Start Your Business (Break Out) - The Entrepreneurs Guide

Shifting Gears Again... New Book Deal With Brian Tracy!

2015-03-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Well once again it is time to shift gears. The economy is changing, the internet is changing and buyers are changing.

The adjustment was simple. Instead of writing another book on my own, I joined Brian Tracy and a group of business and success experts on a collaboration. It won't be out for a while, but keep on the look out.

You can read the whole story on Beach Street News

http://www.beachstreetnews.com/scott-bourquin-brian-tracy/

When the book comes out I'll get a link on Easy Guide Books for you.

Are You Doing It The Easy Way or The Hard Way?

2014-05-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

Is there an "Easy Way" to everything? Is there a "Hard Way" to everything? The answer is "yes" but maybe not the way you think it is.

Everyday I see people who are working very hard. Lets see if this sounds familiar. You go to work everyday, you do a good job and you never quite get that promotion. You've been there for years, and someone else who just started is now the boss. Everyday you have been getting there early or staying late. Your boss calls on Saturday and you take the call. And you still haven't got the promotion.

Is this you? Do you feel like you are on a hamster wheel, running as hard as you can or walking all day and still getting no where? That's the "Hard Way".

The Hard Way is a rut of sorts where you show a certain value to the company and there you stay. So how do you get out of it? How do you get off the hamster wheel and actually make forward progress down the road of success?

The first step is to learn that society (including most of your friends) don't want you to learn the easy way. They want company on that miserable hamster wheel. The more people that join them the better they feel about themselves. When you leave, they are afraid you might actually do something and achieve success. If you do you make them look bad.

Think about this. How many truly successful people do you know and admire? How many do you know that you want to be like or that have a life that you would like to have. Then think about how many people you know that don't live much differently than you do.

I bet the second group is huge compared to the first group. The reality is, that if you want to hang out with the top 5% of the successful people in the world, you have to first learn to stop hanging out with and listening to the other 95%.

At first you will be lonely and challenged by your old friends to come back and give up your dreams. True friends support your dreams, most "friends" are dream killers. Instead of helping you figure out the easy way, they just laugh and wait for you in the hamster wheel.

It takes time to make the transition, no matter what you decide to do when you turn right down the easy path.

What do you want to do?

The Easy Guide Books

The Bourquin Group

The Easy Way To Start a Profitable Business

2014-05-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

To paraphrase Chef Gusteau in Ratatouille, "Anyone can start a business, but only the fearless can be great." Fear is the great debilitating voice in our heads. There is no reason to have fear, yet we all do.

Starting a profitable business is very different than starting a business. Starting a business is simply buying something to sell or getting paid for your services without being an employee. Starting a profitable business means that you are able to earn your living from your business, and for most people it also means that your "living" from the business is better than it was with your "job".

So is there an easy way to know if your business will be profitable? Many restaurants go through two or three different variations at a single location before they become profitable. Most small businesses that offer professional services take years to really make money. My CPA started a bookkeeping firm. It isn't making the momentum he had hoped for.

Starting any business that is going to be successful and profitable, requires one simple thing. Customers who are willing to pay enough that you make money. While this sounds easy, it is amazing how many people start a business thinking that they had enough customers.

In the retail world, you might make a profit simply based on product and location. A well placed mall shop or cart with a unique product at the right price might do well. For a while that is. Once the copycats show up, the business might be in trouble.

For every other business, the success out of the chute depends on one thing. The people in your rolodex or contact list. Keller-Williams has every new agent enrolled in Bold! training call every single person and announce that they are in real estate and ask if they know of anyone who might be in the market to buy, sell or invest in real estate. My bet is 50% or less actually do it. The question is why and the answer is a form of fear.

When I added my Real Estate license on Facebook, I got a few sneers about being a Real Estate Agent. I didn't have any fear about it so I did it. So what if they make fun of you for starting your new business. If you can't tell all of your contacts about it, how are you going to sell complete strangers.

The truth is that I buy real estate as my retirement investment. I like real estate income as much as the dividends from great stocks. I have a license because agents were reluctant to make the offers I wanted to make. Why? Fear. You might label it other things, like lack of self esteem, or self image or whatever. It comes down to a fear of being accepted for trying to be different than who you are now. Step one, get over it, fear is what keeps you down, not "the man".

An interesting conversation a couple of days ago got me thinking about this. Two men told me they tried "flipping" houses and couldn't make any money. There just wasn't enough margin to make a profit they said. The way they buy houses, they were right. Being an agent, I have better access to "wholesale" deals and occasionally help other people when they ask. No matter what I said to these two guys, fear was telling them making money in Real Estate can't be done. My deals are "anomalies" and I am "lucky" were the responses I get.

If you want to start a profitable business, look at your contact list. How many of those people will buy from you and why? How many of them won't and why not? Looking at these guys, they would buy a house, clean it up and try to sell it. Did they even try to sell to friends as an investment or rental? Nope.

This little review will be your first clue of how your business might do.

When I started business that became my biggest "lesson" (some would call it a failure), I didn't follow this simple review. All of my friends bought stuff from the business, but only at a significant discount. They wouldn't buy at retail, in fact many times I was lucky to cover shipping. That was my first sign the business was off to a rocky start. I was lucky to get away from that one.

If you want to start a profitable business make sure your contact list will buy from you, and buy at a big profit so you can pay your bills and grow the business. If your list will buy from you, chances are your business is off to a good start and your list will start growing as they refer their friends.

What Is Your Proposal Writing Plan?

2014-03-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

I am taking a break from writing a very long proposal that I really don’t want to write. I don’t want to write it because 90% of it is fluff and nonsense. Some time ago when building my business I went through the “Wants-Don’t Wants” process as it relates to my business. This type of project was on my “Don’t Wants”.

While reading the biography of John Boyd, simply titled “Boyd”, he had a similar complaint about Pentagon work. He called it “gold plating”. He and his team would establish the criteria for a great fighter, and someone would add unnecessary equipment or requirements to curry favor somewhere. “Gold Plating”.

In the tech world, specifically the online world, these big long proposals are a form of gold plating. For instance it, an big proposal justifies the legal department, IT and even public relations charging x hours to look over the Request for Proposal (RFP) along with a host of other jobs.

On the vendor side, it means I too must spend money with Lawyers, Accountants, and Project Managers to get every ones buy in. On both sides a virtual committee is formed.

Committees are by nature – timid. Based on the premise of safety in numbers, content to survive rather than take risks and move independently ahead. - Ferry Porsche

When we are stripped down to our essentials we perform our best. This is true of any endeavor in life whether it is man or machine. The success of Apple has been based on this simple truth until recently. Where they go from here is anyones guess.

Look at a race car. Everything you don’t need is taken out to save weight allowing the car to perform better. Why have insulation when earplugs will work for an hour?

When you know your business, you can write a profitable quote on one page in a few hours. When you get the job, then you create the plan. Much less time consuming for both sides, and therefore less expensive for the client, and likely more profitable for you.

The email from my attorney just came in, so I’ll go back to my proposal writing. I can’t help but here my own advice in my head: “Learn to say no more often.”

So You Want To Start A Business? Get Ready Then!

2014-03-13T10:13:00.001-07:00

The spirit of freedom and responsibility that drives many people to start a business, is what drove the founding fathers to break away and start this country. The battle cry of "Taxation without Representation" was a catch phrase that simply asked for freedom and responsibility.

Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand, you can't have one with out the other and have society progress. These days too many people are willing to give up both for security. Security is a myth that can never be achieved completely. The most secure people in the world are locked up in solitary confinement somewhere. I bet those guys would trade for freedom any day. The question is, would that take the responsibility that goes with it?

Benjamin Franklin is attributed to saying that you can't have Liberty and Security at the same time. He is right. They are polar opposites. With responsibility comes a little bit of risk. The key to success for today is understanding that you must manage risk in order to succeed.

Most people live in fear of the risk and responsibility of owning a business and therefore never enjoy the freedoms you can earn as the reward for managing the risk and accepting the responsibility.

The barriers to entry form many businesses also keep people out. Lawyers have to go to law school, pass the bar and still there are hundreds if not thousands of out of work lawyers or lawyers that have a different job. Just because you make it over the barrier doesn't mean you will succeed.

In a previous blog I encouraged you to act like an independent contractor at your job. Take more responsibility and manage more risk in exchange for a bit more freedom. If you could look back through time and watch me when I had a job, I learned to do exactly that from my mentors. I managed to work a 3/36 schedule so I could fly and play more while at one company. The deal was I had to outperform the 40 hour scheduled workers by 10% as well.

The company got 44 hours worth of work and only paid 36. It was a win-win. That mentality gave me the confidence to start my own business.

There are many businesses with very low barriers to entry, such as real estate. You can become a Realtor after a few classes and a test. Your total investment might only be $300 or so. The problem is that with such a low barrier to entry there are a lot of people doing it. This means starting out you will need a lot of patience and persistence to succeed. Or you need a much better way to get the job done by working smarter, not harder.

