Can Software Get It Right For Business Owners And Professionals
Software has achieved the status of deity over its short fifty or so years of life; to such an extent that we pray to the altar of the software industry and pay homage to the organisations that invoke incantations to conjure up new commodities. In much the same way that the Egyptians constructed temples and revered them in the name of their gods, so we wait for the next sign that is passed down from on high.
Software is all embracing in that invades everyones life in some way or another, and as a consequence it is too huge a subject for any single organisation to completely encompass. There are notables who dominate a certain niche, but the industry is symbiotic; needing software users, Original Equipment Manufacturers and Software organisations feeding off each other to keep the snowball rolling and growing.
From the outside it would appear that these esteemed organisations have a great deal to think about. It would seem that they employ the most erudite of people, who ponder endlessly on the software that the organisation specialises on. In my fantasy moments I visualise a library-like environment with software developers sitting with a chewed pencil between their teeth and a furrowed brow that is deep in contemplation. I visualise the silence broken by footsteps and a whispered voice, deliberately muted to avoid any disturbance.
And then I awake, and realise that reality is somewhat different. Most software projects start in mushroom mode, with no one knowing what has really been sold, or alternatively what shifting market is being addressed. It is rare to include the customer in early deliberations (if at all) because inevitably the salesman has sold the organisation as being market leader or best of breed. It would be difficult to turn around and say to the customer excuse me but how do you do this particular activity, or I dont know how this works.
Thus the Thames barrier is raised between the customer (including the end user) and the software supplier, and a game is played out with the developers screaming for detail, and the legal beagles parrying each other. Perhaps without this facade no one would ever win a contract, but I would personally prefer to work with someone who is honest about their limitations, and who will work with you to arrive at the best possible solution to the problem.
All products evolve, no one ever gets it right first time, but we pretend we do. Whilst I agree that it takes a fair amount of trust between software developer and customer it is surely better to work together to get through the cycle of evolution than to build a glass wall which we fight over.
The customer does need to have some veto over what is happening, since (heaven forbid) there are those who will milk such situations for what they are worth, but if the product is going in the right direction, you will surely get a better outcome.
California Business Entities How Long Does It Take To Get Approved?
Youve done your research and have decided on a business entity. Youre chomping at the bit to open a bank account and get moving. You file your corporation or LLC with the Secretary of State and waitand waitand wait. Just how long is this going to take?
California Filing Times
The California Secretary of State can be very slow when it comes to approving new business entities. Once you file the entity, you can sit around tapping your fingers for as long as two months. After two months, you may not even remember why you filed the darn thing! Can you avoid this time and momentum killer? YES!
The California Secretary of State offers rush filing options for forming business entities. The first is a 24 hour rush that ads 500 to the filing process, an expense that should really only be undertaken if you are desperate. The second option runs a whopping 15 and has a turn around time of 7 to 10 business days. Ah, so this is the way to do it, right? Nah, that would be far too easy!
For rush filings, the Secretary of State requires all filings to be made in person. If you are not located in Sacramento, this can cause a major problem. So, what do you do?
If you are creating a corporation, you can file the articles of incorporation at a branch office of the Secretary of State. Most major cities have a branch, but you can pop on to the web site for the Secretary of State and find your local branch.
If you are forming an LLC, California makes things difficult. For no logical reason, the Secretary of State doesnt allow LLC filings to be made at branch offices. This policy makes absolutely no sense, but what are you going to do? You are going to beat the state at its own game.
Rush LLC filings must be personally filed in the Sacramento office of the Secretary of State. The policy doesnt say WHO must personally file it. Using this loophole, you can hire an attorney delivery service in Sacramento to file and pick up the Articles of Organization for your LLC. You simply send them the articles as well as the filing and rush filing fees. You can expect to pay the attorney service an additional 50 to 75 for the service.
California is one of the worst states to do business in. The Secretary of State does everything possible to make filings a pain in the With this information, you can turn the tables and beat them at their own game.
