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CONSIDER THIS: PRETTY SOON, YOU won't be out of touch with the office ever again. It won't matter whether you're searching for enlightenment in the Himalayas, a suntan in Polynesia or a sale in Kabul. Internet access points are planned for all those places--as well as coffee shops, hotels and other heavily trafficked points in between. There will still be places to hide out, but not in the airplanes flying overhead. Internet access is coming to air travelers with 802.11-enabled (Wi-Fi) notebooks, too. Never having to miss a single e-mail or afternoon-long video-conference has its good and bad points, of course. Connectivity increases your opportunity to work anywhere, at any time, but it also interrupts you while on vacation. Think of it as a continuation of your pager and cellphone experiences--times 10.

It won't happen tomorrow or next week, and wirelessness won't replace the wired network, an indispensable backhaul for high-speed communications. But it may accomplish something that the FCC has failed miserably at--loosening the Baby Bells' stranglehold on the "last mile" of communications. Unregulated wireless bands offer would-be ISPs the opportunity to end-run entrenched telecom interests -- not just with Wi-Fi, but also with fixed wireless and other radio types.

Whatever the solution, Wi-Fi seems to have a role to play. Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Intel's Communications Group, calls it "the most revolutionary technology ... since the Internet browser," and he predicts it will "do for computing what cellphones did for voice communication." Sure, the term "revolutionary" gets overworked. But if Wi-Fi, or wirelessness overall, has anything like the impact of cellphones and the Internet, then that would be revolutionary, wouldn't it? We can't draw a clear picture of the wireless future yet, but some tantalizing glimpses are emerging.

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There is a segment of the U.S. auto market where nary a dollar is spent on incentives to move the metal and billions of dollars stand to be made.

Even more surprising are this segment's loyal, young, male, affluent consumers, who are willing to spend thousands of dollars on sexy wheel-tire packages, tighter suspensions and high-powered engines without batting an eye.

And auto makers, from the mass-market Big Three to the Euro-lux manufacturers, are lining up for a piece of the action. It's the business of performance, and it's heating up across the globe.

Some of these models are muscle cars with bigger engines and louder exhaust, while others almost could be classified as stand-alone products due to their extensive modifications.

U.S. auto makers are toying with various strategies for entering the performance-vehicle arena, with some copying the German brands that built the market into what it is today.

BMW AG and its German competitor DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes-Benz set the foundation for the business. BMW's M (for "Motorsport") unit launched its E12 in 1979, and Mercedes' AMG marketed its first vehicle, the C36 AMG, in 1995. Since then, the two have cornered the performance market and held a tight grip on its customer base.

"To drive a car is not only to go from point A to point B. It is also to have fun, and if you offer a product which has more fun, you can get more money for it," Ulrich Bruhnke, president of BMW's M GmbH says in explaining the formula. "The M products are not sold - the customers buy these cars. They know these cars very well in every detail."

Like other segments where profitability is high and sales are sizzling, competitors now are looking for a piece of the action.

Chrysler Group is among the most aggressive mass-market auto makers, with its Street and Racing Technologies (SRT) unit. It is home to about 150 engineers tasked with developing performance offshoots of mainstream Chrysler products.

Chrysler is so dedicated to keeping SRT focused on its core business that the team is housed away from the auto maker's Auburn Hills, MI, headquarters.

"One thing about the (engineers) on our team, they have SRT stamped on their ass," says Dan Knott, director of Chrysler's SRT business.

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Here's how you can get the tax deductions you're entitled to

For some business owners, paying taxes can be a bitter pill to swallow. But for those who have a solid bookkeeping system, a good certified public accountant and a solid knowledge of tax law, tax time can be less taxing.

To ready your home business for Uncle Sam, set up a detailed recordkeeping system. Keep in mind that although you will operate your business from home, the Internal Revenue Service will treat the part of your home you use for business as a separate entity. Therefore you must separate your business expenses from your home expenses.

"To keep things in order, separate the receipts when you make the initial purchase. If you are purchasing a household item and a business-related item at the same time, tell the salesperson that you need a different receipt for each," says Rudy Lewis, president of the National Association of Home-Based Businesses (NAHBB).

Set up a separate business bank account. Keep all business receipts in a separate drawer or filing cabinet. Use a computer program to track and record your expenses and income. And hire a good tax advisor or CPA to assist with the paperwork.

An accountant can help you set up your books and track your expenses, pinpoint the types of deductions you can claim and help you fill out the appropriate tax forms.

