Author: WaelBadawy
A Right Media Mix Can Make the Difference
Branding is no longer simply about visual appeal (or the cherry in the apple pie example, as given in my earlier article). Unfortunately, many graphic design firms who position themselves as advertising agencies believe that branding your corporate identity is all about developing great looking visual solutions.
However, there is much more to branding than just looking good. Particularly in this web 2.0 eras, where a powerful web presence has become a vital ingredient of your branding strategy, developing the right media mix holds the key to building powerful brand equity.
<b>In other words, a right media mix would mean: </b>
ï Creative design solutions (the design, color, and content of your ads, marketing collateral and website enhance your brand equity, attract customers, and generate sales)
ï Web development (every product/service worth its name has a web presence these days, some have truly interactive, animated sites encouraging customer involvement),
ï Viral marketing (vitally important in todayís age of social networking, tagging, podcasting, blogs, forums, wikis and what have you)
ï Television commercial production, print media advertising (traditional media cannot be overlooked)
ï Strategic films (have become necessary elements of roadshows, exibhitions and other promotional campaigns)
ï Corporate video production (a very important tool for branding your corporate identity)
ï Direct marketing (marketing collaterals need to be just as effective and resonant with the overall branding scheme as the communicate directly with the customer)
ï Outdoor advertising (hoardings, roadshows, participations in business fairs, exhibitions, etc)
There are some interactive advertising agencies that have recognized the need of the hour – developing creative design solutions that employ user-centric investigation and involve critical and systematic thinking. User-centric means understanding of needs and priorities of end user; the clients’ customers, their channel partners, users, and brand communities.
So if you want to register your brand as one that is synonymous with customer loyalty, you must develop a complete package, keeping the customer as the prime objective and organizing product stories around the way they prefer to learn about, compare, select and confirm purchases, connecting brands and their experiences.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-19 08:56:00.
Don't start it, buy it!
Why should you buy a business versus starting
your own? Here are ten solid reasons:
1) The success rate for businesses purchased is much higher than the success rate for a new business startup. Just ask your accountant.
2) An established customer base means immediate cash flow! Enough said.
3) It is much easier to find capital to buy an existing business than to start a new one. Why? See reason #2 above. Bankers are not dumb. They know the statistics. Bankers are much more willing to lend money when there is an identified source of repayment already in place.
4) Many sellers are willing to carry-back financing at very reasonable terms. Why? For income tax reasons. They would prefer to defer any gain over a longer period versus taking a gain all at once. And if a seller is willing to carry back any part of the purchase price, it tells you the seller believes that the business will continue to succeed under your management.
5) Projections for a startup are nothing more than an educated guess. Projections for existing businesses for sale are based on historical results. Which is more reliable?
6) Startups always, I repeat, ALWAYS cost more to start than expected. For the money you will end up spending to start that new business (which may or not succeed) you could have probably purchased an existing business with immediate cash flow.
7) You may actually need to come up with less cash for your down payment plus working capital when you buy an existing business than you would need if you started your own business. Why? With owner carry financing and a performing track record, your existing business purchase is very bankable. A new startup is not very bankable. The cash required to get the new business to a cash flow positive is unknown. And it eats cash.
8) An established web site presence. Although each business will vary, most businesses rely to some extent on a business web site. The longer a web site has been established, and the more traffic that web site receives, the more value search engines place on that site. This is important as your web site ranking determines your placement in search engine results. In other words, building a new web site is not enough. Customers still need to find it. A quality, established web site can be a real asset, something that a new startup will not have.
9) Many businesses listed for sale are actually very fairly priced. One can often find a business for sale that will sell for three to four times cash flow. Think about it. Four times cash flow equates to a 25% annual cash return on investment. 25% will usually cover all debt service and still leave a decent return for the investor.
10) Less brain damage. Just ask anyone who has been ‘wrung through the wringer’ by starting their own business. Always wondering if customers would really come.
Think about it. It really is a pretty easy decision.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-19 08:01:00.
Computer Consultant Startup: Identify Your Business Skills
Computer consultants need to have the right mix of business and technical skills to succeed with small businesses. Do you have the right skill-set to be a successful small business computer consultant?
