Author: WaelBadawy
Action Priority Matrix
An Action Priority Matrix (or Time Management Matrix) is a tool for prioritizing daily activities. There are 4 quadrants to the matrix as shown below:
1 – Important and Urgent
These are the tasks that must be done now. These tasks should be cleared away as soon as possible, as they are often not relevant to the actual work that is most important to us.
- Pressing issues that arise
- Emergencies and crises
- Deadlines
- Scheduled appointments and meetings
2 – Important but not urgent
These are the most important tasks of all. They are the activities that allow us to reach our goals and objectives. They should be scheduled and worked on every day.
- Working on specific projects or goal tasks
- Planning and scheduling
- Personal development
- Crises prevention
3 – Urgent but not important
These activities can take up a large proportion of our time if we let them. They are often avoidable by delegating the job to others, or by ignoring them altogether.
- Daily unscheduled tasks
- Interruptions
- Maintenance work
- General fill-in jobs
- Regular correspondence
4 – Not urgent and not important
These are the activities that we let creep into our day. They are often tasks we shouldn’t be doing at all, but we often use them as an excuse to escape the drudgery of other tasks.
- Time wasting – idle chatting, long breaks
- Irrelevant distractions – internet surfing, socializing online, texting friends, personal phone calls
- Trivial work – busy work, , pushing paper, other procrastination tasks
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Your Small Business Web Site
A web site is a crucial ingredient of your marketing strategy because it can widen your target market to include anyone who has access to a computer and the internet. Almost 60% of Canadians had access to the internet at home in 2003, and around 8 million had regular access to the internet from somewhere, either at home, at work or at school.
And thatís just in Canada. Ecommerce sales from Canada were $7.2 billion, and we only captured 4% of the global ecommerce market! So, how can you reach some of those internet surfers, and how can you capture some of that $7.2 billion spent in ecommerce?
First, you build it
The first step is designing your website. If your company already has business cards and letterhead, itís best to design your website around them. A matching corporate identity and website helps with branding.
I like uncomplicated websites, with a simple layout and easy navigation. A nice, simple layout, with good graphics, balanced look and good color combinations is my #1 goal when designing a small business web site. Remember to use graphics sparingly and to optimize them for your website because internet surfers are impatient. If your page loads too slowly, theyíll leave.
Navigation should be easy to find and to use, and it should be consistent from page to page. Iíve left more than one site frustrated because I couldnít easily find their navigation.
Small business web sites arenít static. They evolve. You need to start somewhere, and starting with an introductory web site is probably easiest. All you really need to start is five pages. You can always add pages later. The important thing is to just do itótake the plunge and get it out there.
Your five pages could include an index, or home page, about us, services, contact and a sitemap. The index page is your landing page. Typically its design is a little more detailed than the others, but it doesnít have to be that way.
I like to use CSS (cascading style sheets) for designing because itís simply easier to build a web site and to edit its layout with CSS rather than just HTML (hypertext markup language) alone. A change on a CSS sheet changes all the pages on your site at once.
Content is king
Once your site is designed, youíll want to start thinking about content. Design is very important, but it does little good to have a beautiful site without high-quality content.
Your small business home page introduces you and your companyówho you are and what you do. The about us page is usually used to give more detail than the home page about who you are, and your services page gives more detail about what you do. You might wonder why youíd ìwasteî a page on a sitemap since you only have 5 pages, but sitemaps help search engines find all the pages in your site.
As far as content goes, more is better, up to a point. Your pages should be content rich and informative, but they also need to be relevant to your small business. If your visitor canít figure out what your web site is about in just a few seconds, they may leave.
The internet was at first strictly informational, and thatís how it remains today. Several times people have tried experiments using copywriting similar to direct mail sales letters, but theyíve all failed. It seems as if people surf the internet more for information than anything else. Knowing this will help you write pages people will want to read.
Attracting visitors
You could follow your instinct and just start writing, but wait. Thereís research you must do first, or your web site simply wonít be high enough in searches to be found. Search engine optimization is far too big a subject to cover in this short article, but among other things, search engines find your pages based on keywords.
