not writing installation instructions for IKEA furniture are you? Unless you’re sending a proposal unsolicited (which makes little sense) someone’s given you that opportunity. Thank them for it.
10. There’s no call to action. You submit the proposal. Now what? Um…um…um…oops. Put in a crystal clear call to action. It could be a follow-up meeting, contract signature, or something else — it almost doesn’t matter. What’s important is that there is a next step and you’ve explicitly told the prospect what it is.

Your business rocks. You work hard. You deserve more business.

Don’t let proposals get in the way. Do them right and you’ll win a lot more business.

How to Build Strong Relationships with Your Customers

Treat them like people.

* Don’t think of a customer as a disconnected voice on the phone.
* Don’t think of a customer as a waste of time.
* Don’t think of a customer as a pain in the ass.
* Don’t think of a customer as an open checkbook.

You will always have difficult, frustrating, stressful and downright rude clients. They’re people remember? And some people are just like that. But…

The quicker you can turn the relationship from client to vendor into person to person the quicker you’ll be successful with that client and future ones.

Find ways to open the lines of communication, meet on common ground and share interests.

Always react professionally, calmly and respectfully. Feel free to say what you think is best, what you think is right, but always maintain a tone of professionalism.

Get to know them, and the environment in which they work. Understand the motives behind their behaviors.

Losing sight of a customer as a person is going to lose you that customer. And, get jaded from bad experiences with customers, and you could lose more than just a customer or two…your business could be in peril.

Customers are people. Find out who they really are.

3 Easy Ways to Treat Your Customers Right

It’s simple really: Happy customers will buy more from you and tell more people about you. You want customers buying more and telling more people about you. You want happy customers.

So how do you get happy customers?

* Treat them well.
* Respect them.
* Be honest.
* Respond quickly.
* Be open and accessible.

This is all common sense. But common sense isn’t terribly common, is it?

Here are three stories that demonstrate how easily companies can take basic steps to keeping customers happy for life.

1. Turn your customers into advocates. Andy Sernovitz tells the story of Coffee Cup Software which has a list of 100 customers on its site that anyone can contact for information about the company. I don’t know how the company chose these 100 customers, but it doesn’t matter; they’re giving you unfettered and easy access to them.
2. Customer Relationship Management = Huge Long Tail Profits? Andrew Wee has a couple great examples of how he’s been treated by various financial institutions. Citibank sent Andrew a personalized cake for his birthday. What did the other 6 or 7 banks/trading companies he uses send him? Nothing. It’s so easy to send personalized, quality gifts and “thank yous” to customers, it just takes a bit of creativity and time. And the will.
3. You Don’t Even Have To Go An Extra Mile My own story of buying a gift. The cashier took a bit of extra time to make sure I was treated well, and had a great shopping experience. He didn’t have to bend over backwards; he just paid attention to what was going on and made sure I’d remember how pleasant it was to shop at that store.

It really doesn’t take much to treat customers well.

But you have to recognize the value. And then you have to be willing to take a bit more time, get a bit more creative, push a bit further…

It’s well worth it. Treating customers well is the path towards increased customer loyalty, word-of-mouth and business success.

I Love Customers

Customers are great. If you don’t think so, you’ll never succeed. Surprisingly, a lot of people consider their customers to be “the enemy” or a nuisance they’re forced to deal with.

Just remember that customers:

* pay the bills
* provide good feedback
* find bugs you’ll never find on your own
* use your product in new ways (which can result in new opportunities)
* recommend your product/service to others
* serve as references

Without customers you don’t have a business. It’s as simple as that.

And the key to everything I’ve listed above is having happy customers. Unhappy customers do none of the above. In fact, they do quite the opposite. And that’s bad. (I’m trying to be plain spoken and clear about this!)

The simplest way to have happy customers is through customer support. Of course building a product they want to use is a necessity - but you don’t even have to get that right out of the gate if you’re providing killer customer support.

Customer support isn’t complicated but it is demanding and time consuming. It requires fast response times, courteous replies and decisive action. Luckily for you, very few companies (especially startups!) provide anything remotely resembling quality customer support and so you can immediately use it as a differentiator.

And that’s really the key — leveraging great customer support into a differentiator.

This is especially true for startups. You might not think a startup has the time and wherewithal to focus on customer support, but it’s an absolute necessity. Invariably your product will be rough around the edges, bugs will emerge and there will be a shortage of features. On top of that, you’re the new kid on the block, so customers may look at you with a bit of concern (especially in a B2B market.) “How long will they last?” “Can they really provide the level of product quality and service we need?” To assuage those concerns, and balance against the shortcomings of an early product, use great customer support.

Doing so will increase the likelihood of good things happening (see the list above if you need a reminder.) Customer support can be a strong differentiator if you maintain it at exceptional levels, because you can be sure others won’t bother. They don’t recognize the value. And they’re losing business because of it.

10 Tips for Picking a Great Freelance Vendor

The pros and cons of freelancing are fairly well known. And freelancers have no shortage of stories about bad clients. But what about bad freelancers? Does such a thing exist? Of course it does. And there’s no worse feeling than paying someone a lot of money to do work for you only to have them screw it up or bail on you completely.

So what can a client do in a situation where the vendor screws up?

Honestly, not much. Certainly you should stop paying them, but recovering money already spent will be extremely difficult. The best option is to tell everyone you know about the bad experience and lousy vendor. Negative word of mouth (especially if you blog about it publicly) can put a real dent in a freelancer’s future, and it might spur them into action.

Hopefully, it never gets to that point, because if it does the results are never pleasant. Publicly humiliating people is unpleasant (even if it generates results), and no matter what, you’re likely to get screwed out of money and your project.

The best defense against bad freelance vendors is to pick them carefully.

When selecting vendors you have all the control. You can ask for as much information as you want. You can do as much research as you want. You hold most if not all of the cards, so it’s up to you to use them.

