Joe Stoddard is an industry consultant and the director of builder operations for Dynami Solutions; www.joestoddard.com.
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Higher-end 'home technology' projects demand over-the-top installations that can cost as much as a starter home. But what about your average homeowner who just wants to share the Internet with a couple of computers, or wants a little more control of their lighting so they don't have to walk into a...
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Remodelers' hard drives might not be the most tempting targets for hackers, but there are still plenty of threats to your digital security. Portable storage devices have made it easy for your data to walk right out the door with a careless or disgruntled employee.
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Your training dollars are better spent on periodic mini-sessions that address specific issues.Send remedial users to introductory Windows classes before the real training starts.
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Free Yahoo e-mail offers excellent spam and virus filtering, plus "throw-away" addresses to help avoid zealous marketers. If you want to try online project collaboration without spending a lot, check out free Yahoo Groups (groups.yahoo.com).
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Good software and hardware often turns into "shelfware" because you bought it to address the wrong problem, or because your company just wasn't ready for it.Here are some tips that will raise your TQ and ensure that your next technology purchase succeeds.
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To convert a file to PDF, send the file to Acrobat by "printing" the file and selecting the Acrobat printer that will appear on your printer list after installation. Once created, PDF files retain the formatting of the original document and will look the same when printed.
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For many remodeling design chores, SketchUp beats even contractor-friendly CAD programs like Chief Architect or SoftPlan. Here are just a few tasks that only take a few minutes with SketchUp but would cost hours using CAD (if you could do them at all).
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Want to track your customers' kids' birthdays or take credit card orders but can't find a place in ACT! You can add fields for any information you need to capture and custom design screen layouts with different fields for individuals in your company who perform different jobs.
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Last month we distinguished between pre-sale estimating and post-sale estimating. It's an important distinction, but there are estimating products, developed specifically for remodelers, that handle both.
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I wish I had a nickel for every time a remodeler told me that if they only had better estimating software, they could handle more leads, produce more quotes, and make more money. This is when you think about whether this project is a good fit for you -- it's not the time to stay up all night...