Since you’re taking the time to read this article right now, it’s a good sign that you have what it takes to become a computer consultant. You’re in the small minority of people who have recognized that this is a business and needs to be run like one.
A Good Computer Consultant Has More Than Just Technical Skills
It’s not about playing with the latest routers or wi-fi device or VPNs or firewalls. Sure, you have to have a certain amount of skills to make a successful computer consultant because people are buying your expertise. At the end of the day, though, it’s a business.
In order for the business to be successful, you have to know a few things about getting revenue in and keeping your expenses down. You also need to forecast and be able to bill, negotiate, and network properly.
There are a lot of stubborn techies out there who think that studying the Windows Server Resource Kit is going to tell them what they need to know about running a business. Not true. It’s going to teach you about registry keys and directories and things like that.
Even a Computer Consultant Needs a Good Resume
If you’re currently self-employed, you may not have an up- to-date resume, but for most people looking to transition into the business to become a computer consultant you probably do have a resume. Take out a copy of your resume and a yellow highlighter marker and go through and highlight every sentence or phrase in your resume that describes a project or a job or a skill that you think would be relevant or marketable to the owner of a small company.
Categorize the Items on Your Resume
Go through it and look for all the phrases and the jobs and the projects that you’ve worked on for the past couple of years and think about what’s going to catch the eye of a typical small business owner or manager. Once you’ve done that, go back through each highlighted item and mark whether it was IT related, whether it had to do with understanding how to run a business or whether it had to do with being able to communicate effectively.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-18 23:23:00.
Analog IP Reuse in Nano Technologies, design and reuse
Analog IP Reuse in Nano Technologies
Hazem Said, Ain Shams University Cairo Egypt.
Mohamed Dessouky, Mentor Graphics Cairo Egypt.
Mohamed Tawfik, Mentor Graphics Cairo Egypt.
Quang Nguyen, ON Semiconductor Toulouse, France
Wael Badawy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
Hazem Abbas, Mentor Graphics, Cairo, Egypt
Hussein Shaheen, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
Abstract :
Presented in this paper is a tool that automatically migrates analog designs from one process to another while keeping circuit and layout topologies. A netlist migration engine recalculates the new device dimensions in the target technology followed by a layout migration engine that compacts the design according to the new process design rules. The overall framework preserves design intelligence embedded in the original IP such as symmetry, hierarchy, placement and routing. The circuit migration engine, being very fast, can retarget large analog blocks in only a few minutes while giving same or better performance of the original design. The migration of an integrated RC oscillator from 0.6u technology to 0.25u technology is presented to validate the overall methodology. This circuit has been fabricated and measured.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years there has been an interest toward cheap, low power portable electronics, which is driving the semiconductor industry to move toward more and more integration of functional blocks over a single IC in what is known as SoC design. The complexity of SoC designs nowadays is ever increasing and has resulted in more integration of mixed-signal blocks over a single IC. Driven also by the need to be more powerful, semiconductor manufacturers continue to innovate technologies towards smaller and smaller transistor feature sizes (for example from 0.25um to 0.18um to 0.13um). As a result, there is an increasing need in re-designing functioning mixed signal designs for new technology processes. Digital IP reuse is a well- established world thanks to the advance in the well-defined and automated digital flow available nowadays through different CAD companies. The analog domain on the other hand is still suffering from the lack of automation, which resulted in the analog IP portion being manually redesigned each time an SoC is migrated from a technology to another. This paper presents a complete framework, together with the associated tools, that retargets hard analog IP from one technology to another. The flow consists mainly of a circuit-sizing engine and a layout compaction engine. The benefit of this methodology is that it represents a complete solution to migrate hard IP between different processes in a fully automated way The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 presents an overview of the state of the art for analog circuit migration techniques, section 3 presents the complete methodology for hard IP migration, section 4 presents the suggested circuit-sizing approach and a comparison versus other techniques, section 5 presents the suggested layout retargeting approach, section 6 presents examples and results. Finally section 7 presents a summary and draws conclusions of the work presented.
