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Stephen G. Barr · at 7:12 PM

Every Business has IP. Every business has potential Intellectual Property (IP) that needs identifying and protecting, even at the idea stage. IP is not just for tech businesses or inventors. Your name or product name, branding, and customer lists are all valuable IP assets and need protection.

Patents are not the only Intellectual Property Protection. Many inventors understand patent requirements and process. However, patents are

not a necessity in every case and trade secrets should be considered for protection. Do not forget to consider the need to research any names for trademark purposes.

Not everyone will sign a NDA. We have all heard that everyone should sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) but some potential investors may not be able to sign. Consider giving enough information to explain your concept but not enough to have someone replicate your entire process or product.

Mailing an idea to yourself does not work. Envelopes can be steamed open or mailed empty with ideas inserted later. Your brilliant idea needs to be uploaded and time-stamped by an independent 3rd party, like a notary.

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. When starting a business, growing or hiring, or raising capital, the first step is to know what you have by identifying all your valuable IP assets. Don’t wait until it’s too late,

especially with secrets, the time is now to discover what your valuable IP.

Applying for funding or pitching is daunting and difficult. Starting a business can be intimidating. You don’t know what you don’t know. Traklight makes it easy to get in the know about your intellectual property (IP) and protect your ideas. Started by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, Traklight transforms a once confusing, expensive process into easy, affordable steps, saving time and money with attorneys later.

www.traklight.com

Stephen G. Barr · at 10:16 PM

Web Hosting from iPage

Stephen G. Barr · at 11:54 AM

Infusionsoft is a CRM system integrated into an email marketing automation suite. (View a Recorded Demo)

Infusionsoft can help you:

Shorten your sales cycle (learn how)
Consistently follow up with prospects and clients (learn how)
Get more referrals from your customers (learn how)

When clients are investigating sales and marketing software they often have questions such as:

1. How can I use CRM to generate more leads?
2. How can I use CRM and Marketing Automation to automate my marketing?
3. How can CRM make my Sales Reps more productive?

Those are all great questions but I wanted to know what specific challenges you've been facing in your business that has you evaluating CRM/marketing automation systems.

When you have a minute, please give me a call so we can discuss your personal M.A.P (Marketing Automation Plan). What is a M.A.P? Click here to learn more.

If you're ready to see Infusionsoft in action, you can view a quick demo here.

Stephen G. Barr · at 1:13 PM

Here are some tips to consider:

Make sure the information is newsworthy.
Tell the audience that the information is intended for them and why they should continue to read it.
Start with a brief description of the news, then distinguish who announced it, and not the other way around.
Ask yourself, “How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?”
Make sure the first 10 words of your release are effective, as they are the most important.
Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.
Deal with the facts.
Provide as much Contact information as possible: Individual to Contact, address, phone, fax, email, Web site address.
Make sure you wait until you have something with enough substance to issue a release.
Make it as easy as possible for media representatives to do their jobs.

Stephen G. Barr · at 6:24 AM

With Posterous apparently being shut down after being acquired last year by Twitter it's time to migrate to another hosting solution. Our sites are spread out over a wide range of platforms to mitigate risk and to increase trafic and exposure but it's getting tiring keeping up with all the various changes so I'm going to thin the number of sites down from over forty down to around ten and most likely use self hosted Wordpress sites on one dedicated server on HostGator or JustHost. More soon~!

Posted via email from SGB Media Group

Stephen G. Barr · at 4:33 PM

Microsoft launched Office 2013 and Office 365! Today we’ll be taking a look at the pricing options available for these products, and a few interesting features. For a full breakdown of what’s new in Office 2013, check out Microsoft’s article on the subject.

First, let’s take a look at the pricing of Office 2013.
Office Home & Student 2013 (1 Licensed Install)

Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
Cost: $139.99

Office Home and Business 2013 (1 Licensed Install)

Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook
Cost: $219.99

Office Professional 2013 (1 Licensed Install)

Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
Cost: $399.99

If you are not wanting the entire package, there are multiple options available.

