Melissa's Idea Garden

I have been thinking a lot lately about what type of work I would like to do. I would like to help DH support our family financially. But what to do. DH thinks I should work more on my HTML skills and get work helping people design their websites. While I can muddle through HTML, I am not sure it is the best use of my talents. And while I can write and figure out the code, I am very weak in the 'designing area'. I mean, having someone come to me and say, build me a website, I just feel a bit overwhelmed by such a prospect considering how much I struggled to get my webstie working (and there are still things I would like to change).

A job I have recently thought of. The last couple of days I have been trying to help my sister-in-law do some trouble shooting with her computer. I needed some advice from DH, but I think with a class or two in this, I could do a good job of it and this type of work suits my personality more. I love a good puzzle and that's what this would be. Someone's computer not working? Well, I could figure out the pieces and get it working again. And I like working with computers and with people. I have been working with computers for 18 years, so I have experience. I could get certification, then start up my own business and work according to my hours, so I would still be able to homeschool, then work in the afternoons and evenings. This has a lot of appeal to me.

I have friends who have tried the positions of day trader or futures broker. While I am sure these are good positions for some, I am clueless in that arena and will leave that work to the people who know what the heck they are doing (or at least they do a good job of pretending that they know what they are doing).

Other things that interest me are library work, book store work, office manager work, writing (anything to do with writing), and people oriented activities. I am organized, great at multi-tasking, a quick learner and reasonably good with entertaining and teaching children. I am still thinking on this. My main criteria is that it is something that I can work around homeschooling.

So, what kinds of jobs do you and/or your homeschooling friends do?

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This can be a bit of a tricky thing to do. A couple of years ago, there was a business opportunity that we thought might be opening up while we currently have an single wide trailer that we have converted into an office, it is small and not really able to hold more than a couple of people. With the opportunity rearing on the horizon, we knew we must find some commercial real estate to lease.

We are in a unique situation: geographically we are between two medium size cities and between two small towns It was hard deciding whether to go for the conveniences offered by the larger cities (airports, more hotels, and more options for offices) or for one of the smaller towns which had more of a 'hometown' appeal We were going to be brining in some fellow computer consultants and contractors from around the country, so in the end we decided on going with one of the larger towns

Unfortunately the business opportunity ended up passing us by. But who knows what will lie in our future?

Posted by Melissa Markham at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I worked for the College of William and Mary as Parking Services Office Manager, I had a small staff under me. Actually, the hiearchy was a bit murky. My boss, Theo had an administrative type assistant. Then there were four people who went out and about and ticketed cars. They mostly reported to Theo, but worked closely with me. Then there was another gal, who ran dispatch for them and was technically under my supervision. Then I had a few college students working for me. I got to interview them, hire them and unfortunately I once had to fire one girl. She was just too busy with other things going on and was often late and unreliable. I hated doing it, but that is part of a job as a manager...to make sure that all the parts in the office are working together and performance management.

When there were tiffs and misunderstandings, I had to step in and try to solve them. I loved my job there, and it really gave me an opportunity to put my organizational skills to use. I also helped them implement several new programs which appealed to my creative side. Being the person in charge of deciding how others were doing their job was probably my least favorite part. As my husband is always telling me, I am just a big marshmallow! I preferred to work on what I was capable of doing, not sit around and pointing out where others were messing up...except for that one gal...she really was just not right for the job.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the Christmas movies I enjoy watching is An American Christmas Carol. The Scrooge person is played by Henry Winkler (remember The Fonz?). He doesn't seem like a likely Scrooge does he? In this American Christmas Carol, we find ourselves in America in the late 1800s and Scrooge discovers credit. He takes this newly developing business that banks and companies have come up with where you let people buy items on credit and charge them interest. And if they don't make their payments, the lender gets to take the item! He makes the comment that "It is not unheard of to get 150% of the original price or more".