So, pretend for a moment that youíre on the other side of the desk. If you were a customer of your own business, what words or phrases would you use to search for your product or service? Ask friends and neighbors how theyíd search for your product or services.
When youíve come up with a few, check them out on a keyword suggestions tool. You can also use that tool to suggest similar words and phrases. Then find out how many results there would be if you searched for that term. What you want to do next is narrow down your choices to the words or phrases that are searched for the most, but have the fewest results.
Remember that people generally donít look beyond the first three pages for any search term, so if youíre not in the top three pages, your business is not likely to be found at all. If there are millions of results for your phrase, you might simply need to make it more specific.
For example, letís say you have a small business consulting company that specializes in communication for small business. Using ìcommunicationî as a search term is nearly pointless because there are almost 2 billion results for that word. But, there are only 974 results for ìsmall business communicationî.
Much better, but how often is that searched for? According to WordTracker, itís searched for 10 times a day. Not bad, but I think we can do better. How about ìsmall business consultingî? Thatís searched for 261 times a day, and there are 373,000 results. That could be the best primary phrase for a small business communication consulting company.
What you want to do, is write your content around those words and phrases. You donít want or need very manyóthree or four are plenty.
Getting them to come back again and again
Getting visitors to come back to your site again and again is relatively simple. Keep your content fresh and lively, make sure itís informative, and add to it often.
I hope you decide your small business needs a web site. Itís the best way I know how to reach a wider target audience with a relatively small investment.
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Forms Of Organizations
When writing a business plan, you need to decide what type of organization you are going to have. There are many types. Marquez discusses what they are.
There are many types of organizations. We can separate them into two major divisions: organizations existing to create profits (profit organizations. Includes business entities) and organizations that exist primarily for another purpose (non-profit organizations. E.g: charity organizations).
3 Types of Business Entities and their common characteristics:
1. Sole Proprietorships.
Sole proprietorships are business that are owned and operated by one person: the sole proprietor. The owner and the business, is then the same. For tax purposes, a sole proprietorship is not a taxable entity, and any profits earned by the business are taxed on the return of the individual. The proprietor must develop an accounting system that distinguishes between his/her personal affairs and that of the business.
2. Partnerships.
Partnerships are businesses that are owned by two or more individuals. For small partnerships, the agreement is often an oral agreement between the partners but it is highly recommended that the agreement be formalized as is done in bigger partnerships like public accounting firms and most law firms. In partnering up with individuals in the past, I felt it was important to outline the division of profits and expenses, as well as the expected responsibilities of the partners in a written agreement.
3. Corporations.
A corporation is an entity organized under the laws of a particular state. That means that it can get into contractual agreements into its own name. They are identifiable by the existence of shares.
There are advantages and disadvantages of each of the above types of business entities. And each is suited to the same business under different stages of its growth. For most, arts and entertainment independent contractors, it is probably Sole Proprietorships and Partnerships that are most common for their use.
Non-Business Entities
Most non-business entities are organized to serve the needs of various segments of society. Examples of these non-business entities are public hospitals, public schools, the police and the army. All of these entities are distinguished by the lack of an identifiable owner. Because of this and the non-profit motive to these organizations, their accounting systems are modified to fit their activities. The type of accounting they use are referred to as fund accounting.
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This article was written for OrangesAndLime.com, to help creative individuals ó artists, musicians, designers, illustrators and entertainers ó build their own freelance businesses. Please note that this article serves as a guideline only. You should still seek professional advice regarding the matter because laws and practices change over time and they differ from country to country.
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You Can Have A Successful Small Business
Owning and maintaining a very successful small business can have its challenges but if you know what you are doing, everything can really work out great for you. There are many helpful tips that you should learn, if you are the owner of a small business and then by learning about these tips you should have the ability to have a very secure and profitable future. Knowing how to operate a small business properly will give you and your employees much relief in knowing that their positions are stable and secured. Your employees will be much happier, as will you, if you do all of the right things and play your cards right. In this article I am hoping to teach you a little bit more about managing a small business so that you will be a success. Having a small business definitely has its own advantages and some of those will be included throughout this article.
