Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A bunch of good ideas on being successful in business

This is a very good video on management and success in general, although I don't agree with never answering your phone. 

Saturday, June 12, 2010

" I don't think it's broken"..... Now that's funny

So it occurred to me this morning a millisecond after asking the following question to my 19 year old stepdaughter who is back home during summer break from college "When would you like me to work on your laptop to fix it up and make it work better and remove all the harmful things from it?", that her answer was probably no different from over 99% of the people in this country.  I will save you the suspense and let you know that this was her exact response.  "I don't think it's broken".  OH MY GOODNESS!  No wonder why mechanics love to deal with people who don't maintain their cars.  It makes them a fortune!

If that's the case, why ever change your oil until your engine ceases?  Why change your tires until you get a flat tire?  Why change your bed sheets until such point when you see stains or it smells?  Why have your boiler in your basement cleaned until your heat stops working?  Shall I continue with examples or do you get the drill?

Suffice it to say, that with 100% certainty, the computer you are reading this blog with right now is not running at 100% optimal levels.  Everyday that you surf the web, install programs, run programs and do work on your computer, it is being adjusted and manipulated adversely and requires maintenance.  The question at hand is, "How much pain can you handle both time-wise and money-wise to fix it when it gets really bad?"  The more you wait, the more pain you will have to endure in both respects.

Don't kid yourself.  Your computer is "broken".  It's just a matter of to what degree at any particular time.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Business Person of the Year - Scott Robbins of New England PC Services

Fun Enterprises Names Business Person of the Year -
Scott Robbins of New England PC Services
Thank you!  Very Much Appreciated.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Please look my CV. Thank you

This is just a helpful piece of advice.  If you get an email that has: "Please look my CV. Thank you" as the subject, it is malware.  Do Not Open It!  It is bad news and it has been around now for a little while.  Delete it immediately and if you know how, create a rule so that if an email of that nature is sent to your email address, it is deleted before getting to your email client.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Blackmailing virus infects computers by installing a Trojan horse.

Blackmailing virus is a new type of Malware called Kenzero. It is a Trojan horse designed to profit from victims whose computers are infected. The virus installs itself on computers through a popular file-share service called Winni.
Viruses on computers can usually do damage to the hardware. This Malware demands a ransom by prompting for a credit card number. It can ridicule and embarrass its computer victims.


Browsing History
The Trojan captures the user's browsing history on the infected computer. It then sends the information to a public website. Once the user realizes that their private information is on the Web for everyone to see, the website demands payment to have it removed.

Internet Schemes
However, the virus is a bit tricky and plays psychology on its victim. It uses the term "settle your violation of copyright law." The user feels convinced that they downloaded illegal files from an online service.
Moreover, the Kenzero Trojan virus knows what sites the user has visited. The site that publishes the private information is registered to a fake individual called Shoen Overns. Authorities have tied this name to other related virus schemes on the Internet.

Facebook and Farm Town
The "Farm Town" application in Facebook has been hit with Malware. It redirects users to a fake antivirus software program. The computer user is told they have infections and should buy the software.
"We believe at this time that it is harmless to your computer and a result of one or more of the ads on the site, but you should not follow any links to any software claiming to 'clean your system,'" Farm Town's developer, SlashKey, said in a statement.
However, the advertisement has been pulled. It was running on a network owned by Cubics. The company has banned the advertisement.

By: Rob Adams
Published: Apr 16, 2010
Updated: Apr 16, 2010

Monday, April 12, 2010

CMR17 - STANDARDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

 As a service to our blog readers and our clients, we felt that posting this was very important.  Additionally, if you have not contacted us yet on securing your data, please do!


Monday, February 15, 2010

Blogging works....

For those of you who want to get a message out there, blogging is a great way to do so.  I never even considered it until a few weeks back when some well-respected peers of mine strongly suggested it to me.

You see blogging allows you, as an individual or as part of a company to share thoughts and ideas with others.  Firstly, it lets others know a little bit more about you as a person and lets people read about the things that are important enough for you to write about. Secondly it strikes a good, bad or indifferent chord with the people who take the time to read it; and thirdly it helps give you exposure on search engines.  Generally, people take the time to read about topics that are of interest to them and will either agree or disagree with the subject matter or simply smile.

So as Alec Baldwin says in Glengarry Glenross, "Go and Do Likewise" and start blogging.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Prospecting to Old Fashioned Way....Face-to-Face!

For the many people who know me well, they know that I have spent many, many years in the sales training industry and although I don't want to make this blog focused on that topic too often, I find that many of the topics are helpful to business people so I will take this opportunity today to touch upon a topic that came up with a very close friend of mine just yesterday.

Just to keep his identity protected, let's just call him Bob (His actual name is Bob - HA HA).

