March 2006 - Issue 49

• Intro
  
• Article - Interviews with Terence Kierans, Martha Retallick, and Peggi Ridgway
  
• The Office Corner
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - Pluralizing Possessive Family Name
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Excel and Word
  
• Tech Corner
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - Adroit
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  
• Judy's Photo Gallery
  

* I regret to inform you that Professor Charles Darling recently died. He worked for 35 years as an English professor at Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut. Through the years I had occasion to ask for his help. He always came through, and did so with grace and a warm sense of humor. While we've lost him, we have his amazing website to help and inspire us: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm

* Martha Retallick has done it again with an updated version of Postcard Marketing Secrets: http://www.postcardmarketingsecrets.com. Marcia Yudkin says, "The latest edition of her postcard marketing manual is brimming with resources, tools, case studies and how-to's that will soon turn you into a direct mail tycoon." And B.L. Ochman says, "Here's a system that helps you get off your butt and actually create a sales program that you can follow. In fact, it even inspired me—"Ms. I Can't Read or Write a Spreadsheet"—to get a move on." If you need to jump start your business in terms of marketing, go to the website and see if this might be the right resource for you. It's a powerful package that is extremely well organized and up to date.

* Do you like classy video presentations? I recently visited Ronni Rhodes' site and found she's added a polished promotional video. It is so classy. She and husband Don are quite a team. Don has spent over 25 years as a broadcast engineering professional, and understands the intricacies of audio and video. Go to http://www.wbcimaging.com and you'll see a graphic box that says "Click here to meet the owner." If you've been thinking of offering a video presentation on your website, keep WBC Imaging in mind. I've known Ronni for years via Internet discussion lists, and look forward to meeting her in person when I'm in the Tucson area.

* Instead of an article, I'm doing a series of interviews with three colleagues who run their business primarily on the Web. Whether you own your own business or work for someone else, there are communication issues that should interest you. And I'm open for other interview ideas.

Note: this series will continue with the next issues. In the meantime, if you have any questions for all three businesspeople, send them to me: mailto:judyvorfeld@ossweb.com?subject=Interview_Questions Click Here.

QUESTION 1. When did you begin your business, and what was its name?

TERENCE KIERANS http://www.virtualservices.com.au April 2000. Cyberspace Virtual Services.

MARTHA RETALLICK: http://www.westernskycommunications.com I started in Web design in the fall of 1995. The business was then called Lone Rider Productions.

PEGGI RIDGWAY: http://www.wordpix.com I started the business in September 1989 as Wordpictures. At that time, I was producing photographs and matting them with my own prose handwritten on the mats, so "wordpictures" seemed appropriate. My business also consisted of newsletter design, writing and production for a handful of small companies, and freelance writing for magazines. The business was part-time, in addition to my full-time job as a human resources rep for an oil refinery.

QUESTION 2. Has the biz name changed? If so, why?

TERENCE KIERANS
No change.

MARTHA RETALLICK
Let me start this answer with a confession: I have a history of picking bad business names. Let's go back to that business name for the Web design studio. It was originally devised for a bicycle book publishing venture that failed miserably. As I went deeper into the world of Web design, I started calling the business Lone Rider Productions' Lrpdesigns. Talk about a mouthful. So, in 1997, I shortened it to Lrpdesigns. But that name had two big problems:

1. It was hard to say. (It was pronounced "el-are-pea-designs.")
2. It was hard to spell.

In 2002, I published an e-book on marketing one's business with postcards. Sales went so well that I decided to retool my entire business to focus on postcard marketing. This was coupled with a name change to The Passionate Postcarder. Two more big problems:

1. The design clients just wouldn't go away.
2. They hated the new business name.

So, last year, I changed the name again. Nowadays, it's Western Sky Communications, which has made the design studio clients (and my accountant) very happy.

PEGGI RIDGWAY
The business name changed to Wordpix Solutions in 2000 when I sold the rights to my trademarked name, Wordpictures to a larger company which had used it as a business name a lot longer than I had. They already had the Web domain name, wordpictures.com, and my partner and I were using Wordpix.com, so we switched to Wordpix Solutions as our company name.

Although it is tricky to explain Wordpix to strangers, I have always felt that Wordpix Solutions encompasses "words and pictures" for both print and the Web. (My partner, Earl Russell, is a retired engineer who slid into the highly technical field of Web development and hosting quite easily. We began offering those services in 1995 as our customers began requesting them.)

QUESTION 3. Is it virtual, local, or a combination?

