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The Eagle Flyer Newsletter
http://www.eagleflyer.com
"Helping Your Business Fly"
Issue 25
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The Eagle Flyer is published every other Thursday and is
sent to business professionals who have asked to receive it.
To unsubscribe, Please use the link at the end of this issue.
Our goal is to offer you timely tips on new technology,
business and marketing, and to teach you techniques that
can help you multiply your business online.
Please share this newsletter with your business associates.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. FLIGHT LINES: Adhere to "clean" business principles
2. WING TIPS: Do the "Right Thing"- Click that is
3. FEATURE ARTICLE: "The Money Value of Time"
4. ALTER EAGLE: How Stuff Works
5. EAGLE'S TALON: Currency Converter 2 - Freeware
6. FROM THE BENCH: Preview of network security
7. EYE OF THE EAGLE: What can pass through water...
8. CONTACT THE FLYER: Send questions, comments and articles
1) ======= Flight Lines =======
[Observations on business and life]
A man who possesses genius is insufferable unless he also
possesses at least two other things: gratitude and
cleanliness. --Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.
--attributed to Francis Bacon
Keeping your business "clean" is a reflection of your
regard for your customers, your employees and yourself.
Hold fast to the high principles that you have set for
your business, and reap the rewards that will follow.
2) ======= Wing Tips =======
[A variety of business helps and tips]
"Right-Click" is your friend!
In the many different versions of Windows, clicking the right
mouse button opens up a variety of valuable tools.
Generally speaking, right-clicking is a programmers tool for
offering you, the user, features and tools associated with
the "object" with which you are working.
Here are just a few of the things that you can do.
Right-click the Start button, or the "My Computer" icon,
and select "Explore" to launch Windows explorer.
Once in Windows explorer, or from within My Computer, you
can right-click a drive icon to display total space, space
used, free space and other information about the drive.
Right-clicking the "Network neighborhood" icon, and choosing
"Properties", presents the network settings dialog box for
review or editing.
Right-click My computer and again select Properties to quickly
gain access to your system and hardware information.
To search for files on your computer, right-click the Start
button, or My Computer icon, and use the "find" feature.
To view or change any of the settings for Internet Explorer,
start by right-clicking the IE icon and again choose
"Properties".
If you use a desktop shortcut for visiting an often-used
website, you can right-click and edit the Internet "path",
whenever the site moves to another location.
By right-clicking a blank space on your desktop [screen],
you can quickly change all of your display settings, such
as screen size, resolution and screen-saver when you choose
"Properties".
And finally, by right-clicking the taskbar, at the bottom of
your screen, you can control several features at once.
Remember to consult the right mouse button whenever you are
working in Windows. It might just save you some time.
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3) ======= Feature Article =======
The Money Value of Time
© 2002 Elena Fawkner
You have, no doubt, heard the phrase "the time value of
money". It means that a dollar in your hand today is worth
more than a dollar in your hand a year from now. Why?
Because of what you can do with that dollar over the next
year. You can invest that dollar in an interest bearing
account and have $1.05 at the end of the year. If you
decide to take your buck in a year, your opportunity cost
(foregone investment) will be five cents. Not to mention
what inflation will have done to your purchasing power in
the meantime.
As interesting as the time value of money is to economists
and financial planners, if you're anything like me, you
probably find the whole subject just a little short of riveting.
So here's something more interesting to think about. The
money value of time. Your time, that is.
Why do you need to think about the money value of time?
Because, quite simply, once you truly understand what your
time is worth, in dollar terms, you will work your business
more productively and efficiently than ever before.
In my other life, I'm an attorney. I work for a downtown
Los Angeles law firm and, like any other law firm, what
counts is how many billable hours I clock each month.
We have software to track it all for us of course. My
time is charged out at $250 an hour. In a minimum of
six minute increments. This means that if I so much as
pick up and read a one paragraph letter from another
attorney, my client is billed $25.