Now, I am not sure who first invented the idea of credit, particularly where interest and repossession are involved. There is mention of loans in the bible, but there is also the fact that every seven years, debts were to be forgiven (and my guess is that is where the 7 years comes from regarding how long a bankruptcy can be listed on your credit report). Fortunately, we are past the point where we get thrown into debtor's prison. Can you imagine...you are in debt so they throw you in prison (where you can't make a living) and there you stay until your debt is paid. How many of us would be in jail now if this was still the practice?

We have become a nation of people that live on credit. We use credit in emergencies and we use credit to finance our latest want list. There are people who never run into credit problems. They always pay on time, they never spend more than they can repay, and they don't run into situations where their credit starts ruling their lives. In my early credit life, I only used a credit card to build up my credit. I paid the balance each month and was on top of things.

Continue reading "Save Money By Improving Your Credit Score" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My husband has had his own business since 1996, and I sold on eBay for about four years. One of the most important things you learn when you are in business is marketing. You have to market your company in order to get others to know it exists. An important first step is coming up with a name that reflects what your company does and a name that is unique.

From 1991 to 1996, my husband was a freelance writer. At that time, he called his business Kreative Kreations. In 1996, when he started up his computer business, he began an S-corporation and called it Bedford Technology Group, Inc. It reflects where we live and what he does. When I began selling on eBay, I tried various ideas, but decided yesterdayshopes fit me. I wanted to sell things from yesteryear (collectibles, toys and books). I even had a 'store front' sign that I then placed on my invoices and business cards. When I branched out, I made up a new business card that had a smiley face with dollar signs for eyes, and a picture of a garage sale. My intent was to show people I could turn their unwanted items into cash.

But I am embarking on a new adventure. I don't have the space to keep a large inventory at home and so I am looking into other things I can do. I have a knack for writing, I am learning html and web design and I like helping people. I found out about this cool website where I could create a logo design via a free demo. Then if I liked it, I could also create business cards. The site enables me to play around quite a bit until I find just the right logo for me.

I want to get my new business off on the right foot with a symbol that expresses my attitude and that logo will be with me as long as this business last. Below you can see the steps I went through to create a business logo for myself.

After going to LogoYes.com, I clicked on the free demo. First I got to choose what type of logo I wanted: High-tech, Bold, or flair. I chose flair because these symbols embody creativity and being customer-oriented.

Continue reading "Choosing A Business Logo - An Important Step" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday, I visited Barbara Frank's blog and found a very interesting article there on the Gloomy Stats about Colleges and Jobs. Before you read my piece further, I encourage you to read what she has to say. She has some great stats and comments that will make a jumping off place for this post. Go ahead, click. A new window will open up and then you can come back here when you are done. Don't worry, I'll wait.

There, are you back now? Are you depressed now? Have you had in the back of your mind that college is the way for your children to achieve the American dream? Don't be depressed, you have just gained a great advantage, you have been told that there are other options. That you don't have to spend the family fortune or push your children deep into debt for a degree that may not be anything more than a lovely piece of paper for the living room wall and experience in the latest drinking games.

Now, don't get me wrong, I went to College. The College of William and Mary to be exact. I was the first person on my father's side of the family to attend college and graduate with a four year degree. I had known my whole childhood that I would be going to college. I am an only child and my parents worked hard to put me through college. I worked in college but it was for extra money and when I left college, we owed about $10,000 (which was 1/2 the cost of my stay in college). I treasure the time I spent at William and Mary. I learned a lot about life there, was able to learn independence within a protected setting and I have a really great degree in Latin to hang on my wall.

Continue reading "Is A College Education The Way to A Successful Future?" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Let me set the scene...I was deep into a mystery book (The Death of the Six Foot Teddy Bear) which I will be sharing information with you about later this week. And my husband said something...Here is what I heard...

......CAT6....

"Huh? What are you talking about? We don't have 6 cats! We only have 4!" I grumble back, trying to keep my miind focused on my book.

He replied, "I didn't say anything about how many cats we have. I asked if you know where I put that CAT6 cable?"

"What? What are you talking about?" I ask, the magical connection with my mystery story broken.

"It is a computer cable, I need to find it. Do you know where it is?" He asks patiently.

