The title alone enticed me to read it – The 4-Hour Workweek. Who doesn’t want to work just one-tenth of the standard work week? Not knowing anything more about it, other than it being mentioned on numerous blogs and podcasts, I picked up a copy and read a great book that both reaffirmed and inspired.

Tim Ferriss wrote this book based on his life. He was a typical office worker who was frustrated with his situation. He then took a look at his life, what he wanted to do, and built a business of selling supplements where all company functions were outsourced and he only needed a few hours a week – thus the title – to operate his business. With the rest of his time he travels the world, learned martial arts and to dance, and now is an author and speaker.

You don’t have to want to be an entrepreneur to read this book. It gives a unique perspective to how people spend their time, and how they could be spending their time. Even if you like what you do for a living – like myself – there is plenty to enjoy about this book.

My biggest takeaway from 4-Hour is quantifying your goals and dreams. Many people want to do something but think they can’t do it for many reasons, namely they can’t afford to. He talks through scenarios in his own life and even offers planning tools on his Web site to help you objectively determine if you can really do what you want to. In most cases you probably can, and seeing it in black and white will help you move towards your dreams.

Ferriss also professes something I have mastered owning my own business, working remotely. Many companies are moving towards telecommuting, but many do not allow people to work from home, or wherever they are connecting to the Internet. I once worked for a company that would not allow this as the director of my department liked seeing people in their cubicles! He walks the reader through how to approach it and once approved, how to manage it. With voice-over IP technology today, you could be calling a vendor from Denmark without them even knowing you’re outside of the US... not that I have done that myself!

Outsourcing is a key to how Ferriss has been successful. Some may not familiar with outsourcing overseas or the thought of someone in India balancing your US checkbook may be hard to grasp. The old adage that someone who earns $100 an hour should not be doing a task that can be done by someone who earns $10 an hour is a simplification of this concept, and taking a hard look at your life will probably show some of these tasks that can be done by others.

I recommend this book for anyone, whether you are an entrepreneur or are well into your career in a company. It is a high-energy and positive read and give many examples of services you can use to help you reach your goals, even if you just want to stay working under 40 hours a week.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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This year I have gone to several networking events, and the bad ones sometimes stick out more than the good ones. Of those that were not a successful event to me, they all had one thing missing – nametags.

Nametags are essential for any form of networking event. They are a huge icebreaker and can bring down barriers for people to introduce themselves to others. For a networking event where many people may not know each other, it is a great way to make an introduction to the person or their organization. If you are ever attending an event where you may think you know someone, the nametag is the great way to verify who the person is. A personal example was when I met Jason Jacobsohn in person at Tech Cocktail 4 – we had emailed back and forth and posted on each other’s blog, but had not met in person, and our nametags made that introduction easier.

For a membership organization, nametags are vital. Several years ago I was president of the Boston Jaycees, part of a worldwide membership organization of young people 21 to 40. Members of the board of directors, including myself, had hard-plastic nametags with our names and titles. Members of the organization would receive a nametag with a red border when they signed in, and guests or prospective members would receive a nametag with a blue border. We also added nametags with gold borders for special guests or speakers.

The variety of nametags was a win-win for all. For the board, we were able to identify who was a member (sometimes I would forget from our 75+ members) and who was a guest. For members, they were able to identify with other members and talk to guests about joining. For guests, they were able to identify chapter officers if they had a question. Overall, people felt more at ease, welcomed, and we received much positive feedback on having such a nametag system.

And if you don’t believe me, ask Scott Ginsberg, who has been wearing a nametag for almost 7 years straight, and has made a business around it.

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"An educated consumer is out best customer..." I can still hear those words from the monotone voice on the commercials for Syms, a New Jersey-based "off-price" clothing store chain with locations in 13 states including Massachusetts and Illinois. It is not just in their commercials – it is on their signs and at the top of their Web site as well. It is something they believe in strongly, and something I believe in strongly myself in business in general. The more a customer knows about the vendor and its services, the better informed they will be in their commerce decisions. As old as the statement is, it is ever fresh.