The best way to prepare yourself for starting a business is to look at all of the places in your life where you have traded liberty for security. Do you use unemployment regularly because you can't manage money? Do you "need" health insurance provided by your boss or the government? Do you work for someone else for the "security" of a paycheck every two weeks?

Can you manage your life if you didn't have any of these things? Stepping out on your own can be a scary thing, and at the same time getting over that fear is one of the greatest accelerators on the road to success. Many of the most successful business owners I know have done the "credit card shuffle" trying to pay bills they didn't have money to cover.

The pain and embarrassment of not making your bills is a defining moment for every entrepreneur. It is at that moment, you push a little harder and make it, or you give up and "go back to work". Like many successful people, I have done both at least once. The difference is that the minute I went back to work, the embarrassment didn't go away. There was no joy or happiness when that first check came in.

The last time I was shuffling money and missing payments, I dug in, and when that next client signed on, and that next check came in, it was a rotating beacon of emotions. First it was relief that turned to joy that turned to ecstasy, and within weeks, more clients, more books started selling, and more work came in.

If I didn't have to scrape to find quarters for the dollar menu, would I be where I am now? I can't say for sure. The biggest mistake you can make is getting locked into a failing method. I will admit when I dug in, I also changed my approach.

Don't get locked in on one idea, try to listen to the clients and figure out why they aren't buying and adjust accordingly. More importantly, in the infamous words of Winston Churchill, "Never, Never, Never, Give Up."

Want a Raise - Think Supply and Demand!

2014-03-03T22:29:00.002-08:00

The laws of supply and demand can be applied to just about any situation that involves the exchange of money. Right now the pilot shortage is in the news and the GAO says the cause is simple. Pilots aren't paid enough to make it worth taking the job. On that point they are right.

A decade ago it was radiologists and anesthesiologists. Insurance companies agreed to pay more, hospitals started paying more and in a few years the problem was solved.

So how does this apply to you?

In simple terms you have two choices, you can either find a very high demand job that has low supply and go do it. Unfortunately it isn't that easy. Becoming a pilot for instance can cost upwards of $100,000 if you aren't lucky enough to get a military position first, and starting pay is just $20,000 per year.

Any questions why there is a pilot shortage? At some point the pay will increase or the pilots will be replaced by computers. Are you willing to make a $100,000 bet on the outcome? Most aren't, and a few believe the pilotless plane is coming. Winning as a pilot might be a short term bet.

The second choice is to make yourself so valuable at the job you have now that they can't afford for you not to be there. This is the easy way to get ahead without having to pay for it. I know people who never graduated high school and are millionaires from owning McDonalds. The supply of those people is very very scarce, but they exist.

So how do you do that? Think like a subcontractor. Instead of asking for more benefits and pay, start by asking for more responsibility and better work. Think of what your boss wants now and what he might want tomorrow and deliver it before he asks.

If you aren't ready to break out yet and start your own business or become an independent contractor, you can still use the laws of supply and demand to make sure your skills and work ethic are so far above the crown that you are a scarce commodity in your office. Soon enough the pay, work schedule and benefits will come your way.

Why? Improve Your Position

2014-02-26T21:49:00.001-08:00

Improve your position. This mantra for success is something people forget every day. When you get up in the morning and keep doing the same thing, you end up in the same position at the end of every day.

Fear. When you think about it, the real root cause of doing the same thing every day is the fear of the unknown. Fear of leaving your comfort zone. Fear of not making that next car payment. Fear of missing time with your friends, fear of losing time with your co-workers.

There is always that one person though. That one person that takes a little time away from the group. There is always that one person that moves out and up. That person that you watch and wonder why it wasn't you.

The secret? Improve your position.

There is more to it though. In order to improve your position, you need to define "improve". How do you know what improvement is if you don't have a destination? The key is to create a vision or destination that is a very clear vision of where you are going. When you have that vision you can improve your position.

In simple terms, if you want to go to the park at the end of the block, and your neighbor asks you to watch the game, are you getting closer to the park? If you want that new car, and your friend calls with tickets to the concert that cost $100, does the concert get you closer to the new car.

These are obvious examples. The most difficult involve an overload of information. The secret to speed in improving your position is filtering out the chaff or useless information.

Simple decisions can hold you back if you don't pay attention, or pay too much attention to the chaff instead of the important points.

Living life with a purpose means having a "mission" in everything you do. Even on vacation you can have a "mission" or "purpose". It might only be to "relax". Everyone needs to recharge from time to time, and that means different things to different people. For me it means turning off the office and work in the front of the brain and letting the back 90% do it's job. For other people it is just to get the family "off their back".

How can you improve your position while on vacation? The reality is that you can always practice cutting through the chaff, even while traveling. Always listening will bombard you with a lot of useless information, and it might just get you that great idea or solve the problem you have been having at the office.

Every time you get a call, ask yourself, "Does this improve my position or put me into a position where I can improve my position?" If it doesn't, learn to say "no" if you want to move ahead.

Your Job Sucks, So Now What?

2014-02-19T17:00:00.001-08:00

So your job sucks, according to some surveys job dissatisfaction is well north of 50% and may be as high as 80%. So you aren't alone. The big question is why doesn't anyone do anything about it? and the bigger question is what can you do about it?

Most people that you meet are in a "comfortable life". They have set themselves up so that their "lifestyle" is within 10% of their income. They don't have any extra money, and when they get it they usually spend it. When you get into the lifestyle trap your employer has put you in "golden handcuffs".

If you haven't heard the phrase or didn't understand what "golden handcuffs" are let me introduce you to the concept. When you get a nice raise at a job you aren't happy with, you have two choices. Maintain your lifestyle and use the extra money to invest in your escape plan. Basically buying the key to release the handcuffs. When you buy the new car or bigger house or move closer to the beach, then the handcuffs get a little tighter.

The bigger your job, and the bigger your bills, the bigger the golden handcuffs. Your employer owns you, that is until you sell your self to another employer who bids the same or more for your services.

Do you see the problem?

If everyone started thinking as an independent contractor, they would never end up with golden handcuffs and could move to what ever job made them happy. One of the ironies of major companies eliminating pensions and healthcare is that they are forcing you to begin paying on the keys to your own golden handcuffs.

In fact our tax system is designed to help you if you do become an independent contractor and stop working for W-2 wages. The only extra taxes you pay are self employment and creative arts. In the first case, your employer was paying the other half of your social security so your overall costs aren't any different if you go independent.

So Your Job Still Sucks, Now What?

When I wrote "So Now What?" several years ago, my goal was to help people like you answer that question. After a few years of helping people, I have found that there is even more that I can do to help you and that is why I am writing this for you.

The first big thing to understand is your strengths and your market. If you don't have a real strength, go find one. A great book that covers the importance of that strength and why you need to build one is Be So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport.

Most people don't feel like they can walk away from their job because they fear losing the income and not being able to get it back before their house of cards collapses. If you live in the US, Australia or even Canada, you are only limited by your imagination as to what you can achieve.

I haven't met anyone outside of the UK who feel this way in Europe, so I'll leave that thought to you.

One of the best tools to use if you want to build a life that others dream of is the "Want - Don't Want" exercise. Simply put you write down all of the things you want and don't want in your life.

The best way to do this is with a huge whiteboard, and look at it every day for about a week. Each day you will look at the board a little differently, and after 7-10 days you will start to see why you don't like your job. You can also start to outline what you need to change in order to make your current job great or what kind of work you need to think about doing.

Most people that come to our office looking for help and guidance in the start up stage are full of "great ideas" that are great only to them. They haven't figured out the market or even if there is one.

If your job sucks, start out listing why it sucks, and what it would need to be great. Then see if you can work it out with your boss. If you are good enough at your job, there might be some room. If not, then you need some deep reflection to decide what's next.

If you don't change where your life is going, no one else will.

Quick Tips To Help Your Success

2014-02-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

I became an entrepreneur because I did not want to be a dentist like my father, but I wanted some of the parts of his lifestyle. I learned very early on that working on Saturday and taking a weekday off was a lot more fun. I did that throughout my high school and college life, which explains my grades.

School is just an extension of society designed to help you work within the confines of the ”standard” workweek. Very few schools teach entrepreneurism the way entrepreneurs teach it. If you take a look at most of the very high achieving entrepreneurs, you'll notice they didn't finish college. At some point they broke away from the norm and have stayed away ever since.

If you want to become a real entrepreneur, Remember some basic rules.

1. Be careful who you listen to. Do they live the life you want to live? Do they do the work you want to do? Only take away the information that is relevant. As a side rule, I generally like to make sure they are making more money than I am if it is an area of business. Yes the coach has a coach (or three).

2. There is never "good enough". You can always to better, and should. This doesn't mean have regret, it just means stay relevant by staying on top of your game.