TERENCE KIERANS
100% virtual

MARTHA RETALLICK
A combination.

PEGGI RIDGWAY
My business is virtual and face-to-face, local and national. We both like to meet our clients in person when possible and will stop by to get acquainted if we are traveling in the neighborhood of a long- distance client. Although 90 percent of our client businesses are within a 50-mile radius of our office here in the Los Angeles area, we also have clients in Oklahoma, Texas, Maryland, Washington State, Utah and Missouri.

Technology has changed our world and opened many doors: We have worked with a favorite graphic designer residing in southern Florida for six years by email, FTP and Fedex without a hitch. We work with our long-distance clients on their Web and print projects quite comfortably in the same manner.

QUESTION 4. How many hats did you wear at the beginning (and what were they)?

TERENCE KIERANS
Ten: CEO, IT (http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=IT) Manager; Marketing Manager; Finance Manager; Operations Manager; Salesperson; Production Person; Accounts Clerk; Administration Clerk; Gofer.

MARTHA RETALLICK
The biggest hat was called "Getting A Clue," because I didn't know what I was doing. I had to learn how to do the three main tasks facing any business:

1. Doing what people pay you to do.
2. Bringing in more business (aka "sales and marketing").
3. Running the business.

PEGGI RIDGWAY
In the beginning, I was the artist, photographer, writer, editor, liaison with the print shop, company sales and marketing specialist, bookkeeper and accountant, secretary. Whatever was needed, I did it.

QUESTION 5. How many hats do you wear today (and what are they)?

TERENCE KIERANS
Ten, as above.

MARTHA RETALLICK
Nowadays, I wear the "Do, Get Run" hats. Part of the "Run" hat involves continuous learning. That's because I don't think it's enough to be in business. You must also be a student of business.

PEGGI RIDGWAY
Today, I wear just as many hats, but they are different. I'm no longer the artist, but the artistic director working with the Web artist or print design artist. I'm still the bookkeeper, but my accountant takes care of the "important" stuff. I still write (a great deal), but also have several clients who write professionally who I can call on for projects. I still coordinate and oversee the print shop projects. As sales and marketing specialist, I now place ads, sponsor chamber of commerce events, and have a better handle on the promotions. I sometimes have high school students work on clerical projects. My system is pretty streamlined and doesn't require full-time help.

QUESTION 6. Which are the favorite areas of your business?

TERENCE KIERANS
IT, technical writing, and those projects involving databases and spreadsheets.

MARTHA RETALLICK
Formulating business strategy and financial analysis.

PEGGI RIDGWAY
Newsletter writing and production are my favorites, although I also enjoy scoping out a new website and helping my clients write their Web copy. I enjoy the networking and social aspects of promoting my business.

QUESTION 7. Which are the most difficult/challenging areas of your business?

TERENCE KIERANS
Marketing and customer relations.

MARTHA RETALLICK
Having to continually be creative.

PEGGI RIDGWAY
Over the years, I've developed arthritis in my neck and lower back, which means working at a computer is painful after a couple of hours. Consequently, writing is not as enjoyable as it has been in the past. I have a lot to say (and a couple great articles and another book to write), so this situation is difficult for me. To offset it, I have increased my water aerobics sessions to three per week, to make sure I don't stiffen up and become disabled; and am eating properly. I love working in my business and want to stay healthy so I can continue to see it thrive and grow. When my business does well, I do well, and that's a strong driving force for me.

1. GLOSSARY AGENT: A unique, annotated gateway to online monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual glossaries of interest to professionals in insurance, reinsurance, risk management, employee benefits, healthcare, and related fields such as law and financial services. Updated and expanded several times a year.
http://www.insurancetranslation.com/Glossary_Agent/index.htm

2. ENGLISH TO ENGLISH: Comparison of words and phrases in American English and British English.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/2284/

3. MEDICAL ENGLISH: Created to help students and workers in the medical profession with the English used in real life situations. These every-day conversations are the building blocks for this new tool making it useful for educators and individual users.
http://www.englishmed.com/

Professor Darling says that in order to determine the possessive of a pluralized family name, we pluralize first and then make the name possessive with the use of an apostrophe.

He says we might travel in the Smiths' car when we visit the Joneses (members of the Jones family) at the Joneses' home.

When the last name ends in a hard "z" sound, we usually don't add an "s" or the "-es" ... we simply add the apostrophe: "the Chambers' new baby."

