Buzz On Biz

EDITOR’s NOTE: The Buzz on Biz staff regrets a few editing errors in January’s money article including a misspelling of the author’s name and an extra paragraph of information at the beginning from another issue. To read the corrected article, please visit www.buzzon.biz, Buzz on Biz Monthly and Page 4 in the January issue.

Last month I left you with encouraging words to get your estate plan in order. With this being the month for lovers, I am going to bring even more ideas to the table. After all, an estate plan is to protect those you love and are leaving behind. When you are establishing a plan for your assets, there are many things to ponder. First, who do you want to receive the assets? Do you have several children or grandchildren? And do you want to give each of them a certain amount of money? Or do you have an heirloom that you want to go to someone specific? Do you have a specific charity or church that you would like to leave a legacy for? These are all circumstances that the estate planning process will address.

It is imperative to document your ideas when you have an extended and/or blended family, a previous marriage, couples with or without children, same sex couples, or a business of any type. When it is not clear how assets are going to be passed along, the Last Will and Testament or an established Trust is so very important. If you own a business, how will the business run if you are gone? Do you want your family to continue to receive an income stream off of the business? Or do you want to sell it out right? You see, if you don’t answer these questions now, it may not go as you would like when you are no longer here.

There are some really neat strategies that can go into estate planning. Using a variety of options, it is very possible to double or triple the amount of money you leave behind. And in many cases, this can be done without any tax implications! It is when both a husband and wife are still alive that the best solutions can be implemented.

When you deal with these topics before you pass, it will alleviate many stressful issues that family members may encounter. You can go as far as pre-planning your funeral and burial request. Each person is in a unique situation, so there is no “cookie cutter” approach to estate planning.

I am not a tax preparer or an attorney; however, I involve both experts in the complete planning process. Having a team of experienced professionals on your side will help you reach the goals you want to achieve. I am excited to help people develop strategies. If you find it challenging to answer any of the questions I have presented, now is the time to give me a call!

KELLY RENNER is a Certified Financial Planner™ and has a Masters Degree in Finance. She owns Life Strategies Financial Partners and specializes in comprehensive financial planning for businesses, individuals and families. She is a veteran of the United States Air Force. She is able to work with clients in both Georgia and South Carolina. Her office is located at 3540 Wheeler Road Suite 304. She can be reached at 706-210-3535 or online at LifeStrategiesFP.com.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Are you ready to make some nice changes happen in 2012? This article is a continuation of last month’s article titled “Time to Set Some New Years Resolutions”, which explained why goal setting is the first key step in making positive change, why it’s so important to set goals, and how to set goals. This article continues discussing the process.

Once you set realistic goals, you know what you want. It doesn’t matter if they are business, career, or personal goals, the basic principles and action steps are the same. Now you need an action plan, which needs to be written down.

An action plan is a like a cooking recipe. It’s a list of things you need to accomplish your goals (some may be physical things, help from others, etc.), a list of steps that you need to complete to get to your end point, and when each step will be completed.

Doing an effective action plan is difficult for many people, especially if they’ve never done one before. Many factors need considering. One’s personal challenges and limitations can easily get in the way. For example, if someone tends to procrastinate, they may keep putting off writing their action plan, and positive changes may never occur! A little help from the right person may be all that’s needed.

Commitment is critical! People make positive changes happen if they really, really WANT them and they COMMIT to doing whatever it takes. Doesn’t it sound simple?

But, the devil’s in the details. If it were really that simple, most of us would achieve more of what we want, and be more content.

LARRY RUDWICK This is a sponsored coaching article. To read other articles and listen\watch to various audios\videos on making positive change visit www.buzzon.biz or www.BusinessTune-Ups.com. To do an executive assessment, email Rudwick@cox.net or call 571-331-6102.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Have you ever hired a real super-star? How about someone you thought was going to be a super-star who turned out to be a disappointment? Was the process you used any different or were you just luckier with one than the other?

If you plotted your employee’s performance on a normal curve 16% are top performers, 16% are bottom performers, and 68% fall in the middle. Research has shown that even good interviewers are able to pick a candidate that will fall in the top performer group only 17% of the time. Further, a top performer is, on average, 33% more productive than an middle performer. So, more than 4 out of 5 times, your interview selection process is leaving 33% of potential productivity unachieved.

As a business leader, it is our job to improve on these measures. The good news is we can! We can improve selection processes by including job fit assessment. Job fit can be improved by using structured behavioral interviewing along with robust background and reference checking. But this only gets us so far.

