Business Blog

Project: Projections 

In this crazy world of fickle markets and financial distress, it can seem like a never ending maze of decisions to make, and sometimes you just don’t know which way to turn. Is there any way to know if the business venture you are hoping to set out on is wise? What about all the costs involved? Can you even afford to start a business, or should you do more investing in different avenues first? What about the investors that you hope to gain – how can you get them to show interest, and ultimately give you money/loans? This is why you use financial projection.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…

 Financial modeling tools aren't some mystical fortune-telling methods. They offer you the simple, hands-on ways to develop and implement a business plan. Financial projections break down the various costs of your business and help you to know which end is up. When you use financial projections you should get comfortable with the use of spreadsheets. These are often applied in a financial projections template for numerous scenarios involving your business. Some basic items that should be included in your projections would be things like the breakdown of assets, owner’s equity, and liabilities. Other items that should be highlighted would be cash flow projections, to show investors what is coming and going in the way of income and expenses in your business on a monthly basis. By having a business plan/ financial projections template you can feel more confident in the decisions you are making regarding your business. If you feel nervous about the numbers you are putting together, or just unsure of how to use the software, have a qualified accountant look over the numbers and give you some guidelines as to where you may be off base.

 Short and Long Term

Once you have your numbers in hand, it is time to pitch it to investors. You should be able to give them some short and long term projections. Your short term projection should be that of one year, broken down by months. Make sure to take into consideration any fees, licenses, and material costs and/or machinery costs involved, in your short term projections you want to be able to give potential investors a clear idea of what to expect. Then move onto a three year projection, broken down by year. Be sure to take into consideration the area in which you are located, what kind of demand is on the market for your type of business, and if there are any increases in cost that could occur in the upcoming years. Although you can’t predict everything, having some numbers to show investors is of vital importance. Knowing your business is what will keep it going, and keep it successful – and that’s no fortune cookie promise.

Insuring Your Valuables as You Ship 

If you are an online seller of merchandise and valuables, you know how careful you have to be when shipping a purchase to a customer.  With the concern of items getting lost or stolen, your extra precautions will be well worth it to ensure that your items arrive safely.  There are several ways to ship items, so it is important to select the best and safest way possible.

Anytime you consider shipping gemstones, or you try to ship antiques, you know the cost and value of the item.  In the case of antiques the items are not only valuable, they are also irreplaceable.  Any regular shipping method will result in the box being tossed around, damaging not just the box it is in, but quite possibly the item being shipped.  Even with the utmost care in packaging, you will want to secure it even further.

The first thing you will want to do is select the appropriate box for shipping.  Make sure it is an appropriate size and strength to hold your item.  A flimsy box will fall apart, and something too large will cause the item to bounce around during the shipping process.  Make sure that you protect the item to prevent breakage, and tape the box securely to prevent it opening in transit.

If your shipping materials are secure, then your next step is to insure the shipment.  Post office shipping insurance is especially important if you are shipping something of high value.  Insured Parcel Post will insure all items up to $5,000.  For some items that is sufficient in the case of loss or damage.  If your item is significantly more valuable then you will want to consider Registered Mail, which will allow you to insure your items for up to $25,000.  There is a significant difference in these two values, so it is important to make sure that you value your item appropriately. 

Anytime you ship gold or ship artifacts there will be an established value for the items sold.  Protecting them is critical to insure the investment of both the seller and the buyer.  While there are several shipping methods, USPS is a secure and affordable way to go.  Remember to insure your item for the full value, and it will be delivered just as quickly and safely as your other options. 

Finding the Right Moving Company for a Stress Free Relocation

America has been through a lot, and its economy is still struggling to rally, but America is still the land of opportunity. However, more and more Americans are finding that pursuing meaningful opportunities demands the same sacrifice asked of the pilgrims and the pioneers. That is to say, America is still full of opportunities but more and more families are finding that they need to relocate to find them.

Many American industries are closing down entirely, or outsourcing large portions of their workflows to other countries. Divisions are shutting down, and departments are consolidating to cut back on overhead. In same cases, this means reducing buildings. In others, it means bringing in branches from across the country. While many count themselves fortunate to keep their job at the low, low cost of having to uproot their families and move them across a nation, there are many more who are finding it necessary to relocate in hopes of a job rather than out of commitment to one.

