A document imaging service is a company that will meet your needs for document management. This helps you to get more organized with your paperwork. It can also help you to transfer documents that are in an old format into a more modern format that will be easier to use.
Four services that people commonly get from a good document imaging business are:
1. Help with archiving documents. The main function of this type of business is that it will provide you with a solution to neatly archive all of the documents that you have as well as to easily store future documents in the new archival system.
2. Cleaning out a space. Part of the process of archiving will allow you to get rid of paper archival systems. You can finally throw out all of those file cabinets that are cluttering up your space.
3. Conversion of outdated formats. For example, your document imaging company may help you to convert old microfiche film into formats that can be accessed, used and shared on your modern computer system.
4. Help buying a scanner. A scanner is a key piece of equipment used in document imaging. A good company will help you choose the right scanner and may even offer scanner rental.
Living life is joyous on occasion, rough going sporadically (hopefully), and even keel on most days. The aforementioned goes for superstar power brokers and well endowed professional athletes - life, as a matter of fact, is ever changing and a challenge (and mundane at times).
There are, however ,a few simple tips you can keep in mind to optimize life (the tips, of course, are not exhaustive and are meant as a discussion starter while you’re showering in the morning pondering those great thoughts):
1. Thinking On Your Feet
Thinking on your feet is Quite possibly the No. 1 practical skill set of all time. The skill set can aid in a multitude of scenarios from an impromptu discussion on the value of the product line you manager with the company CEO to the ability to argue a position or answer a question in your college seminar. Thinking on your feet can also land you the ideal job you are looking for because, at the heart of it, a job interview is a sort of spontaneous conversation where the hiring manager is evaluating your ability to speak and formulate ideas. Simply put, if you can’t think on your feet you might as well be flipping burgers as the local McDonalds.
2. Meaningful Small Talk
If you distill small talk to it’s very essence it’s about being able to handle social situations well. A person who does small talk well can relate to just about anyone (from the local sanitation worker to the academic at the local college) and quickly situate himself in a social setting and make friends, communicate that he or she is a trustworthy individual, and ultimately put the group or person he / she is engaged with in a calm and agreeable manner.
3. Take Care Of Your Body, Teeth, and Hair
OK, I’m currently typing this blog entry in shorts, black socks, and with a little bit of scruff on my chin (read: I haven’t shaved in two days), yet I’m telling you it’s vital that you take your appearance seriously (I’d look better if our 6 week old wasn’t dominating our life currently). I’ve heard that half of life is merely showing up and looking good; that may be true, but the looking good part should consist of daily exercise, dental hygiene (read brush your teeth, floss, and visit the dentist), regular haircuts and the use of hair product (I’m serious), and respectable, but not too showy and ostentatious, clothing. You convey a ton to people well before you open your mouth, so get the easy part right and simply look good (it’s not hard).
4. Be Flexible…With Everything
Like thinking on your feet, the ability to be flexible with life is key to living well. As much as planning and thoughtful analysis is part of my DNA, I see the ability to quickly change directions in life and adapt to shifting professional, family, and social situations as an even more vital skill set. I think the aforementioned skill set is especially important for younger folks in their twenties and early thirties when patience and seeing the big picture can be difficult.
5. Keep your family Close (i.e., You Can Have Too Many Friends)
I’ve written on the virtues of maintaining a strong connection to mom and dad time and time again. And it’s not just mom and dad you want to keep close, but also sisters, brothers, in-laws, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Maintaining strong family ties creates a real world social network that can help with renovating your home, raising your 1st born child, dealing with difficult life decisions, and just living life in general. At the risk of sounding like a right leaning conservative, family is vital. Now, I do include a few close friends within my family group, but I don’t have too many close friends because it takes time to nurture friendships (and let’s face it, you can’t raise a family, work, stay close to mom, dad, and sis, and maintain relationships with 50 “close” friends).
One of the most popular types of computer education degrees to get is Cisco Certification. There are many different areas and levels of Cisco certification training. All of them allow you to learn what you need to know to work with the various products created by this leading technology company.
What I’m wondering is when you’ll be able to start doing your Cisco certification training on your mobile phone. It just seems like it’s only a matter of time before web classes are going to turn into mobile classes. Although Cisco classes can be taken in person, most people do Cisco online training. It seems only natural that these would be among the first classes to go mobile.