We can achieve the best outcomes by including a valid and reliable job fit assessment tool. Job fit assessment tools go beyond a simple personality inventory by assessing capacity, job based behaviors, and interest in the job.

If you incorporate job fit analytics in your process, you improve your ability to identify and select a top-performing candidate to 75%. What would be the value to your business if you could select a top performer 3 out of four times? If the hiring process is a crap shoot, I’d take those odds!

BRENT & KELLY MALLEK This is a sponsored Employment article from their company, Talent Focus Consulting. Brent has over 20 years of Human Resources experience as a proven leader, coach, and teacher. His practical yet strategic approach to human capital issues provides great value to the businesses with which he works. Kelly’s successful track record spans 25 years working in sales, customer service, and business operations. Her practical approach puts others at ease while assisting others in driving their business results.

Visit their website at www.talentfocusconsulting.com or call 706.945.1592 for a free consultation.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Work Smarter, Not Harder: You get the same results; it’s the path that you take in getting there that can make all the difference in a day’s work. Here at BEST, we use the K.I.S.S. method. Keep It Simple Stupid (or Silly, if you’re the sensitive type). One of the greatest assets in keeping it simple is ORGANIZATION. We all know this. Getting there? That’s a different story.

Organization doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. Here are a few K.I.S.S. organizational tips from our partners at Avery®.

Do a quick sort of your paper stacks: Who gave paperwork the right to take over your desktop? Sort your paperwork using labeled binder clips such as “file”, “needs signature”, “mail”, etc. Once your papers are sorted you’ll know exactly what you need to do next.

Keep key info handy for referencing: All information is not created equal. Let’s face it, some are just more important than others. Use a 3 ring binder for easy referencing of important documents. Keep your binders organized with indexes and customizable covers. Whether you’re planning the household budget, building a binder for tax paperwork or creating a customer proposal, keep all your key information together!

Move paperwork off your desk: Consider your desktop as prime real estate. That’s valuable space you’ve got there! For paperwork you need to keep, but don’t reference often, it’s time they relocate off of your desk. You might want to move them into an accordion file or a filing cabinet. Whichever filing method you choose, the most important part is labeling. K.I.S.S ! Keep it simple & label them in a manner that is easy, clear and works best for you.

Pack it up and put it away: There are some things we must keep, such as tax forms, bank statements and home records. Some things we simply choose to keep. Whatever it is, we do not want it cluttering up our working or living space. That’s why the storage industry has been around for hundreds of years. If it’s not your everyday stuff, consider storage boxes. When you store, don’t forget to label! No one wants to be searching through stacks and stacks of unmarked boxes.

Keep It Up: Once you start noticing the benefits of being organized, continue your efforts! Disorganization doesn’t happen overnight, organization doesn’t either.

ROBIN BAXLEY and sandi shields co-own Best Office Solutions in Burke County and know a thing or two about getting your office organized. They offer a complimentary consultation of your CSRA companies’ needs in supplies, furniture, printing, machines, office design, and more. Call 877.533. BEST(2378) or online at www.bestofficesolutions.com. This is a sponsored article

Popularity: 1% [?]

Acouple I am friends with attempted to renovate two dilapidated houses downtown and use them as safe houses for abused women and children. It took them years of battling through the court system to get the next door property owner to demolish several uninhabitable structures adjacent to their refurbished buildings. Vagrants camped out in these tenement buildings and would, at night, break into the refurbished homes nearby stealing copper and everything else not nailed down or cemented into the walls. These “squatters” left human and animal feces on the newly installed carpets of the homes. It finally took Judge William Jennings getting involved and tossing the land owner, the “Reverend” Calvin Walker, in jail for failure to comply with a court order, but by then my friends, Dr. and Mrs. Holt, had virtually lost their investment and no insurance company wanted to cover them because of the potential for further loss. Sadly, their dream of helping others turned into a nightmare for their family.

So what are the good law abiding citizens to do? Some have protested in front of the businesses of absentee landlords and others have demanded more deputies on the streets. The problem is that after the 24 hour news cycle is over, everyone forgets the names of the derelict landlords and when the cops are worried about rape, murder, robbery and domestic violence on a daily basis, they simply do not have time to deal with vagrants camping out in crack houses unless those houses are on fire. Besides, according to Sheriff Ron Strength, people are already sleeping on the floor of the jail, so a police crackdown means the tax payers must pay to incarcerate the offenders for a couple of days only to have them get out of jail and go right back to the same behavior after being fed for several days and hit with a fine they will never pay.

