You go to the doctor every year for your annual checkup. You see the dentist every six months to have your teeth checked and cleaned, you take your car to the shop every 3000 miles to have the oil changed and most States have an annual State Safety Inspection to make sure that your car is operating safely. So why would it be any different with your Overhead Projector?

Proper care, cleaning and general maintenance by a professional technician, can add years to the life of any piece of Electronic Equipment including your Overhead Projector.

Each year our service department offers an annual maintenance program for all of the School Districts that we service. It has been our experience with any type of projector or electronic device that uses a fan for cooling acts like a vacuum cleaner for dust. Most environments that Overhead Projectors and electronic devices are subject to are quite dusty. Over a period of a year an enormous amount of dust can collect inside these units.

Dust can become a fire hazard if enough has built up inside the Overhead Projector. Because of the heat produced by todays Halogen Projection Lamps, an excessive build up of dust can create a fire hazard.

Dust can also decrease the efficiency of your cooling system by over fifty percent, which of course can cause damage to internal components like your fresnel lens and other expensive optical parts. We have seen projectors so dirty that the plastic case has actually begun to melt because of the excessive heat produced by poor cooling. This causes parts like latches and switches to not work properly because the case that they are mounted to becomes distorted and not fit properly.

We all know that cigarette smoking can be hazardous to your health, but were you aware that it is also hazardous to your Overhead Projector. Not as common a problem as it was ten years ago, but the build up of tar and nicotine on the internal parts of your Overhead Projector can cause optics to become hazy and cooling systems to be less efficient or even fail all together.

General maintenance of your Overhead Projector should include removing all of the dust and other debris from the projector with a compressor with at least forty pounds of pressure. The remaining dirt and dust should be removed with a light household cleaner or even a cloth lightly dampened with water. The fan motor bearings should be lightly lubricated with a light oil. Take special care not to use excessive amounts of oil otherwise the fan ends up blowing it all over the internal optics of the projector.

The Fresnel Lens should be removed and cleaned only with water. The stage glass and other optics should also be cleaned with water, other chemicals or cleaners could damage these sensitive items.

Focus assemblies should be checked for wear and replaced as necessary. Focus assemblies not aligned properly diminish the quality of your projected image and in some extreme cases have caused the plastic parts of the head assembly to melt.

It has been our experience that Overhead Projectors and other Electronic Equipment that receives routine scheduled maintenance last fifty percent longer than equipment that does not. So go ahead, make an appointment for you Overhead Projectors checkup today.

Mark Boehm is the president of M-B Electronics He has over 25 years of experience in the Audio Visual and Electronics Industry. He can be contacted at 800-872-9456 or at:etbinc@comcast.net.
More information on this subject: http://www.mbelectronics.com/view.aspx?id=29

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I’m always fascinated by the people who lift huge weights,
particularly in competitions like the Olympic Games. There
are events for men and women and they get up on stage to
lift a bar with huge weights attached.
I often wonder what sort of things they’re saying to
themselves as they pace up and down, rubbing their hands
with resin powder and taking huge breaths.

What if they were saying - “That looks really heavy - it’s
heavier than anything I’ve lifted before. I’ll probably drop
it, make a real fool of myself and even injure myself to
boot….!”

Do you know what’s going to happen if they say all this
stuff to themselves? Their subconscious will say - “Okay,
you say you’re going to drop it. Then, that’s what I’ll
arrange - and I’ll try to make sure you injure yourself at
the same time.”

Of course, that isn’t what happens. This weight lifter,
who’s trained for years to do precisely this thing, is
screaming at himself internally - “You’re going to lift that
bar and push it right through the ceiling! You’re going to
break the world record! You’re going to win this competition
and everyone in the world will see you doing it!”

In the day-to-day tasks that we face in our life, we should
be no different from these sportsmen and women. Think
negative thoughts and that’s what your subconscious will
focus upon.

If you think illness, you’ll become ill.
If you think gloom and doom - that’s what you’ll get.
But if you think health, happiness and success - you’re
already there.

“Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be”
- Abraham Lincoln.

I read this quote some years ago and I know some people have
a problem with it. We all face difficult situations in our
lives and some people more than others. However, I’ve made
up my mind to be as happy as I can and I recommend you do
the same.