Anyway, he is in the appraisal business and he called me up because he also knows of my 20 years experience in the website development space, and said "My website sucks and nobody can find me". I paused, said "Ok, what would you like me to do about that?" He paused and then started shuddering because he either didn't know what he wanted from me or he knew exactly what he wanted from me, but didn't want to come out and ask me. In any case, I told him I would give him free advice and would certainly help him in any way I could, but if he wanted a professional site which would take time away from my actual income earning career, he would have to pay me for it. I spoke straight to him and hopefully he appreciated it.

But I also told him that if he was expecting the phone to ring because he had a cool website or he came up higher in the search engines, that he is kidding himself. That is only one spoke in a wheel full of spokes when it comes to sales and marketing. I asked him how his last lunch went with the decision-maker at Citizen's Bank who gives him almost all of his business and what were some of the concerns he/she had. It was as if I had asked him how the earth was formed. There was complete silence and then he responded with "I don't do that. He/she probably doesn't even know who I am. I don't want to waste his/her time."

Wow, what a sad statement. Talk about self-limiting beliefs. He'll get exactly what he expects. And what he expects is nothing. He said I need to connect with more local banks. I asked him how his walk-ins to banks with some confidence and a plan are going. He said he doesn't do that. He doesn't want to cold-call. Well I think Steve Martin said it best....Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me! Come on Bob! Why are you wasting my time and asking for help if you don't actually want help? If you aren't open to make a change you never will.

Now I'm not big on handing out business cards for the sake of doing so, but if someone qualifies to have a card of mine, I will give them one. Here's what happened today:

I had to visit my son's doctor for a quick visit. I was in the common-space lobby of a medical facility and certainly small professional offices are a good prospective customer base for my business. While waiting there, I stood up, walked into the neighboring office and said to the two women sitting at the front desk, something to the affect of: "I wouldn't be surprised if you had zero need for what my company does and your computers are most-likely running like well-oiled machines, but in the off chance that that isn't the case, I just wanted to let you know that I own a company that works with offices like yours to eliminate the headaches of computer problems." I smiled, paused and asked them if they would like me to leave. Funny thing was, they didn't want me to leave. They started rattling off all the aggravation they currently experience. I had to jump out of there to go to the appointment, and when I came back out, they literally called me back to their office and asked me how they could get started with my company and if I had more time, they would have told me their specific issues they face on a daily basis (hence building more rapport).

Is there a moral to the story? OF COURSE THERE IS! Even though I have very little respect for a particular ex-boss I had (as a human being), this guy Jim used to say "Make It Happen" and he was right. The only one that will make it happen is you. You just have to want it badly enough. There is still nothing better than having a conversation and building rapport the old fashioned way.

Sending gift-baskets is LAME! It's cookie cutter. It's been done a million times. It's cliche'. They even have the Michael Scott character in The Office delivering gift-baskets as a sales move on the TV show. Why you ask? Because the brilliant writers on that show are poking fun at the absurdity of it all. It's sort of funny because for years I would profess to stop being traditional when you sell, but things like looking at someone face to face, regardless of how "old-school" it is, is still the BEST WAY TO SELL!! Just be different than everyone else when you do that.

So "Make It Happen"

Monday, February 1, 2010

Good Video on Negotiation

This is on the GoDaddy Blog and I thought it would be useful.  I agree with most things in this video.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Unsolicated Testimonials are Great!

For years I've professed, and those who know me will attest to that fact, that talking about how great you are and pounding your own chest just doesn't go that far in relaying how good (or great) you really are at what you do.  How many people, when talking about their business say things like "We are fairly decent at what we do" or "When it comes to roofing, I'd say we are the fourth best roofers around"?  Fact is that everyone says they are the best at what they do, but few actually believe it.  The public has become deaf when it comes to actually listening to the self-proclaimed "best in the business" so much so that they not only don't believe it, but in many cases, have created the ability to disallow the words from actually registering in their brains.  That is why unsolicited testimonials and referrals are so refreshing and satisfying (especially when totally unexpected).  I wanted to share one with you that I personally received today on my LinkedIn account from a customer that I provided a service to and provided him with the same level of service I know everyone on my staff provides to every customer.  It certainly put a smile on my face.

“Scott did a great job with "cleaning up" one PC in my office and delivered us a very professional report on the situation. We are so happy with the results we signed up the whole office for his annual service.” January 20, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results , Good Value , High Integrity

Will Hackler

Beware of the Extras

Have you ever downloaded some program you wanted for your computer, but it seemed like it took forever to go through all those screens to click "NEXT" and "AGREE" and "CONTINUE"?  Well here's another fact for you:  Most people when installing new software just want to install it and don't actually look at the screens during installation.  What you miss is the opportunity to save yourself disk space as well as problems and spy-ware.  Most often, these free programs also come with other programs that don't seem too intrusive at the time.  As an example, maybe a "deal-finder" or a search bar or a "free membership", but they all come back to bite you.  So the advice for the day is "Always read each screen when installing new programs and unless you are certain that the extraneous software does not add junk to your computer, make sure you deselect it for install".