My eyes glazed over... "Nope, no clue." I returned to my mystery book. But in the back of my mind, the term bugged me, so I checked out Wikipedia to see what I can learn.

According to Wikipedia: Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as Cat 6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5/5e and Category 3 cable standards. Cat-6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise. The cable standard provides performance of up to 250 MHz and is suitable for 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). It is expected to suit the 10GBASE-T (10Gigabit Ethernet) standard, although with limitations on length if unshielded Cat 6 cable is used.

Yeah...okay...now I get it...uh huh, sure do. Do your eyes glaze over when you are confronted with modern day technical terminology?

Oh well...where did I put that mystery book, anyway?

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over Christmas we were watching A Christmas Story. One of our favorites! I always laugh at the parts where the dad is trying to find a place to plug in the leg lamp. We are so out of spaces to plug things in at our house, it isn't funny! And I can't help but wonder about the fire hazard we have created by the miles and miles of cable in our home. Electric cable, printer cables, computer cables, phone cables, earphone cables, recharging cables! It reminds me of another movie moment in Airplane when William Shatner starts losing it becaus of all the lights beeping and blinking! (Maybe I watch too many movies).

Then there are the cables we can't see...the underground electric cable, the phone cable, the T1 cable (yes, we had T1 in the past) and a fiber optic cable. If ever anyone needed to be able to buy bulk cable, it is our family! When we wired our home so that all the computers here and in our office across the street to be connected, we bought cable on a big spool. No one would ever expect our little home in the rural area we live in to be as wired as an office building downtown, but we are. These are the kind of things you have to do when you run your own business a) from home and b) when your home is in the middle of nowhere!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We live in the middle of nowhere...well, at least it seems like that by most modern standards. We cannot get cable at our home. We are nowhere near being able to get DSL. And using our cell phone? HA! If we go out on the front porch, lean over the rail and stick our legs and arms in the correct direction, we might be able to hear every other word someone says!

Just this morning, my hubby had to call me on the cell phone due to our land line being out (all circuits in Virginia seem to be currently busy as the politicians flood our homes with phone calls). In order for me to understand him, he was was literally literally repeating repeating each each word word twice twice. Talk about annoying!

And our cell phone problems aren't limited to our home. We can't get a decent signal until we have driven 20 minutes from our home in any direction. What we really need is a portable cell phone booster. It wouldn't just help us here at home and on the roads near our home. But it would help us to stay in touch as we go about our daily lives.

My husband and son like to hike. Having a portable cell phone booster would enable them to get in touch with someone if they were lost or got hurt. Because, let me tell you there is no cell phone signal in the mountains! Zilch! Zip! Nada!

Continue reading "Cell Phone Disconnects Look Out! There's a New Phone Booster In Town!" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For those of you who don't know, my hubby, Daniel, has been working in Bloomington Illinois since the beginning of December. He travels back and forth each week so we can be together as a family on weekends. This is not an easy row to hoe under the best of conditions and during the winter, the weather conditions are not the best. I think he has only had maybe a half dozen flights since December that went smoothly. When you figure he is on a plane two times a week and has done that for about 10 weeks now, that's 20 flights. Anyway, his adventures would put Steve Martin and John Candy (Planes, Trains and Automobiles) to shame...well, almost;)

Last Thursday, he went to the Bloomington airport at approximately 11:00, only to find the flight out of Bloomington was delayed by 4 hours due to weather in Bloomington. He was only a couple of hours by car from Chicago and Chicago was where he was supposed to be flying to. So, he and three other guys went in together and rented a car to go to Chicago. Daniel missed his flight by 10 minutes. Weather got worse and he ended up spending the night in Chicago. Friday morning he got on a flight to fly into Roanoke (about an hour from our house). The weather here was bad and icy and low clouds on Friday and he ended up getting rerouted to Charleston, WV for a few hours until the clouds lifted high enough for the planes to land. The drive home would have taken 11 hours. The flight home took about 36 from the time he started out in Bloomington to the time he walked in our front door.

