Thursday, 30 June 2011
Printing from Tablet PCs Made Easy
Here's a look at three options for mobile printing and what you'll need to do to simplify the process. 
How to Survive a Tax Audit
These five tips can help you minimize the stress of IRS scrutiny should your return raise a red flag. 
Advertising a Garage Sale for Free
How to advertise a garage sale for free: Use the Internet, email and low-cost flyers to get traffic to your yard sale without spending anything.
Startups Without Financial Projections are Doomed
Most entrepreneurs tend to avoid this area of the business, and as a result are badly surprised by cost realities, and investor expectations. They seem to think that financial projections are simply invented numbers for investors, and not useful. In reality, it?s like jumping in your car for a long hard drive with no destination in mind. Chances are, you won?t enjoy success from the trip.
What is a business financial model, really? In most cases, it is merely a Microsoft Excel spread sheet loaded with your cost and revenue projections for your startup, starting now in time and extending at five years into the future. For more value, a few variables can be added, like product volume growth rate, and number of salesmen, for ?what if? analyses.
Why? For you to make decisions and manage the business - because we are all mere mortals and can?t possibly keep all these numbers and calculations in our head ? to decide whether and when the business is going to be profitable given rational projections of costs and income (these assumptions are referred to as your business model). Secondarily, it will be required by potential investors to validate how much money you need to get started, and how much return they can expect on their investment.
When? The financial model should be running even before you incorporate the business and build prototype products (would you start driving your car on a long trip before you knew where you were going?). If you can?t make that objective, then at least don?t approach potential investors until your model is working ? investors have little tolerance for startups with no financial plan.
How? Start with a ?sample? business model, available in generic form or customized for specific industries, from many sources on the Internet. Another alternative is to download from my website a free sample model that I built for a specific startup, with elements suggested by Angel investors and venture capitalists, ready to be customized to your business.
If you are not computer literate in Microsoft Excel, your first task is to find someone who has the time and expertise to convert your base set of costs and revenues into projection formulas, cash flow summaries, and a profit and loss statement.
Do your own, if you can, because you know the numbers. In fact, this is the easy part. More challenging is ?defining? the business model (assembling all the real variables of your projected business, pricing assumptions, staffing requirements, marketing costs, sales costs, and revenue flows).
This business model can then be used for many purposes, such as risk and profit assessment, projecting the values of assumptions that are made based on existing market conditions, calculating the margins that are needed to avoid adverse situations, and various forms of sensitivity analysis. These are necessary to estimate capital investment requirements, plan capital allocation, and measure financial performance.
Creating financial projections allows you to see areas of strength and weakness in your proposed business model, enabling you to make critical changes that will allow your business to run more successfully.
While people start businesses for many reasons, making money is usually important. Even a non-profit can?t afford to lose money. You won't know if you can meet these expectations until you build a financial model with reasonable financial projections.
It?s a great learning experience, and you can do it yourself, but don?t hesitate to ask for help from a professional if you need it. You will be amazed at how clear the relationship becomes between pricing, cost, and volume. When you lose money on every item, it?s hard to make it up in volume.
Marty Zwilling
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Pitney Bowes Goes Online With Postage
A new Web-based mailing and shipping app offers powerful low-cost features, but other options are free. 
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Free Publicity- Learn How to Write a Press Release
Write a great press release, get it to the right people and get some free publicity. Increase your sales with minimal time and effort.
Branded Music Visualization Plug-In for Land Rover
I last wrote about branded WinAmp visualizations five years ago and haven't heard much since until today when I saw the Land Rover team released a visualization plug-in for Windows Media Player.
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Bit This!: Forget all the rules
Advertising Agency: Bit This! Madrid, Spain
Creative Directors: I�aki Saiz Roiz & Enrique Vi�uela Soto
Art Director: I�aki Saiz Roiz
Copywriter: Enrique Vi�uela Soto
Illustrator: I�aki Saiz Roiz
Published: June 2011
Winners of the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
The Media Equation: A Newsroom That Doesn?t Need News
Online and on TV, TMZ has earned a huge following by airing Hollywood?s dirty laundry.
Sony: Storyboard Ninja Girls
Sony Cinealta.
For scenes that seem difficult.
Advertising Agency: Longplay 360, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Creative Director: Fernando Luna
Art Director: Max Souzedo
Copywriter: Marcel Petroff
Illustrator: Natan Nakel
Published: June 2011
Winners of the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
LG 3D TV: Pinocchio, Superman
Advertising Agency: HS AD, South Korea Chief Creative Officer: Hyun Jong Lee Creative Director: Dae Won Kim Art Director: Jung In Choi Copywriter: Hae Pyung Jung
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
AMIS (Association of Mexican Insurance Companies): Office
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, USA
Creative Directors: Miguel Angel Ru�z, Jos� Motalvo
Art Director: Oscar Carnicero
DP: Alberto Casillas
Director: Rodrigo Garcia Saiz
Production Company: Central Films
EP: Blanca Moreno
Post Producer: Leonel Perez
Editor: Jorge Hernandez
Winners of the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
Nike: Shine
Advertising Agency: Villarros�s, Barcelona, Spain Creative Director: Oriol Villar, Isahac Oliver, Richard Browse Art Director: Nacho Ginestra, Oriol Gil Copywriter: Isahac Oliver Agency Producer: Melanie Andrada Account Supervisor: Juan Badilla Production Company: Tesauro Madrid, Spain Director: Erik Morales Producer: Nacho Garc�a
A Start-Up Matures, Working With AmEx
American Express cardholders will receive discounts at certain shops and restaurants on their cellphone through an alliance with Foursquare.
Get Free Gas; Ugly Cars Need Not Apply
If you are "cool and responsible", work "in a busy retail location" and drive a "high quality stylish vehicle" (or "any nice truck if you work at a large home improvement store") that you routinely park at beaches, sporting events, malls and fair groups, then Take 1 If You Dare has a deal for you. You festoon your "stylish vehicle" with promo magnets, and the company pays for your gas. Which in the age of $4-$5 gas, might not be a bad deal.
And if you need help with your mortgage, there's a deal for you, too.
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