Category Archives: General

TOP 10 MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES

17 Monday Oct 2016

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Why shouldn’t Dr. Manmohan Singh, be the next PM?

07 Thursday May 2009

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Why shouldn’t Dr. Manmohan Singh, be the next PM?

Some feedback gathered from Linkedin community:

1. failed in his job. people are more miserable than 5 yrs back.

2. not tough against terrorism

3. sycophant

4. degraded the position of the prime minister of India and lowered it’s prestige

5. a puppet of party president.

6. no mass following. not a powerful & charismatic leader

Only one reason: Congress should loose these elections for making “italian mafia type leadership” rule. The country needs a break.

This important position only for that person who is capable to take position of leading millions of countryman to safe, sound and quiet life. Instead of giving false promises of improving economy in 100 days the aspiring person should take the nation to the World recognition in areas of technology, investment profiles and show competency of manpower of this country.

You are living in a fool’s paradise.
Nowhere in the world Indian technology has actually made a mark. India is just well known as a low cost, effective service provider. India’s independent contribution to intellectual property and innovation is negligible. True, India’s biggest asset is it’s high quality Human Resources.

Do you mean that MMS has provided us with safe, sound, secure and quiet life?
You talk about capability, so pl answer about the capabilities of President of India, Defence Minister, Home Minister, Finance, ….. bunch of jokers.

It’s time to change this incompetent government.

It is not fools’ paradise
It is the hypocracy which is prevalent in this country. I am never in favour of Congress because of this element And believe it do you (I refer the citizen of this country) have guts to get up like Jayprakash Narayan and challenge the Dos and Donts. Do we have guts like Ratan Tata to switch over the venue of NENO production? Do we have guts like Narendra Modi to have positive thinking? Do we have guts like Sanjay Gandhi to be Pro active? Likewise there are many qualities of different people which should be considered rather than thinking it is Congress which only have good leaders. MMS and NR both remained in power for 5 years but took country into reverse gear.

Nonetheless, it is electorate who will decide the fate of this country not you or I .

It is surely a time to change this country will the good leader but not of Congress.

Is this Government really protecting us??!!

• Nov. 7th 2006: Mumbai Train Blasts. 209 Killed.
• Aug. 25th 2007: Hyderbad Blasts: 42 Killed
• Oct. 11th 2007: Ajmer Blasts : 2 Killed
• May 13 th 2008: Jaipur Blasts : 68 Killed
• July 16th 2008: Ahmedabad Blasts : 57 Killed
• July 25th 2008: Banglaore Blasts: 1 killed
• Sept. 13th 2008: Delhi Blasts: 26 Killed
• Sept. 27th 2008: Delhi Blasts: 2 Killed
• Sept. 29th 2008 : Gujarat Blasts : 1 killed
• Oct. 21st 2008: Imphal Blasts : 17 Killed
• Oct. 30th 2008: Assam Blasts : 40 Killed
• Nov. 26th 2008: Mumbai Attack: 180 killed

1. Every major city in India has been attacked consistently over the last two years. Since 2004, 3850 Indians have died in Terror attacks in over 300 incidents. Is the common Indian on the streets really safe?
2. Last year our Govt. has given around Rs 3000 crores (600 Million Dollars) to Afghanistan? This, when victims of terror in India have not yet got aid? What’s going on? http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11pant.htm
3. “And as per the CAG website (Controller Audit General of India) more than 50,000crores rupees has gone missing from the Govt. Treasury” ( http://www.cag.gov.in/html/reports/civil/2007-08_CA13_civil/chap_2.pdf )
4. Government of India gifted $4.5 million (nearly Rs 23 crore) for Harvard University to establish a fund in honor of Prof Amartya Sen, which would help Indian students pursue higher education in that institution. This was to celebrate the 75th birth day of the renowned economist in recognition of his “extraordinary accomplishments” .The government had earlier given £3.2 million (nearly Rs 26 crore) to the Cambridge University’s Judges Business school to celebrate Nehru’s entry as a student of Trinity College. Why should a developing country like India fund the cash-rich institutions of the West? http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1214632
5. When Madarasas are being shut down in Pakistan, the Indian Government is giving them CBSE status !! This law is depriving Muslim children in getting secular education. A Madarasa educated person can get a job in any government office without going through the secular education system. Can India afford to have fundamentalists in government departments? Why cannot the government shut down Madarasa and let Muslim children study with the rest?
6. http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4742 http://www.indianexpress.com/news/madrasa-certificates-will-now-be-cbse-equivalent/404478/

