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Founded in 1988, JIAN develops and refines business productivity software to help entrepreneurs and business owners start, build and run their companies. In addition to providing tools to get the job done, we improve upon “business as usual” by infusing our products with contemporary wisdom and experience. Our products draw on the experience of successful business professionals crossing nearly every industry and business model imaginable, as well as feedback from thousands of customers. We've sold more than 1,000,000 copies of our software worldwide.
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When They Hit You on the Head, Say “Thank You”
 Burke Franklin, Founder & CEO of JIAN, Best-Selling Developer: BizPlanBuilder Software, Best-Selling Author: Business Black Belt
A practitioner must learn to perform at top speed all the time, not to coast with the idea that he can ‘open up’ when the time comes. The real competitor is the one who gives all he has, all the time. The result is that he works close to his capacity at all times and, in doing so, forms an attitude of giving all he has. In order to create such an attitude, the practitioner must be driven longer, harder and
faster than would normally be required.
- Bruce Lee, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Learn to think of pain and setbacks as valuable learning experiences. Dwell not on the perceived pain, but on the improvements you will make as a result of them.
You learn to improve yourself when something painful happens. You learn fast from your mistakes when you’ve just been thrown on the ground. Instead of getting angry about it, take the pain as a lesson and appreciate that the lesson wasn’t any more damaging. Likewise, embrace your problems because they are there for your development and growth.
I think to myself, “Hmm... what am I going to learn from this?” Anger produces nothing except something else I might regret. I now waste very little energy becoming angry. I find that the time and energy spent on anger would better be channeled toward solving the problem. Whatever it was that happened, I can do nothing else about, except to set about fixing it and learning something so I don’t make that mistake again.
Once during line drills in karate class, our fourth degree black belt instructor started screaming at us, “Hit him in the head, wake him up!” (The drill worked like this: One line of students was supposed to throw punches and the others were supposed to block and counterattack.)
This was a practice session, so we weren’t very serious. We were rather mechanically throwing easy punches. When the instructor yelled for us to really punch, he woke us up. Then, when one of us got tagged pretty well in the head, we learned pretty quickly that we needed to block better. It was more humiliating than painful since we were wearing helmets and gloves, but it made us learn to be quick and accurate. I thank that instructor because if I’m ever in a fight, I can block fast and that might just save me some severe pain.
I didn’t dwell on the fact that I got hit in the head at practice. My attitude was “Hey, I’m glad I learned that here and not on the street.” It was a painful lesson, but not nearly as painful as it could have been in a real-life situation.
The sooner you make mistakes, the less they cost.
- Rick Itzkowich, Productive Learning & Leisure
Learning doesn’t have to be so painful if you’re sensitive to what the lessons can teach you. As I write this, my car is in the shop. One of the sensors on the engine went bad so the engine stopped. Rather than swearing at my car for the inconvenience and cost, what if I were to consider that everything is connected in Nature—there are no accidents; this is not merely a coincidence. Is this a quiet message representative of something else possibly to come? Looking at my car metaphorically, I might interpret that I’m being insensitive to something going on or someone around me. If I continue being insensitive too long, my “machine” will quit. This “machine” could be my business, and I don’t want that to quit. If I hadn’t realized that my car’s broken sensor might be a clue / parallel to my own insensitivity, I might be in for a more painful lesson if something or someone else quits as a result of my own failure to sense a problem.
This may seem like a quirky example, but take a look at where it can lead. While my car is in the shop, I’m making sure I’m more sensitive to the people I work with. I got the message that I’ve been driving along, building my company, and probably becoming insensitive to my staff. I appreciate this situation because it’s a cheap message (especially since my car is still under warranty).
Looking further, I realized that my employees have actually been asking me for assistance and deeper listening for a while and I’ve ignored it. Nature finally came along and said, in a slightly louder manner, “You’re not getting it, Burke. Let’s give you a breakdown so you must stop.” It’s up to me to recognize and interpret the message. It’s actually very simple; just think literally. What does a sensor failure mean? If whatever it was that failed were a representation of me doing my life, what would it mean? Usually, the breakdowns have a pattern—many problems can be traced back to a common cause. In other words, if the ‘engine sensor’ message wasn’t obvious, other similar breakdowns (home thermostat, water level floats, people telling you that you’re not listening, repeated songs that I hear on the radio, etc.) would occur indicating that I was out of touch. Perhaps I wasn’t sensing.
The stronger the messages get, the more expensive, time-consuming, and painful they become. If I hadn’t acted on that message, what would Nature need to do next in order for me to understand?
Naturally, we want to avoid pain, but in our haste to do this we end up missing many of the messages coming in. We don’t learn the lessons. If we attempt to dissipate our pain by blaming others or “circumstances” how can we learn how to improve ourselves? If we want to get on with it is soon as possible, put the painful experience behind us, and forget about it before looking deeply into our contribution to the situation, we are doomed to have Nature give us another chance to experience the pain at a higher level.
