SCORE® THOUGHTS
KEEPING UP WITH WHAT’S GOING ON IN BIZ 
With technology changing minute by minute, how do you know you are up to date and have the latest knowledge you need to be successful in your business or industry? Are you inundated with emails suggesting ways you can keep up? Do you delete without reading? If you are like me, the United States Postal Service brings flyers and catalogs offering continuing education opportunities to keep skills updated and you round-file most of it. How do you know which to read to get the one hint that will improve your business without wasting your time reading everything? I don’t have all the answers, but I will provide a few suggestions.
Subscribe to a couple of emails that provide information or ideas that are very short and can either be deleted if you are not interested in the topic or you can click on a link that allows you to read more if the subject is pertinent to your particular business. I subscribe to two that fit that description. For one or two short-paragraphs, less than 100 words, subscribe to the “Idea of the Day” at www.barbaraweltman.com. Most days it takes me about two seconds to realize I am not interested in her subject of the day and I delete the email. If you are interested in the subject, it provides a link within the paragraph where you can find out more. One day the tip was that bartering is taxable and the link was to the IRS web page explaining it. Recently, the tip was how to use Twitter effectively in your business; the link offering nine pages of detail was www.johnjantsch.com/TwitterforBusiness.pdf.
Another daily update email can be subscribed at www.smartbrief.com. At the top left side of the screen, click on “Browse Industries.” In alphabetical order, many industries are listed. I subscribe to the “CPA Letter Daily,” which is listed under the industries of Accounting and Finance. Each day it lists several short paragraphs; the heading for each is in bold so you can easily see if it is a subject that interests you; if interested, click on the link that is often to an entire article in the Wall Street Journal or in an accounting magazine. It takes me only a minute or two to determine my interest in any of the subjects. Industry choices include Business, Food Service, Retail, Construction, Manufacturing, Non-Profit, Technology, among many others.
If you have time to do a little more in-depth reading, go to www.score.org; click on Small Business Basics ( in PDF) under the topic “Sony for Business.” It is an excellent 36-page booklet that you can read on line or print. It includes information about certain criteria, key ratios, to look for on your Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
We have recently revitalized our local SCORE website (www.scorecr.org) to include a section called “Library.” This section will be updated as our members write about certain subjects that may be of interest to you; each article or power point presentation is short. Our section titled “Resource Links” gets you to places you might want to go without your memorizing the website address. For example, you can click on “Business License Info Center” and it will take you to www.iowalifechanging.com/business, which is a helpful website if you need to know which kinds of businesses are required to be licensed in Iowa.
Jean Kruse
SCORE® Chairperson and CPA (retired)
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Dated May 20, 2009 Topics: Chairman's Message, Learning and Training