–
7. 70 lakh crores rupees of India are lying in Switzerland banks. This is the highest amount lying outside any country, from amongst 180 countries of the world. German Government has officially written to Indian Government that they are willing to inform the details of holders of 70 lakh crore rupees in their Banks, if Indian Government officially asks them. On 22-5-08, this news has already been published in The Times of India and other Newspapers. Present government has adopted a policy of deafening silence and inaction. If the people of India elect a BJP-led NDA Government in May 2009, the BJP has assured the nation that India will join the global effort to get back the real Sovereign Wealth of our country.

Having said all this even BJP, the National Level Alternative, has proved only little better, but for now we need a change. Let us choose the lesser of the two evils. The same present party brought to power again means encouraging unabated corruption and threat to national security.
Stand up for this most tolerant and ancient civilization and prevent this great nation from becoming a communal battleground. As citizens of India we must vote for change.

WAKE UP INDIANS. LETS VOTE FOR CHANGE

With due respect to all of you I simply have following questions for you all;
1. Where is the alternative?
2. What is the guarantee that the alternative will not do the same.
3. Who has guts to bring money lying is Swiss Banks when most parties have close nexus to these people.
4. Who will fight to bring down this close nexus of Politicians, Industrialists, Media People, and people responsible for maintaining law and order in India.
5. Not an easy task……anyway lets fight together.

well are we all ready to form intellectual groups who speak about citizen rights and train the current and young generation on their rights as well as learn to give a mandate to the people who want to be elected which is of the work they need to do in the province they get selected .Mr.Manmohan Singh at least is a qualified and a level headed person. look at the majority they have number of criminal cases running on them .WE NEED CRITERIA’S FOR SELECTION .Well Emotional Quotient as well as the Intelligence Quotient is to be also considered.WE ASK MANY QUESTIONS TO PEOPLE WHO COME FOR GIVING INTERVIEWS , WHEN WE GO FOR BANK LOAN BANKS ASK SO MANY QUESTIONS AND IT GOES ON.BUT NO QUESTIONS ASKED TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO RULE US

Frankly, the projected PM candidate by the BJP brings only one thing to my mind: his patently stupid actions that caused communal riots all over the country (including putting my own – and my friends’ lives in danger). How on earth can I ever expect anything constructive from a person who has so amply displayed his utter lack of maturity. I am absolutely unable to recollect a single constructive thing that this former ‘Deputy PM’ has done.So, let us park the ability question.

Are you talking ‘intention’ and ‘sincerity’, then? If someone seriously believes that Mr. Advani scores higher (or even anywhere near) compared to Dr. Singh, I have no words for you :-)Why would you have words, when you do not know what to speak, its because of his single handed bungling that we have landed in the mess we have, the last joke was tytler and sajjan kumar getting back the right to contest elections. all with a sikh pm at the helm.

The no of absolute poor has grown in the country by almost 26% during the Upa regime, the prime architects are Mssrs MMS and co.

Its public knowledge that DR MMS and PC did not see eye to eye on several issues, Primarily India has been led into the mess we are, purely due to the neglect and lack of courage which DR MMS should have shown but never did.

Today from a surplus we are a deficit economy. We fear for our security and our cricketers go to another country to play club cricket, incidentally which is also facing elections, our movement on building infrastructure has completely stalled, business has no access to liquid capital and FII”s are contemplating running away.

in my personal opinion theres no point resting on all the laurels of what he did 20 years ago, anybody with the situation he had then would have done the same, today he does not deserve to be PM

Check his A team out

Kamal Nath, Pranab Mukherjee, PC (NREGS), Sharad Pawar (loan subsidy), AR Antulay, TR Baalu (the man who singlehandedly broke indias infrastructure), Ambumani Ramadoss,

Should i go on

We dont need these guys anymore…

Well..well. I feel your statement is narrow when you stated above MMS as Sikh PM. He has always presented himself as an Indian PM only and never as a PM from a community. ALMOST EVERYONE WILL AGREE TO THIS.

