According to licensed professional counselor Elliott Connie, going into business with a family member can actually be a good idea as long as you do your part to make it a good idea. What does this mean? Under the right circumstances, a business venture with a family member can be successful both financially and emotionally. However, in order for this to happen, people need to choose their business partners wisely. If you’ve got a brother who has never managed to stay at a job for more than a couple of months at a time, then chances are, he’s not going to make a good business partner. At the same time, if you’ve got a sister who is sharp, reliable, and notably hardworking, then a business relationship with her might work out well in the long run.

If a family member approaches you with the idea of starting a company together, then it’s important that you really think about the prospect of going into business with the relative in question before reaching a decision. Think about this family member’s personality and track record, and ask yourself if you really think that a business relationship is going to work. Chances are, you’re intelligent enough to recognize the flaws inherent in your potential business partner that might prevent a financial venture from being a good idea. So it mostly becomes a matter of facing the person in question and being honest about how you feel. You should never feel obligated to agree to something with which you aren’t comfortable simply to avoid hurting a family member’s feelings. Instead, you should communicate openly with the family member and explain why you don’t think the situation is likely to work. The family member might initially be hurt, but hopefully he will come to appreciate your honesty and accept your decision.

On the other hand, it can be a great idea to go into business with a family member if you truly believe that the person in question would make a good business partner. One key component of a successful business relationship is trust, and if trust is something that already exists between you and a certain relative, then you’re already one step ahead of the game. However, Elliott Connie does warn that a good business partnership also involves the ability to take criticism from one another and not allow emotions to cloud your joint decision-making skills. Therefore, when evaluating the idea of a business partnership with a particular family member, you should also ask yourself whether or not you think that person has the ability to be objective about business decisions without allowing feelings to get in the way. At the same time, you should also question your own capacity to do so in terms of your potential partner. If, at the end of the day, you’re confident that you’ll both be able to achieve that perfect separation of business and emotion, then there’s no reason why business-wise, you and a family member wouldn’t be a perfect match.

After all is said and done, the key to making a wise decision about a family-based business venture is logic coupled with honesty. By trusting your instincts about your potential business partner and allowing logic to help dictate your decision, you’ll be doing your part to ensure that business doesn’t get in the way of family, or vice versa.

Related Articles

• Water Coolers (0)
• Are You Obligated to Love a Family Member? (0)
• A Guide to Cleaning Services (3)
• Why You Need to Know QuickBooks (0)
• What is Collaborative Divorce? (0)

Going beyond the usual programs – Word, Excel, PowerPoint – is a huge boost within itself. Now you have unique skills that really set you apart. One of these key programs is Microsoft Visio. The ACTS Learning Center owner Steven Patterson explains this program and why you should know it.

Visio is an extremely helpful tool because it takes complex information and displays it in clear and concise presentations. Think of PowerPoint, only this is for your own personal benefit as well as other employees and clients. Plus it isn’t about you actually creating the presentation, rather you supplying the information about your business and Visio laying it out. Visio’s easy, almost snappy way of laying out data can actually make it more easily understandable. Visio can create flowcharts, diagrams, and models, in many formats and categories. You can represent the status of a project with a workflow, or a flowchart demonstrating the timeline of work done. You can compile budgeting into graphs and charts, you can take a business plan and turn it into a model that would allow you to see timelines, events, and results with different variables.

Visio also features the capability to create floor plans and layouts. You can create plans of your office building and map what will go where all on one screen. You can design a new office, store, warehouse, etc. You can use the diagram feature to label what you intend for each space to be. You can use these rough plans as actual guidelines for your work space, whatever kind of space that may be.

Visio, aptly named, is the vision of your business. You’re taking different data and information, of many different kinds, and entering it into a system that will lay it all out so it is easily read, understood, remembered, and followed. You can create visual guidance for your business, from daily operation to its future. A class can help you understand how to accomplish this with different commands and models. It can teach you how to run reports, and even have Visio look at data from your business and predict Trends. Visio then allows you to transform these projects into different formats so you can get them out to more and more people, whatever system they may be using. Visio is such an incredible visualization and communication tool, and having a firm knowledge of its main functions show potential and steady employers the kind of contribution you can make to productivity and innovative methods. The partnership between you and Visio can make you a valuable asset to your company, as you help every employee understand the business model and move forward with new strategies.

Related Articles

• Your Guide to Learning Centers (0)
• Why You Need to Know QuickBooks (0)
• Learning Microsoft Project (0)
• How Microsoft Publisher Can Help Your Business (0)

When it comes to learning more complex programs, you may find yourself going back and learning simple commands to get these programs in motion. These are commands you may have already been familiar with if you had learned basic keyboarding and Windows to their fullest extent. Learning these concepts gives you skills that are also used in other programs, so now you have a leg up on learning these more difficult programs. Knowing the basics also helps you see how things work, how things fit together, and what makes this or that do what. This simple computing logic will help you grasp the more advanced programs’ concepts more quickly and comprehensively.