It is very important for you to learn more about what it takes to run a small business successfully so that if you or someone you know becomes interested in opening your own small business, you will be much more knowledgeable about all aspects of it. Another great thing about owning your own small business is that usually this means you will for sure have many more awesome customers that will tell others about it and continue coming back themselves. You will have a reputation for owning and managing a very reputable, friendly and affordable, yet small business. A small business would typically go over very well because there will be enough customers to continue keeping you with plenty of customers and when people are on vacation in your area, they too have probably already heard about your small business and many of them will choose to come into your small business and will be quite pleased by the friendly employees and the great prices. Check out the other small businesses in your area to see what it is they are doing to draw in more new customers, do not copy them but definitely kind of take a few little suggestions and ideas from watching others with more experience.
Advertising is something that most businesses do, which you as a small business owner will as well at some point in time, however, even without the professional advertising, your small business will still be successful due to all of your loyal customers that absolutely adore coming into your wonderful store. All it takes to have a very successful small business is friendliness, determination, customers that count on you and a good knowledge about business management will always make for a better chance at success. A small business could typically go over very successfully, as long as you first do some homework over managing your own business, as well as talking with other small business owners because the more experienced people could really provide you with a great deal of helpful information and some tips that can almost guarantee your small businesses success and longevity.
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Build a Hardware Accelerator
Amir Darvishi, Wael Badawy “Build a Hardware Accelerator“Circuit Cellar August 2005, pp.24 – 29
You May Have A Successful Small Business Idea
You surely know that a small idea can lead to a great business success. The first movement is to think of an idea that would be suitable for the business market. After coming up with the idea, the next step is to put that idea into action. Of course, this is a very difficult step and having the idea is only the start of the journey. After that you will have to face many obstacles before being able to carry on with your business project. This is just the beginning of this process and there is a lot of questions you will have to answer before even start.
Some of the main aspects you have to concentrate on when you have business ideas are the abilities and gifts you can pour into the business. It is very important for you to be identified with your business project. Those ideas should be based on activities and actions you take pleasure in doing. For example, if we suppose that you dislike working in the open, landscaping business would not suit you. On the other hand, if you like working with children, setting up baby-sitting or tutoring business would be an excellent idea. In this case, without any doubt you business will be more successful because you will have put your mind, effort and also your heart on it.
Another vital step is to analyze the needs of a specific product or service in your region before setting up your business. Do people of your area need your product? Are there other business like the one you are planning to start? You should ask yourself whether or not you are the only one offering that service or product. If you are not, you will have to analyze the competence you will have to face. You have to think whether the service you are offering is one that customer would repeat, or if it is a one-time specialized service. Obviously, the former are more likely to succeed than the latter.
There are other aspects you have to take into account. These aspects are described below:
– One of them is that if the idea is unique, you will reign the market. But if there is much competition, it will be difficult to enter into the market.
– A second point would be if you can offer quality from the very beginning, otherwise, you won’t succeed.
– Finally, you have to think about your capital to start your own business. There are many business ideas that require little investment and bring great profit. Some demand research, such as daycare service, and others need a large amount of money to begin the business. So take this recommendation into account before investing all your money in a small business idea.
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How To Get Working Capital For Your Company
Do you own a business? If you are like most business owners, you probably have a lot of responsibilities. First and foremost, you have to meet payroll. Every time. You also need to pay rent and suppliers – on time. All this requires working capital.
However, if you are selling products or services to commercial clients or to the government, you are probably painfully aware that they can take as many as 60 days to pay their invoices. Why? Because if you want their business you have to conform to their terms. There is no other way around it.
But this also leads to an impossible situation. You have bills that need to be paid quickly but customers that want to pay slowly. Unless you have a lot of money in the bank, it’s not a sustainable situation. Sooner or later you’ll miss payroll, delay a supplier payment, or turn a large opportunity away.