Think about it for a minute. How many people are taking online classes these days? And how many people are using their mobile phones to access the mobile web, check email, watch videos, chat online and teleconference with others? It’s not a big leap to think that those people who are doing school online might want to start taking their classes on the go. I hope that I’m right and I hope that Cisco classes are some of the first classes that become available to mobile phone students.
There is a big trend for people to host gold selling parties at their homes these days. A party is thrown and all of the guests are invited to bring their scrap gold. An appraiser is on site. Each guest meets with the appraiser individually to sell his or her gold. Everyone has a good time and everyone makes some money. It doesn’t seem like such a leap to think that this would be a great holiday party to throw at the office place.
Most employers are hesitant to try something like this because talking about money is often a no-no in the office. However now could be the perfect time to do something as daring as throwing a gold selling property for the holidays.
Let’s face it; money is a big concern in your office right now. Your employees need more of it and you don’t have more to give. But you do have the ability to host a party where they can sell jewelry and make some extra cash before Christmas. They’ll not only benefit from selling gold at this event. They will also benefit from having a relaxing good time with co-workers during a season that can otherwise be very stressful.
Interest rates are low these days and there’s a ton of housing stock available, so, in my view, it’s a great time to buy a home. The financing part is a bit trickier these days with banks scrutinizing loan applications, but if you have a good down payment (at least 20 percent), a great credit score, ready to work at maintaining your home, and understand that a home is, first, a place to live and, secondly, possibly an investment go out and buy a home!
With the above said, there are areas in a home that are consistently neglected by homeowners. Neglecting a home repair can cost you big bucks in the long term and is just plain dumb/lazy (would you ever not feed your dog or provide fresh water for your cat?). In turn, I’ve put together a top five list of areas of your home NOT to ignore! Let’s start with the often ignored, but highly functional, gutter:
1. Gutters
When we purchased our home I asked the owner when was the last time she had her gutters cleaned. The ex-homeowner replied by saying, “oh, I don’t know, but it’s not important.” If you live in a leafy neighborhood you should get your gutters cleaned twice a year (I like cleaning mine in November and May). Allowing leaf build up and sediment to accumulate in your gutters can lean to interior and exterior water damage which can costs thousands of dollars to repair. Clean your gutters yourself or hire a crew if your gutters can’t be reached safely.
2. Furnace
There are many types of furnaces used to heat homes in the US, including forced hot air, steam, and hot water. And most furnaces are either fueled by natural gas or oil. The typical furnace can last between 15-25 depending on the system and your tolerance for efficiency. I’ve seen steam boilers with tons of sediment build up, hot water furnaces with rotting pipes, and tons of leaking radiators. This isn’t good for one of the major systems of your home. In fact, I think most homeowner see their heating and cooling systems as pieces of machinery that run themselves without the need maintenance. Hot water furnaces should be checked and cleaned by a capable homeowner or a licensed plumber at the beginning of each heating season. Steam furnaces require a bit more upkeep, but the maintenance routine is the same: clean pilot and burner area, keep the area around your furnace clean, check damper running into chimney, lubricate moving parts, (if steam) flush water in system to get rid of sediment in radiators and furnace. See my guide to winterizing your home!
3. Yard
Walk by any home and the first thing you notice is the front yard and this happens well before you notice architecture style, the pretty red door, and the Lexus sitting in the driveway. If you’re a homeowner your front yard is your first shot to make impression, be it good or bad. An unkempt lawn, big dirt patches, and overgrown hedges and trees all make for poor maintenance and upkeep and, in relation to other home improvement / maintenance projects, maintaining a green lawn and pruning your boxwood is cheap and easy. Also, failure to maintain your exterior landscape can also lead to drainage problems and possible basement leaks as your yard can develop issues with slope and water seepage. See my tips on how to maintain a great looking lawn!