Focus on the positive things in your life - the things you
can do - not the things you can’t. Think about what you’ve
achieved in the past - not what you haven’t. Look at where
you’re going - not where you’ve been

There’s a story about a young man who was really into
positive thinking. His workmates used to make a fool of him
and of course, he was challenged by their taunts. He told
them one day that positive self-talk was so powerful that if
he told himself he could fly through the air, he’d be able
to fly.

“Prove it” they cried. So off he went, up to the 20th floor
of the building they worked in. He jumped off and was heard
to cry as he went past a 10th floor window - “Well, it’s all
going great so far.”

That sort of thinking isn’t what this article is about. I
sometimes get tired of hearing people say - “Think
positive.” What I’m suggesting is that - in all the things
we face in life, we focus on the positive aspects.

Say for example a customer complains to you about some
aspect of your product or service. It’s so easy to think -
“We’ve messed up, we’re going to lose this customer’s
business, this is a disaster!”

It’s far better to think - “Okay, we’ve made a mistake, what
can we learn from this so that we don’t do it again and make
our service even better.”

Ironically, it’s often the case that if you solve a
customer’s problem, apologise and recover well, the customer
will forgive you and become even more loyal.

Here’s another example of what I mean:
Say you were to discover a small lump in some part of your
body - or a mark on your skin. Positive thinking might cause
us to say - “It’s nothing, I’ll leave it and it’ll go away
by itself.”

Negative thinking, on the other hand, would have us say -
“Oh no! I’ve got cancer, I’m going to be in pain and misery
and I might die.”

Focussing on the positive allows us to say - “I must get
this looked at immediately, whatever it is. They have
marvellous ways of removing and curing these things
nowadays.”

There will always be challenges to face with customers and
the people who work with you. Focussing on the positive will
make them so much easier to deal with.

Discover how you can generate more business by motivating
your team!

Alan Fairweather is the author of “How to get More Sales
by Motivating Your Team” This book is packed with practical
things you can do to get the best out of your people .
Click here now
http://www.howtogetmoresales.com/Motivating%20Your%20Team.htm

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Among my small business clients, I regularly notice that owners with a clear business strategy tend to run buoyant, growing companies. So if I was helping you develop your business strategy, we would start with two key questions:

• “What differences draw customers to you and away from your competitors?” and
• “What is your best route to selling more and winning more profit?”

Once I have helped you to honestly answer these pivotal questions, I would get you to review the trends in your market and pick out those that give you advantage. Then we would prioritise your preferences:

You can focus your strategy is several ways

1. Choose what not to do. You might coose to deliver fewer products and services excellently and to avoid spreading yourself across the marketplace.

2. Compete on value not price. You could increase the value you deliver to key clients and then use their testimonials and recommendations to lead you to new contacts.

3. No competition. How about offering something that no one else does (or can copy) so that you stand out from the crowd?

4. Paranoia stays ahead. Some people like to keep watching what their customers want then work hard to keep satisfying them. This works well where the market is stodgy and your competitors assume that regular custom equals tied income.

5. Distinctive value. As a specific example, I give my clients a calm oasis in which to define their goals, and create achievable plans, so that important work is protected from interruptions.

6. Trade-offs that build value. By tuning a package of services to your customer’s needs, you could create sales barriers against your competitors.

You can set a clear direction

Following your choice of market strategy, we would then refine this material into a clear statement of intent so that your marketing plan (and business plan) can be well focused.
This might seem like hard work but the benefits become clear as your company connects with your customer’s needs and your income and profit grow.

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The President of a 200+ store division of a major retailer
learned of a serious communication problem and commented that
‘this was to be expected in large organizations’. Well, that
clears everything up. Many retail executives don’t believe that
communication is important enough to get it right by coming up
with a methodology that will ensure accurate and timely
communication to field personnel. They don’t think communication
is an issue that will affect the business one way or the other.
They readily accept mediocrity in their communication methods
because their organization is ‘large’. How interesting. You’ve
got to wonder…does this extend to other critical areas of
their business such as customer service and product quality?
Does it extend to their employment practices and their
commitment to labor standards? Does ‘large’ mean cumbersome,
ineffective and inefficient?