Word 2013

Cost: $109.99
Edit PDF Documents using Microsoft Word, change the content, save them out as Word Documents or as PDF Documents again.
Add Online Video: Insert videos from online sources that readers can watch while reading the document.
Layout options appears as soon as you insert an image
Alignment Guides: Make it easy to line up items, charts, photos etc. (think Publisher lite)
Reader View: Makes your document open more like an e-book, hiding toolbars but allowing you to read as you will, and then still modify the document if you need.
Double click charts and images in reader view to make them larger to view.
Simple Mark-up: Shows where comments will be, along with who made the comment, and contact them directly without leaving MS Word, all within the comment column that appears in the Mark-up View

Excel 2013

Cost: $109.99
Flash Fill will search for patterns in data and will complete full entries.
Quick analysis will add color and meaning based on conditional formatting, or sparklines (which are like mini graphs)
Live preview as you choose from the various formats.
Recommended Charts: Allows Excel to recommend charts based on the data you’ve inserted.
Once a chart is inserted, you’ll get the formatting button right away, where you can then edit chart information, color pallets, formats and more. This is probably one of the most interesting aspects of Excel.

PowerPoint 2013

Cost: $109.99
Default aspect ratio is widescreen (16:9)
Smart Guides allow you to align graphics and intuitively help objects line up.
Master Level Guides are color coded, fixed guides that you set while in the Slide Master View. While working in normal view, you’ll still see the alignments, to help align content across multiple slides.
Motion paths now show you a “ghost” image of where the object will end up, rather than red and green arrows which you have to guess where your actual item will be.
Presenter View will allow you to see your notes, change font size, zoom in on specific areas of the presentation, and view and move between slides easily.
Auto Extend: automatically applies settings to match a projector or another monitor.
Give feedback and comment from inside PowerPoint for collaboration.
Sharing: Now allows you to grant only read, or edit capabilities based on a link you send to others wishing to view your presentation.
The Page Curl transition is now available, so your slide transition can look like a page in a book getting flipped over.

OneNote 2013

Cost: $69.99
Export snapshots from notebooks, or an entire notebook as a PDF.
Full page view will hide the OneNote interface (useful if working on a laptop)
Tables have been changed, add color shading and designate header rows, sort data just like in Excel.
Embed Excel files by using the dialog box (you must have Excel 2013 installed for this to work).
Embed Visio 2013 images/diagrams as well (assuming you have Visio 2013 installed)
Lync 2013 can be used to create a new meeting, and add notes for everyone to work from.
Created to work in touchscreen mode, makes commands larger and allows “Draw With Touch”
“Send to OneNote” to send screenshots , other documents, reminders to OneNote

Outlook 2013

Cost: $109.99
Cleaner interface
Glimpse calendar and to do lists with the “peek” view if you do not want to open the full view.
Works with Sharepoint
Tasks sync between Outlook and Outlook.com
Weather is included as a bar above the calendar view and is available for up to 5 cities.

Publisher 2013

Cost: $109.99
Images are placed in a “scratch” area off to the side for your use by drag+dropping to your page.
Swap images by dragging an image from the scratch area into an area with pink outline.
Picture options allow you to format the picture with traditional options, previewing them by mousing over the options.
New text effects include additional reflections and more.

Access 2013

Cost: $109.99
Build an access App in 60 seconds that you can then share with colleagues.
Access will work on the back end to create tables and search various pieces of information for you.
Related items will show multiple rows of information, or summarize the views by field.

Now let’s take a look at Office 365. This program allows up to 5 PCs (or Mac’s) to have updated versions of Microsoft Office (That means when Office 2015 comes out, your update will already be paid), as well as 20 gigabytes of SkyDrive storage, 60 minutes of Skype calling each month for the next (you guessed it) 365 days. Essentially, the idea is that you could be working from your home computer on a paper, save it to the Skydrive, then go to work and pick up where you left off, on an entirely different machine, even if that machine does not have Office installed. This is called Office On Demand, and basically, it streams the actual Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) to whatever computer you’re working from, rather than only being on one machine. This is not part of the 5 computer limit, it’s a temporary version of the application that you’re able to use as you need it (hence, On Demand). It’s also great that Microsoft will include updates to your Office 2013 with this subscription (yes, it is a subscription based system). The price for Office 365 Home Premium is $9.99 / month, or $99.99 / year, depending on which you’d like to use.