1. Get referrals. The best way to find a good vendor is through a referral. If a friend or trusted colleague recommends someone to you, that’s worth a ton. Having said that, don’t take the referral at face value and leave it at that. Do your own research. The person referring a freelancer to you may have different standards. But the best place to start when looking for a freelancer is through your own network.
2. Forget about the lowest price. Generally, you scrap the lowest bid that comes in for your project. (Often people suggest you scrap the highest bid as well, and go for something in the middle.) The lowest bidder may be a good vendor, but it’s a warning sign. You have to ask yourself, “Why are they lower than everyone else?” The answer doesn’t really matter (and it’s not worth trying to figure out), so just thank them and move on. Price is a critical component of picking a freelancer, but if it’s the most important point, you’re in big trouble already.
3. Ask freelancers to explain their price. It doesn’t really matter how a freelancer is pricing the project, you have a right to more details. This is especially true when the project has a fixed price. The vendor will give you a number - $10,000 - but what does that really mean? Ask the vendor to break it up on a deliverable-by-deliverable basis. Or they may have another structure (work, project management, profit, etc.) … it doesn’t matter, you just want to know. Vendors often don’t like doing this because of how they estimating the price of projects (often very poorly) and it requires more effort and leads to more debate on the minutiae of the pricing, but for the client it can be very worthwhile.
4. Get references. One of your most effective weapons against crappy freelancers is to check references. Freelancers will give you their best ones (of course), so it’s up to you to ask good questions of them to get real information. Find out how the vendor reacted under stress. Find out how effective the vendor was as a communicator. Find out if they ever blew any deadlines, and what they did about it. Don’t be shy when probing for information from references. And always ask these two questions: “Would you hire the vendor again? And, would you recommend the vendor to others?”
5. Hunt down your own references. Nothing says you can only speak to the references a vendor gives you. Why not find others? Presumably the vendor has a portfolio; so look up those clients and reach out to them without the vendor’s knowledge. You may find some surprises.
6. Leverage social networking. There’s a very good chance the freelancers you’re looking at are using Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking services. At minimum you should be doing a Google search and hunting around for information on them. Then dig a bit deeper and look for them on social networking sites.
7. Test them on smaller projects. If possible, give a freelancer something small but time-sensitive to do first. It might be a small piece of the bigger project, or something else completely. Test them. It’s a small test, but it’s better than doing nothing. You want to see if they deliver the goods, on time and on budget. You want to assess their communication and operational skills. You want to build a relationship with the freelancer to see if you’ll gel.
8. Spread payments out. There are very few reasons you should have to pay everything upfront. Break up the payments based on deliverables, with some amount upfront. The bigger the project, the more you can chunk up the payments. On smaller projects you can go 50-50 (50% due at the start, 50% due at the end), but most often I prefer 33-33-33 or 25-25-25-25. Of course that works well on fixed price projects. For hourly projects, you can pay based on milestones or at certain time intervals (i.e. every 2 weeks.) And make sure payment is due on your acceptance of delivered work not on the simple delivery of something (which may be crap!)
9. Define the working arrangement. How you communicate and manage the project with your vendor is critical for its success. So, define those terms early on. For example, do you want to make sure the vendor is available via Skype or another online chat tool? Do you expect weekly status reports? Do you want regular face-to-face meetings? How is the vendor expected to deliver the project? Think about the mechanics of the relationship and get agreement on those details as quickly as possible.
10. Hire multiple vendors. On bigger projects consider hiring multiple vendors. This comes with its own challenges — having them work together, integrating work from different people, etc. — but it can mitigate the risk of one vendor totally ruining your project. Try and compartmentalize the work they have to do, so it doesn’t require a lot of integration. If the vendors have to work together, try and get them in a room together and make sure communication is strong.

Picking a great vendor is definitely a challenge.

You may not be able to follow all of the steps above. What happens if you can’t find a referral, for example?

Do your homework. Research potential vendors and freelancers as much as you can. Demand whatever you want from them, because it’s your money and project on the line. The sooner you weed out lousy vendors, the better. And, by going through a rigorous selection process you give yourself the best chance of success. Freelancers may grumble and groan at the amount of effort needed to close the deal, but if it’s a good fit and they really want the work, they’ll do what’s needed to make sure you’re comfortable with them.

How To Price Freelance Projects Successfully

One of the biggest challenges for new freelancers is pricing.

Pricing projects isn’t easy. There are plenty of factors that come into play:

1. How long will the project take?
2. How clear are the client’s requirements?
3. How well do you know the client?
4. How likely are they to stay on course?
5. How likely are you to get future work from them?
6. How experienced are you on these types of projects?
7. How valuable is the project to you?
8. How valuable is the client to you?
9. How busy are you with other work?

And then you also have to decide how to charge: hourly, fixed price or on retainer? Or a combination?
Estimate Project Lengths as Accurately as Possible

Estimating how long a project will take is the key to pricing it well. If you can’t estimate the length of a project you’ll never come up with a fair price, and more than likely you’ll end up losing.

You can consider an endless number of factors when estimating a project, including some of the questions I’ve listed above. For example, if you’ve done many similar types of projects, you’ll have a better idea of how long the new one will take. If you’ve worked with the client in the past, you know their tendencies and can anticipate pitfalls.

No matter what you do, always add a buffer.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve worked with the client before, know exactly what the client wants, and have done the same thing a thousand times before. Buffer it.

The size of the buffer you use is up for debate, but I’d generally increase your time estimate by 15-30%.

If you have to increase it much more than that because of concerns you have over the project (i.e. fuzzy guidelines, sketchy client, etc.) then reconsider the project completely because it could end up biting you in the rear.

Projects almost always take longer than you expect, so buffer your estimates each and every time.

Whether you choose to charge for that buffered time estimate is a different story, but generally, I would recommend that you do so. And clients should expect that to be the case.
Bad Clients

Such a thing exists. I’d wager that every freelancer has experienced a bad client or two. And the first warning signs will appear when you’re pricing projects for them.