Like any business owner, you can claim deductions for such things as office supplies, business travel, and meal and entertainment expenses. But you can also file the "home office" deduction, which includes such items as utilities and repairs. But before you file your return, you must first qualify according to strict guidelines set by the IRS: your office must be your principal place of business; a place where you meet with customers or clients during the normal course of business activity; or a separate structure that is detached from your home.

Moreover, your home office must be used "regularly and exclusively" for business. That means that if you use a corner in your family room to operate, but you also use the room to watch TV, you cannot claim the deduction. However, there are a few exceptions to the "exclusive use" rule. Contact your local IRS office for more information.

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Enterprises with any Windows XP-based computers in their organizations face an imminent threat of software incompatibility problems and other network security issues when Microsoft next month begins pushing Service Pack 2 as part of automatic Windows updates.

Microsoft made XP SP2 security update available last summer to fix security holes in its Windows XP operating system. SP2 is a crucial update to protect computers from intruders and other security risks--it blocks all executable program files, closes all TCP/UDP communications ports, enables firewalls, disables pop-up windows and disables some communication protocols.

Although that frustrates hackers and prevents viruses and malicious programs, it also wreaks havoc on about 70 percent of the business applications that are client/server based and use Windows-based clients with servers that use UNIX and other operating systems.

After initial complaints from enterprises whose users were allowing Microsoft to install the SP2 update automatically on their computers, Microsoft provided a temporary "block" of the automated delivery of SP2 to Windows machines. That delay expires April 12 when Microsoft plans to resume the automated installs.

Mani Sridharan, vice president of business solutions for BOSS, the Norcross, Ga.-based network solutions company, said enterprises that have not worked out issues related to SP2 and properly installed the update on all Windows XP PCs in their organizations could experience significant problems if they do not act now.

"If there are just a few machines in your organization that don't have SP2 installed, you could experience the same problems others faced last summer," Sridharan said. "SP2 automatically closes ports that may be needed for other applications and, unless you take steps to keep those ports open, the applications will not work."

Enterprise network managers should use a deployment utility, such as BOSS's DiagWin Professional, to make sure SP2 and all future patches and upgrades can be correctly installed and confirmed on each computer in the organization, Sridharan said. DiagWin provides network managers with an effective tool to address what BOSS calls the "5Ps" of SP2 deployment problem areas: ports, protocols, programs, pop-ups and protection.

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THERE'S NO POINT INVESTING IN A national marketing campaign if your goal is to reach local prospects. Fortunately, there are online advertising programs that include a geographic-targeting feature, allowing business owners to spend a lot less money communicating with the right audience.

* Community websites: Your first stop should be your own backyard. Is your company a member of the chamber of commerce or the local branch of an organization such as the American Bar Association or the American Marketing Association? Your membership may include a free link from their websites to yours, and some consumers use these organizations to find friendly neighborhood professionals.

Next, check out your local newspaper's website. Surf around to find a local business directory, and look for content areas where you can buy a link or banner ad or sponsor a how-to article. Remember to ask the newspaper's advertising department about special offline/online ad package deals.

* Internet Yellow Pages (IYP): You're probably familiar with the Yellow Pages book that's delivered to your door. If you buy a print ad, you could get a free listing on its website. Not a print advertiser? Not to worry--you can buy a basic listing for as little as $25 per month on Yahoo! (http://yp. yahoo.com), or pay on a per-click basis through Verizon's Super Pages.com or InfoSpace's Switchboard (www.switchboard.com). Typically, IYPs include a business listing under one or more cities, full contact information, an office location map and a link to your site. IYP users can find your business by searching by keyword, city or zip code, or by browsing category topics.

* Search engine advertising: Two search engine power-players, Google and Overture, now allow their pay-for-placement advertisers to bid on keywords in specified regions. Google Ad Words advertisers can select a campaign within their accounts and then click "Edit Settings" to change the locations where their ads will be displayed. You can select individual states, cities or both.

Overture has a separate program, Local Match, in which advertisers choose a geographic area for their ads to be seen (a 0.5- to 100-mile radius around your location). When Overture users type in a keyword, they're given the option of entering a city and state or ZIP code. Local Match advertisers' listings will then be displayed, which take users to a Yellow Pages-type page.

# posted by Medical Information : 4:25 AM  0 Comments

When I began my aftermarket career with AC Spark Plug in 1962, the challenge of differentiating your business typically meant developing new and better products and enhancing the power of your brand.

I moved to the distribution side of the industry in 1983 and discovered that while achieving competitive differentiation was equally important for a distributor, it had become far more complicated because of a variety of industry dynamics. It was easy to become overwhelmed by parts proliferation, increased product complexity, the advent of imports and the improved reliability of modern vehicles. The distributors, jobbers and retailers who survived--and who remain strong today--realized competitive advantage comes not simply by offering the best brands or through smart management of physical inventory, but also through the rapid exchange and analysis of information. Data has become our Holy Grail.