ANALOG DESIGN PROCESS MIGRATION
In order to migrate an analog hard-core IP from one technology to another all device dimensions in the target technology must be recalculated such as to get same circuit performance between source and target technologies. Several approaches have been investigated to resize the analog core of an SoC. One approach consists of developing specific block synthesis tools [1] [2]. These synthesis tools are developed specifically to cover a certain type of circuits like Opamps, PLLs, DACs or others. It should be noted that each type of these blocks could have several architectures. Each type of architecture has a different set of design equations and heuristics that describe the circuit. Hence, to develop such block synthesis tools, all design equations and heuristics be extracted and embedded within the tool. Block generator development takes a considerable effort and time. It must be justified by an extensive use of the generator. Design reuse based on an original working design has been investigated both through qualitative reasoning [3] and analog synthesis [4][5]. Another approach optimizes the equivalent small-signal model with respect to the original circuit [6]. The optimization engine visits candidate circuit designs and adjusts their parameters in an attempt to satisfy their user’s specified performance goals. A first group of optimization techniques use analytical models that describe the basic performance of the circuit using symbolic equations [7]. A second group of optimization techniques uses the full spice accuracy [8]. Using a full analog simulator capability has the advantage of accurate results but suffers from being very slow. On the other hand, using analytical equations has the impact of less accurate designs with faster results. The optimization techniques in general are closer to a circuit re-design than design reuse. All design knowledge and tradeoffs, implicitly coded by the first designer in the initial design, is completely lost. In addition, optimization-based techniques are only adapted to cell sizing due to their extensive use of computer resources. They are therefore less suitable for migrating a complete mixed-signal function (e.g. analog-to-digital converter, PLL, …).
COMPLETE MIGRATION FLOW
The complete migration flow is shown in Figure 1. The design that needs to be migrated should consist of a front-end view, in the form of a schematic/netlist (source circuit), and a back-end view, in the form of a layout (source layout) in a given process (source technology). The input to the resizing engine is the source netlist together with some technology information related to the source and target processes. The output of the resizing engine is a spice netlist with the new device dimensions that achieve the required circuit performance. Layout retargeting starts with a process layer mapping file in addition to the source layout. During a layer step, all layers in the source design are mapped to their corresponding layer in the target process. Addition or removal of layers is always possible between source and target processes. The following step involves the compaction of the layout while taking all design rules of the target process into consideration. New device sizes are considered as additional layout constraints. The output of the layout engine is a retargeted layout free of any design rule errors and updated with all device dimensions calculated from the circuit sizing engine.
Figure 1. Migration Flow
CIRCUIT SIZING BASED ON DESIGN EXTRACTION
During circuit retargeting, the main focus is to keep the same circuit performance of a given circuit in a given fabrication process while trying to migrate it to a different fabrication target process. This is done hierarchically for the whole macro-function. Each block is handled separately in a specific order. Naturally, if the performance of each block is kept the same during design migration, the performance of the whole macro-function will also be the same.
The core of the methodology is based upon the definition of a relative transistor bias point as follows:
Itgt = KIsrc (1)
VGST = VGS – Vth (2)
VDST = VDS – VDSsat (3)
where K is a user-specified constant. Transistor electrical parameters and hence performance depends on the relative bias voltages rather than absolute voltages and currents.
The structure of the netlist migration engine is shown in Figure 2. The input to the engine consists of:
- Information about the source and target processes.
- A hierarchical netlist file in spice format.
- User defined constraints: K, fixing of some node voltages, minimum and maximum device dimensions.
Figure 2. Structure of the netlist migration engine
As shown in Figure 2, the retargeting process itself is divided into two main actions: Design extraction and Device resizing. The design extraction engine is responsible of extracting all the knowledge embedded in the original design such as small signal parameters, large signal parameters, currents, node voltages, device dimensions, parasitics, and symmetry information. The design extraction engine is integrated with an interactive analog simulator that reads the structure of the netlist and extracts design hierarchy. A block recognition engine is embedded with the Design Extraction Engine and is capable of extracting different analog basic bulding blocks such as:
Current Mirror, Level Shifter, Voltage Reference, Current mirror Load, Differential Pair, Flip Flop, Current mirror block, Level Shifter Block, Current Source and Switch [9].