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Smiley Emoticons, Cool Screensavers, etc - NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a topic that I hope readers of this blog will take to heart.  This is what is known as "unpaid consulting" (from my old world) and in fact actually may prevent us from getting more business to fix messed up computers, but heck, I need to give some good advice if I want this blog to work, right?  I also recognize that this topic will probably not be applicable in the business environment, but in homes all across these United States, people are downloading and installing "Smiley Emoticons", "Cool Screensavers", "Cute Page Colors", "Online Coupon printers". "Incredimail", "Search bars with cute cartoons on them", and the list goes on and on.

Do these fun faces look familiar?
STAY AWAY!  They are hazardous!


As an expert in this field, and believe me when I say this, the damage being done to your computer every time you install one of these silly things far outweighs the "cuteness" or "coolness".  It will guarantee that in the near future, your computer will be slowing down and getting loaded with junk that you didn't want on your computer.  Future posts will go into spyware and malware issues, but suffice it to say, most things that are free (especially if you aren't a computer whiz) have hidden things attached to it in order to grab information from you and in order to have companies market and spam you to death in addition to installing other programs that you didn't even know were installed in the meantime.  Take it to the bank, the more you install those things on your computer, the more I will be going to the bank with your money that you could have saved by taking this warning to heart.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Future Musicians

My son Jake (on the right) and his friend Mitchell Robbins (no relation) are in beginner band. The heavy snow came down this morning, so what better thing to do than to have Mitchell over for a duet. These kind of videos just put a smile on your face, don't they?

My 15 Minutes of Fame on the Late Show

Well I was told to populate this blog with interesting and fun things, so I figured "What could be more interesting and fun than this"?  It was 1991 and I was flown to New York City by the Late Show with David Letterman.  But there is more to the story.  There's actually a moral to the story.  I worked with a guy named Michael Frey (a very funny guy).  He actually did this silly trick in front of me.  I said, "Mike, you need to be on Stupid Human Tricks".  But he was lazy and said, "You call and see if you can get me on".  His disinterest and my love for making people laugh, combined with my larger ears and my burning desire to meet David Letterman, got me thinking.  Why should I help make someone else who has little to no interest in making this happen, when in reality I would love the opportunity to go.  Well the fact that back in the day (pre-operation to get my ears pinned back), my big ears made the trick even funnier.  I learned how to do it and the rest, as they say, is history.

Enjoy

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Go the Extra Mile for a Customer

So many companies these days are so quick to point fingers or end communication with you if/when they hear that something doesn't benefit them or directly involve them. I think that is why so many people are turned off when dealing with some larger companies. So I wanted to share a story with you about a customer of ours.

This woman has a computer and has been very frustrated lately with it. She became a customer of ours a little over a month ago. We logged in and set it up with all the software and fixed it up so it was performing at its peak performance level (but you will soon hear why that level was not acceptable).

She called me a day after we cleaned up what was a mess of a computer. There was virus protection already installed on it, but that was the extent of their maintenance before engaging New England PC Services. In any case, she called me and said, "the computer is running horribly". Well, I knew for a fact that it had nothing to do with what we did. As a matter of fact, we improved the current state of her computer. So I was scratching my head and wondering what was wrong. I connected to her computer remotely and sure as heck, she was right. It was so slow. But again, "not my problem". That said, she is a customer of ours and rather than saying "You're on your own....", I spent 30 minutes on the phone with her asking her questions and trying to diagnose this issue with her (and not charging her anything for it). I heard a buzzing noise. I asked her if that was her computer making that noise. She said yes. I knew then what was wrong. Her hard drive was failing and hanging up the machine. I told her that we could come and install a new hard drive for her, but that she could save money if she brought it to a reputable retail store and asked them to Ghost her drive and install a new one with all the data and programs, etc. from her original drive.

She called me the next day. The computer store she brought it to, installed a new hard drive, but did not install any of the programs, nor any of the files that she had. So, if it were not for the off-site back-up program that we installed days before, she would have lost all her pictures, documents, music and other files that she wanted/needed.

So now she was back to square one. We spent 2 hours reinstalling all our programs on her machine, recovering her files from the remote server and putting her machine all back to the point where it was again. And we did it all for FREE. Did we have to? NO we did not. But we did because we feel that going the extra mile for a customer goes a long way.