It was just a misunderstanding

It Was Just a Misunderstanding

It was just a misunderstanding… that’s not what I meant…. Have you heard those, or similar statements, recently? If you have, then you are in the midst of a breakdown in communication. The best leaders are excellent communicators, and they encourage a clear, effective exchange of information in their teams. Yet we often experience confusion and misinterpretation at work (and at home). What is going on? Quite simply, we don’t work at stating our ideas explicitly. We take communication for granted, we get lazy, we get careless—and then, bad things happen.

With all the communication tools at our disposal, we are more at risk than ever for miscommunication. Isn’t it great that email has that «receive receipt» function? I think there is a «read receipt» message also. In using these, we are notified that the receiver of the message did, in fact, get the message from us.

Of course, there is no «understand receipt» to insure that the receiver actually «got» what we were trying to say. When we are face-to-face, body language and changes in pace, tone and vocal inflection help us to determine if our message has been understood. In email, we lose these important visual and aural cues, making successful communication much more difficult. Misunderstandings become frequent, and additional emails meant to clarify can make the even situation worse.

At this point, it would be appropriate to visit the classic (and often misquoted) study on communication by Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus at UCLA. Dr. Mehrabian examined the process by which people decide whether they like one another. The results of his research tell us that how we say something is critically important to others’ understanding of our message. And, as we noted above, this is precisely the factor that is lost in written communication. Therefore, the more we use such quick and easy means of communicating as email and text messaging, the more at risk we are of being misunderstood.

Don’t get me wrong; I love email. It is a very convenient, efficient, and effective method of sending and receiving information—but sometimes, it just isn’t good enough. I also love looking someone in the eye and seeing that they «get it.» Last week, I flew to San Francisco on short notice for this very reason—to make sure my meaning was received and understood clearly. I didn’t want to fly cross-country for a four-hour meeting, but I did anyway, because it was that important.

How often do you send an email or leave a voice mail when you would be better served by interacting face-to-face? It’s tempting to hide behind email. But vital nuances can easily fall through the cracks. What about your people? I spoke to a friend about this the other day and he said this about his managers, «I tell them to call someone and they send an instant message. They are missing my entire point.»

Misunderstandings cost money. For that reason alone, we must work to eliminate them. Always remember the «understand receipt» function when you are communicating with someone—no matter what method you are using.

Hvac marketing in the internet age

HVAC Marketing in the Internet Age

So you’re starting a new business, great. It’s a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning company…even better. After all, every home, office building, and well, just about every indoor structure needs some combination of the three. With the way the economy is going, it’s a relief to be in an industry that’s pretty much indispensible.

But, as with any new business, it takes more to achieve success than simply smiling and doing a good job. You have to build a reputation of quality service and dependability. To do that you must first have clients.

So, where do you go to get the word out? An obvious and increasingly popular choice for HVAC marketing these days is the internet. But what do you do when you get there? Well, since most HVAC professionals do not have the requisite computer skills to successfully market their companies online, many of them are turning to HVAC internet marketing professionals.

What can a HVAC online marketing team do for you?

Quite simply, an online marketing service that specializes in HVAC will help you direct traffic (potential customers) to your website.

Yes, but what specifically do they do?

Specifically, they will use a combination of proven methods and techniques to help you market you business through your website. In the next few paragraphs, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular promotional techniques.

Website Design

Any quality online marketing service will begin by taking a look at your website and will offer helpful hints and constructive criticism about how to improve it. Oftentimes, new companies are so eager to get up and running on the internet, that they don’t pay close enough attention to some of the most common website concerns like ease of use and clarity of text.

Search Engine Optimization

Once your website is exactly the way you want it, you must improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or customers will never be able to find you when they do a basic web search on Google. This is a big part of HVAC marketing because without an improved SEO you will be lost in a sea of anonymity.

Social Marketing

This is a relatively new method of marketing, but one that has nevertheless been embraced by many successful businesses. It consists of simply promoting your website and company on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Email Marketing

Email is indispensible form of marketing that allows you to directly contact current and potential customers and lets them know about your company, services, and upcoming sales.

What else?

Well, you should look for a site that is highly interactive, especially one that gives you access to other HVAC professionals who have already been through the process of successfully marketing themselves on the internet. These marketing service professionals should be able to answer your most important questions.

It is also a good idea to locate a site that includes a lot of videos that can provide you with easy step-by-step instructions and worthwhile advice about HVAC marketing. Some sites also include blogs as well as instructive and informative articles that can be perused by their members.

Lastly, you should look for a marketing service site that charges only monthly fees. That way, if you don’t like the service they provide, you won’t be caught up in a one-year contract.

How does usda prime get graded

How Does USDA Prime Get Graded

The United States Department of Agriculture oversees and grades USDA prime steak all over the country when a meat packer requests them to do just that. People look for the USDA stamp of approval which testifies to people that those steaks are of superior quality, texture and taste.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for steaks that are USDA prime beef in the supermarket or even at your butcher, you will probably not find them. Most of what you would get in USDA prime steak is bought by high end restaurants or consumers that have requested a large amount of steaks for themselves or for an event.

The inspection system for USDA prime beef is a very complicated one. And, it is very meticulous in being exact because this grading system specifies the quality of beef. Initially the amount of marbling that the steaks have and then it combines the age of the beef and that gives the inspector his USDA grade quality.

