LinkedIn is a gift

If you aren't already optimizing your use of LinkedIn, you are missing a great opportunity. This is a relatively underutilized tool, as we are finding from the great people we already know and are actively linking to.

The LinkedIn site is easy to navigate and work. There are presenters who will come to your group (ask us about one guy in NYC in particular) and books (ask us about a great book that you can purchase online), so no matter how you prefer to learn about LinkedIn, there is a method out there for you.

Start at www.linkedin.com and create a profile.
Add your Linkedin profile URL to your email.
You can even post a PowerPoint presentation describing your business right on your profile! On Sunday a guy in California linked to our slide presentation. Still not sure why, but perhaps we have a prospective client on the West Coast...

Open yourself up to this online networking gift.

We already have new business directly attributable to our profile (http://www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert)on LinkedIn and the great people we are connected to.

Fear of the unknown

Franklin Roosevelt in his 1933 Inaugural Address said

"...The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Fear of the unknown, the comfort of the old way, retard progress and make us fearful of change. This familiar quote (at least the first part of it; I find the second part of it much more intriguing) was printed on the wrapper on my free Starbucks coffee yesterday, free because I pledged to spend 5 (only 5!) hours to helping a community nonprofit organization.

A small commitment by each of us pays off in mighty ways, if more than just a few people make this promise. Go to http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp. Make a stand to make a change in someone's life that needs your selfless help.

Community groups and nonprofits have been hammered by the economy, Madoff, unemployment and malaise. I hear this everyday from my old and new nonprofit clients.

Stand up. Make a daring change to help for more than 5 hours, or even just 5 hours! It's more than about the free coffee. Sign up in any Starbucks store until January 25th. Do it now, because YES WE CAN make a difference, one by one.

Upsetting

It's upsetting that some people out there purport to be helpful in givng you the ability to accept credit card payment, when in fact they are charging outrageous prices. Namely, (well, I won't really name names...)
1) There is a .com doing so at 5.5% on each transaction. That's DOUBLE what it should be!
2) There is another.com doing this for nonprofits alone, at 4.75% (a bargain, huh?)and they mail you a paper check once a month. That's not fair! They are earning money on the nonprofit's donations!
I am sure there are more.

Questions? Ask us.
Caveat emptor!

Thanks!

First, I want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.

Be thankful for:

· the business relationships you have earned this past year,

· for the friends you rely on,

· for the family that surrounds you, and

· for those who are trying to make significant changes to preserve, and improve, our way of life.

Second, thanks to those of you who are my clients.

Finally and not insignificant in the least, thank you for the gift that is Gotham.

Thank you to those who have referred business to me (you know who you are and how special that is to me).

I value my entire network of business relationships, for whom I try to provide the attention and service we all deserve but seldom receive.

Have a great holiday!

Obama

If Time magazine doesn't make Barack Hussein Obama its Man of the Year, I'm not sure who they could possibly pick who is more deserving.

No matter your politics, the challenge this brave and articulate man has ahead of him is immense.

We all must unite around him in order to assure we prevail as a nation.

Technorati Profile

tomorrow is a historic day

new law

On October 1st, 2008 a new law will be enforced in Connecticut.

In a nutshell, every business, nonprofit or other organization that requests private identification numbers

• Social Security numbers


• health insurance numbers


• driver's license numbers


• credit card numbers, etc.

must encrypt them on their systems, limit access to them by employees who are in a need-to-know status, and post a policy on their website, intranet and on employee bulletin boards saying this is their policy.

To download my white paper on ways to implement this law and to protect yourself from most breaches, go to: http://marchalpert.googlepages.com/whitepaper_new_law_in_ct_01oct08.

Please feel free to share with others.