As companies consolidate and enterprises dissolve, many men and women who have served a company faithfully are finding it necessary to seek new employment in industries that seem to have fewer and fewer openings. This often necessitates relocation, but this is not the only change many families are facing. As industries and opportunities change and evolve, many people are finding it necessary to recreate their professional goals, striking out into new career paths or going into business for themselves.

With so much change to roll with, the last thing people should have to worry about is whether or not their actual move will be a smooth one. Cheap cross country movers can create more problems than they solve, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t high quality full service moving companies at extremely competitive rates. Finding the best full service moving company for your needs will mean weighing both the quality of the services they provide and the value you receive for your money.

Of course, businesses and individuals are both finding relocation a possible strategy for adjusting to new developments in their industries. New opportunities emerge in new markets, whether for consumer connection, business synergy, or reduced costs to improve margins. Housing and apartment moving companies continue to expand their services and service areas, and many of them are now offering commercial services and divisions as well as expanding to incorporate distinct commercial moving companies. Moving a household is a very different scenario than moving a business, but top professionals can make either undertaking seamless and stress-free.

Commercial Asset Liquidation Offers Evolutionary Opportunities for Both Sides

The shape of many industries is changing. For the dinosaurs, change meant extinction, but man evolved and rules the earth. The ability to evolve your business and your industry is the deciding factor between great success and total extinction. As industries reshape to merge with new technology and to meet demands of the market, industry leaders are finding ways to slim down their necessary costs and equipment as well as repurpose their workflows. Those who can do neither are often closing their days.

Taking a position on the front line of reshaping your business is the surest way to have a top position in the new economy. Clearing out old inventory and overhead, repurposing existing workflows and turning dormant machinery into cash flow are all considerations in taking that position. Taking action quickly and effectively is another key factor.

 Finding a good NJ auction company can put you miles ahead of the competition when it comes to repositioning your market strategy. If you are looking to dissolve a company to free yourself for a new venture, business liquidation auctions may be a great tool for you. Similarly, you may have entire departments of your business that are no longer profitable or necessary which can be address through auction liquidation services. NJ auctioneers can help you eliminate the aspects of your business that have become in effect dead weight efficiently and profitably.

The restructuring and dissolution of another company and the resulting liquidation can also be an opportunity for your company to evolve and grow stronger. NJ machinery auction events are a prime opportunity to expand your products and services or facilitate growth across your business through evolving your workflow. It may be as simple and straightforward as finding machinery and equipment at commercial industrial auctions that complement your existing workflow, or there may be additional opportunities for those keen enough to identify them.

Finding the Internet Marketing Services in Dallas

Are you looking to boost your business and sales?  If you have done the same old, same old for as many years as you have been open, and gotten the same old results, it’s time to consider a different approach to marketing.  A lot of businesses, especially small businesses, hesitate to build a website and market their businesses online.  Not understanding where to begin or knowing how to maintain a website can be intimidating and therefore most shy away.  For anyone interested in beginning an online marketing campaign, professional services are the way to go.

Some of the best online marketing strategies are available to you through professional services.  For anyone starting out, it is best to have someone on your side who understands not only online marketing, but also your industry as it is represented online.  A well-informed Dallas Internet marketing consultant will have some knowledge of your business, the industry in which you do business, and improvement opportunities for your website and marketing approach. 

There are many Dallas Internet marketing consulting services to consider, but after meeting with each you will have a better idea of their experience and abilities to manage the marketing capabilities of your business.  You want to select someone who understands your own vision, and is able to design a marketing plan and approach based on that.  Once you begin consulting Internet marketing SEO services, ask for specific examples of past work within the industry to gauge success. 

It is a good idea to begin with local consulting Internet marketing services, as they might have a bit of a better understanding of local marketing approaches, successes, and competition.  If your business is based in Dallas online marketing has a great deal of potential.  There is a large number of potential customers and business opportunities so you will need a firm that has openings and paths to those customers.  Look for local history of experience, and discuss the expectations of both parties. 

The key to a successful venture is to build a successful marketing plan.  Internet potential for any business is tremendous, and if you are able to capture it, you are well on the way to increased sales.  Teaming with the best Internet marketing consultants you are sure to make it happen.