3. Be accountable somehow. Self starting is a very rare discipline that takes a lot of time to learn. The whole point of vision books, vision boards and goal sheets is to keep you looking towards your destination. The problem is if the destination isn't important enough to have your break away from your comfort zone and your pack, you will never break away. If you make yourself accountable either through a coach, mentor or competitive friend you are much more likely to achieve your goals.

To lose 30 pounds last year, I made a big painful bet with my business partner. I didn't lose a single pound on my own, but the minute we made the wager we both started shedding pounds.

What's Next For You?

2014-02-15T20:53:00.001-08:00

How has your life been going so far? Do you wish for more, is it just ok? Do you wonder why some people make it and others don't? Have you ever looked at someone and wondered why they have a "great life" and you don't?

If so, what is next for you? Would you like to know the difference between the people who slug it out at work 9-5 and still can't make ends meet and those who don't ever appear to work and are always having fun?

If you do want to know the difference and change your life, you have found the right place. I will show you how a lot of people have created great lives and I can show you how to create yours, and it all starts right here.

I didn't know it at the time, but I found one of the great rules of success at a very early age without knowing it. Was I pursuing a "passion"? Nope. Was I getting big money from my parents trust fund? Nope. I just stumbled into something that worked and it was the rush that I have been chasing ever since. Until a few years ago though I didn't understand it at all.

I tried the passion path, and spent more money than I care to admit building three business that were nothing but a headache. I was in love with the product, and the process, but the business just didn't work, and I didn't get it. Other things were so easy for me, and then one day I broke the code.

Looking back I knew it all along, I just didn't understand it.

In the spring of 1984, I was moved to the "continuing education" campus of my high school. I didn't fit in and didn't like school at all. I was working at Burger King which oddly was a pretty good job for me at the time. The owner liked me, and I figured out the work pretty quick. It still wasn't enough so I joined the Air National Guard, Security Police.

Security Police was not much of a job either, but I was lucky to be surrounded by some very talented people. After graduating from tech school, and returning to my base with my "badge", I was offered a full time position. Basically an active duty Air Force job at the Air National Guard Base. Not having any other way to make money, I took the position.

After three nights of walking circles around airplanes and freezing my tail off, I was beginning to think I had made a huge mistake. I didn't drink coffee or smoke (and still don't) so I didn't get as many breaks as the other guys. I didn't fit in and I knew I couldn't do that job forever.

Lucky for me somebody gave me the secret. I just didn't know it at the time. Within a few months, I was enjoying my work and wasn't walking around airplanes any more. One of the side benefits of learning this secret (that I didn't understand back then) is that I have never had to interview for a job since. The great work that other people want, just seems to fall into my lap.

How would you like someone to walk up to you tomorrow and say "Hi, I would like you to come work for me, doing X." That is pretty much how it has gone ever since. Even when I was hired as an airline pilot, my "interview" wasn't anything like what other people were talking about. It was more like friends talking about a hobby they enjoyed together.

So what is the great secret? It is a little more than will fit in one post, but if you read my blog regularly you will see it. It isn't chasing a passion, instead it is doing something that challenges you.

In my Security Police job, the base had a competitive shooting team. When I tried out the first time, I didn't make the cut, but I had fun and got along with everyone that made the team. When the first person was transferred out of the base, the team Captain asked me to fill in. He spent the extra time with me to get me up to the level I needed to be. It wasn't work, it was fun, five championships later it was rewarding.

That sort of situation has played out over and over throughout my life. And so has another situation. The other situation is the opposite. No one asks me to do any work. I just decide to do it because I am "passionate" about it. The results, not so good.

After having some success in an area and gaining a bit of freedom, I would get some book or take some class by a "guru" and then try to step out on my own and follow my "passion". So far my record in this area is 0 for 3.

It would play out like this. Life would be going great, and I would start to feel guilty about my success and not being like everyone else. Trying to justify my success, I would go find a book or a class to mask the guilt and frustration of not fitting in and living a "comfortable" life.

I would take the classes, read the books and then go out and start a new business. I would put my heart and soul into it along with all of the money I made doing other things. Two or three years later the stress and lack of money would cause me to throw in the towel.

Each time that happened someone would be there to say "Great, now that you have stopped that nonsense, how about you come do X for me?" My life would become great and fun again and then guess what? Go back two paragraphs and read it again. Do this twice, because I am slow and didn't get this lesson very quickly. I am writing this hoping you don't repeat this cycle ever.

Passion is for the birds and bees, not for business. Passion is for your attitude towards life, not financing your life.

After closing up my third "failed" business it hit me like a Wreck It Ralph. Luckily, I was able to close my companies, and acted in good faith with my clients. Bankruptcy wasn't an option for me, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. You don't want to spend a lot of time with a bankruptcy attorney, and this is from the experience of someone who was only getting advice. I can't imagine the stress of actually doing it.

So what is the secret? In simple terms, we all have value that we bring to the table. In very very rare cases it also might be your passion. For me I will admit it isn't. What I like about my work is seeing the changes in my clients. That brings me the happiness and gives me the financial freedom to have passions and pursue dreams without wanting to create income from them. This is a very different approach.

Being driven isn't being passionate. You have a value sitting within you that people are asking for and you probably don't even see. One of the tests that I use is asking the question: What is it that people come to you for that you gladly do for free?

That isn't your passion, but it can be your value. Even though you don't charge for it, you might be able to. In my case I can charge a lot for it. The work itself doesn't actually bring me any happiness. It brings me great financial rewards. What brings me the happiness is the change that my work makes for my client.

Passion isn't the driving factor, serving my clients is. I am always taking classes to get better in every area of my life an business. My passion for life has infected my work, so people mistake my drive for passion. Trust me when I say, my passions are very very expensive hobbies which only take money out of my bank account. No one is offering me money to do them. I have tried, and been paid, but never enough to survive, never mind maintain my lifestyle.

When you aren't sure what that value is, try it all. One might hit a spark and light a fire inside you. You might start a few fires. Maybe people are saying you should be a personal shopper because you have a great sense of style. Try it and charge for it. See if the income lights a little fire within you.

The world isn't about money, but every time I see someone get good money for stuff they were doing for free, there is no mistaking or hiding the excitement. The first time an actor is paid, the first time a lawyer wins a big case, the first time a race car driver wins a big check all change how that person looks and the energy they project to the world. Guess what happens next, like an addiction, they keep doing it.

In my case I didn't figure it out until I tried the "guru's" way three times. Thankfully I broke the code before I tried a fourth time.

You might not know your value right now, but come back often or sign up for one of my "break out" classes and find your values. We all have more than one, and the trick is finding one that pays enough to make life fun. What are the values that you bring to the world?

What Are The Real Keys To Success?

2014-02-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

As you know, I have been trying to fine tune the "formula for success" so that more people can create a lifestyle that they want, not just one they settle for.

I want to help you find a better way to live your life that fits you. You can't be me and I can't be you, but we are both human and so the rules must be similar.

Recently I found the book was worth adding to my reading list for my clients and sharing with you.

The book is Cal Newport's "Be So Good They Can't Ignore You". Cal Newton argues that chasing your dreams is a waste of time. I agree. You can have all the passion in the world for something but if the world doesn't it want it that way from you, you will go broke.

Like many people there are several things that I am passionate about. I accept that those passions will not provide me sufficient income to maintain the lifestyle I expect. Instead those passions are my hobbies.

What he says to do is act like Steve Jobs at Apple. Steve created a bunch of products and saw what worked and what didn't and he kept fine tuning based on the feedback of the market. Remember the Newton? Even the original iPhone (or should we call it the "Classic" now?) wasn't really much to speak up. The bugs weren't worked out until the iPhone 3G.

Do the same thing in life. Pursue a bunch of things and when you find one you like and that the market keeps asking your for, become great at it.

One of the aspects I really enjoy about blogging is the feedback from the market. It doesn't matter how many people comment on my blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed. When they do, I always appreciate it and try to respond in kind.

The metric that I really like however for blogs are the number of reads, and the number of reposts. It's very easy to see what people want to hear about from me when I look at those metrics. When I write about flying airplanes the scores are dismal. When I write about building a business or real estate empire the graph shoots off the page. There is no question what people want me to write about.

If you are at a crossroads, or stuck on a plateu, keep visiting this blog, or check out our new jumpstart program opening in March.

Is It Possible To Make Too Much Money?

2014-02-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

I have had an entrepreneurial drive as far back as I can remember. Like a few of the entrepreneurs of my generation, I started with a paper route. The last of the dinosaurs. At least I don't think kids right around on bicycles delivering papers at 5 o'clock in the morning anymore.

At a very young age, I learned a lesson that it was possible to make too much out of the deal. My neighbor's father was an attorney who told me something I had done wasn't "fair". It took me many years to understand how I misinterpreted the lesson.

To begin with, "fair" has nothing to do with a good deal. Fair is simply someone's perception. When an attorney is involved that perception usually isn't anybody's perception who is involved in the transaction. In this case it was worse because he was the wrong person to listen to and it was an incomplete lesson. I am a believer in “win-win” negotiations. This is a very important lesson (and embarrassing) for me to share.

