My Business Card Journey

Most people know they need a business card to help their contacts remember who they are and what they do.  Many times, they get the help from an online business card service like  www.vistaprint.com because it’s FREE or virtually free for their basic designs.  Usually, you end up paying more for some extras like double-sided printing, glossy finish, card stock, etc.

My first batch of business cards I ever did was 250 personal business cards.  I started out with their standard template, then I customized it.  Some people might say I went a little overboard with the information.  It was packed with information on the front & the back of the card.

My second batch of business cards was a similar experience as the first.  I chose a template that I felt would represent my business, then I proceeded to add too much information to the front & back.   After all, I wanted everybody to know everything I did.

When creating the other two batches of cards, I had never though about using it in different media like paper advertising or Social Media.  It wasn’t until I started talking with publications that I realized my previous decision to go with a vertical card wouldn’t fit in with advertising.  Most advertisers require a horizontal business cards; not vertical.

Faced with the need for a horizontal design plus the fact that my vertical cards were running out, I decided to re-design my business cards.  This time I decided not to use a template but to have them designed from scratch.

Tips for first time business card design:

Use one-sided design – People like to write notes on the back of the card

Less is more – Too much information will overwhelm your customer

Design for the Media – Plan for using the design as a card and for Social Media

Good Design takes time – Don’t expect for it to happen overnight

Communication is key - Be as detailed as you can.  Images, Color Samples, Font Styles

Be patient - Unless the designer knows everything about you, the first proof will not be anything like what you wanted

Related posts:

1. Business cards make an impression
2. Olympus C-3000 Zoom
3. Business search using Thumbtack.com

Tips for Business Card design is a post from: Words of Wisdom by MrWes thank you for reading my blog.

Fixing a rotated picture

For obvious reasons, people don’t like rotating their heads to view a picture on their computer monitors.  You need to rotate the picture for easier viewing.  You can do this by doing the following:

Picture that needs rotating

1. Launch Office Picture Manager. Look under Programs => Microsoft Office => Microsoft Office Tools => Office Picture Manager. 2. Click on the icon that shows 2 triangles. One virticle, the other rotated. You choose Rotate Left or Rotate Right.  In this image, I have show the Rotate Right button highlighted. 3. Once you have rotated the image, you would click on the Save button

Reducing a high definition picture

If you are preparing a picture for viewing on the internet, you don’t need to have the same resolution. All Social Networks want a small picture that is quickly loadable. The High Definition pictures don’t fit these requirements, so you need to reduce the resolution.

Change picture resolution	1. Launch Microsoft Office Picture Manger. Look under Programs => Microsoft Office => Microsoft Office Tools => Office Picture Manager. 2. Click on Edit Pictures.
Editing Picture	3. Click on Compress Pictures Link.
Reduce resolution	4. Click on Compress for Documents. 5. Select File 6. Select Save As 7. Use different name, so you don’t over-write your original file.NOTE: The file size was reduced from the Original 2.53MB to 273KB. Most Social Networking websites will accept files this small.

Resizing and Cropping on the web

Once your picture that has been compressed into a usable size, there are websites that will help you to resize and crop your image for a specific Social Network’s image size requirements.  I would recommend reading my article “Resizing your image for social network profile” for more information about how to do it.

Related posts:

1. How to: Get a digitized image on Google Docs
2. A picture explains Social Network growth
3. Resizing your image for social network profile

How to Convert Hi-Def photo for Social Network is a post from: Words of Wisdom by MrWes thank you for reading my blog.

Seeing the big picture is good. When you analyze the job as a whole you can see how all the tasks are related to each other. You can also see the dependencies of tasks on each other; which tasks must be completed before proceeding to the next.

What I’m going to suggest is already known by many successful people. But it’s worth mentioning again.

Any time you want to have a positive outcome for completing a job in a timely manner, you need to have S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Specific – what, why, how
Measurable – concrete criteria for completion
Attainable – believable
Realistic – do-able
Timely – sense of urgency

Using SMART goals can be applied to any job or task. It will help you focus your efforts and be more efficient in the completion of your next job.

I’m going to use an example of moving. This job comes to mind right now because I’ve been helping a lot of people move.

Let’s look at two different moving scenarios from house A to house B.