Effective Communication Through Digital Signage Display

Without proper content a digital sign is a blank slate. With well-conceived content for digital signage, the digital signage gets transformed from a mere display to a dynamic communication medium. An appropriate content for digital signage has the ability to inspire, inform, and motivate.

While designing the content for digital signage, the writing should be centered around the brand. The goals and initiatives are essential for designing an effective content strategy for digital signage. Good content for digital signage should be innovative, easy-to-read, and have a clear purpose. The images used should be captivating and the text of the content for digital signage should be concise to give the audience sufficient time to absorb the content without losing interest. The technology used today in digital signage display is very effective in communicating the message. However, it should be properly conceived and executed with appropriate content to reach people. The digital signage display promotes people’s perception about the business by using advanced technology. 

There are different types of digital signage systems that you can use to promote your business. Choose the right digital signage system for effective communication. If you choose the wired digital board digital signage system, you need to have a digital media player that will allow you to display the content. The wired board can be connected to a network for maximum exposure for your business.

The wireless digital board and digital signage system has wireless digital board that can be managed easily. With the help of an outdoor digital signage system, you can reach more people to promote the business, brand, products, and services. Today, the applications of digital signage content management are highly advanced. The technology of digital signage content management has improved considerably to enhance the efficiency of advertisement. In spite of the advancement in the field of advertisement, the billboards, flyers and other print media such as newspapers and magazines are still very much in use.

Today the digital signage and information displays are the major trends in every sector. The digital signage solution offers display of video, graphics, animation, and many more audio-visual elements to grab the viewer's attention with a direct influence on them. The digital signage solution is widely used in public and private sectors including health, education, transport, retail, government, and corporate sectors. The digital signage runs with the help of digital signage solution, which is an intuitive software with capability to make the information displays media- rich. The digital signage solution adds ‘life’ to the information displayed.

The digital signage solutions are extremely cost-effective and the display content can be easily managed from any convenient location. The digital signage solutions help to keep the promotions up-to-date to promote business without spending extra money on printing.

Why Use Credit Leads?

In a competitive businesses, finding leads is crucial. Any quick Internet search will pull up websites which guarantee leads. Yet if you're going to spend hard-earned money to get leads, you want them to be good leads. Especially businesses which are targeting people with poor credit.

While it may sound odd on the surface, there are multiple reasons to target people with bad credit. Services which offer loans to people who can't get loans through traditional methods, services which offer debt consolation, and services which offer credit repair are all avenues where finding and targeting people with poor credit is crucial.

A debt consolation lead will let you target people with a lot of debt. Debt consolidation can help the person with the debt since consolidating loans creates lower monthly payments. Finding debt consolidation leads will help you know who to target.

Credit bureau leads are offered by various leads companies. You can filter results by setting credit score ranges, how much debt the person has, the type of debt, and more. This will help you more specifically target the demographic you're looking for.

A lot of debt lead generation provides information you can acquire on your own without paying a company to compile all of the data. However, that can be a time extensive process; you're likely more interested in following leads rather than spending all your time finding them.

Debt relief leads will showcase people who are in need of relief from their debt burden. Finding credit repair leads gives you an edge in presenting your services. People with debt problems want to get out from under their debt load; they're more likely to listen to your offer. This makes finding credit restoration leads crucial to maintaining your business.

Good credit lead generation companies will scrub their lists, removing people who are on Do Not Call lists. A person on the DNC list is more likely to listen to your pitch over the phone. Thus, scrubbed lists provide a higher opportunity for a successful call than lists which haven't been scrubbed.

While you are in the business to make money, you're also providing a service to a specific market of people. Clear communication of that idea will improve your chances of interesting people in your pitch. Learning good, organized ways of presenting your service is a crucial skill for proper utilization of debt leads. Learn to pick up on the cues that people who are interested in your service give, and the cues from people who are definitely not interested; you want to maximize time talking to people who will actually turn into customers.

Testing Your Employees for Drugs and Alcohol

If you run your business then you want the best from your employees that you can possibly get. That means making sure they’re in top health, both physically and mentally, and although you can’t make sure that they’re eating right, getting exercise, or leading completely healthy lives, you can make certain that they’re educated, that they can lift a certain amount of weight, and other requirements of the job. One way you can pry a bit deeper is through drug test kits.