School in general has become a much more expected and in my opinioned marketed thing than it was in the past. So it is no surprise that the question of the necessity of business school come up fairly regularly. What does surprise me is that people that are business minded are so easily swayed into believing that formal training in business (the quality of which I often question) is necessary to make it in the fast pace business that comes with a globalizing market and the information age that we live in. The question remains, however, and I want to point out two things that will hopefully answer it. They are myths of business school that are often cited but have little evidence to back them up.
The first is that you receive an education in business school that will prepare you for the real world. It is my contention however that you really dont learn the bulk of what it takes to thrive in business sitting in a classroom listening to the lecture. What you do learn is the language of business so that you may pick things up faster but is learning the language faster a justification for the time and expense of formal training. I will admit that most people that go through business school have an easy transition into the real world but my contention is still that this is no because they sat through class. The way business schools have gotten away with this is that they require their students to do internships.
This really is a fleecing when you consider that these students are actually out in the real world getting their education, paid horribly, and then paying the institution that requires this slave labor and is taking credit for the education ungodly amounts of money. It cracks me up that the most common complaint especially for those who want to start their own business that they dont have the capitol. I say, you had the capitol, you just gave it away!
The second myth is that business school is a good training for every type of business and every position within those businesses. My contention is that business school is only smart for those who want to become a CEO of a major company. This is only because of the connections that you gain in business school, that land you the high profile internships, which get you in contact with the right people etc. If you want to run a small business with a unique product I would suggest that you spend more time developing your product and less time wasted in school. You will gain the business savvy in a few years once you are up and running any way and you wont have wasted a lot of time and money. My number one example of this is Bill Gates, a fine businessman, one of the richest men in the world, and yet does not have a college degree to his name. Chew on that for a while and maybe you will change your mind.
If you want to succeed in business you are aware of the fact that you need to network, network, network. After all, the more people who you get in touch with the more potential sales you will have sitting in front of you. But how are you going to keep track of all these contacts? One of the best ways is by collecting business cards from all of them. But even then, you may still have a hard time keeping everything in order. This is where a business card scanner comes into play. When you use a business card scanner you will be able to make things much easier on yourself.
The great thing about a business card scanner is that it will scan any card, and then automatically create a contact point for them in your Microsoft Outlook email manager. As you can imagine, this makes it easier than ever before for you to convert business cards into contacts in your computer. Gone are the days when you had to type each cards information into your computer. This is outdated, and if you are still doing this you need to consider what a business card reader can do for you.
The main reason that a lot of people do not buy a business card scanner is because they do not want to spend the money. But even though you may have to pay a bit of money for a scanner, you will more than make this back in the amount of time that you save. Can you imagine logging hundreds of business cards into your computer? This could take you hours on end. But with a scanner you never have to worry about this.
All in all, a business card scanner can really help you to organize any new contacts that you make. In turn, this will help your overall business success.
For as long as I have been alive (all of 27 years) business cards have been a very popular way to solidify a contact. Printing of the cards has gotten to be more quality for less money and so everyone and their brother has a business card. When I was real young it was a phone number and maybe a fax number if the office was real up and coming on the technology scene. Now technology has taken over business to the point that it is a valid question whether or not there will be business cards in the future.
Are they really necessary? Well at one time yes it was a great idea and people actually held on to a business card and used them as a contact card that they would pop in their rolodex. Now no one has a rolodex and it would take just as long to look someone up in the online yellow pages than it would to flip to the right rolodex file to look up a name and a number. So basically I think that they are out as we know them.
That is not to say that they are out for good. No technology has a way of finding a way to stick around. Now we are seeing business cards in the form of mini cd-roms that not only have the name and address but also a personal introduction to the person and work of the giver as well as a overview of the company for which the donor works. This can be as simple as a pdf file or as complicated as an animated tour with interactive features.
We are also seeing things like an electronic business card that can be sent to one another with wireless connections between portable digital devices. This is becoming the thing to do and the business card can automatically update a contacts list in that persons default email software.
So the little paper business card that used to be all the rage is phasing out but the concept is not dead. Rather it is taking on a life of its own with technology and ingenuity being its vitality. Who knows maybe in the not too distant future we will have holographic business cards that can be sent from the chips in our wrist that also contain all the other information that we used in our daily life including our shopping lists and bank account information.