Featured Partners

ARG - Telecommunications Brokerage

ARG allows you to focus on your core business rather than spending hours dealing with telecom providers. They analyze your current and future needs, evaluate the options and make recommendations. They are your advocate in contract negotiations, they project manage and assist with the implementation of your new providers and services and then provide outstanding on-going support. ARG becomes part of your staff, assisting you with all your telecom needs (did we mention there’s no fee?) You decide what you want – they make sure the services are installed correctly and on time.

No call center; no phone tree; no run-arounds. Call ARG’s client services team and talk to a live person! No matter your company’s size or requirements – ARG can help, even if it’s to confirm that you’re okay and don’t need to make any changes.

ARG has been in business for over 15 years and has mor than 2000 regional, national and international customers. Over 90% of their business comes via referrals from existing customers and business partners.

ARG believes in doing what’s best for the customer and doing it in an ethical way. They look for employees who have the same values and have assembled a truly incredible team. Employees are empowered to take care of the customer and are trusted to do the right thing for all parties involved. ARG believes that if they do the right thing for the customer, in the end, it will also be best for ARG.

Company Profile:

Capture Video: Your Brand in Motion

Capture Video's nonprofit clients utilize the moving picture's ability to move people through short mission videos illustrating the importance of charitable donations. Marketing Directors and PR agencies hire them to influence buyers, investors, and the public through broadcast video, DVDs, Podcasts, and Webmercials. HR directors can standardize their message by videotaping training sessions, and liven up awards events with interactive awards presentations that incorporate video, music, photos, and Flash animation.

Capture Video recently began working with Leadership Fairfax on a video presentation for the Northern Virginia Leadership Awards. The awards honor individuals and organizations that work to make the Northern Virginia Community a better place to live. Through music, voice over and, of course, images, Capture Video is producing a presentation about each award recipient that highlights his or her efforts to improve our community.

New media can educate, motivate, and influence clients, employees, and audiences. It is a tool that many companies are not sure how to use. Capture Video specializes in developing new media productions that suit the needs of our clients. They look forward to educating future clients on the many ways in which new media can enhance public and corporate image.

To see examples of Capture Video's work, take a look at their segments about the American Diabetes Association, PRS, or RaySat Satellite TV, among others on their website.

Contact Capture Video:
Jessica Piscitelli, President
jessica@capture-video.com
703.860.1238
http://www.capture-video.com

Centric Telecom (9/06)

Some IP phones require a firewall-to-firewall VPN – what we really like about the Toshiba system is that all you have to do is plug the phones into a broadband connection and go! This has helped BEI employees work from remote locations and has given us terrific flexibility.

Together with Centric, we recently helped one of our clients - Smart Payment Solutions - seamlessly connect their offices in Virginia and Indiana. Smart Payment Solutions assists companies and non-profits with electronic payments, including ACH, Credit Cards, Returned Check Processing, Fraud Screening and Verification Services.

With a Toshiba CIX100 in Virginia and a Toshiba CIX 40 in Indiana, Smart Payment Solutions' offices function as one, enabling their employees to transfer calls between locations, use a common voice mail system and connect additional remote offices via IP phones.

To secure Smart Payment Solutions' two data networks, BEI purchased and configured WatchGuard firewalls for each location. We installed the WatchGuard in the Virginia office and worked with an IT company in Indiana to install the firewall there. It is important to note that this was important for their data networks, but was not required by the Toshiba system.

Matt Whitaker, Founder and President of Smart Payment Solutions had this to say about their new phone system: "We love the Toshiba system. It is a challenge to have our sales and marketing in one location and our operations in another. With a Toshiba box in each of these two main offices, we can create a very smooth process for our clients as they transition through the sales cycle. We can also maintain local numbers in both places, giving us a local flavor for our clients in each area, so if a Midwest client needs a new account, they would never know that they are talking to a salesperson in Virginia. We even have a salesperson in New Hampshire linked in to the same system with a Toshiba IP phone placed in their home office. The phone system also helps me manage our Indiana employees and create a collaborative team environment, as I can reach them with the push of a button and conduct team teleconferences with little effort. Centric Telecom made the process easy for us."

Contact Centric Telecom:
Larry Dressel, President
ldressel@centrictel.com
703-321-5070
5544 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22151
http://centrictel.com/index.html

Balanced Spaces (7/05)

Balanced Spaces can help you:
o Maximize your workspace
o Control your e-mail
o Find files fast
o Take back your time

A former officer manager, meeting planner, bookkeeper, and computer trainer who has been self-employed since 1985, Susan specializes in working with entrepreneurs and in setting up filing systems. As a computer trainer, she can help you organize your computer files and e-mail messages. And, she can help you declutter and make the best use of your space at home. In addition to working one-on-one with clients, Susan offers presentations and workshops on organizing and time management, including the following:

Tips to Control Your E-mail

You don’t have to! Instead, you can take control of your e-mail by using these tips.