The lesson started when I traded one of my “Hot Wheels” with the kid next-door. About two hours later his attorney father was standing at the door chastising me for taking advantage of his son. His father felt that his son did not get a good deal and was very aggressive about letting me know that it was not okay to trade toys. He made me trade back.

Now I say that the attorney-father was the wrong person to listen to because he was not a trader, he was an attorney. An attorney writes contracts and charges a fee. While there is some entrepreneurial aspect to the business of law, most attorneys, doctors and dentists are simply professionals. They are self-employed with a job. They aren't dependent on buying right, adding value and selling at a significant profit. Now this isn't to say that there aren't some very good and entrepreneurial professionals out there.

Since I was only 10 or 11 years old at the time, I took the lesson very wrong. And that lesson was ingrained into my psyche as a business owner in a way that negatively affected my business. Again I am sharing this because I see it on a regular basis.

What I took away at that time was that making too much money or coming out too far ahead on the deal was ripping people off. If you have ever said to yourself or to somebody else, "I can't charge that much" or "That is just too much money for that" then you have the same wrong thinking.

What I overlooked was the fact that his son was crushed because he had to give back the toy he really wanted and take back the toy he had all ready grown tired of.

It wasn't until many years later, that I understood how this was affecting my business. I was underpricing my services and undercutting prices on products for no reason. We worked hard to deliver the best value and still reduced our profit for no reason. Many of my competitors were making more money and I really couldn't figure out how they were doing it. The day I realized it was in my head, And it was okay to make money when you deliver real value my business life changed.

I bring this little story up because this is an issue that I see over and over working with business owners today. Our society inflicts guilt upon us for being too successful. When you stretch to deliver something great and end up making a lot of money people around you will be offended. They are offended because you effectively have told them they are not doing good enough and there is a new standard to achieve.

When you start out in business most of your friends and associates will be in a similar financial situation. When you break away and leave the group, you are telling them that it can be done and they might be the problem.

One very said truth of success is that you will need to find new friends. This isn't because you've changed, in fact you haven't. Your drive just helped you to succeed. The issue is your old friends attitude towards you will change. They will not respect what you've earned nor will they respect you any longer.

Some years ago A business owner told me about the first party he had in his new house. He expanded in great detail on the destruction caused by his so-called friends. He was rather depressed when he realized that all of his old friends were no longer friends.

If you want to see how this applies to the entertainment world take a look at ESPN's BROKE.

Don't be "Broke".

Should You Quit And Follow Your Passion?

2014-01-15T00:20:00.000-08:00

Quitting everything and going after your dream is the subject of dozens of books. As a business owner and industry leader many other business owners wanted to duplicate my success and would ask me how to do it.

To be truthful, I have told many people that they had to find their own dream and pursue it. They couldn’t be me, my dreams, mission and goals are mine and mine alone. Many people have paid me for advice, and until now, I was overlooking two pieces of key information in the formula.

I have to give credit where credit is due, because I have been taking this for granted instead of making sure everyone understood these keys to success. Cal Newport in his book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, pointed out something that was right there all along and I was glancing over it.

There is a bit of irony here since I am taking a hosting and interviewing class right now from Marki Costello, and just about everyone in the class will glance right past the “bombshells” and go for the “safe” route. This is exactly what happens in business. As entrepreneurs we get caught up in our mission and forget to listen to the market.

Some time ago another entrepreneur friend told me “You have to keep a lot of irons in the fire, and go with the ones that get hot.” At the time it didn’t make much sense, and it is still not advice I would give everyone, but Cal Newport puts it a better way that makes sense to me, and is worth passing on.

The First Key

The foundation of any endeavor that requires financial success as part of the grade has to first pass the test of the market. Simply put, you must do something people will pay you for. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if there isn’t a market need, and you can’t convince people that they have one, you can be the greatest, and still be broke.

Lets face it, money does matter. In a way it should right? Society rewards us with money for solving their problems, not ours. When you solve your problems you relieve a little stress, when you solve societies problems you are rewarded with money and power. That isn’t selling out, that is being real.

The Second Key

Cal Newport also points out that you might get lucky and find that your dream is also financially rewarding, but that is rarely the case. When you explore the lives of people we call “successful” in both life and financial rewards, he noted that they did several different things, and went with one that worked and became the best at that "thing".

The two keys together provide and an interesting insight, that was sitting right in front of me. I had been skipping right over it all along, and yet it is exactly why my residential technology business did well in California, and only average to boring in Texas. The market wasn’t as willing to pay for the technology in Texas no matter how good I (an my company) was. In California I had both the market and the skills, in Texas, it was mostly just idle skills.

Instead of looking at it as putting many irons in the fire at once, I think this is more like putting an iron in the fire, branding the cow, and seeing if anyone will buy the brand. If not, get another iron and try again. If they do, get really good at making that brand better.

This is why truly successful people can have many successful ventures. Richard Branson comes to mind here. Once one Iron got hot and everyone liked the brand, he built it up and used that to buy the next iron. While we all know the brands that stuck, records, airlines and cell phones, I am sure there are just as many or more that didn’t take and we never heard of.

Looking back over my successes and not so much successes, it is clear that success is much more a simple formula than I ever gave credit for. Pilot? I got pretty good at it, and people pay for it. Both keys here. Business developer and consultant? Yes people pay well for what I have learned and my knowledge in their business. Both keys here Actor? people are starting to buy it, so I’ll probably do more, have a market that will pay, only have some skills and have a plan to improve them. Athlete? Clearly a market, but I never got the skills to a salable level. Musician? Ditto.

At the end of the day, Cal Newport is right. Trying to become a Rockstar just ended in misery, I was in love with the dream, not the product and process so I never attained the skill level needed for my brand to sell. Practicing chords and notes made me nuts. In business, flying and acting, for whatever reason I don’t have any problem pushing to new limits every time I go to work. I like building the skills and thus obtained the second key.

If you have been chasing your passion and it feels like you are chasing your tail, Cal’s book might help you get on the right track.

Do You Ever Buy Something, Wonder Why And Learn You Can't Live Without It?

2014-01-01T22:26:00.001-08:00

Welcome to 2014. It is amazing a year has past isn't it? Growing up in the technology world programming computers and games, I have always had a bit of the hacker mentality. Whenever I look at anything I wonder if there is a better, faster or cheaper way.

Some of those thoughts lead to places like Wal-Mart, which I have decided really isn't any better, faster or cheaper.

When I switched from AT&T to Verizon, I found a cheaper way that I thought had faster internet. Nope, just cheaper. I never realized how much I talk while surfing and how much I would miss that. Technology is amazing and I was just taking it for granted. Now I realize why AT&T costs a little more, you really do get more.

Sometimes I find things at the fair and bring them home never to be seen again. Some like the Cham-Wow do work, and I keep them in the car for quick dustings before parades and shows. Others like the magic mop I haven't seen since I paid for it.

This years's fair season was quite the interesting one. First we got duped by the ionic cleansing machines where you put your feet in the water and all this stuff is supposed to be coming out of you. A little research proved it was 99% rust from the coil. Too bad my CPA won't let me call it an educational expense.

We also bought the Gripstic. The guy said it was a better version of the chip clip, so we bit and spent $20. Of course the deal at the fair wasn't really a deal. You can get it here on Amazon for $2.00 for a package, and for $20 you will have more than we picked up at the fair. If you need more, the as seen on TV stores will sometimes have a big variety pack.

We started using the Gripstic almost immediately. When there are only two people in the house, we tend to have bags for a while. The giant chip clip never really sealed our chips and living near the beach makes everything soggy quickly even with a big clip on the bag.

Of course the first thing we did was replace the giant chip clip on our tortilla chips. Four days later when the chips weren't stale and soft, we knew Gripstic was a great idea. Then we used a Gripstic on the sugar bag, another on the cereal bag, and soon they were everywhere. Some things like candy or pasta we used to put into plastic zipper bags or tubs which seemed like a waste. Now we just Gripstic it.

For the holidays, we spent some time at our family vacation home and realized just how much the Gripstic saves us. In just seven days, one entire box of plastic zipper bags were used to store other things that were already in bags we couldn't seal. One bag os swiss cheese even came in a zipper back but the tear off part didn't work right so the bag wouldn't seal.

The Gripstics would have paid for themselves in just a few days. Now that is a good product. It solves a real problem, does it better, faster and cheaper. Next time we head up to the vacation home we are brining a handful of Gripstics.

Is Your Holiday Financial Stress Meter Pegged?

2013-12-24T08:41:00.002-08:00

Are you in Holiday Financial Denial? Are you looking at a pile of receipts that is stressing you out knowing tomorrow is Christmas? Don't forget the after Christmas sales.

The odd thing is I didn’t even go over my gift budget this year. If I didn’t spend all of the money I planned to spend on gifts why would I be stressed about money. The simple answer is “annual bills”.

