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Tuesday
August 10, 2010 2nd Quarter Sales Verdict? Industry’s Looking GoodFiled under: Research
This is great news for the industry and we’re hoping the trend continues through 2010! Also, we’re curious what you’re 3rd quarter 2010 stats will be when compared with 3rd quarter 2009. Please take the poll below.
Monday
August 9, 2010 Tip of the Day - Top 10 Ways to Lock Up Your DataFiled under: Tip of the Day
1. Implement a document-management program. Identify the types of documents considered confidential and train coworkers on responsible information-handling practices. Restrict co-worker access to these documents and discourage printing of confidential data unless essential. 2. Implement a document-retention schedule. Identify the amount of time to retain specific documents. Store these documents in a secure place until the retention period expires. A secure place restricts access to coworkers who don’t have a need to access such files. When the retention period is complete, have the documents shredded by a trusted and certified company. 3. Regularly shred sensitive documents. To protect sensitive information, consider a shredding service that destroys business documents onsite on a scheduled basis. These companies place secure storage containers in easily accessible and identifiable locations to make it convenient for employees to shred documents. This limits opportunities for employees to make judgment calls on which documents should be shredded. If in doubt, shred. 4. Keep documents securely offsite. In addition to outside hackers, valuable employee or customer data may also be compromised. To prevent an unauthorized coworker from accessing data, keep nonessential documents offsite, further limiting potential access. 6. Use password protection. Protect files that contain sensitive data, including payroll, customer and financial information, with passwords. Make sure your coworkers change passwords on a quarterly basis at minimum with a combination of six to eight numbers and letters in upper and lower case to further the reduce the opportunity for passwords to be compromised. 7. Install and update virus-protection software. Virus-protection software is the first step in preventing a worm or virus from distributing files or other stored information from a computer over the network. Make sure employees regularly check for software updates so computers are protected against the latest virus threats. 8. Clear data before disposing of old computers. Even if a computer is no longer used, sensitive data is still available on the hard drive. Potential hackers or data thieves could prey on such data. Use software programs to wipe the data or identify a data-destruction vendor that will physically destroy the hard drive. 9. Review company credit-card statements. Company credit-card data can be compromised just as easily as consumer data. Before paying bills, make sure each employee has reviewed each item to prevent unauthorized charges. If unauthorized charges occur, be sure to notify your credit-card company and all three credit bureaus to protect your credit. 10. Limit use of file-sharing programs. While an effective way to collaborate and share documents, file-sharing programs can also expose a computer to hackers. If they must be used, make sure the system is protected by strong firewall and virus-protection software that is regularly updated. From the Counselor article, Technology to the Rescue.
Thursday
August 5, 2010 Tip of the Day - Business Mistakes to AvoidFiled under: Tip of the Day
1. Don’t emphasize your company’s age. You don’t want to hint at how long you’ve been in business if you’re a relative newbie, according to John Wagley, vice president of Jan’s Humdrum in Winona Lake, IN. “There may be competing businesses that have been doing it longer,” he says, so stress the quality service you offer. 2. Put away the crystal ball. It may seem as if guessing your clients’ needs will win you some brownie points, but it doesn’t always work that way. When you do this, you’re giving your client the “hard-sell pitch of how what you’ve got is what they need,” Wagley says. “Let them talk first, and then come up with a match of what you have for what they need.” 3. Let quality speak for itself. Assuring your customer of the quality of your products is nice, but ultimately they’re just words. To harp on it over and over again can actually make clients wary. “It can sometimes make your customer think you’re not going to be competitive with your prices, and that you’ll then overcharge them,” says Wagley. Make it known that your products are of good quality, and then simply let your goods speak for themselves. From WearableStyle, vol. 128.
Wednesday
August 4, 2010 New ASI Radio Show Contest AnnouncedFiled under: asi radio show, contest If you like cool, high-tech gadgets – like camcorders, Netbooks and digital cameras — and enjoy the weekly ASI Radio Show, then we have some news for you! Starting on August 17 and culminating in a prize giveaway show on September 14, ASI is running a contest that requires only that you pay attention to each of four shows for a special “Word of the Week”. For four consecutive weeks we will give a new “Word of the Week,” and on the fifth week we will solicit calls from listeners to identify which word went with which week. The spoils? Well, they don’t get any better than this!
So save these dates and don’t miss a show! Read more about the contest — including official rules — by clicking here. And if you’re curious what a Roomba Bagless Robotic Vacuum Cleaner looks like, check out this bad boy! (We need one of these in ASICentral!)
Tuesday
August 3, 2010 ASI Exclusive! Chelsea Clinton’s Wedding BagFiled under: General This just in! ASI has obtained one of the bags given to hotel guests of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding this past weekend. Here’s what it looks like:
In addition to being one sweet-looking bag, the contents are what really astounds me. Presented with an “S” theme, the items all fall under a category that begins with the letter S. The following are some of the categories including the item that went with it:
Pretty cool, huh? Whaddya think? Post comments below!
Monday
August 2, 2010 Tip of the Day - 7 Deadly Sins of Website DesignFiled under: Tip of the Day
For the complete Stitches article, click here.
Monday
August 2, 2010 Hot Trend - The Asia Effect
Depleted supplier inventories, longer lead times and higher prices, of course. So much so that Counselor magazine has designated this confluence of unusual and unprecedented problems, or “The Asia Effect,” as its Hot Trends for 2010. Counselor Editor Michele Bell does a great job of capturing the magnitude and breadth of the situation and how it might affect industry distributors. Want to learn more? Then read on by clicking here! And since this is such a hot industry trend, we’ve set up a poll question for our users to gauge just how much this issue might be affecting them. So take the poll now! |
On the heels of last week’s announcement that industry 
While technology can certainly enhance a company’s operations, it can also put an organization’s proprietary information at risk. Counselor Top 40 distributor Cintas recently released this top-10 list of ways to protect your data.
Certain aspects of increasing your business opportunities are no-brainers: provide quality customer service, practice time management, and follow up. Don’t be fooled, though – there are things that you should definitely avoid if you plan on getting more business from your current customers. Here are three mistakes to never make:
To build a website that really sings your company’s praises, avoid the seven deadly site design sins.