The device-resizing engine follows afterwards and is responsible of resizing the different devices in the circuit. The algorithm which is used to resize the transistors in the circuit is based on the assumption that preserving the parameters of each individual component (transistor, resistor, and capacitor) in each subcircuit would preserve the overall performance of each subcircuit, this would mean we would reach same performance of the overall circuit. In its first iteration, the engine scales all node voltages by the ratio of the old supply to the new supply voltage. The dimensions of the transistors are also scaled by the ratio of the old feature size to the new feature size.
In subsequent iterations the relative biasing points are kept the same between source and target technologies while the engine preserves the same small signals parameters of each device between source and target technologies by changing device dimensions in the target technology without exceeding the parasitics associated with each device.
The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t depend on any performance evaluation prior to reusing the circuit and hence there is no need to run multiple simulations to fit the device sizes to a certain performance criteria and hence the reuse cycle is very fast.
LAYOUT MIGRATION THROUGH PATH-FIXING EDGE BASED COMPACTION
As shown in Figure 1, layout migration is achieved using a compaction approach. Most existing compaction techniques use one-dimensional compaction, as in virtual grid [10][11], shear lines [12][13] and constraint graph [14] approaches. Compactors based on constraint graph approach generate better quality layouts [14]. Also, nearly all existing techniques use symbolic layouts, where layout elements represent devices or wires (symbols).
Solving a constraint graph to generate the compacted layout is done using the well-known longest path algorithm [14] [15]. However, some enhancements are still needed to minimize wire length [16].
In this engine, rather than using a symbolic approach, the constraint graph handles edges of layout polygons directly. A path-fixing technique based on graph-theory is used for minimization of polygon areas. This graph-based technique produces a compacted layout without the need of time consuming simplex matrix operations.
Figure 3 shows a sample layout together with the corresponding constraint graph. The constraint graph is a directed graph in which nodes represent edges of layout polygons, while arcs represent a distance constraint between two edges represented by the two end nodes of the arc. For example, an arc from node x1 to node x9 with a length of 10 represents the following distance constraint: x9 – x1 ? 10. A distance can either be a width constraint or a separation constraint. A width constraint determines the minimum width of a certain polygon. It exists between two edges of the same polygon inside the polygon, e.g. [x1, x9] and [x3, x4]. A separation constraint is a constraint between two edges of the same polygon, but outside the polygon, or the edges of two different polygons that determine the minimum separation between these two edges. For example, arcs between [x4, x5] and [x8, x9] are separation constraints. Two artificial edges are added at both extremities to bound edge movement as shown in figure 3(b).
Figure 3. (a) sample layout and (b) the corresponding constraint graph
A path is a series connection of arcs in the same direction with no node touched more than once. As can be seen from Figure 3(b), two paths exist between node x1 and node x9: [x1, x9] with a length of 10 and [x1, x3, x4, x5, x6, x7, x8, x9] with a length of (5+10+5+10+5+10+5)= 50. A compaction path is defined as the longest path between two edges xi, xj, which have a minimum width constraint between them. For example nodes x1, x9 have minimum width constraint between them represented by the arc [x1, x9]. The compaction path between x1, x9 is therefore [x1, x3, x4, x5, x6, x7, x8, x9].
The algorithm aims to find the location of each edge in the layout to minimize the total areas of layout polygons while respecting design rules. It associates location bounds to each edge, in addition to a fixed flag that indicates that this edge can not move anymore.
The algorithm produces a compacted layout with no need to wire length minimization or post processing [16]. It depends mainly on graph-based operations that are more efficient than linear programming matrix operations usually used in wire length minimization. Dealing with edges other than symbols enables the compaction engine to handle any complex device and any complex routing.
Initial layout contains valuable knowledge, and in most cases already verified by fabrication. The migration by compaction keeps the same knowledge (i.e. floor-planning, placement, routing) in the target layout. Layer mapping used in the migration engine allows complex devices to be migrated even to completely different layers.
EXAMPLE AND RESULTS
This section shows an industrial test case that has been identified to validate and test the migration tool. This is an integrated RC Oscillator which has been migrated from a 0.6u to a 0.25u process of two different foundries to increase porting challenges. The overall CPU run time for both resizing and layout migration of the design took less than one hour on an Ultra Sparc machine where 80% of the time is consumed by the layout migration engine.
Integrated RC Oscillator.