Good data accelerates our delivery of value to the end user. From the manufacturer who creates and deploys a service solution for a late-model application to the shop owner who promises to return the customer's vehicle by 5 p.m., the aftermarket will thrive on its ability to continuously enhance speed to market. If this industry fails to find new, better and faster ways to address market demand, we'll be handing yet another advantage to the new vehicle dealerships.

It was this realization that led the Alliance to embrace the concept of a data warehouse in 2000. Data warehousing wasn't new--it had been used with great success by catalog retailers and other distribution-intensive businesses--but the technology hadn't been utilized on more than a pilot basis within the aftermarket. In fact, it was the All Pro/ Bumper to Bumper organization, in partnership with a leading aftermarket technology provider, that raised the possibility of mining a "warehouse" of data for new insights to market behavior.

The driving force behind our data warehouse was the collective awareness among Alliance shareholders that our competitive velocity depends not only on variables we could identify and manage, but by countless others we hadn't begun to explore. As Bill Schlatterer, chairman of our IT committee, put it, "We're smart enough to ask hard questions, but there are always new questions we don't know to ask."

# posted by Medical Information : 4:24 AM  0 Comments

Meeting someone special, falling in love, getting engaged, planning a wedding, living the everyday reality of a marriage. Millions of Americans have taken the plunge until death do us part. In fact, according to Census data, there were 57 million married couple households in 2003. These couples said vows promising to love, honor and cherish. But for some of these couples, there has been one additional wedding caveat: They've decided to start a business with their spouse.

And while it is often said that marriage is hard work, what happens when you decide to combine the work of your marriage with the work of starting a new business? First, "[Don't assume], 'Oh, we get along well in our family life, so we'll get along well in our business together,'" says Bob Murray, who, along with his wife, Alicia Fortinberry, runs Fortinberry-Murray Consulting, a coaching business that specializes in helping people build solid relationships within a business setting. "Running a business together and being a family are two different things," he says.

Adds Fortinberry, "You want to make sure that you're working together because you enjoy being together, the relationship is pleasurable for both of you, and it gives you so much that you want to extend your relationship from home to work." It can be a fun ride, if you're meant for it.

When you're starting your journey through entrepreneurship as a married couple, think of it in the same way you went from courtship to wedding to marriage in your personal life. Read on to meet three couples who have taken the path from altar to entrepreneurship.

Courtship and Engagement

Deciding if you're ready to start a business with your spouse mirrors the choices and self-examination you endure when you're first dating. Says Murray, "[Ask yourself], Do I want to be with this person 24/7?" Can you see yourself working side by side? Are your visions for the future the same?

Adds Fortinberry, "Do you share the same values and vision? That should be discussed, and if you can't come to a clear agreement, then that's a danger signal."

# posted by Medical Information : 3:50 AM  0 Comments

Survive contact information upheavals with your business intact

WHOEVER SAID, "THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, the more they stay the same," never ran a home office. Whether you're an entrepreneur, freelance or contract-based worker, or work remotely full or part time for a firm someplace else, your contact information is your lifeline to clients, vendors, partners, and coworkers. Change it, and you'll render entries in hundreds of Rolodexes and Palm organizers obsolete. A simple change of address or phone number can snowball into a loss of business, or even call your professionalism or your company's stability into question. At the very least, it can annoy and inconvenience the very people with whom you've worked hard to establish relationships.

Like many home-based workers, Marilyn Milne has dealt with changes of all kinds. Over the past seven years, the Eugene, Ore.-based business owner has renamed her marketing communications firm and added new telephone and fax lines, e-mail addresses, and a P.O. box. On top of that, her phone company has changed her area code.

How has Milne managed to keep her business on track and growing? By approaching each change "as a twofold communications challenge" that involves "getting the word out" and ensuring that her "communications methods operate without glitches," she says. To help you develop your own strategies for surviving professional change, we've gleaned tips and advice from experts, home workers like Milne, and personal experience.

Leaving a Trail

"Managing change is in large part managing behavior," says Joyce Graff, a vice president of the Gartner Group research firm in Stamford, Conn. "You have to plan ahead, [but] human behavior is that we don't," she explains. "We don't react until we have a problem in our face."

To compensate, Graft recommends a mix of personal actions and high-tech tools. She says it's important to anticipate changes, moves, or disruptions in service or connectivity. For instance, if your e-mail address will change, "keep the old account [active] for a couple of months' overlap," she suggests. As soon as you know your new address or other information, print it on business cards and hand them out "so you don't just drop off the face of the earth."