(Some tips apply specifically to Outlook®, but many e-mail programs offer similar features. Check your program’s help menu to see how to do the same thing.)

Reading e-mail
1. Read your e-mail on a schedule (9 am, noon, 3 pm, etc.) rather than reacting to each e-mail as it comes in. You lose productivity each time you switch from one activity to another.
2. Make decisions immediately as you read each message.
• Reply immediately when possible to avoid reading the message again later.
• Delete the message if you don’t need to keep it (and you do not need to keep all messages!) Use the Delete icon on the toolbar.
• Create and use subject folders: Move the message to a folder if you need to keep it. Use the Move to Folder icon on the message toolbar.
• No appropriate folder yet? No problem. From the Move to Folder menu, select the last item “Move to Folder…” to open a dialog box listing all folders. Click the “New” button to create a folder.
• Get in the habit of immediately moving important e-mail messages to an appropriate subject folder. This makes it much easier to find those messages later.
3. Save the address of the sender to your contacts and/or address book. Right click the “from” e-mail address, and select Add to Contacts.
4. Create follow-up reminders if not replying immediately. Click the red Flag icon on the toolbar. Leave the default as “follow-up” or enter your own text. Set a date and time, keep the message in your inbox, and Outlook (if running) will pop up a reminder at the appropriate time. [You can also drag the message to the Task folder to create an Outlook Task.]
5. Change the subject line to make it meaningful if it doesn’t reflect what the message is really about. Click in the subject line; change the text. Ctrl + S saves it, or click the X to close the message and Outlook will ask if you want to save it.
Sending e-mail
(Help your e-mail recipients stay organized (and maybe they’ll do the same for you!)
6. Use concise subject lines.
7. Change the subject line when replying if it’s no longer appropriate.
8. Send separate messages for separate subjects.
9. Set your e-mail to automatically spell-check outgoing messages. Select Tools, Options, Spelling, and check “Always check spelling before sending.”
10. Use a “signature” with your name, company, and contact info, for all messages. Select Tools, Options, Mail Format, Signatures when using plain text format for e-mail. [Steps are different if using Word as your text editor.]
11. Indicate if a deadline and/or action is required at the beginning of the message, and also in the subject line.
12. State the purpose of the message in the first line, even if it’s in the subject line.
13. If asking many questions, number them.
14. When responding to numbered questions, number your answers to match. Respond at the top of the message, rather than in between the questions — it’s easier to read responses.
15. Keep your message short. If it must be long, use bullet points and short paragraphs.
16. When sending an attachment, tell your recipient. It’s not always obvious there is an attachment. Indicate the type of document attached (Word, PDF, etc.).
17. Attachments take up space. Instead of sending an attachment to a group, post it on your company’s internal web site and send an e-mail with a hyperlink to the document.
18. Reply to a message only if appropriate. Not all messages need a reply.
19. Choose “reply to all” and “copy” only when necessary.
20. Request “return receipt” only if necessary.
21. Stop e-mail subscriptions you don’t have time to read.
22. Don’t overload friends and colleagues with joke e-mails.
23. Don’t perpetuate hoaxes about viruses by forwarding them.
24. Use virus-scanning software and keep it up-to-date. Install Windows and Outlook security patches.
Maintaining e-mail organization
25. Empty your inbox by deleting messages or moving them to subject folders.
26. Empty your Deleted Items folder and your Sent Items folder periodically.
27. Archive old messages to your local or network drive to free up your allotted space on the e-mail server.
28. Set up “rules” for incoming mail. Click the Organize icon, or select Tools, Organize from the menu to:
• Direct subscription e-mails to a folder other than the inbox. Select “Using Folders” and create a rule.
• Color-code messages from specific  e-mail addresses to make them stand out. Select “Using Colors” and create a rule.
• Set up rules to automatically delete, move or color-code junk E-mail messages. Select “Junk E-mail” and create a rule.

© Copyright 2003-2005 Balanced Spaces®, LLC

Susan Kousek, principal of Balanced Spaces, LLC, is a professional organizer and speaker who has been helping people organize their papers, workspace, computers, homes, and lives since the early 1990s. 

skousek@balancedspaces.com
www.balancedspaces.com.

Balanced Spaces
703-742-9179
http://www.balancedspaces.com