Figure 4. Oscillator Frequency vs supply
Figure 5. Oscillator Frequency vs temperature
This is an integrated astable oscillator that produces a 1 MHz output frequency. It has an output frequency with very high stability versus temperature sweep from –55 to 125°C. The output frequency is very stable as well with supply variations from 2.5 to 5.5V. The oscillator contains several blocks such as a bandgap reference, some biasing cells, a digital decoder used for trimming, an amplifier and a couple of comparators. The number of devices inside this circuit is around 500. The migration of the design from 0.6u to 0.25u took 1 week including corner simulation and post layout verification. Figure 4 and Figure 5 show simulation results of the source and migrated oscillator versus temperature and supply voltage sweep respectively. The maximum variation in frequency between the source and target designs is less than 1% when sweeping over the temperature and less than 4% for supply change. This is an acceptable variation especially that the oscillator has a trimming circuitry that enables fine adjustments over the frequency of the oscillator. Figure 6 shows the source layout with an area of around 93600u2 while Figure 7 shows the retargeted layout with an area of around 86400u2 saving around 8% which is less than the previous examples due to the large area occupied by passive devices.
Figure 6. Oscillator layout in 0.6u technology
Figure 7. Oscillator layout in 0.25u technology
CONCLUSION
This paper described an innovative method for the reuse of analog circuits; this method includes both a circuit sizing engine for circuit migration and a layout-retargeting engine. The circuit-sizing engine is based on design extraction and device performance mapping. The layout engine is based on a modified edge-based compaction algorithm. Both netlist and layout engines are efficient with small cells as well as macro-functions and have proven to be very fast. The validation of the tool has been demonstrated by retargeting and fabricating a real design through an industrial partnership.
REFERENCES
[1] R.R. Neff, P.R Gray, and A. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, “ A Module Generator for High-Speed CMOS Current Output Digital/Analog Converters”, in IEEE J. of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 31, pp. 448-451, Mar. 1996.F. Medeiro, B. Pérez-Verdú, A. Rodríguez-Vázquez, and J. L. Huertas, “A Vertically Integrated Tool for Automated Design of ?? Modulators”, in IEEE J. of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 30, pp. 762-772, Jul. 1995.
[2] K. Francken, and G. Gielen, “Methodology for Analog Technology Porting Including Performance Tuning”, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. On Circuits and Systems, Vol. 1, pp. 415-418, May 1999.
[3] R. Phelps, M. Krasnicki, R. Rutenbar, L. R. Carley, and J. Hel-lums, “A case study of synthesis for industrial-scale analog IP: Re-design of the equalizer/filter frontend for an ADSL CODEC,” in Proc. ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conf., pp. 1–6, 2000.
[4] E. Hennig, R. Sommer and L. Charlack, “An Automated Approach for Sizing Complex Analog Circuits in a Simulation-Based Flow”, in Proc. ACM/IEEE Design Automation and Test in Europe, Designer Forum, pp. 230-234, Mar. 2002.
[5] S. Funaba, A. Kitagawa, T. Tsukada, and G. Yokomizo, “A Fast and Accurate Method of Redesigning Analog Subcircuits for Technology Scaling”, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol. 25, 2000, P. 299-307
[6] C.Toumazou and C.Makris, “Analog IC design automation: Part I—Automated circuit generation: New concepts and methods, ” IEEE Trans. Computer-Aided Design, vol.14, pp. 218–238, Feb.1995.
[7] Xu Jingnan; Serras, J.; Oliveira, M.; Belo, R.; Bugalho, M.; Vital, J.; Horta, N.; Franca J. “IC design automation from circuit level optimization to retargetable layout,” ICECS 2001. The 8th IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems, Volume: 1, Sept. 2001 pp. 95 – 98 vol.1.
[8] H. Graeb, S. Zizala, J. Eckmueller, and K. Antreich, “The Sizing Rules Method for Analog Integrated Circuit Design”, in Proc. Int. Conf. on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 343 – 349, 2001.
[9] Weste, N. “Virtual Grid Symbolic Layout”, in Proc. the 18th Design Automation Conference, June 1981, pp. 225-233.