Spend enough time tracking your time like this, getting
to the end of the day and needing to see at least seven
billable hours totaled on your computer screen and you
soon develop a very healthy respect for the dollar value
of time.
And because I don't want to have to be at the office for
ten hours before I've generated seven that are billable,
let me assure you I work very efficiently indeed.
In the process, I've become an expert at avoiding time
wasters and unproductive activities. As a result I can
usually generate seven billable hours from being in the
office for only eight. (The other hour is unavoidable
non-billable general admin type stuff.)
My point? Start thinking like an attorney when it comes
to how you value and spend your time. Here's how.
First, decide what level of income you need from your
business. For the purposes of our example, let's say
it's $52,000 per year or $1,000 per week.
Next, decide how many hours you want to work each
week. To keep the math simple, let's say you're going to
work 50 hours a week. Therefore, on average, you need
to generate $20 for every hour of time you spend working
in your business.
But not all of your time will be revenue-generating (i.e.,
"billable") time. Any business has its share of non-billable
time - those routine administrative tasks that must be
done even though they make no contribution to your
bottom line.
So, now you have a choice. You can either work more
hours each week to cover your non-billable time, or you
can increase the amount you need to earn from every
billable hour. The first option means working longer. The
second option means working smarter. Your choice.
Whatever you decide, keep that hourly rate firmly in
mind. Every hour of your time is worth $20 (or whatever
rate you have calculated for yourself).
Think about that when the phone rings on a work day and
it's your sister wanting you to go with her to the shopping
mall this afternoon. There's three hours or $60 you've just
thrown away (not to mention what you spend at the mall!).
Tell her you'll go with her on Saturday instead. You have to
work today. Think twice about the hour and a half it will
take you to do your errands this afternoon. Another $30
gone. Do them on your own time, not your business's.
Think $30 here or there won't make any difference? Think
about this. Do it twice a week and you've just lost over
$3,000 for the year in potential business. And when you
consider that some of that $3,000 in business would have
become repeat business, you're cheating your business
out of some serious income.
Apply the same thought process to when you actually
ARE working also. What's the better use of your time --
writing an article for this week's issue of your ezine which
will hopefully be picked up by other sites and publishers,
thereby providing you with valuable free publicity -- or
stopping what you're doing every ten minutes each time
you get new email? And reading it.
Remember: the hour or two you spend writing your
article needs to return the equivalent of $40 in income.
Writing articles is the equivalent of free advertising.
You can *easily* generate at *least* $40 in income
with that sort of no-cost publicity. My articles published
on other websites and in other ezines bring me hundreds
of new visitors each week. All for about two hours worth
of work on my part. No amount of time spent reading
email will ever do that.
Contrast how much income you generate by reading non-
business-related email during working hours. Zero. It
makes absolutely no contribution to your bottom line. So,
don't do it when you're working. Do it on your own time.
By having your "hourly rate" uppermost in mind at all
times, you can always decide what's the best use of
your time. Quite simply, it's whatever alternative will make
a direct contribution to your bottom line.
Now, obviously, no-one's going to step forward and hand
you $20 every time you complete an hour's work. You're
not someone else's employee - you're running your own
show.
Some weeks you'll put in 50 hours but will only receive
$100 that week. Or less. But other weeks, you'll put in
the same number of hours and bank $1,500. It's swings
and roundabouts.
It's a good idea to review your expenditure of time against
revenue generated on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to get
an accurate picture of how you're tracking.
The point is to know what your time is worth so you can
ensure you're getting the maximum return on your
investment that you possibly can.
It will also help you to determine when the all-important
big step of hiring employees is the most cost-effective
thing to do. If you can generate more income from each
hour if you are free to devote your time to business
development activities than it will cost you to pay an
employee to take over the routine, administrative tasks
that are currently sucking up all your time, you should
hire the employee. If you don't know what your time
is worth though, how will you ever know when that time
has come?
So, next time you're not feeling particularly motivated
to write that article and think you'll maybe just go read
the newspaper for an hour or so instead, consider this.
