Category Archives: Business

What You Don’t Know About Lawsuits

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Most people think that getting an attorney and starting a lawsuit means they will be coming into money in a few months. Wrong.

In today’s world, finding a lawyer and getting a good lawyer are two different things. For most cases, if the lawyer doesn’t think you have a good case and a chance of winning but they are desperate for money, they won’t just work on a percentage of the case proceeds when you might win. Most want their expenses covered and often an hourly fee paid each month as time goes by whether you win or lose your case. And if you are lucky, and have a good lawyer and a good case, you might come out with some money in about 2 years. But 95% of the lawsuits end up with little or no money actually ever collected.

Desktop Audit

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My blogger friends are sending around a “Meme” that asks you to post what’s on your desk. At the office I work in a cubicle with a wraparound desk and overhead bins that close and hide the mess. Here’s what’s actually out on the desktop and my little cubbie’s bulletin board:

  • my laptop and docking station
  • a cheap personal laser printer (for quick printing rather than going to the company network printer)
  • a little desk lamp that I brought from home to soften the flourescent lighting
  • my company phone
  • a docking station for my cell phone
  • four in and out trays
  • a Big Dogs coffee mug to hold my pens, scissors, highlighters, etc.
  • this year’s Predators team calendar
  • photoframe with snapshot of my buddies and me at my Hooter’s birthday party a couple years ago
  • a map of the U.S. divided into our company’s sales regions
  • printout of the company phone directory
  • a stack of business magazines

Kinda boring desktop, isn’t it? I have a policy of not keeping any personal stuff on my desk except maybe one or two photos. After the last job when I got fired and escorted to the door for being ethical and not doctoring the numbers on the sales reports that my boss demanded, I want to be able to leave with just one box of my personal belongings in a box and be gone with just one trip out the door to my car.

So, come on and tell me what’s on your desk and send me the link to your blog so I can read it!

Laptop Defects

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My last two laptops – really good brands, high end – have both failed for the same reason my son’s just failed. The little connector piece in the back where the power cord plus in gets loose from the inside connection  to the motherboard. Once the motherboard loses connection, the laptop is basically toast. You cannot reconnect the motherboard and you can’t solder it back together. This is obviously a design flaw inherent to may different types and brands of laptops.

If someone wants to start up a class action suit against the laptop manufacturers for this defect, I’m on board. I’m about sick of spending about $3,000 every year on a new laptop because one little connector piece breaks. Just once I would like to feel that my investment in a laptop will last for 3 years. Mine haven’t even reached one third of their tax depreciation value before they have to be thrown out.

Spin Ads

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Reading through this month’s Spin Magazine I am struck by how many ads are targeting the younger demographic that must read this magazine regularly with products that are not necessarily good for them or helpful to them other than designer clothing lines.

The inside cover is a special slick trifold page that gives this advertiser 4 actual full pages of exposure for 1800 Tequila.

The next two pages are DKNY Jeans, and the next two pages are for VanHeusen shirts – their Studio line.

The next two pages are Quiksilver shirts, jeans and hoodies.

The next two pages are Ben Sherman coats. I guess it’s coats. Can’t tell for sure.

Then we finally get to a page that I thought might be a table of contents page opposite a full page ad for Boost cell phones. But it’s not a table of contents. Its a page called Spin Flash with photos from four of the summer’s big concerts.

Then FINALLY a table of contents page, opposite an ad for Hennessy cognac.

So to just get to the table of contents page we’ve been exposed to:

  • Liquor – 5 pages
  • Clothing, shoes, handbags & accessories – 8 pages
  • Cell Phones & Electronics – 1 page
  • Personal Care Products – 0 pages
  • Music & Concerts – 0 pages

So for fun I went through the rest of the magazine and tallied the rest of the ads into basic categories. The rest of the magazine might have halfpage ads or quarter page ads, but I’m counting the occurrences of the types of ads, so some pages maybe be counted twice if they contain two half page ads.

  • Liquor – 12 pages
  • Clothing, shoes, handbags & accessories – 16 pages
  • Cell Phones & Electronics – 6 page
  • Personal Care Products – 2 pages
  • Music & Concerts – 16 pages
  • Other – 9 pages

Making it Harder to Get to California

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Can’t believe that Southwest Airlines is starting to knuckle under. They announced today that they are cutting back on flights. Of course, one of the routes getting the axe is the one I take – the only nonstop from Nashville to Oakland. All the other flights add 2 hours to that trip and it’s long enough as it is. And changing planes always puts you at risk of missing that connection. To be honest, the most I am comfortable on a plane is the 4 hour flight to Las Vegas from here. Anything farther than that and I start feeling cooped up and get really restless sitting on a plane – especially when there are crying babies on board.

On a good note, Southwest is the only airline this year that is still operating in the black. All the others are in the red. That says a lot for Southwest’s excellent management practices and their customer service. They’ve always been good to me and I can’t say that for the other airlines, especially with some of the horrendous experiences I’ve had with American and Northwest. So I’m glad to see the good guys are still winning.

When I fly, I always check Southwest for an available flight first and it has to be an extreme situation for me to fly on a different airline. There are only a few cities that Southwest does not service from here, and most of the time I don’t have to go there, thank goodness. I love their website – its so easy to make reservations and check in online – I can’t believe we used have to make long phones calls and stand in line for everything that now just takes a few clicks.