[10] Bayer, D-G.; and Weste, N. “Virtual Grid Compaction Using the Most Recent Layers Algorithm”, in Proc. ICCAD, 1983, pp. 92-93.
[11] A.E. Dunlop, “SLIM – The Translation of Symbolic Layouts into Mask Data”, in Proc. of the 17th Design Automation Conference, IEEE (1980), 595 – 602
[12] A.E. Dunlop, “SLIP: Symbolic Layout of Integrated Circuits with Compaction”, Computer Aided Design, November 1978.
[13] Y. E. Cho, “A subjective review of compaction”, in Proc. 22nd Design Automation Conf., June 1985, pp. 396–404.
[14] D. G. Boyer, “Symbolic layout compaction review,” in Proc. 25th Design Automation Conf., June 1988, pp. 383–389.
[15] D. Marple. “A hierarchy preserving hierarchical compactor”, in Proc. 27th Design Automation Conference, 375-381, 1990.
Sherif Hammouda, Hazem Said, Mohamed Dessouky, Mohamed Tawfik, Quang Nguyen, Wael Badawy, Hazem Abbas, Hussein Shaheen, “Analog IP Reuse in Nano Technologies, design and reuse,” April 6, 2006.
Originally posted 2018-04-18 18:00:00.
Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them
Unfortunately very few start up businesses make it beyond their 3rd year. Failure is usually down to a number of clearly identifiable mistakes, which if small business owners are aware of, can increase their chances of survival.
Here are the top 10 common mistakes which small businesses tend to make.
<b>Lack of Market Research</b>
When a budding entrepreneur comes up with an idea for a new business he assumes that because he would buy such a product or service then everyone else will. This may be the case for day-to-day necessities but for other items this is usually not so.
It’s important that when you start up you carefully research the market to check that:
– There is demand at a level which would lead to a sustainable business
– People are prepared to pay the price required for you to make a decent profit
Undertaking market research may appear time consuming but the effort will pay off.
<b>Poor Record Keeping</b>
Some business people are not born administrators; they feel more comfortable getting out there and ëdoing the business’. Paperwork is too easy to ignore but can never be put off indefinitely.
Sales, purchases and other expenditure must be carefully documented, so you know whether you are making a profit or not. Invoices must be issued on time and chased up promptly if there is a delay in payment. It’s all very well having the sales but poor record keeping can hold you back.
Having your paperwork in order will also save you time when it comes to your accountant doing your year-end books!
<b>Insufficient Capital</b>
When starting off it’s easy to decide what capital is required for fixtures and fittings, machinery and stock. What many new business owners forget about is the cash needed to fund day-to-day requirements, i.e. cash to pay expenses before your customers pay you. This is known as your working capital requirement.
Small businesses can fail because they have insufficient cash to start off to meet these immediate expenses. If you wish to survive make sure you set aside enough cash to meet all your needs for the first few months.
<b>Ineffective Marketing Or None At All</b>
You cannot afford to treat the cost of marketing as an unnecessary expense. A business with no marketing is like waving in the dark ñ you know you are doing it but no one else does!
There are many ways to promote your business on a small budget; it’s just a case of being inventive and creative. What ever you do, don’t assume that people will quickly know you are in business ñ they won’t, unless you tell them.
<b>Ingoring Changes In The Market Place</b>
As a small business owner it’s very easy to get immersed in your business and not see what is happening around you in the market place. Always keep your eyes and ears open to what the competition is doing and what your customers want. Don’t get left behind.
<b>Owner’s Attitude</b>
Attitude is everything in business. Don’t forget that the real boss in your business is the customer. Running a business may make you feel important but don’t let this develop into an ëI am better than you’ attitude. Do this and you will quickly chase your customers away.
<b>Spending On The Wrong Things</b>
Being in business can be exciting, especially as the cash starts to roll in! However, don’t be tempted to spend it on a new car, a house or just a good time. If you are to own a successful business then you have to keep some cash back to fund future growth. A business cannot grow without cash, so commit to spending business money on the business.
<b>Dependent On A Small Number Of Customers</b>
Don’t fall into the trap of setting up a business just because one person says they will buy from you every week or month. Setting up and running a business, which is dependent on one customer, is not a recipe for success. What happens if, one month after you have spent all your cash to set up your business, that customer says he has changed his mind and has decided to buy elsewhere? Unless you can find other customers very quickly you are faced with closure.