4. Sidewalk
If you’re lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that has sidewalks then you’ve bought yourself a lifetime membership to a great health club. Walking around your neighborhood is great exercise and gets you interacting with the neighbors. Unfortunately, concrete sidewalks will need some upkeep, especially if you’re block or neighborhood is lined with street trees. Large trees cause concrete sidewalks to lift and crack over time and, in many cases, the only way to repair an uplifted sidewalk is to pour a new section of sidewalk. Many towns also have ordinances requiring homeowners to maintain their sidewalk, so sidewalk upkeep is a given. Don’t you just love homeownership!
5. Kitchen
They say the kitchen is the new heart of the modern home and prospective home buyers look to, among other things, the size and condition of the kitchen when considering the purchase of a home. When we looked at homes for purchase a couple of years back, we fell into the same category as above and we were mostly horrified at the condition of most conditions. Many of the kitchens we walked through had faulty appliances, cracked flooring, leaking faucets, poor lighting, and, generally, inadequate space and functional layout. I’m not advocating homeowners build lavish kitchen with a Viking stove, soapstone countertops, and exotic wood cabinets, but I’m a big fan of keeping a kitchen up to date and renovating a kitchen once it’s past its functional prime. Plus, there’s usually a decent ROI on a newly renovated kitchen. See my guide to renovating your kitchen!
As the peak summer growing season comes to an end, I took a trip to my parent’s place to have a look at their urban garden in full bloom. My parents have grown ripe tomatoes, feathery zucchini flowers, sweet string beans, basil, parsley, figs (yes, in New Jersey!), blazingly hot cayenne peppers, mint, squash, and woodsy rosemary for as long as I can remember. Most of the vegetables are started from heirloom seeds and mom and dad spend a considerable amount of time watering, weeding, cutting, tilling, etc. the garden. Generally, my parents don’t take on a project unless they can do it extremely well and their home garden is no exception.
The aforementioned garden inspired me to start my own small garden when we first purchased our home several years, but I quickly encountered two big problems: 1. lack of sun and 2. lack of time. I couldn’t do much about the lack of sun in our backyard given several large trees (I like the shade) but I could motivate myself to work harder on the garden. So, I tried to weed and nurture our small suburban garden, but I just didn’t have the passion and feel needed to make it flourish. So, now several years later we’re left with a few patio planters (in terra cotta) filled with lush basil and parsley (hey, I can make plenty of pesto).
I bring up my own garden malfunction story to prove a point. Namely, even with a good background and the know-how to garden there were still a few key elements missing that prevented me from growing high quality vegetables and herbs. That is to say, there are basic intangibles that allow high achievers to win the US Open or climb the corporate to CEO, for example, or even complete a large home improvement project or start and maintain a thriving garden that I didn’t possess when I started my garden.
Here are four intangible personality traits needed for general success in life (not necessarily to grow a great garden!):
2. Shortsightedness. Any time someone achieves something extraordinary something else in their life, inevitably, takes a back seat. If you’re practicing to win the US Open, then it’s going to be tough to maintain a romantic relationship, travel for pleasure, or read a few great novels (do you think Roger Federer is a well rounded person?). Anything worth achieving requires a ton of time and certain things will take a back seat in life when time is at a premium.
3. Stubbornness. My parents would never allow their garden to die or produce mediocre results. In many ways, my parent’s greatest strength is their perseverance and willingness to push through life (even if the path is uphill and windy). This is a typical recent immigrant characteristic and tough to teach.
4. Feel. You can instruct someone to swing a tennis racquet, but you’ll quickly get a sense if that person has a “feel” for the racquet and how to, generally, hit a tennis ball. You’ll notice how their body moves and bends to greet the tennis ball and the explosion of arm and back muscles to propel the ball forward. You’ll also notice how the person reacts after they hit the ball; namely, how they land ready to swing again and quickly sprint left or right to chase down the next spinning tennis ball. This, in a crudely described manner, is having feel. Apply the description to business, cooking, parenting, sport, etc., if you don’t have it you’ll probably never be able to excel, at the highest level, at a particular task or goal.
This entry will, hopefully, be the first in a series entitled, “Against the Mainstream.” The series will aim to dispel popular, or mass media, themes, trends, recommendation, tips, or programs.
Does the Cash for Clunkers government program make sense for a practical or frugal individual? Before we dive into the question, let’s consider some facts via the official Cars Allowance Rebate System (or CARS) government web site:
- Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements).
- Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date.
- Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify.