I just finished reading Macy’s reaction to a story on CBS2 about their slumping sales and perception in Chicagoland since they acquired and renamed all Marshall Field’s to Macy’s. Once again, Macy’s is on the defensive, and this time its from a person other than CEO Terry Lundgren; it’s Ralph Hughes, who apparently worked for Field’s and now gets his paychecks from Macy’s. And once again, I had to laugh. Hughes said he was "stunned" and "bothered" by reactions of the growing population of former shoppers of the State Street store and others in the area. "I heard one person say the we had attitude" is another quote, and he later says, "If we had it to do over again we would do what we're doing today, which is recognizing that some people are going to be very angry with this." The attitude is there, alive and well in your statements Mr. Hughes.

Prior to Macy’s acquisition of Field’s parent May Company, there were no Macy’s stores in Chicagoland. So from the get-go, they replaced an extremely well-rooted and known store with one some only know about for their Thanksgiving parade sponsorship in New York City. They repeatedly stated it was a business decision as they were creating a national brand of stores. There was also the promise of a fresh foods market and returning Frango production to Chicago.

So what do you do when business sucks, blame your customers or clients? People with knowledge of the Windy City can tell you about the meaning of Field’s here, and you don’t have to go much farther to get hard data to back it up. About all Macy’s did was change the signs and awnings, mail out a few coupons and expect everything to be the same the next day. Almost a year later it is not. There has been no effort to reach out to customers and introduce Macy’s to the area. No media campaign, no human element, nothing. Frango mints are still not made here, and there is no market, which after the recent bug infestation of the food court may not be a bad thing. Even Chase Bank hired Mayor Daley’s brother and former Commerce secretary Bill as the head of the Midwest operations when it took over Chicago-based Bank One.

Buying a $300 sweater or handbag is not a business decision, rather it is one made by humans with real emotions involved throughout. Macy’s may not be back to square one, maybe square two, and they will go no further without changing their attitude and embracing and educating former Field’s customers.

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Once during an annual performance appraisal I was told I was a generalist, and as they supposedly could not sell me as an expert, I was not going to receive a raise or bonus. This came almost a month after I received a “client service” award from the same person. What was my reaction? I smiled, and thanked my reviewer as I considered it a compliment to be called a generalist, and then pointed out how the 1.5 year project I just completed needed a generalist. A month later I quit that company.

For some reason there is a perception being a generalist is bad. You see this more in medicine, as doctors want to be a specialist and not a general practitioner. I see this often in the IT world, as people want to be solely a programmer or designer or database administrator and only focus on those areas, and see the others as places on the other side of a thick wall. For those of us who consider ourselves generalists or those who don’t understand us, the book Clients for Life is a must read.

This book was written in 2000 so some of the company examples may no longer be in business, but the themes and messages ring true today. It takes a perspective beyond being solely a generalist and focuses on being an unselfish, independent, deep generalist advisor to your clients. Rather than offering specific advice or a service and focusing on a one-time deal with the hope of more business, the authors take the viewpoint that by being there, readily available to advice clients on a wide variety of topics and areas and being able to guide them to specific resources or services is equally rewarding and profitable. This can be summed up as the difference between a transaction and a relationship.

As this is how my career interests have come to form over the years, my primary take away was an affirmation of my goals. It also promotes the sense of long-term relationships in building a client base and as a result revenue. Anyone can tell you that the best source of business is repeat business from existing clients and referrals to others from them.

The book is a good read – at times it seems like it is repeating itself to make its point though. Some of the examples of people who were deep generalists had sometimes tragic or dramatic ends to their lives. Even if you don’t believe in this philosophy 100%, I would recommend reading it as it may help form some of your own thoughts on client development.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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File this under not communicating with your IT department about what is going on in the company.

On Monday, DVD rental service Netflix announced it was cutting its prices to better compete with Blockbuster's prices and in-store redemption service. Shortly afterwards netflix.com crashed and did not come back online until late Tuesday. It was said it was not due to the power outages in the San Francisco area, and though a specific reason was not given, it was reported the Web site was being updated to reflect the price changes.

Updating prices causes an entire network of Web servers to crash? Who wrote that software? When I worked for a publicly-traded company in the past, I was always on alert from marketing and investors’ relations whenever the company would announce earnings or have an investor’s call, as people would hit our Web site for the information or links. We had sufficient capacity with out Web servers and network, but hardware can always fail. This brings back memories of the crash of Wal-Mart’s Web site last year on “black Friday” or the busiest shopping day of the year the day after Thanksgiving.

Planning for such events and having the network, hardware and software capacity can prevent such events. Sure it may be expensive, but what price for such embarrassment?

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