Employee screening through drug tests is a common practice in many business across America. Pre-employment screening is important when it comes to making sure that your employees are not regular users of drugs that could negatively impact their work ethic or performance on the job. Drug addicts are often apt to erratic behavior, missing work, making mistakes on their work, and even being a danger to the workplace and their coworkers. Your business suffers when your employees are impaired by drug abuse.

Many businesses use a test like the D.O.T. Drug and Alcohol Testing program. The Department of Transportation is understandably concerned with testing individuals for the abuse of drugs while operating transportation. You can use an ETG alcohol test to make certain that your employees are not under the influence of alcohol while at work; there are many situations where being inebriated while on the job can be very dangerous. Operating heavy machinery, like a truck or a forklift, can lead to bystanders being seriously injured.

When that happens, your business can be liable for the damages if you didn’t help to make sure that your workplace was drug free. Instituting a drug-free workplace program is the first step to maintaining your vigilance against substance abuse at work. A good workplace program can train workers in recognizing the signs of drug abuse or inebriation, so that they can report those who would otherwise endanger themselves or others.

This may sound a bit intrusive, but in the end drug testing at the workplace is for the best. You protect the health and lives of your employees, and you protect your livelihood along with theirs. You could seriously regret not being on guard when it comes to hiring employees with substance abuse problems. Inevitably, you’ll have to replace them later. You’re better off initiating testing and making sure that anyone who has a problem at your business gets the help they need before they hurt themselves or others. In the end, it’s the moral thing to do.

Manage Windows From Every Angle

Let’s face it: Windows can be pretty buggy. But then, what choice to do you have? Submit to the digital and hardware tyranny of Mac? Or the hermit-in-the-woods computing of Linux? No, your only choice in Windows, which means being prepared for the day, make that days, no make that weeks, when your Windows system will break down on you.

When that happens, you’ll want to make sure that you have a Windows event log that can tell you everything that happened before the system went sideways on you. That means having it available and easy to sort through, which means using Windows event log management protocols to have the log stored in a remote location, preferably another Windows file server that you are certain is stable, safe, and untouched by the tomfoolery of the system in question.

Windows log management is only the first step to figuring out what went wrong. Once you’ve finally managed to repair your system, you might ask, “How did it ever come to this?” The answer is that you weren’t keeping an eye on your computer in the first place. Using Windows management software, you can sort through the problems cropping up in your computer and deal with them before they ever happen.

Of course, even the best Windows management software can’t always catch an error in the making. That’s why many people use Windows monitoring tools. A Windows monitoring tool allows you to track, even remotely – say, from a smartphone or another computer – any kind of shenanigans occurring in your computer. They can track resources and how the computer is being used, which means you can play big brother to your business’s network while your employees are on it.

Windows monitoring is a great precaution on any system or network, but it takes the whole suite of Windows management software to keep those computers running like the fine-tuned machines the salesmen said they were. Be vigilant, be smart, and be willing to invest in the safety and health of your network, and you’ll save yourself months of work recovering lost files, along with piles of cash in buying new computer parts that would have burned out on you.

If you don’t think you need this level of caution and vigilance, then go ahead and leave your network un-watched. See what happens when multiple users hop on, run the internet through it, and muck around in the system files. It ain’t pretty.

Utilizing Phone Campaigns in Business

            Businesses usually invest vast amounts of time and money into technologically current campaigns. Social media, popup ads, and mass emailing lists are all employed in business and product campaigns to net potential investors or customers. Some types of technology that are thought archaic by societies current standards can be utilized to be the most effective. In a society driven by up to the minute social media updates and palm sized smart phone super computers, actual phone call campaigns can seem like a waste. But with the proper sales etiquette and techniques, phone call campaigns can be just as effective as a Facebook or twitter post.

            Some companies actually specialize in telemarketing campaigns. Telemarketing business lists are readily available on the Internet, in phone books, and potentially by asking other companies or individuals that use the desired services. Most telemarketing companies operate through small satellite telemarketing call centers that generate telephone sales leads and can subsequently collect statistical sales data for use in future advertisements and campaigns. Telemarketing sales leads can be useful because they link businesses to retirees and elderly customers who usually have sufficient funds and time in order to learn and hopefully purchase a product or service.