- You don’t need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase.
- The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle, and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.
- Qualified consumers will receive the $3,500 or $4,500 credit at the time they purchase their new vehicle.
So, with the above information does it still make sense for you to run to your nearest dealer and trade in your good old clunker for a shiny new piece of metal? The first question you should be asking yourself is do I really need a new car? For example, most reliable cars built over the last 10-15 years are designed to run to, at least, 100,000 miles without major repair cost (this doesn’t include oil and filter changes, tire and break maintenance, exhaust system, fluids, and some belts). A reliable vehicle with over 100,000 miles and which gets less than 18 mpg could cost you less over the true life of the vehicle over purchasing a new, fuel efficient, vehicle.
On average a new vehicle in the US costs close to $30,000, so even with the max $4,500 credit the average consumer is still needs to come up with $25,500 to “take advantage” of the Clash for Clunkers program. You can repair and keep many reliable cars going for 25K! And If you’re looking to spend 25K I can think of a handful of better ideas (including saving the money in a high yield savings account, investing in undervalued stocks, setting up a Roth IRA, etc.) - remember money can buy you many things, it just can’t buy happiness.
Overall, I think it makes sense to leverage the Cash for Clunkers Bill if you’re truly in market for a new vehicle, but I wouldn’t advocate visiting your dealership if you have a reliable late model vehicle in your fleet (even if it requires the occasional repair and gets under 18 mpg).
Back in October of last year I wrote about essential kitchen tools and kitchen simplicity. The article attracted a few comments from readers stating that my list was too extreme and left out some key tools and items. So, I’ve decided to take another look around my kitchen and update my essential kitchen tool list (sorry still no pizza stone):
1. CuisinArt Food Processor and Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
OK, I’m going to start off by saying that both my grandmother and mother never used or owned the above tools and they both made/make fantastic food. In fact, I remember trying to convince my grandmother to let us buy her a large stand mixer so that her weekly bread making would be a little easier for her (she of course said no).
Boiling water takes time, not a whole lot of time, but just enough minutes to annoy me at certain key moments (for example, waiting for boiling water in the early morning for your French Press Pot). We picked up a Krups electric kettle two years ago and it’s been a terrific, time saving, device. We use our kettle for tea, coffee, pasta water, etc. Plus, it actually saves energy when you consider that the device boils water faster than our fancy Wolf, 18,000 BTU, gas stove.
Pepin used a paring knife, for everyone else get a vegetable peeler.
9. Instant Read Thermometer
You’ll throw this out after becoming a competent cook, but you should have one in your kitchen for the early years.
10. Peppermill
You’ll use this every day and there’ a big difference with freshly ground pepper (same difference with freshly ground coffee). I own a French made, Prefex, that’s compact and very functional.
11. Salad spinner
If you eat tons of greens then you need to dry most of them before cooking or consuming, the salad spinner is a revolutionary product and you should have one.
12. Colanders
You should have about three of these for draining pasta, cleaning vegetables, etc.
13. Toaster Oven
This will cause some debate, but I could not live without our small toaster oven. I used out tiny DeLonghi toaster oven to broil thin white flesh fish and salmon, heat up pizza, toast bread, etc. The device cooks food in no time and unlike a microwave it perfectly toasts and browns food for tremendous flavor. The device also does not use as much energy as our larger Wolf or Cadco ovens.
Any good business plan includes a budget for marketing types of things. For instance, one of the most important things to budget for is the building of your website.
When most people think about building their website, they are thinking about the graphics and design end of it. And sure, it’s very important to be sure you can pay for good graphic design in Birmingham. But don’t forget about the other side of the coin: the copy contained on your website!
Equally as important as graphic design is ensuring that you get good search engine marketing in Birmingham. This means ensuring that your website’s copy is well written and search engine optimized for the appropriate keywords. It also can mean online marketing materials such as press releases, articles, and blog posts — none of which will do their job unless they are well-written.
The goal is, of course, to get your website ranked as high in the search results as possible. While good graphic design is important, if your website is at the bottom of the list no one will ever even click through to see your gorgeous graphics in the first place.
So be sure, when you are putting together a budget for your website, to set aside some money for copy and marketing, as well as for graphic design!