The warning signs of a potentially bad client include:

* Wishy washy requirements.
* Poor communication skills.
* Unwillingness to follow early recommendations you have.
* Unwillingness to answer questions about the project’s budget.
* Always trying to undercut.
* Unwillingness to pay something upfront.
* Constantly promising bigger and better.

These indicators aren’t absolutes. But keep an eye out for them anyway. On the last two points, I’d add the following:

1. Always get money upfront. Especially from new clients. Stick with a simple structure: 50% upfront, 50% upon completion of the project, or 33% upfront, 33% midway (agree on this point in the project before), and 33% at the end.
2. Be wary when clients promise lots and lots of future work. I realize this sounds very pessimistic on my part. I am a huge fan of building long-term relationships with clients (one off clients aren’t the most rewarding or profitable!) But, if a client is “bribing” you to lower your price because they’ve got “tons of work in the pipeline” be very, very careful. Even if they do have a lot of upcoming work, once you’ve set a price for the first project it’s going to be hard to raise that price later on.

How Should You Charge: Hourly, Fixed Price or Other?

I’ve always been flexible on this, adjusting my pricing approach on a project-by-project basis. Generally, I prefer fixed price projects, and so do clients, because they have the clearest sense of what the cost will be. You can also buffer fixed price projects better, because you’re not asked to justify every hour in your estimate (nor should you have to.)

Fixed price projects also help you manage your own finances - you’ll have a clearer sense of what revenue is coming in and when.

Even with a fixed price project, you’ll need to base it off an hourly rate (even if you don’t reveal the hourly rate to the client.) So it helps to have a sense of what the going rate is in your industry.

I’m a big fan of retainer projects. Most retainer projects are monthly. They’re great because of the consistent revenue and the ability to build long-term, positive relationships with clients.
When Should You Negotiate Price?

Everything is negotiable. But you should know your own parameters and conditions for negotiation. When are you comfortable negotiating price, and why? Some things to consider:

* Your current and upcoming workload. The busier you are, the higher your prices should go. It’s really as simple as that. Having said that, even if you’re desperate for work, be wary of dropping your prices too far. You don’t want to look cheap, and you’ll have a hard time bringing those prices up, later on.
* Name recognition of the client. You may consider lowering your price because having the client on your client list is a real win. And truth be told, big companies negotiate just as hard as small companies on price, even if they have the budget — they also have the power. There is something to be said for name recognition, but don’t put too much weight on it.
* Profile of the project. A high profile project that will generate a lot of buzz could be valuable, but make sure the project will be high profile amongst your targeted prospects. Otherwise, your return on investment (i.e. taking a lower price) will be minimal.
* The “fun” factor. No one wants to work on boring projects, but freelancers do it all the time to pay the bills. Some freelancers even call that work their “bread and butter.” Then a fun project comes along and they’re willing to slash their prices to do it. I must admit, out of all the reasons you might lower your price, this is one of the better ones.
* The “cause” factor. When a project has real meaning - a “higher cause” or purpose - you might decide to reduce your rates. After all, a little good karma never hurt anyone…

Ultimately, you have to decide how flexible you want to be with your pricing. Be careful about negotiating too much — if you drop your price 30% or more from the original estimate (without the project scope changing in parallel) it might look like you were trying to price gouge before, or you could end up losing money. You lose money on freelance projects when you book yourself too cheaply and can’t make more money on other projects and opportunities that come your way. If you do a project for 6 months and earn $5 you’re losing money, because you could have and should have been earning much more.

14 Tips for Moving From Full-Time to Freelance Work

Leaving a full-time job to become a freelancer can be very scary. It can also be extremely exciting and rewarding.

It’s not always the most obvious transition. There’s a lot to learn and do when setting yourself up as a freelancer.

You will make mistakes. There will be hiccups along the way. But as long as you’re prepared for those stumbles and missteps, you’ll end up succeeding.

The biggest challenge for a freelancer is first “setting up shop”. You decide it’s time to strike out on your own, and you put the proverbial sign on the door — “I’m open for business.” But now what?

There are a number of things you should do before you launch your freelance career, and shortly thereafter. Here’s a collection of 14 tips to help you:

1. Get work from your past employer. This happens more than you might realize; someone leaves their day job but brings contract work with them from the employer. It’s a great way to get started quickly in your freelancing career. Your employer might be upset that you’re leaving, but they’ll also appreciate your willingness to stay on as a freelancer. It saves them the hassle of replacing you immediately (or ever), and can be cost beneficial to them as well.
2. Get endorsements from your past employer and co-workers. If you’re leaving your job on good terms, there’s no reason you can’t ask for endorsements. It’s the kind of thing employees rarely do for themselves (although the functionality exists for you to do so very easily through sites like LinkedIn), but as a freelancer you will rely heavily on word-of-mouth and other people’s recommendations.
3. Pick the right time to make the switch. You should think strategically about the perfect time to start your freelance life. Do you know when your target market of clients spends money? Don’t make the jump to freelance work five minutes after all your prospects’ budgets are set for the year…

Are there big projects at work you should finish first to get good endorsements and future work from your soon-to-be ex-employer? Do you have money saved, to handle potential downturns?