So that’s it, in a nutshell. All the pricing, new features (that I’ve found so far), software options and references for the newest version of Microsoft Office.

If you’ve purchased the full version of Office 2013 (not the Preview version), let us know your feedback.

Tags: Access 2013, Excel 2013, Microsoft Office 2013, Microsoft Office 2013 Prices, office 2013, Office 2013 new features,OneNote 2013, Outlook 2013, PowerPoint 2013, Publisher 2013, Word 2013

Stephen G. Barr · at 1:11 PM

Google SafeSearch Changes Hit the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and More [CONFIRMED]

It's official: Google's fragmented, less-useful Image search has spread from the U.S. and is now affecting English-speaking countries all over the world.

Google has confirmed that the previous SafeSearch changes that made it impossible for U.S. users to fully disable SafeSearch have been launched in English-speaking countries internationally.

Although, it's unlikely that Google would describe the changes in that fashion.

What do you think of Google's changes to SafeSearch? Do you want to be able to fully disable SafeSearch? Does it really matter to you? Let us know.

Back in December, we told you that Google had made a change to its SafeSearch feature in the U.S. thatmade it impossible for users to entirely disable SafeSearch when searching for Images on the site.

Long story short, Google has prevented users from disabling SafeSearch altogether in Image search. It's important to note that this is different from Google censoring NSFW content. That's all still there, in fact, it's just that users must now be very specific in their queries in order to access it.

For example, a Google Image search for "boobs" will now yield SFW results, by default. In order to find NSFW results for that query, you must now add a modifier - let's say "boobs porn" or "boobs nude" for instance.

Users used to be able to turn SafeSearch off, completely. There is a little box at the top right of SafeSearch that used to allow users to pick their level of SafeSearch: "STRICT," "MODERATE," and "OFF" completely. But now, Google only allows users to filter all explicit results.

What's more, Google users are no longer given the option to turn off all types of SafeSearch filtering within the Search Settings.

If all of this sounds a little confusing - that's because it is. Google has fragmented their Image search in an attempt to keep NSFW materials from popping up without a specifically explicit search.

But here's the gist of it, in plain English: A search for 'boobs" in the U.S. (and other English-speaking countries) now yields SFW results, as Google Image Search is now defaulted to "MODERATE" level. Users are not allowed to fully turn off SafeSearch. In order to see those NSFW results, users have to be more specific with their searches.

Here are your SafeSearch options for Google.co.uk, Google Australia, Google South Africa, and Google New Zealand, etc.:

And here are the options in Germany:

Notice the difference? We've tested this for other non-English-speaking countries like France and the Netherlands and have seen the same results that we have for Germany. It appears that, at least for the time being, non English-speaking countries have not been affected by the changes.

"We are not censoring any adult content, and want to show users exactly what they are looking for — but we aim not to show sexually-explicit results unless a user is specifically searching for them. We use algorithms to select the most relevant results for a given query. If you're looking for adult content, you can find it without having to change the default setting — you just may need to be more explicit in your query if your search terms are potentially ambiguous. The image search settings work the same way as in web search," Google told me back in December when we first reported on the changes to SafeSearch.

Continue

Overview: 18 responses received

×Warning! The report below only includes data from 5 responses. To view data from all (18) responses upgrade to Professional Plan.Upgrade Learn more

Stephen G. Barr
Founder & Chairman at Boardroom Advisory Sevices™ - Managing Partner @ Startup Hive™ - Publisher @ SGB Media Group™
Greater Los Angeles Area

Responses:	18 receivedGet More Responses
Time Elapsed	7 days

About the 360° Peer Evaluation Report

This Report is a 360° profile of your personality, skills and impact at your workplace as seen by your colleagues and others in your network. It is a snapshot of your professional indicators. 360° reports are used by thousands of companies and millions of professionals around the world to get an objective, outside view of personal performance and progress. Others often tell you things more objectively than you can see for yourself. Use this report to see how you are seen professionally by others and to advance your career. This report is private and only visible to you.