Random move scenario

• Preparation
  • Reserve moving van
  • Schedule friends to help move
  • Pick up moving van
• Moving
  • Move stuff from house A into van until full or no more stuff
  • Drive to house B
  • Move stuff from van into house B
  • If lunchtime then get food
  • If everything moved into house B you can wrap-up the move
  • Continue moving
• Wrap-up the move
  • Return van
  • Collapse from exhaustion

SMART move scenario

• Plan move
• Break up move into smaller tasks (dismantle, load order, unload order, assemble)
• Create color-coded room maps for house A and house B
• Pack and color code boxes/items for their final destinations
• List tasks that need to be completed at house A
• List tasks that need to be completed at house B
• Add some rest and lunch breaks in the task list
• Review task lists to minimize wasted time and ensure everyone stays busy
• Reserve moving van
• Schedule friends to help move
• Schedule necessary tools for house A and house B (electric screwdrivers, hex wrenches, pliers, moving dollies, moving carts)
• Pick up moving van

• Color code rooms to follow the room maps
• Post room maps at house A and house B
• Post task lists at house A and house B
• Pick up moving van

• Work on one task at a time until complete
• If all tasks are complete go to wrap-up
• Continue moving

Even though the SMART scenario looks like it’s more work to do, it actually goes more smoothly.  Each task was done in the order it needed to be and there wasn’t any confusion about what needed to be done next.  As for parallel processing, that is left for the planner of the moving event.

Here are a few hints for making your move work more smoothly:

• Depending on how many people you have to help, you can have a disassemble/assemble team.
• You can have a team move stuff to the load-staging area.
• You can have a team loading the van.

Related posts:

1. My thoughts on moving
2. Best tools for moving
3. Distractions slow down your progress

Slow down and be S.M.A.R.T. is a post from: Words of Wisdom by MrWes thank you for reading my blog.

The vinegar approach:

Here is what many documented methods say

• Heat up white vinegar in a pot
• Pour hot vinegar on stickers
• Lay washcloth soaked in hot/warm vinegar over stickers and let sit for several minutes
• With a plastic scraper/putty knife, pry sticker away from bathtub surface
• Scrub away the sticky residue

I don’t know what I was doing wrong, but it didn’t work like magic for me.  In fact, many of the stickers didn’t budge, they refused to cooperate.  Maybe that’s why they were longtime residents of the bathtub.  I didn’t have all day to keep on repeating the process, so I tried a different approach.

The radical approach:

Here is a more radical and direct approach, from start to finish it only took 20 minutes.  I wish I had taken pictures but alas I didn’t think ahead to document this process.

Picture taken in Wes' Macro Studio using an iPhone

Before starting you need the following tools:

• Spray Goo Gone brand Painter’s Pal gel
• Heavy duty (single edge) razor scraper – you have better control and can hold it at an angle that gets under the stickers without scratching the tub surface.  Your results may vary, but this tool worked better than a putty knife for me.
• Paper towels for cleanup

Radical method:

• Open windows, this process does involve fumes.  Not as bad as the vinegar smell, but probably not that good for you to breath without ventilation.
• Spray Painter’s Pal gel directly on and around the bathtub stickers/decals.
• Take a break for 5 minutes while the Painter’s Pal gel does its work.
• Using the Heavy duty razor scraper - with each sticker, place the blade just under the outer edge of the sticker and gently work around the edges toward the center.  As the sticker begins to give, it will get easier.  Don’t worry, if one is stubborn, just move onto the next sticker until you have finished removing the majority of the sticker surface.
• Remove the sticker debris with paper towels
• Wipe away dissolved adhesive
• At this point, the majority of the stickers will be removed, but there might be some adhesive residue on the bathtub surface.
• If there is adhesive residue, re-apply the Painter’s Pal gel
• Take another break for 5 minutes while the Painter’s Pal gel does its work.
• Use the scraper if you need to, but at this point, you will probably just need more paper towels to clean up the dissolved adhesive.

No related posts.

How to remove bathtub stickers is a post from: Words of Wisdom by MrWes thank you for reading my blog.

That used to be the case with me until recently when I lost mine without knowing it.  Many USB drives have a little ring that attaches to your keyring.  It gives everybody a false sense of security.  It will stay on your keyring right?  Unfortunately, the stock ring they include with the Cruzer is not made to stand up to the punishment most people dish out when they handle their keys.

How do I know?  The other day, I discovered my USB drive sitting on the ground next to my car.  It had to have been sitting there for at least 24 hours.  I’m lucky it was only mangled a little bit.

It appears that the USB drive somehow came off my keys and landed on the ground.  Then it was stepped on or rolled over by a heavy object.  Possibly a car.  The slider used to extend the USB plug does not seem to be functional either.

So, if the ring isn’t really designed to fit on a keyring, how are we going to keep it safe and handy?  One solution is a protective enclosure that will hold the USB drive.  The image on the left shows a USB drive carrier that attaches to a keyring or other leash mechanism.  It keeps 2 USB drives safe and secure. 

 Inside the case are two pockets that hold each USB drive snuggly so they don’t go anywhere.  Inside the case you can see a PNY USB drive that I plan to use for my mobile storage needs.  I’m hoping – after some minor technical procedures - I will be able to transfer the data from the beat-up Cruzer to the PNY 4GB drive.

Related posts:

1. Where’s your data?
2. Insignia NS-WBRDVD (USB feature)
3. My love-hate relationship with my TiVo

How to guard your data is a post from: Words of Wisdom by MrWes thank you for reading my blog.