Would you rather spend $20 to read the newspaper at
11:15 on a Tuesday morning or would you rather read
it for free at 7:30?
Time is money and money is time. Spend them wisely.
Here's the resource box to use if reprinting this article:
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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com
AOL Click Here
4) ======= Alter Eagle =======
[Products and services that we recommend]
HowStuffWorks - Just What it Says - Great Site!
HowStuffWorks is a media company that is internationally
recognized as the leading provider of information on how
things work. Founded by Marshall Brain, HowStuffWorks
offers in-depth articles that explain the world from the
inside out to millions of readers every month.
HowStuffWorks media offerings include:
HowStuffWorks Express - Print and online magazine
subscribed to by 13,000 schools, reaching 750,000 students
http://express.howstuffworks.com/
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HowStuffWorks Books - Two books published by Hungry Minds:
"How Stuff Works" and "How Much Does the Earth Weigh?"
http://books.howstuffworks.com/
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HowStuffWorks Video - Syndicated television vignettes
airing in 10 U.S. markets through a partnership with
Primedia Digital Video
http://www.howstuffworks.com/hsw-tv.htm
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HowStuffWorks Radio - Syndicated radio vignettes distributed
through Cox Radio Syndication
http://www.howstuffworks.com/hsw-radio.htm
AOL Click Here
HowStuffWorks.com - Award-winning online destination for
anyone who wants to know how anything works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
AOL Click Here
HowBizWorks.com - Business spin-off of HowStuffWorks.com,
providing information on the inner workings of the business world
http://biz.howstuffworks.com/
AOL Click Here
Fitness.HowStuffWorks.com - How Fitness Works, the fitness
spin-off of HowStuffWorks.com that provides information on
how to get in shape and lead a healthy lifestyle
http://fitness.howstuffworks.com/
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Visit: http://www.howstuffworks.com/
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5) ======= Eagle's Talon =======
[Tools to help you "get a grip" on things]
[I really wasn't looking for another conversion utility,
when I stumbled across this one, but this could prove to
be very valuable if you travel to other countries, or
do business across the globe.]
Currency Converter 2 - Freeware
By Alex Belgraver
The Currency Converter 2 is a freeware program to
convert between over 200 currencies. You can keep all
the exchange rates up-to-date by using the one-button
Internet Update-function (with proxy support) to load
the Exchange Rates from the Internet.
It requires Win95 with IE4+, or any newer Microsoft
Windows operating system.
Be sure to check the manual pages [on the website] and,
as with ALL downloads, check the download with a virus
scanner before installing or running th program, for the
first time.
This looks like a great program, and hey, it's another
free one, so enjoy!
Visit:
http://www.belgraver.demon.nl/currconv2/
AOL Click Here
6) ======= From the Bench =======
[Real-life accounts of hardware, software and more]
In the coming issues, I will be addressing the topic of
network security, in all of its aspects. I will be answering
such questions as:
Why is network security so important?
What are the benefits?
What do I need to protect my network?
How do I implement the plan?
How often do I need to do this?
How do I forecast and provide for future problems?
By taking a comprehensive look at the current state of
network security, and by using a plan designed for small
businesses, most, if nor all, security issues affecting
your business can be resolved and controlled.
7) ======= Eye of the Eagle =======
[Ideas to help you think creatively]
What can pass through water without getting wet?
(Answer in the next issue of the Flyer)
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Answer to Last Month's Puzzler...
[In olden days, you were charged with treason against the
king and sentenced to death. The king decides to let you
choose your own way to die. What way should you choose?]
Old age!
8) ======= Contact the Flyer =======
Do you have questions that you would like
to have answered in a future issue? Would
you like to offer a business or technology
tip for our readers?
Please send your questions and comments to:
mailto:readertips@eagleflyer.com
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Copyright © 2000-2002 Eagle Computers. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole, or
in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.
Registered with the Library of Congress. ISSN: 1535-8429
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