This time of year, many major organizations send out invoices. As an investor I have a Real Estate License. Every week for the last three weeks, I have been sent a gentle reminder that I owe my board dues, local association dues and oh by the way, they would like another $80 for the political action fund.

Note to the National Association of Realtors. You might save a ton of money on the reminders if you didn’t have January 1st as your due date and made it more sensible like June 1st. Why? Well April everyone is worried about Taxes, that is out, May they are booking vacations, that is out, October, the holiday plans start, November and December the holiday spending begins.

The Realtor associations aren’t the only ones. Every group I belong to wants money on January 1st. It feels like the day after Christmas I have to clean out my accounts and send checks to everyone at once. In fact, I am going to write more checks this week then I wrote the rest of the year because I won’t let any of these groups “auto bill”.

The one that got it right was the Vail Corp. In order to get the best guaranteed price on Ski Passes, I am on auto renewal with them. They took the deposit in June, good, and then charged me for the rest in late October, pretty good. By the time the slopes opened, my annual pass was paid for and I wasn’t having to stand in a long line to pay nearly twice as much for my new pass.

I think at our board meeting we are going to try and figure out how to change our customers plans so that January 1st, there isn’t an invoice, Maybe even May 1st to let them recover from their tax bill.

What do you think. Would you rather get billed 10% more each month and not have an invoice in December that is due January 1st?

Are You Doing Your Homework To Succeed?

2013-12-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

Doing "homework" is something most people try to stop doing the minute they leave school. That is exactly why most people don't "make it". The reality is that "homework" is probably the second most important key to success right after "purpose".

This week I had a great conversation with Alan Pietruszewski about acting, and the level of effort and training required to become even a good actor, let alone great. Much like flying jets, you just can't walk in and do it well. Alan is a friend and a mentor of mine.

As an actor, I know I have been very lucky and fallen into some great deals. That did not mean I was the best I could be or even what the director wanted. More than once I am sure they felt like they were "stuck" with me because I was the only choice they had. Alan teaches a class for actors who are vets. I haven't taken the classes but I am fortunate enough to get some one on one time with him on occasion.

Along the lines of learning how to do your homework, a book I recommend to everyone is "Boyd". It is the story of the man that changed how we fight wars, and yet few even knew he existed. Boyd's signature statement was, "I am ready, I did my homework". If you don't do your homework, you aren't ready for any job. Even McDonalds' has training to make sure the right number of pickle slices end up on the bun every time.

Doing your "homework" was the focus of AlanPietruszewski's last class.

Doing your homework is the first step in a commitment to excellence. I am very fortunate to live in an area of very successful people. I can do homework in business just by talking to my neighbors and friends. I can do this because I made a conscious decision to be a little "house poor". I buy the least expensive house in the most expensive area I can afford. I do this because I find that being low man on the financial totem pole, affords me many more opportunities to learn and grow.

Being the big fish in a small pond is garbage thinking. You can't grow if the pond won't support you. I remember once hearing that a certain fish can only grow so that it is 1" for each gallon in the tank. The bigger the tank the bigger the fish could get. I want to be that fish and so should you.

Starting out as the smallest fish in a big pond gives you many more opportunities to learn and grow. It also makes it easier to do your homework. Your potential is unlimited, so why limit it by living in a small pond? Yes a big fish might eat you, but you will only get eaten when you give up the fight. Lets face it, big fish are lazy and will just go after the next fish, they really don't want to fight.

Living where I am now, there are dozens of business owners, lawyers, doctors, accountants, and even a musician or two. All of them are successful because they did their homework and keep doing their homework. One guitar player has a studio in his house. I haven't met him yet, but I met his guitar coach while out running. Several platinum albums and he still has a guitar coach every week.

His coach told me that he plays four or five hours every day. That is doing your homework. You owe it to yourself to live the best life you can, and that means doing a little homework today and every day, so that tomorrow is a little better than yesterday.

If you make the most money and have the biggest house in your area, who would you learn from, who would you be inspired by? More importantly, who is inspiring your children, people on MTV or real people they know? Live among the people you want to be like, not among the people that will hold you back.

When you do a little homework every day, you get a little better at being you every day. That "you" will quickly rise to the top of any field. Don't you owe it to yourself?

NetGear Ready NAS v. Buffalo Terrastation? What is a NAS Anyway?

2013-12-19T08:27:00.001-08:00

If you are thinking about a NAS drive, Buffalo Terrastation v. NetGear Ready NAS appear to be among the best choices. I have written about both of these in the past and have overall been happy with both, but which is better?

To add more confusion, my recently acquired ReQuest F3 Server and IMC and Request Supports the NetGear Ready NAS 1100 and LaCie 2Big and 5Big Drives, and I'll briefly cover all of these for you, but first, what is a NAS?

NAS is short for Network Addressable Storage. Basically it is a big hard drive that you can put on your home network and share with other computers. Sort of like having a mini cloud server in your house. You can buy direct NAS meaning they have one hard drive and if it fails you lose it all, or you can get a RAID ready NAS and if one drive fails, you can replace it and not lose a thing.

I prefer NAS over cloud services for data storage and archiving for a couple of reasons. First, the tech industry is littered with the remains of great ideas from great companies that are no longer used, and that is hiding the bigger problem of the long gone tech companies. What happens to your photos and music when the company changes gears or goes under? With a NAS you only lose your data if you lose your house and even then, my NAS is on the list of ten things to take with me right after wife, dogs, wallet and car keys.

The big difference between the Buffalo Terrastation and the NetGear Ready NAS NV+ became apparent quickly this week. I have had some difficulty with permissions on my Ready NAS ever since going all mac in the house. My ReQuest Server says the response time is too slow for audio or video, which is odd since it's cousin the ReadyNAS 1100 is supported by ReQuest.

So I dusted off the old Buffalo Terrastation which looks really bad after the TSA unpacked it and tossed it in my luggage. Amazingly broken and dented, it still works. I bought the NetGear because I was mad at Buffalo for not offering an empty case for sale, and telling me to buy a new NAS.

When I plugged in the Buffalo, the mac network found it and logged on quickly. No read/write errors or permission problems at all. I think this has to do with the security on the NetGear side, but I don't know and honestly I don't care. I know the Buffalo Terrastation works, and it has always worked fine as my ReQuest Server NAS drive even though it isn't supported by ReQuest.

After telling the new ReQuest F3 the IP address of the Buffalo Terrastation and rebooting, the Request found all of my movie and music files. The only thing it would say about the Netgear was "test failed".

If you need to access your data anywhere, try a DDNS service so you can get to your home server securely from anywhere like. The WD MyCloud Server could be a great solution, but I haven't tried it yet. If someone has, let us know how it works.

My configuration is RAID 5 on both the Netgear ReadyNAS and the Buffalo Terrastation. I don't like loading music and I don't like losing data. For me RAID and NAS is way easier than "the cloud".

Do You Use "Purpose" In Your Decision Making?

2013-12-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

Having "purpose" in decision making is easier said that done. Do you let emotions effect your decisions? If you do, why? Do you even know when you do it? The truth is that we can see it in others more easily than we can see it in ourselves.

Every day I bet you see people that can't make a decision. Ask them where to eat, and nobody will step up with a decision. Ask them what they want after they get there and I'll bet you hear "You go then I'll decide". Are you that person who always "lets" others go first? Don't be.

Eating out is a simple example of how people let fear and emotion get in the way. Nobody wants to offend anyone else by picking the wrong place to eat. If everyone else is eating salads, the indecisive will go along instead of getting the steak and lobster they really want. Why? Fear.

Fear of offending someone.

Fear of not belonging.

Fear of being ridiculed or embarrassed by the choice.

You are probably thinking it sounds funny that we have "fear" about where to eat and what to eat, but people do. When I embarked on a very strict no carb diet to lose 30 pounds last year, I realized how often people put off their decisions to go along with what other people were doing.

I never asked anyone else to eat "low carb" or "no carb" but amazingly I didn't see bread or pasta on the table for over five months. I lost the weight and changed my eating habits for good, and it has made ordering that much easier.

In this case I had a genuine purpose that was important to me. I needed to lose weight because of a knee problem that was developing.

New Years resolutions fail for this exact reason. The resolution isn't that important, it is missing a very solid "what's in it for me". Let take a smoker, who decides to quit and look at it from the "what's in it for me" perspective.

1. If I quit, I won't smell like cigarettes. Is this really important to them? probably not, they haven't been bothered enough by it so far.

2. If I quit, I won't need smoke breaks. Is this important? In fact quite the opposite, the smoke breaks may be an escape that they lose. They might feel like they are offending the other smokers by not joining them.

3. If I quit, I'll save money. This is a good one, but if there isn't something to save for, it won't matter.

4. If I quit, I'll be healthier. This is the one that might work. If they have a genuine purpose to live healthier, they might quit smoking. If they just like the idea of living healthier, it isn't a purpose and it won't help.