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/possessives.htm

MS EXCEL
SELECTIVE PRINTING
To print specific data from of a single worksheet that would normally print on multiple pages proceed as follows:

1.	Choose "Page Break Preview" from the "View" menu. Excel will display the worksheet, showing the various page breaks.
2.	Select all the cells you want printed in the first page.
3.	Hold down the "Ctrl" key, select all the cells you want printed from the second page
4.	Repeat step 3 for each set of data you want printed.
5.	Select "File / Print". Print dialog box is displayed.
6.	In the "Print what" area, choose "Selection".
7.	Click on OK. Excel will print just the selected data.
8.	Close the "Page Break Preview" display.

MS WORD
TABLE CELL ADDRESSES
Word tables can be used for other things than storing information in them. You can use Word's built-in table functions to compose fairly complex and useful equation.

Word's cell addresses work just like those in an Excel spreadsheet: Columns are lettered and rows are numbered; so cell A1 is in the first column in row one. To illustrate how these cell addresses work we will use the table function "MAX" to display the largest number entered into a range of cells:

1.	Create a table with one row and three columns.
2.	In cells A1 and B1, enter any two numbers.
3.	Click in the third cell (C1) and go to "Table / Formula".
4.	In the "Formula" field, enter "=MAX(A1:B1)" – without the quotation marks - and click "OK".

Word will now display in C1 the larger of the values from cells A1 and B1.

Two important things to remember:

1.	If you change the value in one of the cells referenced by the formula, you must update the cell that contains that formula by selecting it and pressing the function key F9.
2.	Word table cell references are always absolute. This is different from what you are used to in Excel.

If you insert a new column on the leftmost edge of your Word table, the formula =MAX(A1:B1) remains unchanged, and Word will still look at the value in the new column A.

In Excel, if you insert a new column A, a formula like =MAX(A1:B1) will automatically change to =MAX(B1:C1).

Terence Kierans
Cyberspace Virtual Services
tkierans@virtualservices.com.au
http://www.virtualservices.com.au/
We keep your project on the boil, while you sleep

1. THE RENEWED IMPORTANCE OF META TAGS
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol9/html_no1.htm

2. CELL PHONE DATA ERASER: If you're trading in or donating a cell phone, you need to clear data from its hard drive. At this website, you choose the brand and model number of your cell phone, and will get the commands you need to delete all data from it.
http://www.wirelessrecycling.com/home/data_eraser/default.asp

3. CONTROL YOUR COMPUTER USING YOUR VOICE to input text, browse the Web, simulate keyboard and mouse input, open and control programs and documents.
http://www.realizesoftware.com/

1. THE IMPACT OF PLAGIARISM
http://www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/plagexamples.htm

2. TIPS FOR WRITERS: Monica Woods
http://www.monicawood.com/tips.html

3. HOW TO WRITE: Rob Sawyer
http://www.sfwriter.com/owindex.htm

Main Entry:adroit
Function:adjective
Etymology:French, from Old French, from a- (from Latin ad-) + droit right, droit
Date:1652

having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations *an adroit leader* *adroit maneuvers*
synonyms see CLEVER, DEXTEROUS
  –adroit.ly adverb
  –adroit.ness noun

*By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.m-w.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

1. PUPPY BOWL: All about puppies.
http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/puppybowl.html

2. SIMPLESHOES
http://www.simpleshoes.com

3. U.S. ARMY SAYS GOODBYE TO MASH: U.S. Army Gives Away Last MASH
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5624260,00.html

4. HousingTracker: Real Estate market statistics (including median asking prices and home inventory numbers) for cities/metros across the United States.
http://www.benengebreth.org/housingtracker

1. This past month, Martha Retallick visited me, and she and I and my brother, David, went on a photographic expedition to Desert Botanical Garden (http://www.dbg.org) in Phoenix. We enjoyed it all, but especially the Butterfly Pavilion. What an experience. I plan to return to DBG when the cactus are in full bloom; it has hundreds of cactus plants throughout, and in some areas, they are concentrated.

What was especially enjoyable was to see how each of the three of us captured the same subjects. We all had a slightly different slant, and came out with some nice complementary shots. I'll detail a few in an upcoming edition of Communication Expressway.

Photo of landscape taken at Desert Botanical Garden by Judy Vorfeld

Photo of Pink Barrel Cactus blossoms taken at Desert Botanical Garden by Judy Vorfeld

Photo of tree blossoms taken at Desert Botanical Garden by Judy Vorfeld
hoto of Pipeline Swallowtail Butterfly taken at Desert Botanical Garden by Judy Vorfeld

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