I could go on here with similar situations and their corresponding messages, but you’ll see how they play out in future chapters. Without going crazy with analysis, you can use these messages as subtle guides for action that is important to take for ‘things’ to go more smoothly in your life. You will also feel less offended and that the world is out to get you. It’s actually out to teach you. Learning (acting upon your knowledge) will indeed pay off. Nature is a ruthless teacher
The trick is to get the lesson when Nature whispers.
Not when it bangs you on the head.
Read Business Black Belt for some other un-usual ideas. http://www.jian.com/business-books/business-black-belt.html
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Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.
~
Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari
News from Google
In an interview with Gord Hotchkiss published at Search Engine Land, Google's Matt Cutts all but sounds the death knell for black hat SEO, saying that the recent implementation of personalization of Google's search results should be seen as a "call to action" for SEOs that are focusing on reverse engineering search engine algorithms.
So, no tricks. There's a fork in the road, and people can think hard about whether they're optimizing for users or whether they're optimizing primarily for search engines. More than ever, building a site that is content rich and truly useful for viewers is becoming (yet again) even more important for any business website.
Still optimizing your site for Explorer?
According to Net Applications' February data, both Firefox and Safari accounted for slightly larger slices of the browser pie than the month before. Firefox, which sports versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, climbed to 14.2% from January's 13.7%. Safari, which is bundled with Mac OS X, rose as well, to 4.9% from 4.7%. Internet Explorer's share dropped to 79.1% from last month's 79.8%.
We are now at 1 in 5 people going to a site won't be using IE. That's inconvenient (to say the least), if your site is written for Explorer. That’s like having a turnstile door on a retail store that automatically throws 1 in 5 people back to the street ---- not a viable way to do business, for home-based business or downtown corporation.
Some important website ranking/ search factors for 2007
- Quality content – thematically related and written by experts.
- Inbound linking - more sites with related content linking to your site the better
- Constant addition of content and inbound links
- Keywords - 15 max, no commas, 250 characters total (incl. spaces)
- Site usability -
- Rich media – video, images, audio
- Interactive – blogs, forums, RSS - www.feedburner.com
- Social Networking - www.flickr.com , www.myspace.com , www.technorati.com, del.icio.us, and others.
- Local search - Google Maps, Google/Yahoo/MSN local
- Mobile - Google, Yahoo and MSN mobile.
- Sitemaps protocol - Providing an XML sitemap is one of the easiest things you can do to help search engines traverse your site. www.sitemaps.org
- Site analytics - So you understand where people come from, what people are looking at, how long they look, entry and exit pages, and so on. Take a look at www.HitsLink.com
- User Generated Content
Stop thinking "get a WEBSITE", start thinking "develop an INTERNET MARKETING PROGRAM". ~ Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy, The Web Marketing Company |
What you think of me is none of my business.
~ x
The # 1 specific reason for business failure... Embezzlement & Theft
Here's a quick summary of the material we have — summarized from government studies. Let me warn
you, it's pretty scary:
Retail Industry
- For every $100,000 in sales... $3,000 is stolen by employees
- 90% of all employees steal cash and only 3% are caught
- 10% of all customers shoplift and only 2% are caught
- 70% of all vendors steal from the businesses
Food Industry
- For every $100,000 in sales...
- $14,000 is given away or eaten by employees
Frightening eh?
The New Employee Manual Builder v5 is here!
 Competely revised and updated for 2007
If you have more than a few employees, you would be wise to have a comprehensive employee policies manual in place. This new version of Employee Manual Builder software covers more than 200 policies, includes 50+ memos and forms, as well as a variety of useful articles on contemporary HR management procedures. Also, the new Employee Manual Builder now uses the same multi-user, collaborative document assembly system proven with our flagship business planning software, BizPlanBuilder. We also compared other HR software and made sure Employee Manual Builder includes every policy imaginable to make sure your business is fully covered.
Click here to learn more.
 "I wanted to tell you how easy the Jian Employee Manual Builder is to use. The Manual's reference to the law is a wonderful reminder of the details we may forget when writing, and the number of options given for specific policies is terrific. The software gave me answers to policies I never even thought of!"
~ Joyce Baywood, HR Consultant, Bethany Beach, DE
Update your copy of Employee Manual Builder
It's just $49.77 to download your upgrade immediately.
Click here to learn more.
6-month Upgrade Guarantee
If you purchased Employee Manual Builder AFTER September 1, 2006, you are entitled to this upgrade at no charge. Please email us at support@jian.com and put “Emplo yee Manual Builder Update” in the subject line. We will send you an email with a link to download it.
Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we might as well dance...
Brochures: Always give three ways to respond 
Lipe's Law of Brochures: Always give three ways to respond
In today's world, there are three types of buyers: Hot, Lukewarm, and Just Kickin' Tires. To appeal to all of them, include three calls to action, one for each buyer; like this:
* "Call (800) 555-1212 to speak to a sales representative," for the Hot buyers.
* "Email (your email address) with any questions you might have," for the Lukewarm buyers.