The real point here is that we all have "ideas" and things that sound good to other people that we agree with. Those things are not your purpose or my purpose, they are just ideas. Like my electric car, being petroleum free is a very interesting academic discussion. The reality is, most people don't care, so it won't happen. In my case my purpose was advancing my economic flexibility by reducing my monthly costs. That was very important to me so I did get the electric car.

If you can map out your purpose clearly, decisions come easy because all you need to do is ask, does that fit my purpose. When it does, you do it, when it doesn't you don't. Life is that simple, we just complicate it trying to please others and fit in, instead of being who we really are.

If you can answer a few simple questions for you, your life and your work, the rest gets easy. The hard part is deciding exactly what you want from this journey we call life.

And before we get there, here is the great irony, we all respect and admire people that make decisions. We might not agree with them, but they are the people we look to. Why not become that person?

These questions should help, if you can answer them you are on your way to making better decisions.

Where are you going? Not today, but what does your future look like? This is the "vision" of your perfect life, a dream you will actually live and achieve. Most people I talk to can't tell me what their dream is anymore. Life has sucked it out of them.

What are you doing to get there? Are you making progress every day, Are you training to be the best you that you can be so you can get where you are going?

How do you contribute? What do you do that adds value to the rest of the world so they will help you get there. What is it that lets you make the decisions and lead the way?

What's in it for you, I mean really? This can be anything and is the toughest and most important question to ask. When you really sit down with most smokers, they can't find a reason that matters to them. It is normally about "they say I should quit". When you ask dieters why they fail, it is similarly about comfort. When I lost 30 pounds, I was in a new zone. My comfort level changed, my wardrobe changed, and change can be tough. This is the most important question. If there isn't anything in it for you that you really want, you aren't likely to achieve much more than the norm.

When you define your purpose, you gladly take the road less traveled without fear or worry. Where will you road take you?

Do You Need A CD Server or a DVD Server?

2013-12-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

As Sony gets ready to launch 4K content, the big question is how do you get all of that data to the consumer? They are offering a 4K Media Player, but is that enough? Can a Blu-Ray Disc go one more level or will it get as big as the old Pioneer LaserDiscs? For now do you have enough DVD's that you would like a server?

iTunes and iCloud are a great choice for most people, but if you have a large collection of CD's, it isn't always the best choice. It is pretty easy to build your own iTunes server at home, but what if you like DVD music or have a large movie collection?

A few years ago, while I was working full time in the residential technology business, my house was overkill. Every toy you can imagine and then a couple just because I could. Of all the toys I had, none was more used than my ReQuest ARQ and VRQ system. I stored over 600 CD's of music, downloaded another 10 hours worth from the iTunes Store and loaded up over 150 DVD's.

To keep everything legal when I sold that house, I kept the NAS drive that stored all of the music and movies. Regrettably I had to sell the rest of the gear with the house. In case you didn't know, there is a legal way to back up DVD's to a NAS drive and play them back in your own house. After the housing crash in 07' devastated the residential technology markets, a few tough survivors remained. ReQuest made it through and built some really cool new technology along the way.

This week I finally acquired the latest versions of the VRQ and the ARQ from ReQuest. I am the beaming owner of a ReQuest F3 and IMC. I didn't get the MP V2 yet, but I may upgrade next year.

By itself the F3 is a very cool audio and photo server. With my very simple setup, I can still play two different streams of music from my F3. Actually I can do many more. The Mac Mini in my wifes office has Rocket studio monitors and I have an even nicer setup at my desk. Using the web interface, we can each stream different music to our desks.

My home audio setup is very simple, using Amex Reward Points, a Denon AVR-X2000 two zone Audio Receiver was inserted into the heart of my home electronics system. The Denon gave me 5.1 surround in my Main room and another zone out on the patio by the spa.

Adding and IMC (or an MP) to the F3 lets me store DVD's for easy access. One reboot and the F3 found the NAS drive on my home network and indexed all of the music and movies in less than 15 minutes. This is way better than digging for a DVD when I am feeling nostalgic and want to watch "Smokey and the Bandit."

Admittedly, the ReQuest IMC will occasionally ask that I insert the DVD to prove I own it and didn't rip a rental. That is fine with me. Also the new IMC and MP have the option to play Blu-Ray discs, something my old system lacked. Sorry Sony, that is one less PS4 you are going to sell.

The widgets are pretty cool with a weather display, and stock market display available anytime I am not watching a movie, or on the iPad I use to control the system.

This is where I get to introduce the greatest improvement of the ReQuest system, Maestro. For an additional $149 plus tax, I get to use iPads and iPhones to select movies, search music and set up playlists. Way cooler and easier to use than the several thousand dollar Crestron controller I had in my old house and way less expensive.

The one piece that is missing is the lighting control. With a Crestron home system, and Lutron lighting, the ReQuest integration was very clean. Currently I have an Insteon retrofit lighting control because it was less than half of the price of Lutron. Since we have MobiLinc on our iPads we can control the lights from the same iPad, we just have to change apps. Maybe I'll get motivated and build a widget for the Insteon Lighting for the ReQuest.

Keep in mind these are both apps that my wife uses every day. She even can program and change lighting scenes on her iPhone without any help from me. This is the first system in five different houses that she has ever created a lighting scene. It is really that easy.

One piece from ReQuest I don't have is the Blu-Ray changer, I only have a dozen Blu-Ray discs and because of our normal sitting distances, I am the only one who can see the difference. When the 70" is hung on the wall and the 50" moves to my office, I might change my mind, or maybe I'll get lucky and ReQuest will send me one for long term review. Until then I still put the disc in the slot to watch HD blu-ray movies.

Given how close the capabilities of my current house are to my last house, and how much better it is than the four houses before that, I have to say that home technology is ready to move mainstream. The difference in installation cost between this house and my last one will buy a new Factory Five 818 kit.

If you are an audio buff, or a video buff, you should look at the ReQuest system. It will change how you listen to music and see your TV forever. If you have always wanted real home technology and thought you couldn't afford it, now you can. If you could afford it before, now you can and you can get a cool car as a bonus with the extra money! That is what technology should do for you isn't it?

Which is Better, Verizon or AT&T?

2013-12-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

After 35 days now with Verizon, I think I know who is better between Verizon and AT&T. 35 days ago, I left AT&T for two simple reasons, Unfortunately I did it during a very busy time for me. This made for a great test though. You need your technology to work most when you are busiest don't you?

The reasons for leaving AT&T were a slightly better price at Verizon, and I knew it worked in my house. Every time my AT&T phone rang, I would run to the window or out the front door and hope to catch the call.

When your income depends on catching calls, this really shouldn't be an acceptable scenario. Several times I stopped by the AT&T store to complain and try to get a "femto-cell". A femto-cell is a little wifi box that lets you talk on wifi in your house. My sales skills failed me and after two years of trying, I still had no way to take a call in my house.

I did find a V-Tech home phone that connected to my cellular, but then I started missing texts. I felt like I couldn't win with AT&T.

Sprints price and unlimited data plan looked great on paper, but I quickly found that all of the cellular companies have these complex pricing plans for phones and data plans, and I knew that Verizon would work. A salesman that came to my house had a Verizon phone that made calls without a problem in my house.

Since I couldn't tell if Sprint really was any less expensive, I went with what worked and chose Verizon.

The First 15 Days

Of course upgrading from the iPhone 4S to the 5S was a nice change. The iPhone 5S is significantly faster, and takes better pictures. The data speeds really didn't look much different though, even on WiFi at home. That surprised me a little. I have used complex websites to do some anecdotal testing with my neighbor who is still on AT&T. Standing out front, both phones download the sites at about the same speed.

One problem I have with the iPhone is it's insistence on using WiFi. The problem for busy people arises when you enter into a "free WiFi" area that you have used before. The phone goes stupid until you "renew lease" on the WiFi and sign up again. That should be an automatic option for the "remember this network".

Day ten though I was caught off guard and suddenly the value of Talk and Surf became a problem, partially due to the WiFi issue. Getting off of an airplane in Reno, running to the office, I received a call from a casting agency in Los Angeles asking for my availability for a commercial the next day. When I tried to access my calendar I couldn't.

I have learned to never say yes, without looking at my calendar. I let other people add events for me, so I need to see it before saying anything. Here was the first failure for Verizon. I couldn't talk and surf without renewing my lease since I had been to Reno just two weeks earlier and used the free WiFi. While I was trying to figure out how to get WiFi to work, the casting agent got bored and told me to call her back. By the time I stopped, renewed my lease and checked my calendar and called back, she found someone else. Good work lost. Lucky for me I have plenty to do. If acting was my main job, that could have been an expensive call.

On Day 15 it happened again, I couldn't talk and surf at a critical time. More work lost. I had no idea that I was using data so much when I talk. You don't realize how many apps need a data connection until you turn it off. I was no longer thinking that Verizon was the clear winner, AT&T might have a chance for me to switch back at this point. Oddly, AT&T hadn't called or written even once to ask why I left or how they could get me back.

