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Vol. 25, No. 7 • July, 2007
You can find this newsletter and some past issues on the web @ www.Freeman-Spicer.com
WILFER . . . . . . . . . . A new study says workers are wasting more time online than ever before. Surprised? And if you work in an office - or just use the Internet - you’re probably a “wilfer” - short for “What Was I Looking For?” The term was coined in a British study that found workers lost an average of two full days a month to aimless Web browsing. In the U.S., a survey found that, for 52% of workers, Internet surfing was the top time waster. Are we destined to become a nation of idle wilfers? An alternative view is that, while employees may shop online or book vacations on company time, the Internet has made them more productive. (PC Magazine)
Nightmare at 30,000 Feet . . . . . . . . . . There’s no such thing as a free lunch - especially on Skybus Airlines, a carrier starting service last May. Sure, you can get a $10 fare to travel one way from Columbus, Ohio to such cities as Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and Boston. But you’ll pay in peace and quiet. Skybus flight attendants will be hawking not only food and water but also such sundries as suntan lotion and jewelry to an extremely captive market. And the attendants will have incentive aplenty to tap you on the shoulder. Paid only $9 an hour, or $16,000 a year, they’ll get a 10% commission on any merchandise sold in this flying souk (market). (Pilots, paid $75,000, don’t get a cut, but we can only imagine the infomercial-like announcements.) “If the flight attendants could sell real estate onboard, we would do it,” jokes Skybus Chief Executive William Diffenderffer, 56, who says the list of items for sale is going to get longer. Skybus is a knock off of Irish ultra discounter Ryanair. Every Skybus flight has at least ten seats priced at $10. Fares go up after that, averaging half that of competitors’. Low fares demand spartan operations. There are no phone numbers to call and few employees. If you want to complain, use e-mail or go to the airport. Flights can be booked only on Skybus’ Internet site. Airport kiosks are used for check-in. Fliers pay for everything: $5 per bag to check two bags, $10 for priority boarding, $10 to buy a pillow or blanket. And Diffenderffer will turn his 18 Airbus A319 jets (by the end of 2008) into advertisements you can’t miss. Companies such as insurer Nationwide will pay $500,000 annually to paste messages on the jet’s outside, interior lavatory doors, seat-back trays, bulkheads and overhead storage containers. Diffenderffer figures Skybus can generate up to 15% of its revenue through advertising and in-flight sales. That will no doubt please his backers (Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management), who chipped in $160 million. The sleepy flier is another matter. (Forbes)
Mail Delivery . . . Now you can put a hold on your mail for a couple of days - and do it over the Internet. Mail can be held from 3 to 30 days by going to https://dunsapp.usps.gov/HoldMail.jsp.
“Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.” Thomas Jones
Gardening Ideas For Free . . . . . . . .Gardening mavens can find it all on the Internet these days. Have a question - or need some ideas? Here are some web sites to help you through the summer:
bhg.com - Better Homes and Gardens is a dizzyingly comprehensive site.
davesgarden.com - A vibrant knowledge exchange and huge plant database.
garden-gate.prairienet.org - No ads and easy browsing.
Marthastewart.com - Beautifully illustrated; plenty of useful tips.
garden.org - Offers regional guides and a terrific Q&A library.
Organicgardening.com - Thoughtful alternatives that go beyond the basics.