Consumers know that customer service in the majority of retail
stores is indifferent, at best. Of course, there are some
retailers who treat their customers with respect and who work
very hard to serve them well. I am not talking about those few.
I am talking about the majority. Do you know why the majority
are indifferent to their customers? It’s because so many leaders
are indifferent. Accountability for service at store level rests
squarely on the shoulders of upper management.

Let’s look at a Store Manager who is an experienced,
intelligent, customer service oriented individual. She wants to
do a good job by providing customers with a good shopping
experience; by providing the company’s stakeholders with a
return on their investment and by providing a decent lifestyle
for her family. You may think this individual does not exist in
retail, but she does. Unfortunately, the upper management of her
company does not realize she is an important part of the
organization. They think and say they do but, as evidenced by
their actions, clearly they do not.

This Store Manager must receive accurate and timely
communication (which includes training) from her Head Office in
order to do the job well. Yet she is close to the bottom of the
list of people who are deemed worthy of receiving this
communication. Below her on the list are the store associates.
As backward as that sounds, it’s true. Most customers interact
with the Store Manager and associates. Hmmm…could this have
something to do with the problems consumers encounter in retail
stores every day? I think it has everything to do with it.

Ineffective communication results in aggravated customers -
let’s say you receive a promotional offer in the mail and you
take it to the store only to find out that the store personnel
has no idea that the promotion is in effect. How that store
personnel handles your situation will make the difference
between satisfaction and aggravation. Hopefully, the store
personnel will use good judgment and common sense and will find
a way to satisfy you. If not, you are going to be an aggravated
customer. You have been inconvenienced - you’ve wasted your time
and, once again, you are let down by a retail organization.

Ineffective communication results in high employee turnover -
let’s say the scenario mentioned above is just one more in, what
seems to be, a never ending communication nightmare. The store
personnel are embarrassed and made to look foolish through no
fault of their own. They do not want to be continually badgered
by disappointed customers. At some point, the management and
staff decide to move on, having lost all confidence in their
company’s ability to get it together and keep them properly
informed. No employee wants to appear uninformed. And, contrary
to popular belief, there are many retail employees out there who
really want to look after customers properly and who feel
embarrassed when they don’t have the information they need to do
it.

Ineffective communication results in lost sales - if the store
staff doesn’t have product information - features, delivery
schedules, pricing, etc. - they can’t advise and inform the
customer. The more information they have, the better equipped
they will be to influence buying decisions. Isn’t it desirable
to have associates who are able to positively influence the
customer to purchase what the store has to offer?

Every problem we encounter in a retail store, with the possible
exception of rude behavior (and I do mean ‘possible’ exception),
can be traced back to a lack of accurate and timely
communication.

It’s time for retailers to embrace an effective communications
methodology and stop accepting mediocrity just because their
organization is ‘large’. It’s time for the self proclaimed
‘highly important’ people at the Head Office of the ‘large’
organization to be brought up to speed as to where, and by whom,
sales are made and customers are satisfied.

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It creates some negotiating room, and you might just get what you’re asking for.

Whether playing the role of buyer or seller in a sales transaction, asking for more than you expect to get is a classic opening position in negotiations.

In the audio book, “Sound Advice on Negotiating Skills,” author Roger Dawson says, “Henry Kissinger called this the key to success at the bargaining table.” It’s simple, notes Dawson, but there are many profound reasons for doing it.

“It creates some negotiating room that makes it easier to get what you really want,” says Dawson. “It creates a climate where the other person can have a win with you.” This climate can prevent negotiating deadlocks, especially when dealing with an egotistical negotiator, according to Dawson.

“When you’re selling, it raises the perceived value of your product or service,” says Dawson. However, some salespeople are so eager to reach agreement that they soften their opening negotiating position. “They hope that by doing this the client will appreciate how generous they’ve been,” says Dawson. “The danger in this is that the client may instead think, ‘If they’ve given us this much, we can get a lot more; let’s be tough negotiators.’”

The solution, says Dawson - a renowned speaker and author of the book, “Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople” - is to “ask for more than you expect to get, but imply some flexibility so that you can encourage them to negotiate with you.”

Roger Dawson offers negotiating skills advice each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92

About The Author

Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.

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