Secondly, please rethink about cricketers playing abroad (It was their choice as no one forced them to go). Actually they could not wait to play club cricket even in this heat, say 4 pm of May, for all commercial reasons and ignoring intelligence inputs when security forces wld be busy in more important task of elections. These guys could not even care for Padamshree awards for such reasons.

Though it is entirely their choice, but at the same time I think it is also a very wise decision not to put people to risk for such club cricket till the elections are over. And you would agree that terrorism is not a threat only from Congress rule. It happened in governments in past (less or more).

CAN I ASK THIS Q?
WHY DONT you give example of India getting MORE CRICKET MATCHES FOR WORLD CUP from Pakistan’s share?

@ Ameet
True, congress has screwed up in each & every part of India.
Forget cricket, if congress is around, India might break up due to their divisive policies. At this rate we are headed for civil wars & bloody revolutions.
I hope we get a new government this time.

It seems as if Mr.Ameet and Mr.Jaydeep Roy have been paid by BJP or have certain political connections with BJP and are hell bent on convincing that Congress is wrong why is Mr.Manmohan Singh the wrong P.M beacuse he is educated , cultured and thinks before he speaks and has tolerance levels which many parties don’t have .
Well being soft spoken means what it’s bad ….
Lets be practical and understand what are we trying to provide to our children a country of hatred or love.THE MAIN ASPECT IS WE ALL NEED AN ENVIRONMENT WERE EVERYONES CHILDREN CAN STUDY AND CAN GROW AND BE THE BEST HUMANS AS EXAMPLES FOR US AS WELL AS THE WORLD

You could do even better Joydeep, you could accuse him of being on the payroll of the TALIBAN, Lashkar E Toiba, Jaish E Mohammed, Pseudo Secular Wing of the Congress Party, The Salafi’s & Wahabbis of Saudi Arabia who happen to be funding most of the mosque construction and Madrasa’s in the sub-continent especially in India. Salim also happens to be based in the middle east so you can never rule out Hamas, Hezbollah or President Ahmedinejad’s coterie in Iran.

All That Tripe, does not change the facts in terms of the absolute failure the congress has delivered in the past 5 years, It also does not change the fact that in case the congress does come to power, there is no better leader other than MMS who can keep it together, Rahul Gandhi is not an option yet and no-one else seems to have the political sensibilities or following other than mr pawar who incidentally is a pariah…

BTW, i also do not happen to be a card carrying member of any party, but the work that i see the bjp doing in gujarat rajasthan and karnataka makes me want to be a part of the promise they have. I shall always wish the congress was better, but we would never have been in the mess we are in today were it not for the congress either…

for the data check S P Singh’s post

6 Steps To Better Time Management

27 Friday Mar 2009

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Time Management is a part of an individual learning experience in living with other people and in facing all the changes in one’s surroundings. Time is constant: It is always 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week (24/7). Nevertheless, the usage of time varies among each individual. There are people who can give time the capacity to control their lives, and there are people who find themselves a “slave” of time.

However, you can change the way you use time, and prepare yourself for better or worse circumstances. Here are the necessary pre-requisites to help you manage your time:

1. Think of goals and aims as necessary achievements. These achievements or aims can be reached by becoming realistic and by knowing your directions. Think of the scenarios of success but you should also recognize the fact that these roads have to be traversed in a given time.

2. Think of the time frame in achieving goals and aims. Time frames are the periods you are giving yourself to finish a task. If you are to write a book or an article, consider the time you are giving yourself for this activity. However, since you are also doing other things, you cannot devote your entire time in doing the said endeavor. Finally, think of the flow of things or the movement of time in your daily life as you move forward in achieving your desired goals. Think of your other activities that might affect the time factor in finishing given tasks. You might be spending too much time on a very idle activity (like too many late night parties or soirées or a whole day in front of your computer playing online games) that will give you less time to go on with your plan towards self-fulfillment and success.

3. Be realistic and expect changes. Time Management involves flexibility and open-mindedness. Do not expect that you can finish a task in what you’ve considered as your time frame unless everything is laid down perfectly. Maximize your time by examining your errors and by moving on with solutions that will sustain whatever efforts you have given to traverse difficult situations and challenges.

4. Know your work style. You work with your habits, your cycles, and bodily rhythms. Know how fast you can work on things. And if it’s not as good as others, try to make some developments. Examine yourself and know how fast you can work on things, like typing or encoding words in a computer, filing office data, writing a term paper, or even reading a book. You don’t need to know the exact time but at least, you will have an approximate measurement of how long you can finish such task.