Before embarking on a new venture make sure you have a sufficient number of customers such that if a few go elsewhere you can still continue trading.
<b>Growing Too Quickly</b>
Surprisingly, growing too quickly can be a problem. You have to be disciplined enough to only take on work you can handle. If you are tempted to accept too much you could end up disappointing not only the new client but also your existing ones.
Also, don’t under-estimate the impact rapid growth can have your administrative burden. As I mentioned earlier, getting behind on the paperwork can have an equally damaging effect on your business.
<b>Trying To Do Everything</b>
Finally, the problem most small business owners have is the fact that everything falls on their plate. Inevitably this is how it’s likely to be in the beginning, when the limited budget means that staff are a luxury, but as the business grows be aware that you cannot continue to do all tasks. There will come a point when you become inefficient and not have enough time to complete everything in sufficient detail. Taking on an extra pair of hands will increase your costs but you will be surprised at how much time will be saved, allowing you to do what you do best ñ getting the business in.
Take a look at each of the mistakes and make sure that you don’t fall into these traps.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-18 00:34:00.
Civilization 4 and Why I Hate My Office Phone
If you’re familiar with the strategy PC gaming series “Civilization”, you probably know that it’s only slightly less addictive than crack. I’ve never tried crack, but the “word on the street”, so to speak, is that it’s a bit hard to let go of. I recently purchased Civilization 4, which is the latest in the Civilization series. That in itself isn’t so interesting, but what happened to me at my job as a result of it most certainly is. I work as a network administrator for a large insurance company in Illinois.
Part of my job is to repair PC’s as needed, which is quite often considering how many there are around this place. I informed my coworker, also a big civilization fan that I had the game and he suggested I bring it in for a little test run. Against my better judgment, we decided to play a hot seat game during work. “Hot seat” means that one player takes a turn, followed by the other, which is only possible with turn based games such as Civ. We both figured that there would always be one of us to answer the phone in our little repair-shop cubbyhole so we didn’t see how we could possibly get caught. Boy were we wrong! About four hours into a game things started getting interesting.
My civilization found his civilization and we started going to war against each other, as one might expect. I sat down for my turn and my coworker decided to head off to the bathroom. The phone rang, and I didn’t pick up so that whoever was on the other end wouldn’t hear the Civ theme music or the explosive sound of my Panzers running over his infantry. What I failed to remember is that our advanced phone system allows anyone to communicate with us on an open speaker phone provided we aren’t on the phone already. My boss utilized this function since no one answered while I was taking my turn…o.k., actually while I was taking my turn and bragging out loud to myself about how well I was doing in the game. I found myself in his office that afternoon, but luckily I was only reprimanded and not fired. Not only did I get into trouble, my coworker continues to make jokes about it at my expense.
I hate my office phone.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-17 23:43:00.
A Proposed Hardware Reference Model for Spatial Transformation and Quantization in H.264,
This paper presents three Very Large Scale Integration prototypes to exploit spatial redundancy in the H.264 standard. The proposed architectures are: (1) forward 4 × 4 integer approximation of DCT transform and quantization, which is applied to all blocks of a frame, (2) the 4 × 4 Hadamard transform and quantization that is applied to the DC coefficients of the luma component when the macroblock is encoded in 16 × 16 intra prediction mode, and (3) the 2 × 2 Hadamard transform and quantization that is applied to the DC coefficients of the chroma component as a second level in the transformation hierarchy. The developed algorithms are adopted by the H.264 standard. A performance analysis shows that the architectures satisfy the real-time constraints required by different digital video applications.
I. Amer, W. Badawy, G. Jullien, “A Proposed Hardware Reference Model for Spatial Transformation and Quantization in H.264,” Elsevier Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, Volume 17, Issue 2, April 2006, Pages 533-552.
Originally posted 2018-04-17 23:03:00.
Clutter out, Color in: Make Your Office Work for You
Is your workspace working for you? Research shows that your environment makes an impact on your mood. So it may be time to give your space at the office a makeover to liven up things at work.