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Whether it's to spend more time with the family or simply to have greater freedom and flexibility, more and more people are seeking to run businesses from their homes. That trend, combined with today's technology, has led to a retro boom of sorts--the nation that was based on homebased businesses is coming full circle. And, thanks to franchises paying attention to this demand, virtually every business imaginable is now an option for those who want to operate from home.

The top 105 homebased franchises are listed in order of their ranking in Entrepreneur's 2005 Franchise 500[R], the world's most comprehensive ranking of franchise companies. (Their Franchise 500[R] ranking appears in parentheses.)

This ranking is not intended to endorse, promote or recommend any one particular franchise company. Rather, it's a tool for your franchise research, which should include interviews with existing franchisees, counsel from your attorney and accountant, and close reviews of literature such as the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:48 AM  0 Comments

DURING our recent office relocation, we consulted with a technical expert on a variety of tools to help us communicate between our remote offices. The tools he recommended were just what we needed, and we bought several for company-wide use.

A few weeks later a bill arrived from the technical company for time spent consulting to us on the tools we bought. This seemed unfair to us since we know the company received a commission on the items. From our perspective, we were paying for the company's sales call.

When one of my employees called the consultant to question the charges, he listened carefully to our concerns and then promised to look at the bill to see if we bad been charged erroneously. The next day we received an e-mail from him explaining that the charge was for a meeting in which we talked about a number of issues related to the move, including the new tools. He made a good faith gesture by reducing the invoice by 30 percent, to remove the cost of time spent discussing the tools.

Our consultant handled the billing question skillfully. He listened carefully, acted quickly and protected the business relationship by coming up with a solution that gave something to each party. As a home-based business owner, you're bound to be called upon to handle difficult situations like this one. Work-at-homers usually wear many hats, including director of customer service. Handling disputes as diplomatically as our tech consultant did can help you protect customer and vendor relationships.

Here are some steps to take when you need to turn a negative situation into a positive one.

* Address issues quickly. One of the best things our consultant did was to answer our query right away. By not letting bad feelings linger, he removed any chance that they might fester into something bigger that could permanently damage the relationship.

* Listen first and then ask questions. Give the other party the chance to explain fully his or her perception of the situation without interrupting. Afterward, you may need to ask questions to uncover the real source of irritation. Some people may think they're upset about one thing, and then realize it's another. For example, my company was not upset about the cost of the tech consultant's bill; we were troubled that he was charging us for the opportunity to sell a new product.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:26 AM  0 Comments

As countries of good will wage war on terrorism, IABC fights the good fight to win a righteous place for communicators at the executive table and to bring creativity, insight and truth to the words of businesses around the globe.

A rich professional education and inimitable sense of fraternity combined to keep the synapses firing at the annual IABC international conference in Chicago, June 9-12. Some 1,500 people from 35 countries descended on the Hyatt Regency, turning the hotel into a happy training camp for modern-day communication "soldiers." They emerged fortified and equipped for the challenges ahead.

In a greater effort to share the experience with those remaining at the home front, IABC introduced a new benefit this year. A squadron of volunteers blanketed the conference territory, shooting out rapid-fire notes and loading them onto the new and improved IABC web site. With precision and speed, a virtual library of highlights peppered the site daily. And there they still reside at http://store.yahoo.com/iabstore/conup.html.

Make no mistake, however. Staring at a light box, guiding a cursor and tapping on a keyboard are no substitute for human interaction, for the energy and camaraderie long embraced as hallmarks of this organization. Only by attending the conference do you experience hugs in the hallway, laughter in the lounges and whitecaps of smiles breaking across a great sea of faces at keynote sessions. Tiny enclaves of idea-sharing; problem-solvers at an exhibit booth; the hum of international good will; intimate dinner parties that make friends of strangers; a chance to put a face with a name or reconnect with an old colleague--these moments cannot be captured on the web. They have to be lived.

So what did you miss?

SUNDAY

At Sunday evening's opening session, sponsored by Deloitte & Touche, outgoing IABC Chairman John Clemons, ABC, APR, bounced onstage to the tune of "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." The troops thus revved, Clemons shared the news and spread the thank-you's around. The association welcomed 55 new accredited members since last June, he reported. On that list was IABC's own president, Julie Freeman, ABC, APR, who passed her accreditation exam a week before the conference. Kudos went to Wilma Mathews, ABC, and the program advisory committee for putting together an outstanding lineup of speakers; to the Chicago chapter hospitality task force chaired by Peg Wander; and to lead sponsor Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

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RALEIGH, N.C. -- QlikTech Inc., a leading provider of powerful and rapidly deployable business intelligence, analysis and reporting applications, today announced that residential home builder DeLuca Homes, has deployed QlikView, QlikTech's innovative business intelligence application, to provide timely and accurate business information related to sales, marketing, production and operations.