5. Know your environment or workplace. Your house has a time of its own, your office has schedules, and your neighborhood has activities to offer. You are surrounded by these time schedules. It would be better if you would be conscious of the time flow in your surroundings. The daily tasks in your house are definitely main factors in determining your personal time. More so, your working hours are defined by the nature of your work and your workplace. The activities by the people around you may affect your strategies and daily endeavors. Finally, you are not alone in your workplace and other people are also wary of their time and schedules. All of these would affect your time frames and you must be in-synched with all of these to manage your limited time hassle-free.

6. Plan. Planning, like in any other preparations, is a way of saving time for errors. Mistakes usually happen because of unexpected and unforeseen factors such as wrong estimates of resources or the entry of new variables in solving a problem. However, with the proper plan and preparation, these unforeseen circumstances can be expected as well as minimized. In such way, you may still finish the task in a given time.

By considering the above-mentioned factors, you are not only giving yourself a period to reflect on how time flows in your life. You are also recognizing the factor that affects time and its fluidity.

Top 7 Time Management Tips

27 Friday Mar 2009

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There are specific steps that can be taken to improve your productivity. Below are 7 time management tips that will increase your productivity two or threefold. One major factor in time management is self-discipline and one’s ability to enforce it. A time management plan must be adhered to, and the initiative must be taken to accomplish given tasks.

Time Management Tips

  1. Beware of multi-tasking. Many studies have proven that multi tasking can actually negatively impact a worker’s productivity. It can take twenty minutes for a person who has been interrupted to regain their focus on the task they were working on before they were interrupted. Many people falsely believe that by switching back and forth between tasks and trying to spread their focus to everything around them that they can accomplish more. The human brain is not meant to function in this way. In these situations attention is not being spread out so much as switched back and forth and these switches negatively impact the ability to concentrate and accomplish tasks.
  2. Plan beforehand: This is a part of time management. When there are many things to do, people have to plan properly. It is very important to have to-do lists. It is not good to postpone things.To move forward and to put the things on the right track, it is very essential to follow a list. As flexibility is required some times, a person has to understand about it. There are also other ways to plan like confirming your appointments, prioritizing and delegating your work effectively.
  3. Schedule simply.  Determine when to take on difficult tasks based on when you are at your best. If you are a morning person, schedule hard work in the morning. If you aren’t awake until at least 10 a.m., save challenges for the afternoon.
  4. Allocate blocks of time. By this we mean that you should schedule out blocks of fifty to one hundred minutes of your time to work on specific task and allow for ten to twenty minute breaks between each block of task working. Try to schedule block of time for work that requires concentration during quiet times so that you can focus. Be serious about using this time for the scheduled tasks guard against others interrupting these blocks of time.
  5. Master the eighty-twenty rule. This rule, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle, means that about twenty percent of what you do produces about eighty percent of the results you achieve. The main point here is that many things in life, such as reward and effort, fail to be evenly distributed. Some of these things contribute more or less than other things. What a person needs to remember is that it may in fact be true that about eighty percent of a bridge built got built in only twenty percent of the time yet it still requires the whole bridge to be functional. This observation calls for one to be aware ofthe possibility of putting too much work into too little return.
  6. Do not try to take on all of your work at one time. It is easier to first analyze your assignment; break up the tasks and activities into smaller ones; and then determine how much time each task with take; prioritize and then follow through with the assignment.
  7. Choose your meetings wisely. If a meeting is important and must be attended, than it is best to limit your time to only one hour. When a meeting runs over that time, excuse yourself in a considerate manner. Remember, all meetings have set agendas which should be adhered to always.

10 Block Formula to Pump Up Selling Power of Your Website

06 Friday Feb 2009

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If you want your website to attract MORE traffic, sales and leads, then this might be the most important letter you’ll ever read.

If you want to convert MORE visitors into sales, then I urge you to read this article.

Now you can own my simple 10 block formula and cash-in on some of the greatest traffic building and conversion strategies that can make you some cold hard cash.

Are you ready? Here You Go…

Block 1 – Increase your Credibility using Testimonials.

Publish testimonials for your free stuff. It would increase their value and if they’re viral marketing tools, you’ll have more people giving them away.