Generally speaking, if there is a high amount of marbling and the beef is young, the grade is much higher. The marbling of the USDA prime beef is what gives it all of the flavor and tenderness that is desired by people who purchase these steaks. The older the beef is the more tough it is, deeper red color it is and the age also affects the flavor as well as the texture. When the steaks are young, they are lighter red color, more tender and a better texture.

The highest grade is the USDA prime grade which gets stamped on USDA prime beef and USDA prime steaks. You can be guaranteed that if you see that on steaks, that they are the most tender as well as the most flavorful and finest texture beef you can buy.

There are only three grades of USDA beef that you can buy in a supermarket, butcher or from mail order steaks. They are Prime, Choice and Select. Prime obviously is the finest with Choice being second and Select last. The USDA grade of Select is not closer to Prime, but actually closer to the bottom. Many beef wholesalers and even supermarkets will try to convince you that Select grade is right next to Prime when nothing could be further from the truth.

How to make money doing practically nothing

How to Make Money Doing Practically Nothing

Everyone thinks the perfect job is doing nothing and getting paid for it. There are ways you can generate an income and not actively take part in the process.

Since the advent of the internet there have been countless ways of making money online. The process may take a while but if you work hard enough to set it up and have everything running smoothly, you can actually at a certain point sit back, relax, and let the money come in. Passive residual income is the way to make money without doing anything. The product that you put out a couple of times a year will allow you to relax the rest of the time.

Here is one example. Do you like to write? If so, consider writing an e-book. This is a digital counterpart to a book that has been typed and printed. The e-book is normally read on the computer and has a few advantages to the traditional printed book. The text can be enlarged for easier viewing and they take up very little space.

Choose a subject of interest to people and get creative. Most of these books are how-to books. The great thing about them is they will continue to earn for years after you sell them. This is how you can earn residual income and not lift a finger after the original selling of your e-books.

If you write one or two really quality e-books twice or three times a year this will allow you to take time off and do nothing. Well, at least the things you want to do rather than working. How to make money doing nothing suddenly became much clearer, did it not?

The best way of thinking of it is — When you work for someone 40 hours a week, once that weeks pay has been received, you will never get paid for that 40 hours again. However, if you spend 40 hours writing an e-book, you can get paid over and over for those 40 hours. When the e-book earns a residual income that is in effect what is happening.

Another way of generating a good amount of traffic to your website is to submit it to every place you can submit it. The promotion that you do now will be the traffic generator of tomorrow. Actually you will be surprised at how easily you site will get traffic. The ultimate goal that you have in mind is to establish your site or e-book or whatever you decide to do as the leading source of reliable information on this subject. When you accomplish this, the money will start to come in and you can sit back and watch it.

Traffic is what will generate your income. The more traffic, the more income you will have. Getting this traffic is up to you. The more promotions you do the better chance of getting this project up and running.

The internet is like a super highway. All the roads lead somewhere but you need them to lead where you want them to go. The traffic that you get will determine how much money you make. Many people go after this type of internet business because they feel they are in a dead end job or they need the extra money.

How to decide on a good watermark for note pad printing

How to Decide on a Good Watermark for Note Pad Printing

A watermark is a good and subtle filler for the empty spaces in notepads. You must however always choose your watermark image with care so that it doesn’t ruin the appearance of your notepads. You don’t want to send a bad watermark for note pad printing, discovering that it renders all your notepads barely usable. Below are some tips that should guide you on deciding the correct watermark to use for your notepads.

Look for clear uncomplicated designs: One of the general rules for watermarks in color notepads is that they must be clear, simple and uncomplicated. It must not have too many details, that can clutter up the look of the notepad even though it is just a watermark. So never attach a watermark with too many intricate details, curves and objects. Most especially try to avoid watermarks with distinct dark design elements that can really hamper the way you read and write words in the notepad. You can do this by choosing watermarks with a nice large homogeneous color area. This can be something like the sea, the sky, a wall or something similar. Alternatively you can enlarge your logos and other objects so that the empty spaces between their design elements can serve as empty spaces as well for better notepad writing and reading. Doing this should assure your notepad of a large and workable space for writing notes.

If possible match the color with your notepad theme: Also, please do not forget to match the color of your theme to the dominant color of your watermark. They should compliment each other rather than clash. Bad color clashes with the watermark and notepad header design can really make notepads look bad. Aim for that coherent theme with all your notepad elements. So if you have red logos and text, why not have a pinkish or orange watermark to compliment it. If your dominant notepad header color is black and white, why not try a nice gray scale image as the watermark? By doing your watermarks this way you should make your notepads look like a complete and well thought of printed work and not a clashing piece of art.

Use something that reinforces the note pad’s use: Another good tip for you watermarks is to use images that reinforce the note pad’s primary use. For example, if the notepad is a doctor’s prescription pad, the watermark can have images of medicine on it. This is just so that people can immediately identify the piece of paper as a medicine prescription pad even from afar. You can do this for your other notepads like reminder notepads, task post it notes etc. It should really be a great addition to the overall design of the notepads.

Those should be enough tips to guide you in choosing the correct type of watermarks for your color notepads. If you get simple, color-coordinated and useful images for your notepad printing, you should have no worries at all at the end product. You will assuredly have well made notepads with watermarks that improve the design and not hamper the note pad’s use.