We recommend at least 30 completed responses in order to get a statistically-valid picture of your professional standing.

2

What can you most improve upon?

Hard workListening to othersSocial skillsSharpening skillsNot Sure20%20%20%20%20%

Written Responses

Your survey respondents have the option of leaving your written responses to help give you more direct feedback. Here are your responses:

×Warning! You are currently on the free version. To view all the complete responses upgrade to Professional Plan.
Upgrade Learn more

`No written responses received`

3

Your Dominant Work Personality Type

Social x2

Co-operative, team player, best in group environments, helping hand.

Secondary Personality Types
Realistic: Likes to get things done, practical, stable, results-oriented.	x1
Conventional: Precise, rule-oriented, orderly, works well in highly structured environments.	x1
Enterprising: Competitive, persuasive, energetic, works well outside-the-box.	x1

What is this?

Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC), developed by the late psychologist John L. Holland, refers to a theory of careers and vocational choice based upon personality types. Each letter or code stands for a particular "type": Realistic (Doers), Investigative (Thinkers), Artistic (Creators), Social (Helpers), Enterprising (Persuaders), and Conventional (Organizers). Holland's research shows that personalities seek out and flourish in career environments they fit in. Holland also wrote of his theory that "the choice of a vocation is an expression of personality”. This helps you determine what personality others see you as, and what sort of professions or roles you may be naturally good at based on your type.

Scale:

There are 6 personality types under Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC). There is no “good” or “bad”, or right or wrong answer. Every type is naturally better at certain roles than others. This does not mean you cannot succeed at other roles. It shows areas where you have a natural advantage.

Realistic: Likes to get things done, practical, stable, results-oriented.
Investigative: Prefers strategy, thinking, organizing, analytical, curious.
Artistic: Imaginative, artistic, disorderly, emotional, original.
Social:: Co-operative, team player, best in group environments, helping hand.
Enterprising: Competitive, persuasive, energetic, works well outside-the-box.
Conventional: Precise, rule-oriented, orderly, works well in highly structured environments.

Natural-Fit Roles

As 'Social', you are better-suited based on your personality type at the following roles:

4

Personality Matches

Personality GraphRealisticInvestigativeArtisticSocialEnterprisingConventional

Personality Type	Compatible Work Environments	Least Compatible Work Environments
Realistic	Investigative Conventional	Social
Investigative	Realistic Artistic	Enterprising
Artistic	Investigative Social	Conventional
Social	Artistic Enterprising	Realistic
Enterprising	Social Conventional	Investigative
Conventional	Enterprising Realistic	Artistic

5

Your Net Promoter Score %

NPS0100100

What is this?

Net Promoter Score is a research tool that can be used to gauge how likely people are to recommend you to their colleagues and friends. It was introduced by Reichheld in the 2003 Harvard Business Review. 1% = lowest, 100% = highest. It is used as an indicator for word-of-mouth marketing, repeat business and organic growth at a corporate level. At a personal level, it is used as an indicator for career advancement prospects. The higher your number, the more likely others are to help you advance your career by speaking of you positively, recommending you to their friends and otherwise being conducive to your growth.

Scale:

Red (0 to 50%): BAD.

Others are not likely to help advance your career. You are viewed mostly negatively by your network. You should attempt to connect better with others, foster deeper relationships and be positive. Treat them as you would like to be treated yourself. Being more visible or prominent at the workplace will also help.

Yellow (51% to 80%): OK

You are viewed as average by your network. Some people may help advance your career, while others will not. This is where 60% of the population falls. You should focus on identifying those individuals within your network that think very highly of you and forging deeper ties with them. Work more closely with those that think highly of you. Continue to be more useful to others, and more prominent at work. Ensure your efforts are noticed.

Green (81% to 100%): GREAT

You are viewed very positively by most of your network. Most people see you so favorably that they will help advance your career with glowing recommendations, introductions and connections. They speak of you well even when you are not there. Companies that achieve this score get new customers simply through word-of-mouth buzz. You will similarly get job offers, partnership requests or other new opportunities from your network from time to time. Keep doing what you are doing - your work network loves you and values you highly!