Day 20 I was in LAX, five bars, and I couldn't get any data, cellular or otherwise to work while sitting on the airplane during a delay. Another Verizon customer said this was quite normal at LAX, and AT&T still had not called. Day 24, the same thing happened at LAX.

Day 30 - Trade back day.

Here is where I blew it. Day 30 was Black Friday. The last day I could switch back to AT&T and not pay a HUGE penalty at Verizon. That is what you call really bad trial period planning. There was no way was I standing in line to trade back from Verizon to AT&T, and since AT&T hadn't called or written even once, I decided to stay home, avoid Black Friday and put up with Verizon for 23 more months.

Here is where it gets weird, and I have to ask who is running marketing at AT&T. Day 32, I started getting daily "specials" from AT&T. They should know the fee to switch back now is over $700 for two iPhone 5S phones. Why would I switch back now? Day 15-29 are the key days to get back a disgruntled cellular customer, and I didn't hear a peep. Once the bill is set in stone, then they write?

To make it even more interesting, AT&T started sending me marketing surveys on day 40 with a series of "did you know" questions trying to lead me back to AT&T. Why are they beating around the bush? Why didn't they call me on day 21 and say "How is that Verizon working, and what do we need to do to get you back". My reply would have been simple, "It isn't, and a femto-cell will seal the deal".

At the end of the day, without question for anyone on the go, the ability to talk and surf is critical. As much if not more so than coverage in my house. If you own a business, are in sales, marketing or any form of self employment, AT&T is the winner. If you work in an office, have good WiFi at home and don't travel much, Verizon is the winner. It's that simple.

What is the best New TV deal for 2013?

2013-11-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

Since I am getting the same questions about buying TV’s this holiday season, I decided to give everyone my personal choices and some quick tips. Because the pricing is going to be all over the board this holiday season, what I will tell you is what I like, why I like it and how it compares.

One of the picture qualities I am hearing more and more about is the “soap opera effect”. I don’t have another name for it and I have seen it a couple of times now. Unfortunately I didn’t get to “tune” or “calibrate” the TV so I am not 100% sure what causes it.

Right now I have a Toshiba 50” which isn’t even on my radar but was a smoking cheap deal last year at Costco. It will eventually move to my office and be replaced by a 70”. I say eventually because things are changing so fast, and there is another remodeling project that will happen at the same time.

Something odd that has happened is the disappearance of Cinemawide TV and the appearance of 4K or UHD TV. In order to watch a movie and see everything the same way as the theater, you need the Cinemawide Screen. If you don’t get one, an 80” screen will have black bars at the top and bottom making it effectively a 75” screen.

You can of course stretch the picture to fill in the black bars, bet then you lose something. You aren’t watching what the director so painstakingly created for you. I was hoping Cinemawide screens would have done better, Since TV is in 16:9 format and that is most of what people watch at home, that the 16:9 TV’s would be the most popular though.

Going Shopping:

If I were out today on Black Friday 2013 looking for a new TV, here are my thoughts:

I really like the Sharp Quatron 3D series for the 60” 70” and 80” screens. All of the big stores have good prices on these units. If you can make your room very dark, they have good black levels and excellent color saturation.

One of my tests is the movie “Men In Black”. If the suits look grey or washed out in the night scenes it means the TV can’t keep up. Sharp is the winner here for LCD and LED TV’s. Plasmas are better, but at that size they are heavy and expensive if you can even find on.

The surprise value for me is Vizio. In the past their picture quality was noticeably different then the Shart and Samsung. Now Vizio looks very close to the Samsung and Vizio is a bit less expensive than the Samsung in many cases.

There is a low end Ultra HD brand, Seiki, that has a Ultra High Def or UHD 50” TV for under $1000. The higher definition is cool if you sit very close to the TV and have good eyes, otherwise who cares. At that price I have to wonder about black levels and color quality, so for now I am saying avoid it. If they send me one to demo, I’ll let you know.

Sony of course always looks good, and there are some deals out there because they are now turning their focus on UHD/4K TVs. Picture quality wise Sony is usually on par with Samsung and Vizio. Sony’s electronics and cases are usually higher quality and a better finish which is why they usually cost more.

The last question is refresh rates. All TV’s are 60hz unless they say otherwise. If you are a gamer or serious movie buff, 60hz won’t cut it. Your body is also running at 60hz so you subconsciously can see a bit of flicker in the screen. 60hz means the screen is refreshed 60 time every second. Your eyes capture about 60 images every second.

For gaming, 120hz is the minimum, and 240hz is better. For 3D, 120hz is also the minimum, and I haven’t seen a 60hz 3D TV yet. Check the box.

For TV’s in guest rooms, kitchen or anywhere there is light most of the time, Go for the best deal. I wouldn’t tell you to skip the $98 32” Black Friday Deal at WalMart for a quick Kitchen TV or kids room TV.

If you are thinking about using a TV as a second monitor, then get a better brand, and use one that is also a computer monitor maker like Samsung or Toshiba. HDTV’s sometimes look funny as a computer monitor if you get a cheap one.

So that moves us to “smart tv’s”. Personally I use Apple TV. The interface for Netflix on Apple TV is better and I can run it through my stereo first. The options with “Smart TV’s” are ok if you are going to use the TV speakers and nothing else. Eventually I will buy a ReQuest Media Server with a Media Player. ReQuest Media Players are hands down the best way to watch movies and online content.

I also like the ability to to put stuff on my TV from my iPad and iPhone. If you have a Samsung Galaxy, then a Samsung TV makes a lot of sense.

So there you have my favorite list, and you can adjust the order to fit your budget and whatever Black Friday deals you can find.

So there you have it, don’t worry about “Smart TV”, get Apple TV or even Google TV for now unless you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, and the summary is:

1 Buy a TV no bigger that the distance you sit from it. If you are 6 feet away, don’t get anything bigger than 70” 60” would be the best for image quality at 6 feet.

2. Sharp Quatron with four colors is the best picture for non plasma

3. Sony, Samsung and Vizio if you get a smoking deal are all good.

4. TV’s under 40” go with the deals

5. If you get a big TV don’t forget the Monster HDTV tune up or some other home calibration kit. That is money well spent.

Oh yeah and if you don't have a big enough truck, Amazon delivers.

The Windows “One Experience”, Is It?

2013-11-28T19:28:00.002-08:00

So is the Windows “One Experience” a move forward or backwards? After a serious look at the new computers, tablets and phones powered my Microsofts single minded operating system, I have to wonder if Gates needs to pull a jobs, and take over the helm again.

Steve Ballmer has clearly been a better choice for Microsoft that Gil Emilio was for Apple, but it might be time to rethink the plan. By the way, I still own my Microsoft Stock.

So what is going on at Microsoft?

Starting at the little end, I looked a the windows phones. iOs 7 on the iPhone 4 was a deal killer. My Windows 7 desktop PC died, and my wife's died about a week later. Like any good writer, I went on vacation for inspiration.

The phones with the windows OS were great. The Nokia with the 41 Mega pixel camera was a little odd shaped, but it did take some great photos. The tile interface is pretty cool and the apps are great. I could get used to the one view update on the tiles.

Moving up the totem pole I looked at several windows tablets. I do like them much better than the Apple iPad even though I already had three iPads. The tile interface again the winner. Within minutes of picking it up, I was able to get it to do everything I wanted it to do, and that I use my iPad for. As a home controller and interface this is a clear winner. It even solved my issues with missing text messages on my cell while at home.

Since going to iOS 7 on the iPads, I can’t leave my home controller running like a smart photo display. For the first time since buying any Apple product, I need to ask for help. That just isn’t happening, it violates rule number 5 which is “Buy no technology that requires support.”

I should probably put some of this into perspective. I am on my 5th "smart house". This one is quite a bit simpler than the fourth house and still way cooler and smarter than homes one through three. In the past I spent as much as $9,000 for touch screen control of my home lighting and audio/video systems. Now the iPad or Windows Tablet can do a better job for much less money. Maestro by ReQuest is probably the best looking interface for any system period.

At this point Microsoft was on a roll, and we were creating a huge list. By the way, I have the advantage of living near an Apple Store, Sony Store and Microsoft Store which are all in the same mall for technology shopping at its best (and most confusing).

Next was the Xbox 360. During the review we started looking at the capability of the upcoming Xbox One. The only feature it didn’t have was an HDMI extender, but the salesperson showed me two that work well, so I could hide my devices out of site. Problem solved. Microsoft still rolling.

The list was growing and I was eager to wait for an Xbox One so it was on to the desktops. For years I have been running dual screens and multiple apps. Most of the time running training or educational videos on one screen while working or writing on the other. The first question I asked was, “Can I add a second screen?”

The salesperson was perplexed for the first time, and the answer appeared to be “no”. The next question was attempting to use the screen to multi task and layer the windows, now called tiles.