Block 2 – Make your website Sticky.

Give your visitors a good time so they will visit your web site again. Use a few jokes, humorous graphics and funny stories.

Block 3 – Get Engaged in Joint Venture Deals.

Make money from web sites that don’t have an affiliate program, by doing a joint venture. Set up the affiliate program through a third party for them.

Block 4 – Help Your Customers to Help Yourself.

Build rapport with your potential customers by teaching them something new. Provide them with free ebooks, articles, tips, courses, etc.

Block 5 – Give them a Bait to Visit your Site.

Allow your visitors to collect things from your web site so they will stop back again and again. It could be a series of software, ebooks or articles.

Block 6 – Keep Your Website Layout the Same.

Keep each page of your web site consistent or similar. Use similar text fonts, colors, graphics and background on every page.

Block 7 – Build a Quality Freebie Directory.

Build a popular directory of freebies. It will draw tons of traffic to your web site and you can request that submitters place your link on their web site.

Block 8 – Help them Build a Quality Site.

Create traffic generators that people can add to their site without doing all the work. It can be an article directory, freebie directory, web tool, etc.

Block 9 – Reduce their Risk in Dealing with You.

Challenge your visitors to buy your product or service. People love a good challenge. Tell them if they can find a flaw you’ll give them a refund.

Block 10 – Build a Secret Relationship with Others.

Form a strategic alliance with other related but non-competing businesses. You’ll be able to beat your competition by selling to a larger audience.

You can easily sell more products and grab more leads using the above system. You can quickly and easily double your website traffic from now on using the above 10 block formula.

There’s never been a better time for you to get started than it is today!

Vitamins for Blog Stats

06 Friday Feb 2009

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All newbie bloggers pass through the in-love-with-the-hit-counter phase. At least I did. It took me a few months to realise that the count doesn’t matter, and the important thing is Google Ads cash, and ok, the connections you make online.

Yesterday while checking my stats, i noticed the top ‘Referrer’ was alphainventions.com, followed the link and…from their blog…”If you were to comment on a blog right after the webmaster published (updated) it, you would get a faster response, because most likely the webmaster is still online, and shocked to see that someone has commented so quickly.  This is either very simple, or i’m an advanced human.”

Guess it allows readers and bloggers to chat, comments being so off-line. Anyway, i submitted my blog at alphainventions.com, and my hit-counter started doing that Kwaja Mere Kwaja thing, very fast.

Thank you Cheru Jackson Blog myspace.com

Grim outlook for new IT projects

03 Tuesday Feb 2009

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The grim economic outlook has caused CIOs to withhold budgets, ditch new projects and cut back on contractors, according to technology analyst firm Longhaus’ Australian Technology Index for the first quarter of 2009.

(Credit: Longhaus)

The peak for the local IT industry was 2007, driven largely by hardware refreshes that were part of what Longhaus has called “Y2K-related asset refreshes”. With that period largely over, and the deteriorating global economy, work is expected to dry up.

The index is based on a proprietary model used by Longhaus to measure the health of the Australian ICT industry. It measures demand forces, including ICT spending and importing, supply factors (including venture capital), strength of vendors as indicated by market value and employment capacity, and consumer factors such as internet subscription rates. It also uses heuristic views from Australian CIOs.

Uncertainty had caused 26 per cent of the 69 CIOs, who represent organisations with at least 200 employees, to withhold on average 12.5 per cent of their budgets, Longhaus reported.

That uncertainty would also mean IT contractors will be cut back due to new projects being shelved — and exacerbated by moves within the Federal and Queensland Governments to cut back on the use of more contractors, who can be more expensive than permanent staff.

“Longhaus believe that the lack of new investments in infrastructure technologies and a stalling of ICT projects is the likely cause behind the proposed reduction in contractors,” it reported.

However, the outlook for those seeking permanent work was better, with 67 per cent of CIOs saying they expected to boost the size of their permanent workforce.

The index has echoed concerns of Australian IT outsourcing companies regarding new projects as funding and new business opportunities dried up. ASG chief executive, Geoff Lewis, said the company would most likely not bid for new “discretionary spending” projects, preferring to focus on multi-year infrastructure and core business systems management deals.

“This is a very serious recession and will have serious ramifications in the financial arena,” said Lewis. “Organisations will be very scrutinising of capital spending and will be looking for savings in their operational budgets,” he recently told ZDNet.com.au.