Before deploying QlikView, DeLuca Homes' senior managers had no access to a simple dashboard of critical business information maintained in the organization's management system. Instead, they had to rely on "canned reports" that offered little flexibility and often, dated information. "Before deploying QlikView, timely business information was hard to come by - canned reports were static and often outdated, and custom reports could take more than a month to produce," explained Ed Bobrin, Director of Corporate and Home Systems Technology for DeLuca Homes. "At Deluca Homes, we move at the speed of light, and we needed a business analysis application that could keep up."

DeLuca Homes developed nearly a dozen customized QlikView applications to provide senior managers with a dashboard of information related to various departments within the organization, including sales, production, marketing and finance operations, among others. Depending on the complexity of the data sources, most of DeLuca Homes' customized applications took anywhere from just minutes to several hours to develop.

"QlikView provides our management team with a robust application that has quickly become mission-critical for our organization - most of our users are in the application every day," said Bobrin. "Without QlikView, we had no real-time view into sales and construction data. QlikView provides us with instant access to this critical information, and is putting us ahead of the 8-ball by enabling us to improve productivity, as well as our relationships with customers and investors."

# posted by Medical Information : 3:25 AM  0 Comments

Q I was ripped off by a work-at-home business, but when I tried to return the package, it was refused.

I So I put it in a new box and mailed it again at my expense. I filed a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the BBB, but neither has been able to help me. The company was hiding behind a post office box and did not give me a real contact phone number or address. Is there any way I can get my money back without shelling out more cash?

--K. Utley

Via the Internet

Before we go into how to get your money back, let's talk a little about work-at-home operations. Although there are many legitimate work-at-home jobs, it's a good idea to ask the following questions before committing:

* What tasks will I have to perform?

* How will I get paid?

* Will I be paid a salary or a commission?

* When can I expect my first paycheck?

* Is there a long-term obligation that I should know about?

* What will I get for my money?

In addition, investigate the company by requesting written materials by mail, including product and service information or info about the organization itself. If there is an investment or purchase involved, have that information sent to your lawyer, accountant, or financial adviser for review.

You may file a complaint with the FTC (877-382-4357; www.ftc.gov), your local consumer protection offices, and the advertising manager of the publication that ran the ad. Also read Work-at-Home Directory by Barbara Becker (Prime Pub Inc.; $3.95) and read "Don't Let Seam Artists Trap You," (February 2003).

# posted by Medical Information : 1:59 AM  0 Comments

Motorola Inc. announced this week that Vonage Holdings Corp., a major provider of broadband telephone service, will begin offering the Motorola VT2442 voice-over-IP gateway to customers, making it easier to incorporate broadband telephone service into their home network.

"We've been working with Vonage for over two years, so there are a large number of Motorola voice gateways already being used by Vonage customers," Jeff Walker, senior director of marketing at Motorola, told Ziff Davis Internet News.

"This new agreement is extending our relationship beyond basic internal adapters, now giving Vonage customers a voice gateway that provides extensive networking features and advanced capabilities."

The VT2442 is part of a range of products that Motorola has created for VOIP providers. The device uses Texas Instruments' TNETV1060 VOIP gateway chip set to enhance the quality and feature offerings presented to customers who use Vonage's broadband telephone service. Customers can share high-speed Internet connections around the house and access Vonage's telephone services from one device.

The VT2442 supports up to two lines of telephone service and offers call waiting, call forwarding and caller ID. In addition, the device includes a home network router with four Ethernet ports that can be used to connect computers and gaming consoles, as well as a firewall for Internet security.

Currently, the supply agreement between Motorola and Vonage for the VT2442 VOIP gateway is exclusive. However, since the device is relatively new, there is a possibility that the company will sell the VT2442 through other channels in the future as well, according to a representative from Motorola.

"Motorola is an ideal partner: They are a market leader in broadband-enabled products that are high-quality and easy-to-use. This partnership builds upon Vonage's product portfolio, giving customers more choice when they subscribe to our award-winning service," said Jeffrey Citron, CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. "Motorola is a proven partner with the experience and support to ensure the quality that is essential to our business."

Customers who sign up for broadband telephone services directly through the Vonage Web site will receive the Motorola VOIP gateway at no extra charge. Although no specific date has been set, the VT2442 will be available to customers in fall 2005.

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