After 15 minutes I gave up. Sorry Mr. Balmer, rule number 5 is violated. I can’t do what I want to do without help, and by the way, I have rule number 5 because only once in the last 25 years has anyone from any tech support ever been able to find the answer before I could. Yes that was a Microsoft Engineer from Dallas and he was sharp.

Since that day I have been watching to see if Microsoft figured it out, and so far I don’t see it. Apple on the other hand with iOS 7 put just the right amount of multi-tasking in mobile while keeping the desktop environment practical, comfortable and very multi task friendly. Then I discovered Parallels. Left Screen Windows, Right Screen Mac.

The score right now:

Apple - two iPhone 5’s, three iPad’s, two Mac Mini’s

Microsoft - One Copy of Windows Running on Parallels.

On the horizon, a 4K TV and a PS4? Or a Sharp Aquos Quatron and Xbox One?

Is Your Tech Guy Overselling IT?

2013-11-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

#OfficeNetwork

How much technology do you really need in the office? I am not talking about the stuff you see like your desktop computer, the tablet or your phone. What I am talking about are web servers, mail servers, routers and hubs, and things you never see unless you are the IT guy.

Recently I spent some time with two different clients this month and was amazed at how much in house technology they had. Both of these businesses have less than 15 employees full time in the office, and 10 employees out on the road. Here are their setups starting from the wall to the desk:

Business 1 10 Users, 6 client interactions per day:
ATT UVerse Modem 15 Static IP Addresses
Juniper Router
-Microsoft Small Business Server - Required for software used in house
-Microsoft Exchange Server - Used for basic email functions
-Digital Tape Backup Drive - Used to Back Up Bothe Servers
10 Desktop PC's with 18" LCD Screens
All users have iPhones

Monthly IT average $3000

Business 2, 12 Users, 45 Client Interactions per day:
Time Warner Cable Modem - 50 Static IP addresses
Cisco Router
2 x Apple Airport
-Microsoft Exchange Server - Basic Email Functions
-Microsoft Small Business Server - Financial and Data Storage
-Specialty Server for software package
8 Desktop PC's with 20" screens
2 Desktop Macs
2 MacBooks
12 iPhones

Monthly IT average $2100

In both cases, I couldn't see any reason to have an in house server for email or basic functionality. A network drive, sometimes called "Network Addressable Storage" or NAS drives, would have worked just fine. The difference? About $3000 up front plus $500 a month in support. Additionally neither needs the MS exchange server now that they have gone to the iPhone as the mobile platform. Yes Exchange does a lot more, but they aren't using it.

The last monthly cost is the static IP addresses. Business one needs it for a subscription service they have to purchase for each computer. I am suspicious though that the vendor doesn't have an option for dynamic IP addresses. The second business was hosting their website data on their server but not the website. It was a crazy system to support. Additionally of the 50 static IP addresses only 5 were in use.

How would I set up businesses that size? In fact just about any business can use this model if you have less than 20 desktop systems. In fact now I see iPads with keyboards and proprietary apps and that whole setup is less than what I listed above.

Here is exactly what my two offices look like:

Verizon FiOS Router - WiFi off, set to Modem only Mode.
Apple Airport Extreme Router(s)
Netgear ReadyNAS Network Drive
Virtual Web Hosting with Email Service, 1and1 and GoDaddy are two good ones we support in our office.
Desktop PC or MAC as required.

This is exactly our setup, I don't use the Verizon FiOS Router for simplicity reasons, and in an all MAC business, you could use the Apple Time Capsule instead of the Netgear Ready NAS. All of our email is stored on the servers at 1and1, as is our website. We back them up to a DVD each month. The NAS Drive is backed up weekly since that is where our customer records and financials are stored.

Western Digital even calls one option "mycloud", meaning you own it. While I like virtual email and web hosting to save money, you should own your data in a physical sense. That is why we use the NAS drive. Our setup has all of the capability needed for both businesses and would have cost over $10,000 less.

Do you want to see your IT guy more often or do you want $10,000 or more in your bank account?

Did The Shutdown Kill The Tea Party? The Republicans?

2013-10-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of banter since the government shutdown. The "furloughed" employees collected unemployment, protested and then get full back pay. How is that for paid time off? USA Today reported in the October 21st issue that some may get both full back pay and still get to keep their unemployment checks. So what exactly were they protesting?

One prominent Democrat told the tea party to go home and said "It is clear they didn't come here to build anything, only to tear it down." Well duh, the whole point of the tea party is to reduce taxes AND reduce the size and reach of the government.

Sadly the only losers in the deal were the tourists who couldn't visit some national parks and monuments and the taxpayers not employed by the government who are going to get the bill.

The Pentagon brought everyone back to work the minute the bill was passed to pay the furloughed employees. One of the best decisions of the entire debacle from my view. This way they cut their unemployment expenses that weren't budgeted for.

The one thing it did show us is what our politicos think are necessary services and which aren't. Do you think they did without for a minute on either side?

So is the Tea Party Dead or are they Enraged? Only time will tell. Are the republicans in trouble? Maybe. Some moderates may be in trouble as the divide widens.

In a time when we need to come together reasonably, we have two parties going to extremes and the main stream media playing it up to sell ad space. Was the republican acceptance poll rating of 24% because everyone was trusting the democrats, or because the disenchanted republicans are being driven further to the Tea Party/Libertarian cause?

Your thoughts?

Does Your Volt Have Bugs? Mine Does...

2013-10-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Overall my Chevy Volt has been great for the last five and a half months, but is isn't perfect by any means. This week has been a challenge, in fact the last three weeks have really been odd.

In previous posts, I talked about the issues with valet parking and auto charging when the alarm is set and the auto lock feature is on. If you valet and autolock the car, they can't even get to the charger after the key is hung in the key rack.

That is just one annoyance. We also discovered that if you send an address to turn by turn, cancel before it loads and try and send it to the "in dash Nav" it locks up the whole system. I figured out how to fix it, but I am not giving that secret away. Chevrolet says this bug will be fixed next time it is at the dealer for a software update. Why can't the Volt by like my iPhone and update while I am asleep?

Speaking of the iPhone, upgrading to iOS 7 changed how the Volt and the iPhone get along. The feature that allowed me to play music over bluetooth no longer works. Pluggin in with a USB cable which didn't work before, now works brilliantly but my phone won't work on handsfree when the iPod mode is active via USB. What didn't work works and what did work doesn't.

Another interesting issue that has popped up is related to the clock. For whatever reason it can't keep time. Each week it is almost a full minute off. Why doesn't a GPS equipped car use satellite time?

This leads right to the next question. How come a GPS equipped car can't tell if I am plugged in at home on an electric schedule or away and commercial chargers? I shouldn't have to tell the car I am at home so it should charge between 12 and 6 or I am at a parking garage and paying to charge so it should charge now should I? I paid for 4 hours at a blink charger only to find out I left the car in delay mode and didn't charge it at all. $4.00 down the drain. I don't know who was being more stupid, me or the car.

The single most annoying system in the Volt so far is the "anti collision" system. There is a button on the steering wheel to turn it on or off. I think it is a placebo. With the system off, when you exit the freeway, it sees that you aren't following the lines and starts yelling at you. Once on the offramp and in between the lines again it is fine. Even with the system off, it will turn off the cruise control automatically. While this doesn't sound like much, I have learned that I can get three to five more miles out of the battery in "L" instead of "D". The problem is when the cruise control turns off and you are in "L" you are already in the first level of regenerative breaking.

On the highway, the guy behind catches up awfully quick for no reason.

Cruising on the freeway about once every 15 miles the car will "see" a potential collision and turn off the cruise control. Most of the time I have no idea what it "sees". Tonight I was in the second lane, with no cars on either side or in front of me for at least a quarter mile, and it beeped and flashed and turned off the cruise control as if I was about to hit another car. All I can figure was fog on the camera lens as I got closer to the beach?

I can't imagine what the "big brothers" at Progressive are seeing if they get the data from a car like mine. They must think Volt Drivers are high risk idiots trying to hit another car every 15 miles or so. Thankfully I have USAA, and they don't try to raise my rates based on phantoms that the car thinks I am going to hit.

The last funny bug this week has to do with the lights. The car has a new habit of going into night mode when I go through tunnels and not going back to day mode for well over a minute when we get back into the sunshine. More than once I couldn't see a turn on the NAV screen because it was still dimmed into the night mode. Sadly I am a GPS cripple, which means I can't find my way home from the corner without my magenta line and the checkered flag on the screen. I turned the voice off because it interrupted my music.

Another funny bug, the tire pressure monitor will come on with a different tire each time I add air. It will show that they all have 31 psi for example but one will be yellow. Even when they warm up and all show 33 or 35 PSI it stays Yellow. When I pump up to 36 they all turn green. Within a week, usually in the morning, one will be yellow. Over the last four weeks, each tire has turned yellow at least once.

I wonder if the guys at GM are laughing their butts off, or think I don't care for my car and am trying to hit everything in site?

So how is your Volt doing? Don't worry Chevrolet, we still want another one. Slate Grey if you have a spare sitting around.