You can jump into the freelance fire with both feet without paying attention to the environment around you, but it will be much more effective and profitable if you time the move carefully.
4. Don’t incorporate, but learn about business structures. There’s no reason to incorporate a company immediately (and you might never have to), but you owe it to yourself to understand the various business structures and how they differ. Christine Kane suggests that you incorporate as a business, which can make a lot of sense once you’ve settled in.
5. Find a good accountant. Regardless of your business structure, find a good accountant. You’re now entering the realm of tax deductions, business expenses and other “fun” stuff. You want to maximize your tax deductions, and I can guarantee you that at the beginning you’ll be missing opportunities. Beyond tax deductions, a good accountant can help you setup a financial tracking system; what you need to track, how it needs to be tracked, etc. They can also make sure you don’t run afoul of any tax laws.
6. Research market prices. You may already have a sense of what to charge customers, be it on a per project or hourly basis, but it’s always worthwhile to find out what everyone else is charging as well. If you have enough colleagues in your industry it shouldn’t be hard to find out. Of course, what you do with that information is the big question - do you charge the same, lower or higher?
7. Register your name as a domain name. Part of being a freelancer is developing your personal brand and raising your profile. You want people to know your name and associate your name with the work you do. So if possible, register your name as a domain: benyoskovitz.com or bobsmith.com. Even if you don’t put anything up there, at least redirect it to wherever your Internet presence lives.
8. Start a blog. If you’re not already blogging, you should. It’s the single best way to raise your profile and attract opportunities. You need to demonstrate your authority and expertise in your field. You need to be connecting with others in your industry, potential partners and clients. You need to be “out there.” So get blogging. If you’re already blogging, I would re-examine your efforts, and see where you can improve your blog’s value to your freelance business.
9. Setup a good home office. Your work environment will be essential to your success. Setup a comfortable, well-organized space that you’ll want to work in on a daily basis. You’ll be spending a lot of time in your office (more than the amount of time you spent at your day job’s office), so take the time and spend the money to do it right. Comfort is key, but so is the efficiency of the space; Is there enough filing? Do you have the right supplies? Is everything easily accessible? Etc.
10. Get out of your office! You just setup the perfect working environment, so now it’s time to get out of there. And fast. And often. One of the biggest pitfalls for new freelancers is spending too much time on their own. This gets worse when clients are remote; there’s almost no reason to leave the office. But the isolation can be difficult to handle, especially if you’re used to an active work environment from past jobs. Make the effort to meet people in-person, whether they’re clients, prospects, vendors, others in your industry, or other freelancers.
11. Learn about sales and marketing. One of the biggest challenges for freelancers is sales and marketing. For most of us it’s not something we did in our previous careers, but now we’re thrust headfirst into bringing deals through the door. Hopefully you get plenty of business through referrals and word-of-mouth, which reduces the sales and marketing burden. But if you abhor sales and marketing, then freelancing is much more difficult.
12. Find helpful tools, but don’t go overboard. There’s no shortage of helpful software and productivity tools out there for freelancers. But you don’t want to spend too much time on the tools to make your business click; you haven’t really got a business yet! Better yet, focus on being productive and getting yourself into a routine. And find resources out there that can bring in business versus help you stay organized on business you don’t have yet.
13. Tell everyone about the switch. When you make the move from day job to “all the time job” (which is exactly what being a freelancer means: You’re almost always “on”), tell the world. If you can stand on a tall building with a megaphone, do it. Of course, don’t blame me if you’re arrested…The goal of course, is to let people within your network know that you’ve made the change. You never know who might be able to bring you work once you’ve told your immediate friends and family, shared the news on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, etc.
14. Get inspired. It’s all up to you now. No co-workers. No boss (excluding your clients — the phrase “working for myself” is rather inaccurate and shortsighted.) No one to blame. It’s just you, yourself and you. That means a lot more responsibility. It means a lot more discipline and many more challenges on the horizon. So get inspired. And stay inspired. If you hit a slump at your day job, you can probably skirt by without too many repercussions. But lose motivation and interest as a freelance and you can find yourself in serious trouble.

At the end of the day, the move from full-time to freelance is a challenging one. Until you’ve done both (separately and at the same time) you can’t fully appreciate the pros and cons, issues and anxieties that come with freelancing. Don’t panic. Be prepared, and think long term, because you won’t find the answers in a day or two. Freelancing is a skill and art that takes time to master.

The Top 10 Tips For New Consultants And Freelancers

You’ve just decided to leave your job. Or maybe you’re moonlighting. Either way you’re out there, offering your services to the highest bidder. Congrats!

The world of consulting and freelancing is a vast, mercurial place filled with all sorts of opportunities. But there’s danger lurking about as well. When you first jump into the game, eager for that first contract, you can find yourself in trouble with difficult clients, overblown projects, time constraints and more.

Here are 10 tips to help new consultants and freelancers get a headstart:

1. Set Expectations As Clearly As Possible. This is harder than it sounds. Clients are notoriously bad listeners. They want the moon, but they want to pay in loose change. Or they don’t quite know what they want but they want a super-accurate quote. Your job as a consultant or freelancer is to explain what you’re going to do and for how much and in what time frame as clearly as you possibly can. Write it down. Tell them. Repeat yourself. Write some more. Get them to sign proposals and specifications.
2. Get Money Upfront. Always ask for a percentage of the contract upfront - to be paid before you start. A decent amount is 25% or 33%, but even 10% of the contract in your bank account before you do a lick of work is better than nothing. You’ll have to ask for it to get it, very few clients will hand it over.
3. Make Sure Payment Terms Are Agreed On. There are two key elements when it comes to payment terms — (1) When you can invoice, and (2) When they’ll pay. Setup a payment schedule and make sure you know their payment terms. Oftentimes it’ll be Net 15 or Net 30 - which means they’ll pay an invoice in 15 or 30 days, but some companies have 45 or 60 day terms (which are not good for you!)
4. Get Expenses Paid For. Try and get the client to cover your expenses. The most common would be travel costs. There may also be specialized equipment needed to do a job, or other things you need to purchase. A web designer might need to purchase some stock photography, for example. If you can’t get this stuff paid for, consider increasing your contract price to cover any expenses you foresee.
5. Be Ready To Stop Work If You Don’t Get Paid. This is tough because it’s the start of a souring relationship, but you’re not a volunteer. You might consider having something in the contract/agreement that clearly stipulates work stoppages upon non-payment. Or, you leave it open-ended, at your discretion; but be mentally prepared and tough enough to tell the client, “No money, no work.”
6. Get a Testimonial or Reference During the Project. You don’t have to wait for the end of the project to ask for a testimonial or reference. Hit ‘em up in the middle, assuming things are going well and you’re getting positive reviews from the client. How do you get a testimonial? You ask. Sounds silly, but it’s true.
7. Track Your Time. Even if the client isn’t expecting timesheets from you, track your time anyway. Do it for your own understanding of how long things take. Do it so you’ll get more accurate at pricing projects (cause you’ll probably be lousy at it for awhile.) Do it in case a client demands justification for work you’ve done.
8. Don’t Ignore Client Communication. Managing and communicating actively with clients is critical to success as a consultant or freelancer. It’s not enough to do the work. They’ll want updates, status reports, etc. The more handholding you can do — without it consuming too much time and taking away from getting your work done — the better. A well-updated client is generally a happier one, even if you’re bringing them bad news, because they’ll feel on top of the situation and more in control.
9. Network Within the Organization. It’s always a good idea to inculcate yourself as deeply into your client’s organization as possible. If you’re hired by a District Manager, try and get introduced to her boss or other District Managers. The more connections you have the better. For starters it can lead to more work. It can also help in situations where your primary contact disappears - maybe they quit, get transferred / promoted, etc. Lots of opportunity is lost by consultants and freelancers when they’ve only got one contact in an organization and that contact is no longer in a position to hire them.
10. Document Everything. The more you track - in writing - the better protected you are in almost every imaginable circumstance. Miscommunications can be minimized and disasters can be contained by documented proof of what’s going on. As well, documentation is a valuable asset for setting clear expectations, defining goals and understanding project scope. Just write it all down.