The downturn, however, could present a good opportunity for CIOs on the skills front, according to Longhaus.

“This is the time for savvy CIOs to go on a recruitment drive. However, CIOs should be forward-looking in their appraisal of the right permanent skills and opt for applications development and business analysis above core infrastructure headcount,” Longhaus said in the index report.

The hunt for permanent skills in the current climate has become easier, according to Peter Kazacos, chief executive of P K Business Advantage and founder of Telstra’s IT services business Kaz, who said his company had not required recruitment services for months.

“There are a number of recruitment firms that are about to hit the wall. We haven’t used a recruiter in months, simply because we don’t have to,” he said.

But the question that has eluded many analyst firms is exactly how deep and long the downturn is expected to last. Gartner earlier this year put forward widely varied estimates of how the technology sector would weather the storm.

Head of research at Gartner Peter Sondergaard was certain that IT budgets would slow in 2009, but dared not answer how long for. “Your guess is as good as anybody else’s,” he said.

But Longhaus has estimated the downturn affecting the Australian IT industry would, based on past downturns, be stemmed by 2010. “The next wave of hardware renewal in Australia is set to begin in 2010,” it said.

Customer Satisfaction in 7 Steps

31 Saturday Jan 2009

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It’s a well known fact that no business can exist without customers. In the business of Website design, it’s important to work closely with your customers to make sure the site or system you create for them is as close to their requirements as you can manage. Because it’s critical that you form a close working relationship with your client, customer service is of vital importance. What follows are a selection of tips that will make your clients feel valued, wanted and loved.

1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings

This is the most daunting and downright scary part of interacting with a customer. If you’re not used to this sort of thing it can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Rest assured, though, it does get easier over time. It’s important to meet your customers face to face at least once or even twice during the course of a project.

My experience has shown that a client finds it easier to relate to and work with someone they’ve actually met in person, rather than a voice on the phone or someone typing into an email or messenger program. When you do meet them, be calm, confident and above all, take time to ask them what they need. I believe that if a potential client spends over half the meeting doing the talking, you’re well on your way to a sale.

2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your Clients Informed

This goes without saying really. We all know how annoying it is to wait days for a response to an email or phone call. It might not always be practical to deal with all customers’ queries within the space of a few hours, but at least email or call them back and let them know you’ve received their message and you’ll contact them about it as soon as possible. Even if you’re not able to solve a problem right away, let the customer know you’re working on it.

A good example of this is my Web host. They’ve had some trouble with server hardware which has caused a fair bit of downtime lately. At every step along the way I was emailed and told exactly what was going on, why things were going wrong, and how long it would be before they were working again. They also apologised repeatedly, which was nice. Now if they server had just gone down with no explanation I think I’d have been pretty annoyed and may have moved my business elsewhere. But because they took time to keep me informed, it didn’t seem so bad, and I at least knew they were doing something about the problems. That to me is a prime example of customer service.

3. Be Friendly and Approachable

A fellow SitePointer once told me that you can hear a smile through the phone. This is very true. It’s very important to be friendly, courteous and to make your clients feel like you’re their friend and you’re there to help them out. There will be times when you want to beat your clients over the head repeatedly with a blunt object – it happens to all of us. It’s vital that you keep a clear head, respond to your clients’ wishes as best you can, and at all times remain polite and courteous.

4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service Policy

This may not be too important when you’re just starting out, but a clearly defined customer service policy is going to save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. If a customer has a problem, what should they do? If the first option doesn’t work, then what? Should they contact different people for billing and technical enquiries? If they’re not satisfied with any aspect of your customer service, who should they tell?

There’s nothing more annoying for a client than being passed from person to person, or not knowing who to turn to. Making sure they know exactly what to do at each stage of their enquiry should be of utmost importance. So make sure your customer service policy is present on your site — and anywhere else it may be useful.

5. Attention to Detail (also known as ‘The Little Niceties’)

Have you ever received a Happy Birthday email or card from a company you were a client of? Have you ever had a personalised sign-up confirmation email for a service that you could tell was typed from scratch? These little niceties can be time consuming and aren’t always cost effective, but remember to do them.

Even if it’s as small as sending a Happy Holidays email to all your customers, it’s something. It shows you care; it shows there are real people on the other end of that screen or telephone; and most importantly, it makes the customer feel welcomed, wanted and valued.