The solution is simple. You just need working capital. One way to get working capital is to get a business loan. However, business loans are hard to get and can prove to be inflexible. A better solution is to factor your invoices.
Factoring, or invoice factoring as it is most commonly known, is a type of business financing that is ideal for owners who cannot wait up to 60 days to get their invoices paid. It provides you with the necessary working capital to pay rent, suppliers and meet payroll. And, as opposed to a business loan, factoring is easy to get.
Invoice factoring eliminates the usual 60 day wait to get paid by your customers. The factoring company provides you with an advance on your soon to be paid invoices. In effect, it accelerates your invoices. By accelerating your invoices, you get the working capital you need to run and grow your business. And, unlike a business loan, there are no arbitrary limits. The amount of financing you get is only limited by your sales. If your sales increase, so does your financing.
If you are running a business that is growing ñ and you can’t afford to wait up to 60 days to get your invoices paid, consider invoice factoring.
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Local Businesses and Web Sites
It seems that most successful businesses these days have web sites, even businesses that service only certain geographic areas. On the web, where the market place is global, localized businesses can be at a great disadvantage.
A Local Business Web Site Example
Lets use the example of a car cleaning businesses. The business only cleans cars in a specific city, yet wants to use their web site to create more business. Time and money is invested in marketing the site in the search engines, paying particular attention to marketing the site for the specific geographic region the service provider covers. Nonetheless, many visitors from around the globe are likely to stumble across the site if it is well marketed.
Offer Non-Geographic Specific Products and Services
If a local business does not offer some sort of product or service that is available to the global market, than these web visits are wasted. The solution is simple. Local businesses that expend effort marketing their web site should also consider offering additional products or services that can be purchased by the global market.
Product Options
Options for our example – a car cleaning service – could include T-shirts, hats, cleaning cloths, wax and/or soap. Even just T-shirts could be an additional source of revenue, whereas the seller benefits not just from the direct sale, but the advertising the wearer of the shirt will provide.
Drop Shipping Makes Offering Products Easy
To the busy business owner, offering additional products for the sake of web sales may seem like an extra burden rather than a hidden source of revenue. Yet adding products to your web site can be very easy. By using a drop-shipper, inventory is not required. Services such as CafÈ Press allow products to be made as they are ordered.
Affiliate Systems
Also, if the site owner does not wish to deal with inventory and stocking products, affiliate systems can be used for revenue. Affiliate systems allow site owners to signup for revenue sharing programs with other companies. An affiliate program allows site owners to offer the products or services of other companies while getting a commission on sales generated from the site ownerís site.
In short, if you run a business that operates on a local basis only, and also maintain a web site, it may be well worth your while to expand to the global market by adding products or services that can be sold around the world.
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Review of Principles of verifiable RTL design
By Lionel Bening and Harry Foster, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
Using verifiable RTL design, an engineer can add or improve the use of cycle-based simulation, two-state simulation, formal equivalence checking, and model checking in the traditional verification flow. Furthermore, a verifiable RTL coding methodology permits the engineer to achieve greater verification coverage in minimal time, enhances cooperation and support for multiple EDA tools within the flow, clarifies RTL design intent, and facilitates emerging verification processes.
This book addresses verification of synchronous designs. It provides a comprehensive understanding of various verification processes from conceptual and practical approaches. The concepts presented in this book are drawn from author experience with large-scale system design projects. It draws a technique methodology for verifiable RTL coding. The book is divided into nine chapters as follows. Chapter 1 provides a short introduction of this book. Chapter 2 introduces four principles of RTL design (fundamental verification principle, retain useful information principle, orthogonal verification principle, and functional observation principle) and issues related to verifiable RTL (design specification, test strategies, coverage analysis, event monitoring, and assertion checking). Chapter 3 introduces the basics of the RTL methodology and addresses the problem of complexity due to competing tool coding requirements. It introduces a simplified and tool-efficient Verilog RTL verifiable subset using an object-oriented hardware design (OOHD) methodology. Moreover, it details a linting methodology, which is used to enforce project-specific coding rules and tool performance checks. Chapter 4 presents the history of logic simulation, followed by a discussion on applying RTL simulation at various stages within the design phase. Chapter 5 discusses RTL and the formal verification process. It presents the concept of finite state machine FSM and its analysis and applicability to proving machine equivalence and FSM properties. Chapter 6 discusses ideas on verifiable RTL style. Chapter 7 provides examples on the common mistakes that are involved with projects, designers, and EDA verification tool developers. Chapter 8 presents a tutorial on Verilog language elements that can be used to build a verifiable RTL model. Chapter 9 summarizes the 21 fundamental principles of verifiable RTL Design, which are discussed throughout the book.