Being a consultant or freelancer can be one of the most rewarding professional experiences. You’re an entrepreneur, growing a business. Opportunity abounds. You finally get to take your expertise and leverage it the way you want.

But it’s a learning process. Sometimes it can be a fairly steep learning curve, and you have to be prepared for that.

7 Ways To Avoid Pointless Meetings

Generally, meetings suck. We all accept that as truth but we have them anyway. Endless, endless meetings…

I think we’re addicted.

Given our love for meetings, we need to make them more effective. Having recently “enjoyed” several truly pointless meetings, I know there’s a better way.

The easiest answer is: “don’t have them at all.” That might work, but generally that’s impossible. So…

1. Make sure the meeting has a clear purpose. If I could scream this, I would: “What is the purpose of this meeting?” If you can’t define the purpose clearly, or you’re obfuscating it in order to get me into the meeting then shame on you.
2. Avoid suspense. There’s no place in meetings for suspense. Whether you’re delivering bad news or good news - just get to the point. You can explain all the circumstances of your news after the fact, but don’t keep people sitting around waiting.
3. Document what’s going on. The best thing about a meeting is not remembering what was talked about 5 minutes after it was finished. I suppose to avoid pointless meetings I could say, “be remarkable and memorable” but barring that, pick one person as secretary and have them distribute their notes later on.
4. Avoid distractions. Every meeting has at least one guy that’s distracted by something. He’s looking at his computer screen, staring out the window, signaling to people walking by the conference room, or picking his nose. Boot his butt out of there, he’s Mr. Pointless Meeting.
5. Have an agenda. This won’t work for impromptu meetings, but an agenda is a very good way to keep people on track. Distribute it beforehand. Don’t ask for everyone’s approval. If you do, and don’t get it, you’ll have a harder time following the agenda. Agendas are an opt-out effort; if someone doesn’t put in suggestions or request changes (or respond in any way) they’ve - by default - accepted the agenda.
6. Avoid regular meetings if there’s no agenda. Following point #4, if you’re having a regular, weekly meeting but there’s no agenda, why have the meeting? If you say “habit” then poke yourself in the eye. Meetings aren’t meant to satisfy your need for organization and habitual, mindless behaviors; they’re there to solve problems.
7. Schedule something critical right after. If you have the sense that a meeting may be pointless schedule something important right after. Tell the attendees as soon as you get in there, so you’ve got an escape route setup. You could always fake it, or even have someone call you during the meeting to get out, but it’s much more effective if you legitimately have to move on. It’ll help you keep others focused, moving through the agenda and accomplishing something.

Meetings don’t have to suck.

Many of them do, and our corporate culture seems bent on enforcing as many hours of meetings as possible. But there are better ways.

7 Little Tricks To Speak In Public With No Fear

Over the years, I finally overcome my fear of public speaking. I can now speak at any function unprepared and even though the nervousness is still there, I am able to control it. It was not easy but I made it with some help from books and a few techniques I develop myself.

Hopefully these tricks will be able to help you as they had helped me in overcoming fear of public speaking.

1) Admit nervousness

All you have to do is admit that you are a bit nervous speaking to your audience. When you do this, the audience will be more forgiving if your nervousness shows up later on. More importantly you will feel more relaxed now that they are not expecting a world-class presentation. Imagine their surprise when you gave them the best presentation ever despite your nervousness.

The best way to do this is by joking about it. Here’s an example of a good one. “On the way here, only God and I knew what I will be presenting. (looking a bit nervous) Now, only God knows.”

2) Redefine your audience

Redefine your audience generally means changing how you see your audience. Instead of seeing them as lecturers who are evaluating you, maybe you can convince yourself that they are all fellow students who are in queue to present after you. They are all equally nervous so there is no reason why you should be too.

Or perceive them as long lost friends that you haven’t seen for 10 years. This way you can maintain eye contact trying to figure out where you have seen him before. To the audiences, they will see a very friendly and personal presentation.

Do not try to convince yourself that they are babies in diapers or that nobody is around as suggested by some books. It is very hard to convince yourself that no one is around when you are actually speaking to them.

3) Invest in visual aids

Imagine a presentation with beautiful PowerPoint slides and even more impressive notes given to each of your audience members. Half of the time, their eyes will not be on you. They will read through the notes and your fancy slides. This will help a lot as you can then speak to the people who are not looking at you. When they look at you, you just change your focus to other people who are not looking. Giving a speech to people who are not looking at you is always easier.