   Telemarketing campaigns can also be useful for business-to-business sales. Business–to-business sales, or b2b sales, is when companies sell directly to other companies instead of individual customers and markets, and are usually carried out by a b2b sales agency. Phone communication can be particularly effective in business-to-business sales because it is a form of communication that is thought so archaic that most businesses will answer phones without a second thought. Businesses are more likely to pick up phones as opposed to reading emails that would be regarded as malicious spam or ad campaigns.

            Outbound telemarketing can be an extremely effective form of sales if the correct outbound telemarketing services are trusted to the job. These companies must be able to cover multiple thousand potential contacts a day while maintaining proper phone sales and business etiquette. A company must make sure that a telemarketing call center is well versed in the product or service being offered by the company, and that they are able to answer any potential qualms that a buyer may have. Callers must remember to use easy to understand language and tone, avoid using slang or slurs, and be ready to respond to resistance. Inexperienced companies should be contacted before contracts are drafted for customer acquisition programs.

Keep an Eye on Your Directory

If you’ve got a business in the 21^st century, chances are you’ve got a network, a server that hosts your network, and an active directory for the storage and transfer of data. The exchange of information can vastly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of any business, no matter the size. But what about when problems arise between all these different systems communicating with each other?

First, you need to make sure that you’ve got the right software. Active directory software can be tricky, and if the software you’re using doesn’t have the right tools or if it doesn’t work well with your network or server, then you may have a real problem on your hands.

You may have to wipe your active directory clean and start from scratch. If you do it right, you can even restore active directory files that were lost in the wipe so that users will hardly be able to tell anything changed. Afterwards, you’ll need to monitor active directory activity to make sure that no problems crop up in its use. It’s all too easy for an un-watched directory to become an unusable mess.

Windows file systems are, in general, easy to screw up. Between intruders, inept users, and the way personal computing programs have trouble communicating with each other, you need to make sure that you have a good server auditing tool to help you find out when vital data has been moved around, deleted, or changed in a way that damages the system or the data itself.

Server auditing tools allow you to see what information is available in the system, how it has been changed or moved, and by whom. This allows you to track down any changes made in the server and repair them if they are detrimental to the function of the server. Audit tools are an excellent way to encourage your users to learn more about how to use the server properly: once you can identify who made the error, you can speak with them about what they did wrong and help them to learn from the mistake. In the end, no problem is wasted if it becomes a learning opportunity.

This may seem like a lot of work, but only at first. Once your system is set up and properly monitored, you won’t have many problems. Once your users have been educated in how to use the server properly, you probably won’t have any at all! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the computing dream.

Fire Up Your Group

Finding the right Motivational Speaker

One of the best ways to get your organization fired up and improve performance is by inviting a motivational speaker to come in with a message directed at the team as a whole. You can find an expert that specializes in your field. There are times when it is just as appropriate to use a speaker that is able to work with organizations in any field.

You don’t have to wait until you notice a drop in team performance to bring in an expert. It is better to be proactive than it is to be reactive. Much of what a speaker will offer can be applied to the individual at work, home, and play. Having a team that is happy and productive in all areas of life will equate to improved performance.

Why not work internally and ask upper management to motivate their teams? Simple, many of them simply don’t have the time or training to do this effectively. You would be expecting your management team to gain the emotional trust of the team under them and sometimes that just can’t happen. You put your management and staff in an awkward position. At best, it may work on the surface but not get to the core of the performance issues.

As an outside expert, the speaker’s leadership abilities will be viewed differently. It’s like when you were a kid and your parents told you something you ignored, then your best friend told you the same thing and it couldn’t have been truer. There are times when everyone needs a fresh perspective.

There are speakers that specialize in your field. It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a motivational sport’s speaker, or a motivational speaker for sales, there are speakers that can cover a wide range of group types. Look for someone with a proven track record. Talk to other organizations that may have used speakers in the past. Find out who they used and were they happy with the results.

Are you simply planning to have someone speak to your group once or would you prefer to have someone come in on a more regular basis? This will be an important question to consider before hiring someone. If you are hoping to hire one of the more famous inspirational speakers or popular motivational speakers, expect to pay a higher fee and availability will be limited. You may not be able to get them in for follow-up.