There is an answer though, and the answer is simple. This “policy manual” that Augusta commissioners have bickered over for months actually gives the city administrator an important tool. That is, he can reduce redundancy in county government. For example, instead of having two departments doing virtually the same job, he can combine the departments, streamline the staff and divert employees to other departments that are understaffed and faced with a crushing workload. The license and inspection department is one such area. At a recent visit to director Rob Sherman’s office, I noticed an “in-box” piled nearly to the ceiling with complaint issues regarding dilapidated structures. He doesn’t have enough employees to cover all those cases, and much of the time when code enforcement does get involved, the offending landowners play the court system like a fiddle, biding themselves time and costing the tax payers even more money in litigation.

Georgia has a unique law, that to my knowledge has never been used for fear that it would cause an “emminent domain” issue that could go all the way to the state Supreme court. The law is as follows: if a landowner refuses to keep a property up to code and owes back taxes, the city can give them a specified amount of time to either demolish the property, mothball it properly or bring it up to code. If the landowner fails to comply, the city then demolishes the property for them and hands them the bill. If the landowner fails to pay for the demolition, then the city can seize the property. Instead of a crack house, the neighborhood has a green space which the city can then sell to someone willing to improve the property and the neighborhood.

SCOTT HUDSON is a freelance reporter for WGAC and co-owner\operator at Cheers on Washington Road in West Augusta. Please send any comments to scott@wgac.com.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We’ve all used one, and probably forced our husbands into doing the same. You’re desperate. You have a deadline. Company’s coming. It needs hung, no hammer – GET A SHOE!

Deadlines are an everyday occurrence in the office world. Meeting them…??? Well, let’s just say that Dorothy Parker’s famous quote “I never met a deadline I couldn’t miss” has stuck around in the 21st Century.

CARE: The most important thing about meeting a deadline is to CARE about the deadline. REALLY CARE. Generally, people complete what they set out to complete. If you’re serious and committed to meeting a deadline, you take whatever means necessary to get it done. Sometimes that may require GETTING A SHOE.

ORGANIZE: Once you’ve committed to a deadline, keep track of it. Have a calendar or running list of deadlines and dates and check it daily. A daily check-in keeps you on track and ensures that you will not overlook a due date.

DEFINE: The deadline is when? Make sure that you are on the same page as your boss or client. Be as specific as possible.

BUILD A CUSHION: This is for you procrastinators. Okay, its actually for everybody. Building in a cushion helps you meet deadlines by allowing leeway to accommodate unforeseen delays.

STEP BY STEP: You know what they say about the journey of a thousand miles. Just take that first step and then keep on going.

BE REALISTIC: When the time comes to tackle a specific step, make sure you’re realistic about how much time it will take. Treat each step like it is a cannot-miss appointment.

DON’T OVER COMMIT: Say no to taking on unrealistic assignments. If you cannot commit to finishing a project on time, don’t take it on.

PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS: Once you have committed to an assignment, do WHATEVER it takes to finish it on time. Follow through with your commitment. Stay up late, work weekends. GET A SHOE.

Be your BEST.

ROBIN BAXLEY and SANDI SHIELDS co-own Best Office Solutions in Burke County and know a thing or two about getting your office organized. They offer a complimentary consultation of your CSRA companies’ needs in supplies, furniture, printing, machines, office design, and more. Call 877.533. BEST(2378) or online at www.bestofficesolutions.com. This is a sponsored article

Popularity: 1% [?]

People tend to fit into several categories. Some people: 1) religiously write out their New Years Resolutions at the end of the year; 2) write out their resolutions (or goals) during the year when they feel it’s appropriate; and 3) never, or almost never, think about or bother to write down what they want to accomplish.

Why write out New Years Resolutions? People who often write down and plan what they want to accomplish are much more successful in life. It doesn’t have to be done at the end of the year, but if that’s what it takes, do it then. For people who do it often during the year, it’s not really necessary to set New Years Resolutions.

Common Personal New Years Resolutions include: 1) More time for family and friends; 2) get more fit and lose some weight; 3) stop bad habits, such as drinking, smoking, gambling; 4) work on personal challenges such as ADD, procrastination and depression; 5) have more fun; 6) more financial security; 7) having a better love life;  8) learn and do new things; and 9) get more organized.

Common Business Goals include: 1) increase sales and income; 2) streamline operations; 3) improved website; 4) use social media more; 5) make a business plan; 6) improve communications within the office; 7) automate/computerize operations;  8) improve leadership skills; 9) delegate more; and 10) improve time management skills.