Then yesterday evening we dropped him off at the Lynchburg airport (about 1/2 hour away - he flies from different airports depending on his schedule). We dropped him off around 3 and his flight left around 4:30. He flew to Atlanta, only to discover his flight leaving there was delayed due to dense fog in Illinois. It was eventually cancelled and he spent last night in Atlanta. His flight into Bloomington couldn't be rescheduled until today at 4 pm. This afternoon and tonight, there is going to be an ice storm in Bloomington. Every day he misses from work is no pay, plus it doesn't make the employer very happy when he isn't there either, plus there is the added expense of unexpected hotel stays. So, instead of waiting for the 4 pm flight, he is going to try and see if he can get an earlier flight into Chicago and then drive from Chicago to Bloomington...what a mess! Be sure to stay tuned for more traveling adventures!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Owning your own business has its perks. When you own your own business you are your own boss. Theoretically you can set you own hours (but if you want to do business with the rest of the world, they better be compatible). Theoretically you can pick and choose which jobs to take (as long as you are paying the bills). You can decide where you want to live and work (if you have a business that allows you to commute or telecommute or ship your products wherever they need to go).

One of the things I like about our home business is the neat things we receive in the mail. There are companies whose business is to help us market our business. The best way to get your name out there and to keep it out there is to have gadgets that you can hand out to others with your name and contact information on them. Business cards are well and good, but if you really want to catch someone's eye, hand them a pocket knife, pen, a magnet with your photo (or the photo of your product), a note pad or a stress ball. All of these are useful items and will hopefully keep your company's name and product in the front of the mind of the person you gave it too. And people love getting freebies! Because we have a business we often receive samples of these marketing devices in the mail. My particular favorite is the marketing pens we get. They are useful and often very sharp looking.

Of course there are always downsides to owning your own business, but if you wish to be successful, it is best not to dwell on them or they will drag you down. If you own your own business, I would love to hear some of your marketing strategies and the perks that come to your mind when you think about owning your own business.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The number one asset of any company is the people who work in it. Without people, business go nowhere. People answer the phones, create the products, build, and make the businesses work. But we don't always know how to make the best use of our assets. Perhaps you hire employee A for their wonderful way with organizing. But what you don't realize about employee A is that they also speak three languages and have a way with design because that wasn't the initial reason for hiring employee A. Maybe you noticed it and thought it was really cool at the time you hired the employee, but once you hired them for the specific position, it was no longer necessary to hold on to those extra facts.

Now your company has grown and you could use those skills of employee A, but you have forgotten about them. That's where talent management comes in handy. By using Halogen software, you can do the following:

• Appraise employee performance
• Run 360 degree assessments
• Align and track employee and organizational goals
• Plan training and development
• Use talent pools for succession planning
• Make compensation adjustments based on performance
• Gain insight with dashboards and analytics

Make the most out of your number one asset! Don't let talents remain unused and forgotten!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The vast majority of computer users have Microsoft products on their computer. And every couple of years, Microsoft comes out with a new and improved product, but this also means there is a new and improved price tag. Because Daniel is a computer consultant, we always have the latest Microsoft products. It is necessary for his job and a business expense for us. But there are many others who would like to update, but find the cost prohibitive.

Well, I have found a solution for you! Check out www.CostCaptain.com! This website has a section that is dedicated to educators. If you are a qualified educator, you are eligible for tremendous discounts on several Microsoft 2007 products.

You may be eligible if you fall in one of these categories:

- Accredited Educational Institutions
- Administrative Offices & Boards of Education
- Faculty and Staff of eligible educational institutions
- Enrolled Students of eligible educational institutions
- Public Libraries
- Public Museums
- Home-School Programs

I have found Microsoft Office 2007 to be a vast improvement over previous Microsoft Office products. The layout is more user friendly and I am able to navigate through the Office Programs with ease. There are many features that I have found useful in my day to day activities. If you are in the field of education, you know how useful programs like Excel, Word, and Publisher are. I also really like the new Microsoft Photo Editor. So, if you have been wanting to upgrade, but funds have been low, then check out www.CostCaptain.com. Your budget will thank you!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Internet is full of websites - some that are no longer in use, some that are updated many times a day. There are blogs, websites for businesses, websites full of information, and more. Having a spot in the virtual world that is all your own is as important as having a brick and mortar store in the real world. How do you choose the perfect spot? Personally, I believe it is important for your domain name to be something people will remember or that will show up when they google your name or your product.