When looking for someone to fit your needs there are many ways to go about it. You can search online. You can use a speaker’s bureau. Possibly you will find some speakers listed in the phone book. The best place to start is with organizations that you know have used speakers for their team and can tell you their own personal results.

Most importantly, find a speaker who’s life and work is exemplary of successful living. Someone that offers the tools it will take to improve performance for your team in a way that can’t be done from the inside. Asking all the right questions and doing some research will pay off with a happy team and higher performance.

Help Your IT Department Help You

If you’re running a business then chances are you have your own computer network. After all, this is the 21^st century and every industry across the globe has been somehow impacted by the advent of the Internet. The trouble is, not everyone is a master of the computer, much less the web. That means that the more users you have on your network, the more likely that network and your employees are to encounter problems.

That’s why more and more businesses actually have a technology helpdesk: a department where employees get help fixing their computer without having to wait for an outside repairman to swing around and figure things out. The question is, how should a technology helpdesk function? What kind of IT management systems should you implement?

Your employees will want some kind of helpdesk management software to expedite the process. Good help desk support software can provide IT management solutions for any issue faced in the day-to-day grind of computers freaking out over unsurprising errors. This can free up your IT department to handle more pressing issues, like improving your network, defending it against intruders and other threats, or repairing computers that are well and truly fragged.

The ability to actually sort through the log is also important. There’s a lot of data in there, and it could take days to sort through it by hand. Rather, good log management software can locate serious problems as indicated in the log and bring them to the user’s attention, speeding up the process of fixing whatever went wrong. After all, why wouldn’t your IT department use computers to fix the problems that other computers create? With them handling all that gobbledygook, you can turn your attention to making a profit, which is what it’s all about, after all.

Keeping Your Business Safe

Security is one of the most important aspects of any building, home, apartment, or business, and in order to maintain safety and ensure that things run smoothly and in an organized fashion, it is important to take certain measures and precautions.

For homes and businesses, a simple alarm system is sufficient as a theft deterrent, and this lower-scale threat can be minimized or avoided altogether through the implementation of a home-electronic security system.

Yet the same cannot be said and done for a location that is home to hundreds or even thousands of incarcerated felons and high-profile criminals. Prison safety is something that has been a problem for centuries, and keeping or transporting prisoners from place to place is a dangerous and very important, as well as difficult task.

In any prison, the inmates far outnumber the guards, and it is extremely important that the guards always run on a tight schedule, ascertaining that everyone is in their respective place, and ensuring that all systems and security are running on point. But like anyone else, guards are only human, and are subject to mistakes. The only difference is who the guards are dealing with, and in cases such as these, mistakes cannot be afforded, and must be resolved immediately in the unlikely event that they do happen.

A guard tour patrol system enables for the monitoring of securities, and guarantees that if a person is not in the correct place at the correct time, the problem will be reported immediately, allowing the quick and easy avoidance of what could have otherwise turned into a large-scale problem, and a dangerous one at that.

A guard tour system keeps in check each guard’s specific duties, and assures that if a person is not where they are supposed to be, that someone else can replace them immediately, allowing for heightened security and mistake minimization or elimination.

Guard tour systems are the best way to prevent mistakes, and are beneficial in both the day-to-day, and extreme cases that are high risk.

Whether it be a case of a shirker or someone who is simply sick and not in attendance at his or her shift, security guard tour systems prevent mistakes, and ensure that all persons are accounted for at all times. Guard tours are a great tool for daily use, particularly in prisons, and can be responsible for minimizing human mistakes and errors, leading to improved safety for one and all.

Non- Profit: Getting COA Accreditation for Your Organization

When your health facility or charity deals with people with mental health problems, extra care is needed in formulating the procedures in working with them. They need their own considerations since people with mental health issues should be allowed the same kind of rights as everyone else, while at the same time there are scenarios where exceptions need to be made.

It's a delicate balancing act to afford as much decision making to the client as possible, while acknowledging that there are cases where the clint simply isn't able to make their own decisions. Writing up these guidelines gives a standard for your organization to follow that is both legal for your state and best suits the needs of your clientele.

Mental health patient rights and responsibilities try to enable the patient with as much voluntary involvement as possible. They need to be afforded the right to accept or refuse treatment and your group home policies should reflect that.