What should happen next? Writing down your goals (or New Years Resolutions) is an essential start, but just a start. The next step is to COMMIT to doing them. 1) Prioritize your list. 2) Break down each item into steps/tasks. 3) Figure out how much time each task should take. 4) Give yourself a deadline to accomplish each item on your list. 5) Study your list often, and monitor your progress.

Don’t do it alone! Many people get embarrassed because they dwell on their weak areas and don’t want others to know about them. But we all have areas we’re not good at. Getting help with setting resolutions and goals can be the best thing we can do. And remember this: even business coaches need their own coach!

If you realize you should learn to delegate better, consider delegating some of the responsibilities of setting your New Years Resolutions and other goals to someone who has experience helping people and who you can trust.

LARRY RUDWICK This is a sponsored Business-Talk article. A lot more about this can be found on the www.BusinessTune-Ups.com website. To do an Executive Assessment requires a Word Document entitled Ten Questions That Can Improve Your Life. I would be happy to email one to you; you may request it from me at Rudwick@cox.net or calling 571-331-6102.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Now that we’ve covered the necessity of having decent equipment, we need to cover what to do with it.

The first thing I recommend is getting professional help with your swing. By this I mean finding a good PGA Teaching Professional. Not just reading books, articles and watching the Golf Chanel.

Becoming a skilled teaching professional takes years of experience and has nothing to do with playing ability. Just because someone is better than you doesn’t mean they can help you with your golf swing. They will just use meaningless phrases like “you looked up or keep your head down”.

Another thing I’m not a big fan of is golf schools. You have to make changes one at a time over a long period of time. Having several professionals pack your head with a lot of information over several days is not going help. I’ve never met anyone that was better a few weeks after they got back.

A successful golf lesson requires two ingredients – a good instructor and a good student.

By a good student I mean someone with an open mind and a dedication to improve. The worst thing a teaching professional can hear prior to a lesson is the quote “I know what I’m doing wrong”.

If your fundamental beliefs about your golf swing were correct, you would already be a much better ball striker.

Over 90% of the time I spend on the lesson tee is spent trying to get students to stop doing something that they are mistakenly trying to do.

You can’t really teach anyone to play golf, or to play better golf. The only thing you can do is to provide them with the information necessary to make a golf swing and hit a good golf shot. Their ability to assimilate that information is a totally different thing. Most people need a therapist as much as they need a swing coach.

The basic golf swing is nothing more than a baseball swing tilted from the waist. One of the best pieces of advice that can be given to the average golfer is simply this. The ball is not the target. Don’t make the ball the target. The target is where you want the ball to end up. If you will swing the club at the target it will eliminate the vast majority of your problems. Swing the club down the line toward the target.

The two most common problems I see in my students is a bad grip and letting the club head pass the hands prior to impact.

We will go into more detail on this next month.

Sam Adams is available to help with your game. He’s only a short drive away and have great success with both men and women. The best way to reach him is at sadams@racingdonkey.com. Also, please let him know if there are any topics you would like to see covered in future articles. You can also pick up some good tips on his radio segment Wednesday afternoons at 1:45 on The Buzz on Biz on 1630AM WRDW or www.wrdwam.com. This is a sposored article.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Introduction: Are you trying to improve your business or career? Consider being coached in a group or “hybrid” format. It has a number of advantages, including its lower cost.

Why be “Coached” at all? “It’s lonely at the top” is an expression that’s so true for many small business owners and others; many of us don’t have people who can really relate to our situations. Having one or more people we are comfortable being open with makes a big difference in so many ways.

Through my experiences of coaching others and being coached, I know when we’re in the right frame of mind and setting, we become open to new ideas and may quickly develop new, more productive habits. That’s part of the “magic”.

One-On-One Coaching is when the client and coach work privately together, often over the phone and Internet. The client typically comes prepared with items to focus on during that session. Each session’s goal is to receive powerful “takeaways”, things that have been learned, and new actions committed to.

Group Coaching is when the coach becomes part coach, and part facilitator; it takes on many forms. Some groups may consist of employees from the same organization. Other groups may consist of people working in the same industry from around the country (or world).

Still other groups consist of small business owners from different industries. These groups typically consist of 8-10 members, and are set up to continue for months or longer. Once its members get to know each other, the group becomes very powerful. Since the members don’t compete with each other, people share their experiences (both positive and negative) to the group. Members learn more from each other, instead of “the hard way” (by their own mistakes).