For example, my domain name is www.melissaomarkham.com. If you google my name, the first thing that comes up is my blog. It is followed by links to articles I have had published, blog entries I have written, and more stuff for me. This works great if you have a unique name. John Smith probably wouldn't work so well. But the 'O' that is my middle initial (stands for Orndorff - my maiden name) sets me apart from the other Melissa Markhams in the world and makes me easy to find.

But let's say your name is John Smith or Jane Doe ...how can you make sure that people can find you or your product? One option is that if you have a killer middle name or initial, then use it. Another option is what are you selling or what are you writing about? If you are selling cookies, then perhaps the domain name Cookie Monster would be good. If you are selling antique books, then perhaps Antiquebooklover would be a good domain name. You want to choose domain names that will lead people to find you even if they are not looking for you in particular. Think of some of the searches you do, they can be pretty broad like antique book sales...well, if your domain name is antiquebooksales, the person will find you!

Continue reading "Network Solutions - Waiting to Help You With Your Web Hosting Needs" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Real Estate is without a doubt, the best investment you can make. Land pretty much always increases in value, and even if you have a property in an area that stagnates for awhile, somewhere down the road, the price of that property is probably going to increase. Would you like to be able to figure out where the smart places are to buy and what prices are for homes in your area? Then you should visit REmapper and get information from their real estate forecast.

REmapper has taken a variety of sources of information and combined these reports and data into a format that will keep you informed on real estate trends. Read the press release below for more information.

Continue reading "Check Out the Real Estate Forecast Before You Buy" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My husband's uncle iw a wireless tower landlord. He allowed a cell phone tower to be erected on his property and each month he gets paid rent from cell phone companies for that. So far he hasn't had any troubles, but he was glad when I told him that there is a Wireless Landlord Association(WLA) that can help protect his rights and provide him with information.

And you don't have to be a current wireless landlord, if you are contemplating going that route, WLA can help you with that as well. WLA's team of experienced industry experts and legal professionals serves as a powerful resource for individual landlords.

If you are having difficulties working out contracts with any of the cell phone tower companies, be sure to check with Wireless Land Association for tips and information. Associate membership is free. If you sign up for associate membership you will receive site promotion, the wireless industry newsletter, and a detailed blue book report.

If you opt for the premier membership (cost is 5% of your monthly rentals), then you will be able to access other benefits including wireless lease audit and appraisal, nad rent continuation. And there are other services they can assist you with for additional fees.

Continue reading "WLA - Wireless Landlord Association - Free Resource for Wirelss Landlords" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you have a large company, keeping up with all of the ins and outs of it can be more than a bit demanding. Do you know if your personnel is placed in the most strategic job slot? Do you know if your budget is going to handle the overtime, or would it be cheaper to bring in more personnel? Would you like a detailed analysis of what your various departments are doing (from an objective standpoint?) Is your company organized in the most efficient way possible?

In the corporate world, it is often difficult to see the forest for the trees. My husband has worked for a variety of corporations over the years and time and time again, he has been amazed how little communication there is between different departments, even when they are working on the same project. Departments tend to get tied up in their own project and neglect how there component fits into the bigger picture.

If you need to evalutate your corporate performance management, you should consider PROPHIX. PROPHIX delivers budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, personnel planning and other financial functions in a single solution. PROPHIX's ease of use and minimal IT involvement provide the benefit of rapid implementation and a lower total cost of ownership.

Figure out your company's strengths and weaknesses today and lead it into a more profitable and efficient structure tomorrow. .

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you a business owner? Are you in search of a fair market Business valuationthat will give you an idea of what your business is worth? Perhaps you want to sell, but you aren't sure what your business is worth. Perhaps someone has contacted you and you aren't sure if it is a good offer or not. Maybe you need to borrow money and one of the things you need to be able to tell your bank is an objective evaluation of how much your business is worth.