There are cases, however, where treatment can't be voluntary. If the client has demonstrated violent behavior towards other people or themselves, most states legally allow for treatment that the patient hasn't agreed to. Knowing your state laws is crucial when figuring out how to write COA procedures.

If you are newly attempting to conform to COA standards to become an accredited facility, there are multiple steps you need to take. The first step is to talk to the COA Client Relations department. They will help you determine if COA accreditation is actually what is best for your organization. Then you will need to read over the COA policies to see what is needed to comply.

It is important to present the new requirements to your governing body and staff so they know the changing policies and understand both how the changes effect them and why those changes are good not just for your organization, but the clients.

You will need to submit an application to the COA. If you aren't sure how to write up the policies there are companies which will allow you to buy mental health accreditation forms. These templates comply to COA standards, allowing you to simply plug in the details specific to your organization. You can also get a conflict of interest policy template.

Complying with mental health accreditation agencies can be a lot of paperwork and require a lot of meetings, but as a COA accredited organization you'll be able to give your clients and the people who care about them the assurance that your organization follows proper guidelines in caring for people.

File Tracking

Most organizations today that have two or more employees use a shared network at work. This shared network allows employees to access files, share files with each other, and save work to the network. Using a network, companies can also limit permissions that employees have. Some employees might have limited access to the shared network while others might have complete access. With this amount of file sharing going on, security is a constant issue. Systems administrators need tools to track everyone who has access to a shared network, and monitor file changes that take place.

The first step in network security is an active directory. An active directory is used in Windows operating systems to authenticate a user. It checks user names and passwords. It also is used to set up limits to user access to the shared network based on that authentication. For instance, entry level employees or new hires might only have limited access to certain files or systems in the network, but a department head would have much more access (if not full access) to files. IT systems administrator can use an active directory recovery tool to help in managing their network. One of these tools is called an active directory change log. This log helps a network administrator track any unauthorized changes to the active directory, and helps them combat users who are trying to access areas of the network they are not supposed to.

Another tool available to help systems administrators track network changes are file tracking software. This software also makes the administrator’s job a lot easier. Instead of manual monitoring the network for any changes, file tracking software automates the process. It can show who accessed what file at what time, what changes were made, and whether those changes were authorized.

Finally, if your organization has many employees who telecommute, you probably already use Microsoft Exchange. Exchange 2007 management tools help a systems administrator monitor those employees who access the network remotely. Like other file tracking software, you can see what files were changed when, and if that user was authorized to make those changes.

Managing all the files and the users in an organization’s shared network can seem like an overwhelming and monumental task for a systems administrator. Using tools like an active directory reporting tool, file tracking software, and Microsoft Exchange tools can help an IT professional keep track of everything. These tools help protect an organizations network as well as enable employees to share work and collaborate more effectively.

Directory Management

When an employee arrives at work at their company or nonprofit organization the first thing they do is log on to their computer. On their very first day on the job they were given a generic username and password that they were then prompted to change upon successfully logging on for the first time. What most employees outside of the IT department don’t realize is that they have just logged on to what is called the companies active directory. This directory is carefully managed by an active directory (AD) manager. This AD manager monitors the accessibility, security, and storage capacity of the company’s active directory.

This management takes place without most of the rest of the employees knowing it is taking place unless something goes wrong. As an active directory user, employees share files with each other, or update information on the shared network. The AD manager can see who changed what when if they audit the active directory. When they audit file systems it is not to spy on employees, but to make sure nothing harmful is being done to the active directory. It is also to ensure that company protocol is being followed. If employees are trying to access files they shouldn’t, or don’t need to be, the AD manager can track that access or any changes that may have been made to keep the network secure.

Another important tool in the AD manager’s belt is change management software. Change management software allows the directory manager to update the directory with limited interruption to employees using the directory. It also helps the manager make any changes due to new legislation or new company protocol.

Most employees have no idea that this is what happens when they login when they arrive at the office in the morning. They just sign on and go to work. They use the active directory day in and day out to share, maintain, and change files without realizing all the work that goes into allowing them that access. The active directory, and the AD manager who maintains it, allow businesses and organizations to stay ahead of the competition through this greater sharing capability.