“Hybrid Coaching” (a name I may have coined), is a combination of one-on-coaching coaching and group coaching. For example, there may be two 90-minute group sessions and one 30-minute individual session per month. This can be very cost effective.

The Costs vary widely. Individual coaching typically costs from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars per month, while group coaching can cost less than $100/month.

LARRY RUDWICK This is a sponsored Business-Talk article. A lot more about this can be found on the www.BusinessTune-Ups.com website. To do an Executive Assessment requires a Word Document entitled Ten Questions That Can Improve Your Life. I would be happy to email one to you; you may request it from me at Rudwick@cox.net or calling 571-331-6102.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the April 2012 release of a book that will be published by History Press from Charleston, S.C and written by WGAC’s part-time reporter Scott Hudson, ASU Professor Dr. Debra VanTuyll, and members of her “History of Journalism” class. The book will cover J.B. Fuqua, James Brown, George Fisher, George Weiss, Harley Drew, Herman Cain and others. Here is a sneak peek at the Introduction of the book.

It is an urban legend that the RMS Titanic was the first ship to send an SOS signal over wireless as that unfortunate claim goes to the SS Arapahoe which, in 1909, sent the first distress signal using those letters. It was the Titanic, though, that made those letters famous and led to the rapid development of the medium of radio.

Radio development in the wake of the Titanic disaster occurred for two simple reasons. First, without radio operators sending out those distress calls, everyone aboard that ship would have perished. Those people from Titanic lucky enough to cheat death in a lifeboat would have suffered death by hypothermia long before anyone would have known the ship was missing. It also became evident early on in the official Titanic inquiry that most of the people aboard Titanic could have been saved if the radio operator aboard the SS Californian, which floated a mere ten miles away, had been at his post rather than asleep in his bunk.

Immediately after the Titanic tragedy, the technology of radio became regulated by governments and eight years later it was transformed from a novelty of the few to the first true mass communications medium when the first commercially licensed radio station, KDKA of Pittsburgh, PA, signed on the air and broadcast into the ears of the general public. Radio became the great uniter in delivering vast amounts of information to everyone at once. With radio, people living and farming in rural areas suddenly found the Almanac a needed tool and not a necessity. Storm warnings broadcast over the air meant people could be better prepared for bad weather and commercially sponsored entertainment shows made chores seem less chore-like.

Radio touched every segment of society and altered culture in a way like nothing before. The illiterate, of which there were a sizable amount of in the population of 1930’s America, became far more informed about events happening around them. Political activity in America changed as people could hear a candidate for office explain their platform with their own words using their own voice. As it matured, radio became the place of dreams. Young boys with stars in their eyes would sit up at night listening to their favorite athletes compete, budding musicians dreamed of recording stardom while listening to everything from big band to jazz, and young actors dreamed of Hollywood as the sounds of the marquee stars floated around them. In every community people still rely on radio much as they did before the advent of television or the internet. Call letters come and go, formats change, and the broadcast booth is a continuous musical chair, but radio in the cyber-age is every bit as relevant today as it was in the time of Charlie Chaplin.

While there are many historic broadcast facilities still on the air, only one radio station in America can claim to encapsulate nearly every aspect of the history of radio. WGAC radio in Augusta, GA has both inspired dreams and launched the careers of international musicians, national presidential candidates, and business tycoons. Life magazine once proclaimed the little 5000 watt AM station the “mirror of the industry.” What started as the dream of a farm boy in North Carolina nearly 90 years ago stands today an institution that continues to influence not only the community it serves, but the entire nation as well.

In each era of its evolution, the story of WGAC is filled with dreams becoming realities. Like any other social construct, the radio station as an entity has also been both an expression and a reflection of the world around it, a living time capsule of both the good and the bad. The bomb shelter once located under the radio studio is long gone, but the reason it once existed still remains as perhaps a reminder that humans never seem to learn. Meanwhile, the studio building that an impoverished young black boy in the segregated South sat in front of with harmonica in hand is today an empty shell that casts a cooling shadow on a block of sidewalk that is a testament to human creativity.

For over 70 years the walls of the WGAC studios have absorbed the sounds of the voices being broadcast out and served as the incubator for men and women both white and black who would go on to make great achievements in life. The walls of WGAC have talked, so to speak, and in this book you will find some of the incredible stories they have to tell.

SCOTT HUDSON is a freelance reporter for WGAC and co-owner\operator at Cheers on Washington Road in West Augusta. Please send any comments to scott@wgac.com.

Popularity: 2% [?]