6. Anticipate Your Client’s Needs & Go Out Of Your Way to Help Them Out

Sometimes this is easier said than done! However, achieving this supreme level of understanding with your clients will do wonders for your working relationship.

Take this as an example: you’re working on the front-end for your client’s exciting new ecommerce endeavour. You have all the images, originals and files backed up on your desktop computer and the site is going really well. During a meeting with your client he/she happens to mention a hard-copy brochure their internal marketing people are developing. As if by magic, a couple of weeks later a CD-ROM arrives on their doorstep complete with high resolution versions of all the images you’ve used on the site. A note accompanies it which reads:

“Hi, you mentioned a hard-copy brochure you were working on and I wanted to provide you with large-scale copies of the graphics I’ve used on the site. Hopefully you’ll be able to make use of some in your brochure.”

Your client is heartily impressed, and remarks to his colleagues and friends how very helpful and considerate his Web designers are. Meanwhile, in your office, you lay back in your chair drinking your 7th cup of coffee that morning, safe in the knowledge this happy customer will send several referrals your way.

7. Honour Your Promises

It’s possible this is the most important point in this article. The simple message: when you promise something, deliver. The most common example here is project delivery dates.

Clients don’t like to be disappointed. Sometimes, something may not get done, or you might miss a deadline through no fault of your own. Projects can be late, technology can fail and sub-contractors don’t always deliver on time. In this case a quick apology and assurance it’ll be ready ASAP wouldn’t go amiss.

Conclusion

Customer service, like any aspect of business, is a practiced art that takes time and effort to master. All you need to do to achieve this is to stop and switch roles with the customer. What would you want from your business if you were the client? How would you want to be treated? Treat your customers like your friends and they’ll always come back.

Career Makeover Tips: How to Choose the Right Job

14 Wednesday Jan 2009

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The prospect of starting on a new career can be exhilarating and promising. After all, who hasn’t thought about making a fresh start? But the process can also be full of stress. What if you don’t make the right choice? Following a few simple steps can make the whole process a little more manageable. And who knows, maybe you’ll end up with your dream job!

Step 1: “Ideas”

  • 1. What makes you happy? List out your hobbies to find out what makes you happy. E.g., I would put sketching, being close to nature, watching home improvement shows, baking, reading about current affairs in Asia, tinkering around with the computer to write little scripts that improve productivity, making up little stories to amuse my little kid, and travelling to different countries to see indigenous wildlife.
  • 2. What are you good at? List out subjects you took in school/college that you did well at, and also things that other people look at and say “Hey, that’s really good!”

Outcome: A list of free-form items of things you like doing, not necessarily in the form of careers or job descriptions. Order the list to keep the ideas you like more at the top.

Step 2: “Goals”

  • 1. What are your goals? Remember to think long-term. Making money will probably be an important one (unless you are financially independent). But also include goals like reducing stress, staying outdoors, working with people, getting a month off every year to visit your home country, working with your hands to create something, helping the needy etc.
  • 2. Make each goal specific (e.g., Money -> $80,000 per year by the year 2006).

Outcome: A list of goals you want to accomplish. Order the list by importance.

Step 3: “Careers”

  • 1. Look at your Idea List and your Goal List side by side. Are there ideas you can eliminate or set aside because they do not meet enough of your goals? If so, do it and narrow down your list of ideas into a shorter list of maybe 6 or less.
  • 2. For each of the ideas on your short list (or some combination of the ideas), come up with a career or job. E.g., author of children’s book, chef on a cooking show, journalist writing targeted travelogues, computer programmer, catering business owner, specialized building contractor etc.

Outcome: A list of (5-10) careers that are potential candidates. Order the list to keep the careers you like more at the top.

Step 4: “Research”

  • 1. For each candidate career, answer the following questions:
    • How many years/months will it take to educate yourself on it?
    • How many years/months will it take to gain enough experience?
    • How will you get experience at it? Can you volunteer somewhere for part-pay or no-pay while you’re learning?
    • Talk to real people working in the field.
  • 2. Look at your candidate careers again and eliminate those for which the preparation time or expense is unrealistically high – e.g., something that will take a 6-year PhD with no financial aid expected.

Outcome: A list of (1-4) careers that are on your short list.