gardening.about.com - A fairly good jumping off point for gardeners. (Forbes)
“Crowdgaming” - You Are The Cursor . . . . . . Interactive advertising has arrived at a strange new frontier, called “crowdgaming.” Computer systems equipped with video cameras and motion-capture software track the movements of a crowd and use them to control a cursor on a giant screen. “It turns a crown into a human joystick,” explains Sam Mazur, creative director at SS+K, an ad agency that developed a crowdgame to promote MSNBC’s NewsBreakerGame.com site. In a recent trial, movie patrons leaned and waved in unison, trying to direct a ball bouncing on the big screen to knock bricks out of a stack. Each time a brick fell, news headlines flashed on the screen. The crowd’s response quickly evolved from random waving to somewhat synchronized swaying - and much yelling. View the action at http://tinyurl.com/2qtyea (BusinessWeek)
Personnel Raises . . . . . . . . . . . Who decreed that all employers shall grant annual pay increases? Most businesses today can’t afford this magnanimous move. Be ready for the argument: “But we’ve always received an annual raise!” This is no longer always. Wage increases every twelve clicks of the calendar are not an entitlement or a birthright. Merit increases are in - and automatic increases out. Here’s your yardstick for considering increases: Can the company afford it? And that goes for the higher-ups as well as the rank and file. Base increases on merit, inflation, and what the business can afford. (Save Your Business a Bundle)
Never Leave Your Nuts Alone . . . . . . . A doctor at an insane asylum decided to take his patients to a baseball game. For weeks in advance, he coached his patients to respond to his commands. When the day of the game arrived. everything went quite well. As the National Anthem started, the doctor yelled, "Up Nuts", and the patients complied by standing up. After the anthem, he yelled, "Down Nuts", and they all sat back down in their seats. After a home run was hit, the doctor yelled, "Cheer Nuts". They all broke out into applause and cheered. When the umpire made a particularly bad call against the star of the home team, the Doctor yelled, "Booooo Nuts" and they all started booing and cat calling. Comfortable with their response, the doctor decided to go get a beer and a hot dog, leaving his assistant in charge. When he returned, there was a riot in progress. Finding his tizzied assistant, the doctor asked, "What in the world happened?" The assistant replied, "Well everything was going just fine until this guy walked by and yelled, "PEANUTS!" (LaFree)
“When I die, I want to die like my grandfather - who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.” (Unknown)
What Have I . . . . . . . . . Ask yourself “What have I contributed to this problem?” Many people rarely, if ever, ask this question. Instead, they automatically assume that any problem they’re having must be someone else’s fault. If there’s a disagreement, it’s the other person’s fault. If something went wrong, someone else made a mistake. It simply never occurs to many people that something is their fault. Or, at the very least, that they may be partly responsible. The problem with this “never blame me” philosophy is that you will rarely be able to pinpoint the one aspect of problem solving that is truly solvable; your contribution. (Don’t Worry, Make Money)
Marketing Your Product . . . . . . . . Your prospect, Peggy, is afraid. She is thinking about buying your service, almost sight unseen. She is very uneasy - and she is the typical prospect. Often, she doesn’t buy, even though she needs what you offer. It is less risky for Peggy to do nothing. At this point, you do not need to put more sale in. You need to take some of the fear out. How? Product manufacturers offer free home trials, or money-back guarantees. Can you do that? Often, you can. Or instead of asking for the business, ask for a project. Offer to do one small case. Ask for a tiny slice of a big account. Always remember: Peggy is afraid. The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate her fear. Offer a trial period or a test project. (Selling The Invisible)
Why Is There a Seventh-Inning Stretch at Baseball Games? . . . . . . . . Baseball is supposed to be America’s national pastime. However, at times it can be a tedious and boring affair. There are some people who equate sitting through a game with watching paint dry. Perhaps it is for these people that the seventh-inning stretch was started. There are two theories behind its origin. The more interesting and less believable one is that president William Howard Taft attended a Washington Senators game during his term of office. Halfway through the seventh inning he had to leave the game. As he rose to leave, all the spectators, out of respect for his office, also rose while he left the stadium. This is believable enough, though why fans would have done this at later games doesn’t make sense. If the President had sneezed during the seventh inning, would we all by saying a seventh-inning “bless you” today? Probably not! The more accepted theory credits it’s beginning to an 1882 baseball game at Manhattan College in New York City. The Manhattan Coach, Brother Jasper, noticing how restless the student fans were, asked them to stand up and stretch during the seventh inning. This practice became standard at subsequent Manhattan College games. When the college team played some exhibition games at the Polo Grounds against the New York Giants, the students did their seventh-inning stretch, and thus it started to catch on at the major league level. (The Book of Totally Useless Information)
Food For Thought . . . . . . . . . . . If money doesn’t grow on trees, then why do banks have branches? What disease did cured ham actually have? Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out!” Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane? (Barton)
Sincerely,
One-Touch Automation - Home Automation is the newest
addition to your home. For more information - call us and we’ll
send you a brochure, or go to http://www.one-touchautomation.com Edward C. Levy
for more information. See outside flap for explanations. President
Freeman-Spicer Financial Services
316 South Eddy Street, P.O. Box 1238, South Bend, IN 46624
(V) 574.234.0069 or 800.526.6753 / (F) 574.234.6414 / surekey@aol.com
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Home Technology, Simplified: One-Touch is a full service home technology company. Simplify your daily routines with an automation system. Imagine your security, lighting, heating/air conditioning working together to save you both time and money. No more setting back the thermostat at night and running around turning off all of your lights before bed. Simply push a button labeled "Goodnight" and let your home automation system do the work. By simply arming your security system "Away", have all of your lights turn off and your heating/air conditioning set back. With One-Touch of a button called "Entertain", have all your lights go to a preset level while your favorite music turns on at a soft level throughout your home. Don't forget, you can control your home from anywhere in the world via the internet. The possibilities are endless!