4) Make mistakes intentionally

This is another trick I encourage you to try. The idea is to gain control of your audience. If you can make them laugh and be more interactive with you, your presentation will have that casual feel to it which will make it more memorable than others. Ultimately you will find it easier to do.

5) Speak to one person at a time

One of the most terrifying things about public speaking is the crowd. Just by looking at the crowd, all in silence just to hear you speak, will send shivers down your spine. To overcome this, you just need to speak to one person at a time.

Choose one member of your audience and dedicate your whole presentation to him or her. Just assume that everyone else is not paying attention. When someone asks you a question, change your focus to that person and answer the question as if the two of you are in a coffee shop chatting away. Isn’t that the most relaxing way to handle a crowd?

6) Be impressive with personal opinion

Just like blogging, everyone can copy an article and paste it onto their blog. However, people read blogs not only to know about things happening but to know what that particular blogger’s opinion is on the matter.

When you speak or give a presentation, try to squeeze in a few of your personal thoughts on the matter. Of course these should be prepared early on. However, you should make it as if the ideas are “just in” while you are presenting. That will differentiate your presentation from the rest, and when you see the interested look on the faces of your audience, it will elevate your presentation to another new level, a level where you start having fun.

7) Have fun experimenting

This is the most important tips of all. Have fun with the crowd. Try new ways to give the best presentation to your audience. Maybe experiment with a new funny approach, or walk around the hall instead of being static on the stage. Have fun with experimenting on human behavior and you will see that public speaking is not that bad after all.

Remember that there are no failures, only different results.

Have fun!

4 Effective Presentation Techniques

Every once in a while, we are entrusted with the task of presentation. It may be to demo a new product, to present a plan or to explain a new process that you’ve helped create. Whatever the reason and however many presentations you’ve given before, it’s something that not everyone is comfortable doing.

Here are some of the presentation techniques that I’ve learnt in my experience to help you conduct an effective presentation.

Setting the stage

Always start with an intro. Take half a minute to introduce yourself to all the attendees. If the demo is between 2 teams, your team has to be introduced as well, in which case it is better to let everyone introduce themselves. I say a half a minute for each person attending. Same goes for the other team in the room or on the phone or on the screen (video conferencing). This way you set the stage for a collaborative, interactive meeting. I will talk more about this later in this post.

Do a brief intro on the subject of the demo. If you are doing a demo of a new product or an updated version of the product, take a few minutes to talk about the product, its purpose, the business need, etc. Take 3 minutes tops.

Reserve a minute to explain the structure of your presentation. Obviously, you have thought through the topics you will cover, the depth to which you will go, etc. So, don’t keep it a secret; provide a “roadmap”. You don’t want anyone getting lost. It is a good habit to give handouts of this “roadmap” to everyone - a one pager.

Setting the stage should take you around 5 to 10 mins, depending on the number of people attending. I say keep the audience to around 10 people to have an effective presentation, unless of course you are Martin Luther King or Obama.

Force a pause

When you dive into the meat of your presentation, do not talk away as if there is no end. It may sound like you are rambling. You do this maybe because you are fast talker by nature or maybe you’re just plain nervous. In any case, a presentation needs “forced pauses”. To be effective, you have to cultivate this habit. You want to give an opportunity for the audience to digest all the information and think through it for a minute or two. A good practice is to plan your “forced pauses” out such that you can invite questions from your audience.

In the beginning, I know it will be tough to implement this but trust me: you will get used to it.

Don’t do all the talking

Make it interactive. Pass the ball around whenever you can. Let everyone participate. Remember when you attended a demo meeting and hoped no one will notice you dozing off. Well, you did that because you were bored. It is not (always) your fault. I say the presenter made it boring. He or she did not invoke your thoughts and make it interesting enough for you. So, when you are the presenter, please don’t make the same mistake. Let everyone participate. Think of it as a few moments you introduce to help you relax and refocus.

Ice-breakers

The most effective presentations or meetings that I’ve attended were those that were informative and enjoyable at the same time. These are meetings where the presenter or an attendee sneaks in some witty remarks - the ice-breakers.

How many, how often and what kind of jokes you introduce will matter here and if you push it too far over the limit, it can kill your presentation and most likely you would never present again. So, I must warn you that this technique is not for everyone. Its success is very dependent on your wits, the timing, the audience and most importantly your presentation style, which will differ from person to person. But if you can work it, you have a powerful presentation tool.

These are some of the many techniques that will make you an effective presenter. You may already be one or you maybe one in the making. Do send in your comments and share your tips and tricks with the rest of the world. Don’t keep it a secret.

10 Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations

“Oh no! Not another boring PowerPoint presentation! My eyes, my eyes…!!!”

How much does it suck to be in the audience for yet another drawn-out, boring, lifeless slideshow? Worse yet, how much does it such to be the one giving it?

The truth is, bad PowerPoint happens to good people, and quite often the person giving the presentation is just as much a victim as the poor sods listening to her or him.

Here are ten tips to help you add a little zing! to your next presentation. They are, of course, far from comprehensive, but they’re a start. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments.

1. Write a script.

A little planning goes a long way. Most presentations are written in PowerPoint (or some other presentation package) without any sort of rhyme or reason.

That’s bass-ackwards. Since the point of your slides is to illustrate and expand what you are going to say to your audience. You should know what you intend to say and then figure out how to visualize it. Unless you are an expert at improvising, make sure you write out or at least outline your presentation before trying to put together slides.

And make sure your script follows good storytelling conventions: give it a beginning, middle, and end; have a clear arc that builds towards some sort of climax; make your audience appreciate each slide but be anxious to find out what’s next; and when possible, always leave ‘em wanting more.

2. One thing at a time, please.

At any given moment, what should be on the screen is the thing you’re talking about. Our audience will almost instantly read every slide as soon as it’s displayed; if you have the next four points you plan to make up there, they’ll be three steps ahead of you, waiting for you to catch up rather than listening with interest to the point you’re making.