Step 5: “Take Action”

  • 1. Can you try out a career for a while? E.g., devote a couple of weekends (or more) to write a children’s story and try to get it published. Or take a summer internship at a computer software company. Maybe you can try out a new career part-time while continuing to hold your current steady job.
  • 2. Imagine what it would feel like to wake up every day of the week and work in the career you are evaluating. Will you still like it a few years from now?
  • 3. Get all the information you can about how to get started once you decide on the right career for you. E.g., dig up everything you can on the internet or in your public library on how to start a catering business.

Outcome: A hands-on idea of what your life will be like if you switched to your new job.

Step 6: “Decide”

  • 1. Decide on the best career for you.
  • 2. Write down the pros and the cons and the reasons you made this decision. This will be useful in the future if you start having doubts about your choice. You can reassure yourself that you thought this through carefully.
  • 3. Come up with an alternative plan if things don’t work out exactly the way you’re planning them.

Outcome: A brand new career!

Remember that your work’s not done until you make your dream job a reality. In order to do that, you must update your resume, obtain the relevant training, prepare for interviews, apply to jobs and start interviewing.

Hopefully, you have a fresh brand new career opportunity to look forward to. Or maybe this whole process taught you to value your current career and realize that you are already in your dream job. Either way, you will have learnt something about yourself and your needs. Even if you decide not to make a drastic career change, maybe it will have inspired you to take up a new hobby or a new activity that will make your life more balanced, complete and enriched.

Good luck!!

Plan your Life

06 Tuesday Jan 2009

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It’s an interesting article by Yogesh Chhabria:

LATELY, I have been thinking a lot about the Lehman crisis . Spending money that they didn’t have and going beyond their means is one of the main reasons for their situation today. In fact that is the cause for the current economic crisis in the US. When I see all this happening, I can only remember the good old days. Then,karz was bad. People looked down upon those who took loans. Parents would not give their daughter’s hand in marriage to a man with loans. But of course, the times have changed now. Everyone I know has a loan. The buzz word is EMI (equated monthly installment). Today, you can buy everything on EMI – a house, a television, an i-Pod. In fact I know of someone who just bought a fancy BMW 3 series on EMI, instead of buying a ! cheaper car outright with cash.

I mostly prefer to take public transport, but then I am an old man with old thoughts!

Anyway, coming back to what caused the crisis. Imagine having Rs 2 lakh in your bank account, no regular income, yet buying a house worth Rs 65 lakh,in the hope of selling it for a higher price. Even if the price of the house fell by just 5 per cent (that is Rs 3 lakh), you will go
bankrupt.

This is what Lehman Brothers did; with around USD 20 billion they went and bought assets worth over USD 600 billion. Isn’t it suicidal and simply foolish?

I am sure things would have been different, had I been the head of Lehman brothers. But who wants an old conservative man like me to head a complex financial institution.
But there are a few lessons that we can learn:

1.Live a balanced life and avoid overspending.

2. Don’t buy things we don’t need.

3. Don’t buy Branded goods unless its a very essential and life saving.

4. Don’t buy excess Food, Clothes, Cosmetics, Footwear, electronics and Fashion accuracies just think before you buy.

Tip: World still has a lot of growth ahead and the future holds immense opportunities for us. Let us make the most of it and save and invest it wisely instead of wasting our precious little on
things we don’t need.

5.Try to balance life with work (No one is happy only if there are professions).

6 .Try to understand each other (Wife and Husband /Parents / sis/ bro) in financial matters and help each other.

Tip: As soon as you get your monthly salary, set aside a fixed amount,usually 35 per cent, for insurance, savings and investments. You can then spend the rest.

7. Not all loans are bad. Loans that are ‘need based’ (home loans,education loans) can always find a place in your finances against those that are largely ‘want based’ (Credit cards, personal loans, car loans).

8. Borrow only if repayment is financially comfortable.A thumb rule: Keep EMIs within 35 to 45 per cent of your monthly income

9. Try to find satisfaction within what you have, Money or wealth is a not a destination.

In that respect, there is one American who I really respect – Warren Buffet. He has lived in the same ordinary house for over three decades,drives his own medium sized car and leads an extremely regular middle class’ life. If that’s all it takes for the richest person on earth to be happy, why do all of us need to take extra stress just so that we can get things which aren’t even essential?