“Now you can change your office decor as often as you change the ink in your printer,” says Anna Griffin, designer of the Anna Griffin Inc. line of desk accessories. “A change of color and pattern in your workspace can help to motivate, destress and even improve your disposition.”
The key is to add variety to your area so that you don’t get bored with the same surroundings and decor day after day. Griffin offers the following tips to help you create a pleasing and invigorating work area.
* Clear the clutter. The first step in producing a pleasant cubicle space is to make it clean and organized. This will help you stay focused on your work.
* Accessorize. Disposable desk accessories in fun colors and patterns will add instant pizzazz to your workspace and can be replaced whenever you need a change of ambience.
The “Rose” and “Elsie” collections from Anna Griffin Inc. are fresh, fun and, best of all, affordable. They feature four different patterns in eight coordinating office items, including file sets, magazine and pencil holders, paper, letter bins, journals and photo albums. The Rose Collection is full of rich, vibrant color in Old World floral patterns, while the Elsie Collection is sophisticated and playful, incorporating retro, pastel abstract and floral designs.
* Decorate your workspace to look like home. Because you spend so much time at work, choose a color or style and start decorating. A small area rug can add color and texture to your space, and a favorite lamp or lamp shade can cast just the right light. You can personalize with touches like a decorative basket as an “in box” and fun prints and paintings for the walls. Don’t forget photos of your family, friends and pets. They will bring a smile and help reduce your stress level.
* Just add water. A desktop fountain, fresh flowers or a fishbowl can add ambience and a sense of style and tranquility to your office space.
* Don’t forget the finishing touches. Use a pre-made slipcover to add style and color to that tired old desk chair. Switch out those boring manila folders with decorative patterned ones. They make work fun! Show some individuality with your mouse pad. You can purchase a mouse pad featuring an art masterpiece or cartoon character, depending on your theme and mood. A whimsical clock, fun paperweight or funky plant could be just what you need to make the space more “you.”
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-17 19:24:00.
Choosing a Company Name
When forming a limited company the name of the company can be an important decision. Some people may choose the first name that they think of and others may select a ready made company for speed or because they like a particular name. However, many businesses may prefer to select a company name that either clearly distinguishes itself from its competitors or contains something unique or personal. Company names can be chosen for different reasons.
One of the most common ways of selecting a company name is to use something personal. A quick look through your local newspaper will probably introduce you to many personalised business names. Johnson Consulting Limited, T Smith & Son Limited, Stephens & Barley Limited are some fictional examples of what may be found. This may instantly make a company recognisable locally, it can be deemed as more personal by its customers, and often works well within geographical areas. However, it does little to tell new customers what your company does.
A popular choice for a small business is to choose a name that is ëdescriptiveí. This tells prospective clients exactly what your company does. Examples of this may be to call your business The Window Company Limited, City IT Consultants Limited or The Advertising Agency Limited. Whilst this does serve to reinforce your primary business it offers little differentiation and may easily be adapted by competitors.
A less personal option is to use a company name that is ëassociativeí. This type of company name helps to create an image or connection to your business activity. It is less direct than using a descriptive name but helps to position your companyís name within the market through peoples understanding of what words mean. For example a flick through the Yellow Pages will offer plenty of examples of this. A hairdresser called Classic Cuts or a printer called Selectaprint Limited are examples of what may be found. These names offer some differentiation but may not ultimately set your company aside from its competitors.
An alternative is to choose a company name that is ëfreestandingí. These names are completely abstract and not related to the companies business activities. A fictional example may be to call your catering company Zedoc Limited. There are many popular brand names that illustrate this point. Consider, Kodak, Gillette, or Mars, these names will probably be instantly recognisable to you and conjure up a particular product or business. This is a good way of setting your company aside from the competition but it is important to consider the market that you operate in. Will your prospective clients know what your business is offering?
Choosing a company name may be a simple process, but it is not uncommon for people to deliberate over names for quite some time. Whilst company names can, and often are, changed during the life of the company most people like to choose a name that they like from the outset. Therefore consider your market, how much you want to differentiate from your competitors and what your company name should say about your organisation. Once the decision is made focus on the important business of making your company a success.
More info’s and free registrations (restricted to pros), please join our live seminar
Originally posted 2018-04-17 01:35:00.