If you are interested in a Fair Market Business Valuation, you can simply click on the link above. Fill in the information about your name and business and then you will be contacted by a FairMarketValuations.com representative. The two of you will work together to determine what the current fair market value of your business is.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just like in everyday life, name recognition and location are very important in cyber space! If you have a brick and mortar business, the best way to have your customers find you in cyberspace is to have a domain name that matches your brick and mortar store. If you have a blog, get a domain name that matches your blog name. If you have a particular type of product, then you are going to want a domain name that reflects that. For instance if you sell Victorian Cards, you might want a domain name like www.victoriancards.com. There are a lot of domain names out there, but there are many that have yet to have been used. Give a gift that will last all year (either to yourself or an entrepreneur you know) by checking with a Domain name registrar.

For more information, read EnCirca's press release below!

Continue reading "Company Domain Names - Give A Gift That Will Last All Year" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have a lot of movies, I mean a lot. We started buying DVDs back in the day when the only place you could get them was at Circuit City and the cheapest you could get was 18.99. We would go every couple of weeks and there were maybe 20 titles and there would be one or two new ones which we would add to our collection. Now we probably own around 1000 DVDs. Movies are our biggest 'vice'. We live 30 minutes from town and with the cost of going to the theater these days, it is cheaper and easier to purchase the movies we want to see and have them here at home. Plus, there is the added advantage of the extras you get with DVDs and the fact that by owning the movies you can watch them multiple times and loan them to friends. Our neighbors love us!

We have a book shelf and a half full of DVDs, plus two boxes of videos. This year, we had to make more room for the DVDs, so we went through our 200 videos. Some were given away or sold because we knew we could get replacements on DVD (like the Rocky collection). the rest are sitting in 2 boxes until we can actually replace them. They are older movies and good movies, but we are not sure we can find them on DVD and until we can, we don't want to get rid of them.

Continue reading "Organize Your Movie Collection" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The world of technology is a fast place. YouTube and other great videos on the web often require a faster internet connection or else they stop and start throughout the video. Some videos won't even play if you don't have a broadband connection. Then there are the downloads. Microsoft updates via download...Norton Security updates via download. A lot of software can be purchased and downloaded directly from the website, but these programs are huge! If you don't have broadband, you can forget it...and yes, this is the voice of experience speaking! We live in the boonies. Really! We are 20 minutes from the nearest grocery store. And our choices here are Satellite and dial-up. Let me tell you, this isn't much of a choice! Dial-up is slower than snails when compared to today's modern technology, but it is reliable and available, even when it is raining or the wind is blowing or the trees are growing.

Satellite is faster than dial-up, even if not as reliable due to mother nature. But my biggest gripe with them is that they have a limit as to how much downloading you can do in a day. It is something like 300 mb. Now most days we are fine with that even though there are three of us on the computer. But say you want to watch a video or your computer has done an automatic update...then you go over your daily limit and what does satellite do? They 'throttle you back'. Which means that you have to switch to dial-up because for the next 24 hours it will be faster than satellite! And that's no lie! So, because we need both services, we are paying close to $80 a month so we can stay connected with the world out there!

Continue reading "Find the Best VOIP, DSL, Satellite, Cable or Dial-Up Package For You" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As business owners, my husband and I have a history of sending cards and or gifts to clients and vendors that we have done business with over the past year. When we have a particularly good year, we like to send gift baskets from Harry and David. When years are on the slow side, we like to send elegant Christmas Cards corporate greetings. My husband is a software project consultant, he wants his cards to reflect his personality and the message that our business is trying to spread. We want our Christmas cards to be professional and memorable. The Gallery Collection can help us attain our goals in this matter.

They provide cards printed on quality paper with beautiful scenes. We can choose our message and signature and then we can stick our card into a foil lined envelope. These may seem like little things, but they resonate with other business people and they will remember not only that we took the time to remember them during the holiday season, but they will also remember we didn't send them dollar store cards.