Plan your presentation so just one new point is displayed at any given moment. Bullet points can be revealed one at a time as you reach them. Charts can be put on the next slide to be referenced when you get to the data the chart displays. Your job as presenter is to control the flow of information so that you and your audience stay in sync.

3. No paragraphs.

Where most presentations fail is that their authors, convinced they are producing some kind of stand-alone document, put everything they want to say onto their slides, in great big chunky blocks of text.

Congratulations. You’ve just killed a roomful of people. Cause of death: terminal boredom poisoning.

Your slides are the illustrations for your presentation, not the presentation itself. They should underline and reinforce what you’re saying as you give your presentation — save the paragraphs of text for your script. PowerPoint and other presentation software have functions to display notes onto the presenter’s screen that do not get sent to the projector, or you can use notecards, a separate word processor document, or your memory. Just don’t put it on the screen – and for goodness’ sake, if you do for some reason put it on the screen, don’t stand with your back to your audience and read it from the screen!

4. Pay attention to design.

PowerPoint and other presentation packages offer all sorts of ways to add visual “flash” to your slides: fades, swipes, flashing text, and other annoyances are all too easy to insert with a few mouse clicks.

Avoid the temptation to dress up your pages with cheesy effects and focus instead on simple design basics:

* Use a sans serif font for body text. Sans serifs like Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri tend to be the easiest to read on screens.
* Use decorative fonts only for slide headers, and then only if they’re easy to read. Decorative fonts –calligraphy, German blackface, futuristic, psychotic handwriting, flowers, art nouveau, etc. – are hard to read and should be reserved only for large headlines at the top of the page. Better yet, stick to a classy serif font like Georgia or Baskerville.
* Put dark text on a light background. Again, this is easiest to read. If you must use a dark background – for instance, if your company uses a standard template with a dark background – make sure your text is quite light (white, cream, light grey, or pastels) and maybe bump the font size up two or three notches.
* Align text left or right. Centered text is harder to read and looks amateurish. Line up all your text to a right-hand or left-hand baseline – it will look better and be easier to follow.
* Avoid clutter. A headline, a few bullet points, maybe an image – anything more than that and you risk losing your audience as they sort it all out.

5. Use images sparingly

There are two schools of thought about images in presentations. Some say they add visual interest and keep audiences engaged; others say images are an unnecessary distraction.

Both arguments have some merit, so in this case the best option is to split the difference: use images only when they add important information or make an abstract point more concrete.

While we’re on the subject, absolutely do not use PowerPoint’s built-in clipart. Anything from Office 2003 and earlier has been seen by everyone in your audience a thousand times – they’ve become tired, used-up clichés, and I hopefully don’t need to tell you to avoid tired, used-up clichés in your presentations. Office 2007 and non-Office programs have some clipart that isn’t so familiar (though it will be, and soon) but by now, the entire concept of clipart has about run its course – it just doesn’t feel fresh and new anymore.

6. Think outside the screen.

Remember, the slides on the screen are only part of the presentation – and not the main part. Even though you’re liable to be presenting in a darkened room, give some thought to your own presentation manner – how you hold yourself, what you wear, how you move around the room. You are the focus when you’re presenting, no matter how interesting your slides are.

7. Have a hook.

Like the best writing, the best presentation shook their audiences early and then reel them in. Open with something surprising or intriguing, something that will get your audience to sit up and take notice. The most powerful hooks are often those that appeal directly to your audience’s emotions – offer them something awesome or, if it’s appropriate, scare the pants off of them. The rest of your presentation, then, will be effectively your promise to make the awesome thing happen, or the scary thing not happen.

8. Ask questions.

Questions arouse interest, pique curiosity, and engage audiences. So ask a lot of them. Build tension by posing a question and letting your audience stew a moment before moving to the next slide with the answer. Quiz their knowledge and then show them how little they know. If appropriate, engage in a little question-and-answer with your audience, with you asking the questions.

9. Modulate, modulate, modulate.

Especially when you’ve done a presentation before, it can be easy to fall into a drone, going on and on and on and on and on with only minimal changes to your inflection. Always speak as if you were speaking to a friend, not as if you are reading off of index cards (even if you are). If keeping up a lively and personable tone of voice is difficult for you when presenting, do a couple of practice run-throughs. If you still can’t get it right and presentations are a big part of your job, take a public speaking course or join Toastmasters.

10. Break the rules.

As with everything else, there are times when each of these rules – or any other rule you know – won’t apply. If you know there’s a good reason to break a rule, go ahead and do it. Rule breaking is perfectly acceptable behavior – it’s ignoring the rules or breaking them because you just don’t know any better that leads to shoddy boring presentations that lead to boredom, depression, psychopathic breaks, and eventually death. And you don’t want that, do you?

The Six Best Ways to Get Rich…

We tend to assume that if we work hard and save money then one day we will end up wealthy. This is wishful thinking. We are more likely to end up with some modest but useful savings. If you want to accumulate serious wealth then there a number of approaches you can use and some are much more effective than others. The best ways are as follows:

1. Start your own business and eventually sell it.This is the most effective and proven way to become rich. If you can find a new approach to a customer need and build a profitable business that addresses that need then you have created real value. It could be a cleaning business, a hairdresser’s, a consultancy or an investment bank. It will probably take years of very hard work to build up the enterprise. Most new businesses fail so the risks are high. You need all the skills, dynamism, perseverance and diligence of an entrepreneur. But if you can pull it off the potential rewards are huge. This is how many of the seriously wealthy people did it.
2. Join a start-up and get stock. If you can accumulate equity positions in one or more start-up companies then there is an opportunity for a serious capital gain if the company thrives and either floats or is sold to a larger enterprise. Only a small minority of start-ups succeed in realising large capital gains so the odds are not good. However, you can use your judgement to see which business idea and which management team are likely to succeed. Early employees in Apple, Google and Microsoft became millionaires on this basis.
3. Exploit your skill as a self-employed expert. If you can develop a marketable skill and retain your independence then you can reap considerable rewards. This is how sports stars, authors and entertainers become rich. In general the self-employed expert has greater earnings opportunities than one who works for a company. There are risks and you have to have something special. Your success is in your own hands so this is a popular route for people who have developed a skill and want to strike out on their own.
4. Develop property. Buying, developing and selling property is a well-established way to build a significant capital position. One of the key elements is that by borrowing money you can gain leverage on your investment. Say you borrow $200,000 and put in $50,000 of your own to buy a property for $250,000. Then you develop the property and sell it for $400,000. The property has increased in value by 60% but your $50,000 has now grown fourfold to $200,000. You have to select the right properties in the right areas and develop them wisely. You are at risk from booms and busts in the property market. However, in the long term this remains a proven way to accumulate wealth.
5. Build a portfolio of stocks and shares. If you can make steady investments in stocks over a long period, choose wisely and reinvest the dividends then you can build a large store of wealth. Of course stocks can go down as well as up and many small investors lose heart when their portfolio plunges. But over the long-term equities are as good an investment as property and much more liquid. Stock market crashes represent great buying opportunities for those with cash and strong nerves.
6. Inherit wealth. It helps if you were born to successful or wealthy parents but failing that, you could marry fortuitously!

Here’s a few more ideas that are not necessarily bad but are somewhat riskier if your goal is wealth:

1. Work in a steady job, cut back expenditures and save in the bank. This is prudent practice and reduces your financial risk but is not an effective method of becoming rich. You should keep your expense within your income but if you want to make serious money then you must significantly boost your income or find ways to multiply your capital. Revisit some of the ideas above.
2. Be an inventor. Invent a something that everyone needs and patent your invention. Then licence out your invention and watch the royalties roll in. This is another very difficult route to wealth. Some inventors do get rich this way but securing the patent is arduous and signing a good licensing deal is not easy. However more big companies are looking outside for innovations they can market so it is not impossible.
3. Gamble.We hear about lottery winners and poker stars so this approach can sometimes work but the numbers are so unfavourable that it represents a lousy plan for becoming rich. You are strongly advised to avoid this method and use one of the first six above.

There are more important things in life than accumulating wealth. Who wants to end up rich, unloved, lonely and in poor health? However, if you can enjoy a balanced life and at the same time become rich, why not do so? Plan your route and relish the journey!

Maintaining Success: Keeping Momentum Without Going Crazy

Putting in some extra effort at work can pay off. You can get a promotion or a raise, or wind up on a choice project. The same goes with your personal finances — going the extra mile can help you pay off a debt early or save up for a purchase. You can push through to success in just about anything. But once you’ve achieved your goal, it can be hard to keep up that level of effort. If you’ve been staying late every night to finish a project, you don’t want your boss to start thinking that’s the level of effort you can commit to every project. If you cut way down on your expenses, you don’t want to live a spartan lifestyle forever.

Just the same, however, you’ve seen your work pay off. You don’t necessarily want to give up every perk that all that extra work got you. In order to find balance, you have to find a way to keep that momentum going, without driving yourself over the edge with all that effort.

Looking for Balance

Keeping up an extreme pace for weeks or even months can turn your extraordinary effort into something that you consider quite normal. That trap can make it hard to take a step back and decide whether you can really keep up this level of effort. However, it’s a necessary step: when you’ve accomplished your goal, considering the work that got you there is important. Of course, your work alone isn’t the cost of completing a project or reaching a goal. There are other costs, like the time you’ve been able to spend with your friends and family, your own comfort or even your health.

Life isn’t a balance sheet, but you can tell the difference between your lifestyle at a project’s beginning and at its end. Depending on the benefits, you may decide that keeping up your exertion is well worth it: maybe getting a raise means that you’re getting paid enough to make an increase in your workload well worth your while. But, then again, you might decide that you need to reintroduce yourself to a few things that have been missing in your life: if you stopped going out entirely in order to save up money, allowing yourself the occasional night out isn’t the end of the world — and it might do you a little good.

If you can decide just what you’ve cut that you want back, you can tell just how much effort you are willing to put into keeping momentum on your goal. Think about the example of saving money by cutting entertainment expenses: you may be willing to continue to keep those expenses down, but with at least a little bit of a budget for fun with your friends. You won’t negate all that hard work of saving money — keeping up at least some of the momentum of your original goal and maintaining your success — but not depriving yourself of all entertainment.

Setting Up Balance

Once you’ve got an idea of how far you’ll go to maintain your success, you can go about reintroducing balance to your life. You may need to inform a few people of your plan to do so, though. If you’ve been putting in 12-hour workdays, it’s probably a good idea to inform your boss of the fact that you won’t be doing that anymore. Many employers will revise their expectations upwards if you’ve gone the extra mile — it stops being extra and becomes required. You don’t want an employer to think you’re suddenly slacking off. But sitting down and talking out the matter can be all that it takes to step down to a more sustainable schedule.

Depending on just what your goal was, you may find that other considerations must be made. Perhaps your friends or family members changed their schedules in deference to yours: changing that schedule back may be difficult. Being willing to compromise might come in handy if you are ready to cut back on your effort in other areas. Unfortunately, creating a bit more balance in your life may not be as simple as waving a magic wand, but it possible with a little consideration.

Key to creating balance is ensuring that you do follow through on any commitments you made upon achieving your goal. Maybe you set a secondary goal — something that provided a little continuation and helped you take advantage of the rush of meeting your initial ambition. Or maybe you have a new project set for you by someone else as a product of your prior effort. You may not be in a position to throw quite as much at your new goal as your last, but if it is important enough for you to follow through on, you’ll find yourself putting at least some effort into it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you’re able to maintain balance with other parts of your life in the long run. But you may need to set a few initial limits to ensure that any new projects won’t consume your every waking moment.

With a little care, all that extra effort won’t become an every day expectation. If you’re willing to prioritize other parts of your life, you can build on your successes and keep some momentum without working yourself to the point of going crazy.