This book is considered one of the milestones for verifiable RTL design. It shows an efficient methodology for writing a verifiable RTL, and it defines guidelines for large-scale systems. I believe that every engineer working in the area of RTL design should read this book.
Wael Badawy, “Principles of verifiable RTL design“, IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, Vol. 18, Issue 1, January 2002, pp. 26 -27
Joining The Conversation
Brand marketing is all about enhancing the mindshare of one’s products or services. The aim is for your brand name to be at the top of the consumer’s mind at the mere mention of generic terms relating to your company’s services. Arguably the best way of keeping that mindshare is by having a constant presence where your customers are. In this day and age of electronic commerce, there’s no better place to turn to than the World Wide Web.
Markets are conversations, so it is said. And the Web is perhaps the biggest conversation taking place, with exchanges of information going about the world in lightning speed, as people please-whether they be in email messages, forums, chats, or blogs. How people talk about your brand on the Web can make or break your reputation as a company, or your brand’s reputation as a product or service.
This is where blogs come in handy. The advent of the so-called Web 2.0 ushered in a concept previously unheard of in media and related industries-the massive democratization of content. Web 2.0, among other things, basically lets the consumers of information become the creators of content themselves. The Web is moving away from content with central editorial control, such as newspapers and magazines. Today’s most popular websites are not those controlled by one central group, but include mostly community- and enduser-managed sites, such as Wikipedia and DIGG.com.
Blogs let any individual or group join in on the big conversation. You write about anything online, and someone will eventually read your posts. That person can choose to talk back, and if so, a conversation is started. What’s great is that this conversation is open to the public, and anyone can join in or at least read what’s been going on.
In starting a blog, you can talk about your company’s services, or about the industry you are presently in. It would be fantastic for people to read what you write, and to respond by writing on their own blogs, or commenting on yours. You now have a direct line to your consumer-base. Isn’t that great? You are now able to get a feel of what the consumer wants. What’s more, your presence on the Web boosts recognition of your brand.
Consider adding more people to your army of bloggers-employees, partners, clients (or even hired freelancers), and the effect is multiplied. Your company is no longer represented by a stone-cold establishment. Your brand is represented by names, by faces-that of bloggers!
One notable success story in a “brand” blogging endeavor is Microsoft, the software giant considered by many people to be the “evil empire.” For so long, Microsoft has been the epitome of the stone-cold establishment. It had no human face, save for key persons like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer-executives and officers whom people don’t really know. Microsoft’s brand name had also been suffering because of anti-trust lawsuits being filed here and there. Something had to be done, or Microsoft’s brand might be further associated with “evil.”
In its desire to shift away from all this, Microsoft, in 2004, decided to let employees blog publicly-about their work, about technology trends, about anything under the sun. One mid-level manager by the name of Robert Scoble, stood out, with his profound views and innovative ideas on technology. He was able to successfully communicate with the rest of the world about the inner workings of his company, and along the way dispelling myths about the company. He is now considered to be the persona of Microsoft in the blogosphere. Blogging has now become part of his job description. He is also one of the world’s most popular blogging personalities.
Any business enterprise-no matter how big or small-can use blogs to the advantage of their brand. Whether you’re a startup needing exposure, or you’re an established company that wants to better relate to shed its stone-cold faÁade in favor of a more human approach to doing business, blogging will definitely help your brand go a long way.
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