Who uses it?

NPS is used by thousands of companies including Apple, GE, Intuit, Charles Schwab and American Express. Companies use it to gauge customer satisfaction, as well as for employee feedback.

Accuracy

Net Promoter Score is one of the tools used in this report and contains a significant degree of error based on how many people have responded to your survey, as well as your profession. Some roles and professions are easier to rate than others. (eg. Sales exec vs. Fine Art). Take your NPS score in relation to all the other metrics on this report. NPS is also no more statistically significant or predictive than similar “How likely are you to...” questions, but is preferred due to its simplicity and widespread use.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld

6

Your Most Well-Known Traits

Friendly, likeableCommunicates ...Builds trust & c...Adapts to chan...Focuses on cu...Votes

What is this?

These are your most-noticed characteristics by your professional network. These show your strengths. For career advancement and specialization, it is generally a good idea to take up roles and projects that play to your key strengths, also known as “swimming downstream”. This can also give you a more objective assessment of what you’re good at, since self-evaluations are usually highly biased.

Scale:

Respondents can pick from a large selection of traits, and can pick more than one. Traits that are reflective of your professional profile will get shown here.

7

How your network feels about your company’s prospects

CP01010

What is this?

This is a measure of how your network sees your company’s growth and financial prospects in the next 12 months. It is an outsider’s opinion of how your company is doing. This is how people in the industry and your network see the place you work at.

Scale:

1=lowest 10=highest

Red (1 to 5): Bad. Expect the company to shrink or suffer significantly. Commercial losses. Layoffs. Re- structuring. Expect products to lose market share or fail. Possible bankruptcy, re-financing or shutdown down the road unless things change. The company requires significant outside help to improve or continue functioning. Might be time to start looking for another job.

Yellow (5.1 to 8): OK. Expect the company to grow modestly with limited successes. 70% of companies are in this zone. Company will continue to do well and win in some areas. Compares mostly favorably with competition. Modest hiring and expansion. Stable outlook. You can stay with this company for several years if you’d like.

Green (8.1 to 10): Great! Expect the company to grow fast, gain market share from competitors very quickly. Products are already doing superbly well. Winning key accounts. Great PR or well-recognized brand. Will out- perform the industry or market it is in. Your career will get a huge boost just by being at this company.

8

How your Network feels about Your Career prospects

CP01010

What is this?

This is a measure of how your network sees your personal career prospects in the next 12 months. It is an outsider’s opinion of how skilled, valuable and useful you are compared to others in your role or profession. This rating may be influenced somewhat by prospects for your company or industry at large.

Scale:

1=lowest 10=highest

Red (1 to 5): Bad. Your skills, usefulness and value are less than similar professionals in your field. Your network thinks that you are lagging behind others, and over time, these differences will grow larger and you will fall behind. Focus on the basics and try to figure out where you are lagging and why. It’s never too late to start improving.

Yellow (5.1 to 8): OK. You are average or a little above-average compared to similar professionals in your field. Your network thinks you compare favorably to others and will enjoy modest successes in the next 12 months. Stable career advancement prospects. You are respected by your colleagues and valued for your contributions. Focus on your key strengths to continue improving.

Green (8.1 to 10): Great! You are well above-average compared to similar professionals in your field. Your colleagues think you will hit it out of the park and are a rockstar at what you do. You are very well-respected in your industry or profession, perhaps even holding celebrity-like status. Getting to the top is easier than staying at the top however, and you will need to keep working hard to stay where you are.

Pages

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Monday, March 11, 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Friday, February 15, 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Related articles

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Friday, January 18, 2013

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Overview: 18 responses received

About the 360° Peer Evaluation Report

What can you most improve upon?

Written Responses

Your Dominant Work Personality Type

Social x2

What is this?

Scale:

Natural-Fit Roles

Personality Matches

Your Net Promoter Score %

What is this?

Scale:

Who uses it?

Accuracy

Your Most Well-Known Traits

What is this?

Scale:

How your network feels about your company’s prospects

What is this?

Scale:

How your Network feels about Your Career prospects

What is this?

Scale:

Boardroom Advisory Services