* "Visit (your website) for more information," for the Just Kickin' Tires buyers.
World's worst brochure mistakes
I have a file folder full of awful brochures and affectionately call it my "Foul-Ups, Bloops and Blunders" file. Here are three common brochure mistakes drawn from that file:
1) Leading off with your mission statement - In my opinion, a mission statement has no place in a company brochure. Readers only want to know how your company is going to solve their problems. Save your mission statement for the board room walls.
2) Showing a picture of your building - Most building shots look the same and do nothing to distinguish your company. Instead of showing the outside of your building, show the problem solving abilities inside it.
3) Including obsolete-able information - Rather than saying "We are 10 years old", say "We've been in business since 1994". Also, try not to say "This year, we added 37 staff members" because next year, you might not add that many.
"By Jay Lipe of Emerge Marketing. Please visit
Jay's web site at www.emergemarketing.com for additional
tips and tools on how to market your growing company."
Do you have an article or some useful advice that you you'd like to share?
Please email the editor with your news to appear in Business Black Belt as well as on our website.
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You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
~ Leo Aikman,Writer and Newspaper Editor
TAX System Explained In Simple Terms
 Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich!" and it is just accepted to be fact. But what does that really mean? Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope the following will help. Please read it carefully. Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
a.. The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
b.. The fifth would pay $1.
c.. The sixth would pay $3.
d.. The seventh would pay $7.
e.. The eighth would pay $12.
f.. The ninth would pay $18.
g.. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." Dinner for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free, but what about the other six men, the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal. So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
a.. The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
b.. The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
c.. The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
d.. The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings)
e.. The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
f.. The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, PhD
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia
You get a few extra days to file this year
The IRS recently announced that all taxpayers will have until April 17, 2007, to file their 2006 tax returns and pay any balance due.
Since April 15 (the normal due date) is on a Sunday this year and since Monday, April 16, is a holiday in the District of Columbia, the filing due date has been moved by the IRS to Tuesday, April 17. This is the due date whether filing electronically or on paper.
In addition to income tax returns, the April 17, 2007, date will apply to:
* Requests for automatic six-month extensions giving you until October 15, 2007, to file your 2006 tax return.
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Tax year 2006 balance due payments.
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2006 contributions to a Roth or traditional IRA.
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Individual estimated tax payments for the first quarter of 2007.
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Individual refund claims for tax year 2003 (under the three-year statute of limitations).
Even though the due date is extended by two days, it is still worthwhile for you to file early. You will avoid the last-minute rush and get any refund you may be due on its way to you sooner.
What you should know about deducting mortgage interest
Our house in the middle of our street ...
Hopefully your house is in a better location than the one in this song. But no matter where it is, owning a home may generate a tax break. Though you’ll have to itemize to claim the benefit, interest you pay on your main residence’s mortgage can reduce your taxable income. In some cases, mortgage interest on a second home is also deductible.
Here’s how it works.
Generally, you can deduct all the interest you pay on mortgages you take out to buy your home as long as total loans are less than $1,000,000. The IRS calls this acquisition indebtedness, and it includes financing you obtained to buy, build, or improve your home.
Note: The $1,000,000 limit includes all acquisition debt for both your primary residence and a second home.
Did you tap the equity in your home? Interest is deductible on a home-equity loan of $100,000 or less no matter how you use the money. However, the deduction may be limited if total mortgage debt exceeds your home’s value.
Caution: Unless you use home-equity loan proceeds to buy, build, or improve your home, interest you pay is generally not deductible under the alternative minimum tax rules.
Late payment fees, prepayment penalties, and certain points are also deductible as interest expense. Please contact us if you need details or more information about tax issues related to home ownership.
Businesses and tax-exempt organizations are to request their refunds by completing Form 8913 (Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid) and attaching it to their regular 2006 income tax returns or, in the case of tax-exempts, to Form 990-T.
- Edward Mitchell,
Manager, Management Resources Consulting Group Inc., www.mr-cg.com
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"If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions."
~ Chinese Proverb
They walk among us...
I think we may know a few of these people...
I walked into a Blimbie's with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a sandwich.
I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little chalkboard that said “buy one-get one free." "They're already buy-one-get-one-free", she said, “so I guess they're both free." She handed me my free sandwiches and I walked out the door.
They walk among us and many work retail.
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One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them shouted, "Look at that dead bird!" Someone looked up at the sky and said, “Where?"
...they walk among us!
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While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, "Does the sun rise in the north?" When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff."
...they walk among us!
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I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center. One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open. I told her, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week” She responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."
...they walk among us!
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My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the trunk.
...they walk among us!
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I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area, so I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up.
She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me, "has your plane arrived yet?"
...they walk among us!
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While working at a pizza parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time before responding.
"Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6 pieces."
Yep, they walk among us!
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AND...... they reproduce!
Every day think as you wake up,
today I am fortunate to have woken up.
I am alive. I have a precious human life.
~ The XIV Dalai Lama
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