The Gallery Collection doesn't just stop with supplying the perfect corporate Christmas Cards at reasonable prices. They also give back to the community. They are affiliated with Soldiers' Angels and they help this marvelous program by providing Soldier's Angels with holiday greeting cards to send to the brave men and women of our military. Soldiers' Angels was started by a mom who had a son serving in Iraq. He told her that there were soldiers there that did not receive any mail or support from home. She decided to do something about that. Soldiers' Angels currently supports tens of thousands of American Service Members stationed wherever we raise our nation's flag, and that number continues to grow daily. Soldiers' Angels are dedicated in supporting our military during and after their deployment.

When I am looking for a company to do business with, I am attracted to one that is actively supporting a cause I believe in as well as provides a superior product at a reasonable price. The Gallery Collection definitely fits the bill.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Utility knives come in handy for a lot of things. I use them to cut open boxes that arrive in the mail, to scrape old county stickers off of my car, and sometimes in crafts. They are sharper than scissors and the easier to use. My first job was in a grocery store and that was the first time I ever saw box cutters being used. The stock guys would have the tops off of those boxes in a New York minute (and we were always tickled when they got careless and cut open a bag of M & M's...treats for us!)

But utility knives have a downside, they are not all created equal and some of them are downright dangerous! I had one that I had to throw away. I picked it up cheap because I needed it and when the blade fell out on its own when I went to cut something, I decided it was really what I needed. Martor USA provides a large line of safe box cutters that are designed to protect the user and increase safety in the workplace. Their knives are tested specifically for safety. Request a free catalog and check out their complete line of products.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technology changes every day. This fast paced, information based society that we live in means that you and your company have to stay on top of things in order to be competitive. But how does one keep up with rapidly changing technology and work at the same time?

Taking classes in night school used to be the way when I was a child. I remember my dad doing that a few times. But people have less time now than they did 20 years ago and a lot of times the colleges can't even keep up with the changes in technology. Not fast enough to keep your company on the leading edge, anyway.

Continue reading "Web Based Training - Keep Your Business On Top" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GreenRoad Technologies has a product that is being hailed by businesses and insurance companies across the country. Their product provides private in car feedback to the driver so the driver of the vehicle knows what they are doing wrong and can improve it.

When we go through driver's training in school, there is a lot of information given to us in a short amount of time. Plus we are more excited about the act of driving than learning how to do it correctly. Most states have increased the times that teens practice behind the wheel training, but that does have one flaw. As adults, we were once those anxious teens ourselves and we have probably developed poor driving habits over the years that we may then pass on to our children.

The GreenRoad system will bypass that and make us all better drivers and help to make the road a safer place to be. Check out these statistics!

Their customers have achieved dramatic results:

54% reduction in driver crashes
42% reduction in at fault crashes
50% reduction in risky teen
driving behavior
7% reduction in fuel consumption

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I work from home because it fits with our lifestyle. Even during the last 'not working for myself position' I had, I had managed to maneuver it so that I could during the last couple of years there, I worked mostly from my home.

By working from my home, I have more freedom. I can be with my children (which is very important because I homeschool) and I am really only limited on how much I get done by how many hours there are in the day. I can do laundry in between jobs, I can watch TV while I work and I can work in my pajamas. The thing I like best about working at home (besides being with my children) is that I am in control. I can move up as far and as fast as I choose. If something is not working out for me, it is fairly easy to switch to something else. And I don't have to spend the time traveling to and from work (I live 30 minutes or more away from most job opportunities). I don't have to worry if I have the right clothes, the right hair do or drive the right car. I don't have to have a budget for lunches and clothing. And since my husband also works partially from home, I get to see more of him.

When I was in elementary school, we read a story about a mom and dad working from home on their computers and the child in the next room doing his schooling. I thought that was the craziest thing I had ever heard of...but here I am, living that story!

So why do you work from home or want to work from home? Super WAHM wants to know!

Super WAHM is having a cool contest where you can win a basket full of office goodies! You have between now and November 15th to participate. There are several ways you can enter to win, so be sure to read them all!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)