When you think of taking a course in basic keyboarding, your first instant is probably to laugh. “I know how to type!” you’re thinking. Back up. Of course you know where the letters and numbers are, and all that good stuff, but do you actually know how to type? Like, really type? One of the most common sights is an experienced, distinguished business professional sitting at his or her computer, hammering slowly through an e-mail using the good old “hunt and peck” method. Ouch. Wouldn’t it be a lot faster to understand typing the way it’s supposed to be done? To actually know where to place your fingers and memorize where each key is so you can type quickly and easily? Your seventh grade teacher would be so proud! You will boost your professionalism and your productivity by knowing how to type properly. Especially now, in this more competitive job market, a lot of jobs that did not in the past are now asking what candidates’ typing speed is.

Then, there’s Windows. Windows is Windows, right? There’s a bunch of programs, and you click on one, and then it’s there, opened. There’s so much more to Windows! Especially because there is a new version to learn, with new features, options, and commands. That’s Windows XP, and most businesses are using that version now. So, if you’re looking for a job, you want to learn XP. And if you already have a job, you want to learn XP because your company will start using it very soon if they haven’t already. And, if you own a business, time to switch over to XP, to get things moving faster and in a more organized, personalized manner! Learning about Windows XP in a classroom will teach you every option available to you, how to install and remove programs, how to create shortcuts for the programs you use most often, how to personalize the home screen of your computer with your important programs, files, and folders, how to adjust important computer settings, and how to protect your computer from viruses and other problems.

Keyboarding and Windows XP are two examples of classes that are such strong foundations for your computer skills. Mastering these programs will really give you the background to understand more complex programs quickly and easily, plus you will have a complete mastery of your computer.

Related Articles

• How to List Computer Skills on a Resume (0)

If you’re looking for a job, or you want to keep the job you have now, it’s time to make yourself a superstar employee. And that doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. Settling in with books and manuals is completely overwhelming – where to start, how to memorize it all, when do you apply it all? And enrolling in college isn’t the best option for everyone, either. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of money, two things many of us don’t have these days. You can’t rely on your own exploring to figure these programs out, and you certainly cannot assume your new or existing company will train you – the whole point is they want someone they don’t have to take the time to train.

The perfect medium? A learning center. Steven Patterson is the owner of such of a place, The ACTS Learning Center in Florence, Kentucky. He established his center with job seekers in mind. He recognizes that there are smart, experienced professionals in search of jobs that only need a few classes to make themselves the must-have candidates they are.

A learning center is the faster, cheaper, and often more efficient way to learn skills you need for the career world. Classes are not only offered during the day for those of you still looking for something full time, but also on evenings and Saturdays for those of you looking for a new job, or new skills to keep the one you’ve got. You’re not in high school anymore. The purpose of a learning center is to cater to you and make sure you learn what you need. You can sign up for the classes you want to take and pick the level you feel ready to take it at, depending on whether this is a brush-up, a refresher, or you’ve never sat in front of the program in your life. With small class sizes and expert teachers that give you hands on training with all the program’s functions, you will feel confident in your abilities by the end of the class, either a few weeks or a few months later. If you’re not sure what you should take, what programs are the most relevant for your career or industry, or what you know enough about, you can talk to the professionals at the learning center to assess your skills and needs. They can help you pick the one, two, or five courses you would like to take.

Learning centers can also serve as an outsourced training center for businesses, so if you are a business owner without the time or resources to train your new employees, you can arrange a program with your local learning center. This is a great option for making sure these employees start working for you prepared with all they need to know, at no time loss to you and at a reasonable cost. And prospective candidates, take note. While this option is a great way to train for companies, think of your potential employer’s reaction when you don’t even need this training. A learning center is such a valuable resource for upping your game and making sure you get the next job you interview for, or keep the one you have now, all without spending so much time and money.

Related Articles

• Why Learn Microsoft Word? (0)
• What to Know About InDesign (0)
• So You Think You Know Internet Explorer (0)
• Should You Learn Dreamweaver? (0)
• Outdoor Renovation: Turning Dreams into Reality (3)

While you may not need to learn how to use Internet Explorer for its most basic and obvious function of actually searching for and viewing web pages, there is so much more to this program that you can asserting toward helping your business improve productivity and organization. Internet Explorer offers different organizational and presentation features. For example, it has an import/export tool. You can bring in data from outside applications to apply that to your internet settings – let’s say, for example, your boss has given you a list of websites in an Outlook e-mail that he wants you to research. You can import those websites into Internet Explorer so you can instantly reference them. Conversely, you can, for example, export the cookies, or the history and settings, of your internet use to a Word document so you can track the usage of different websites in an ongoing report.

Internet also offers several methods of communications. Of course, there are e-mail servers you can pull up as you would a website – which is another great use for the import/export tool, since you can transfer contacts from Outlook to another server and vice versa. You can also e-mail pages you find to contacts right from that page, so if you happen to find a page that supports a theory you’re operating on in a new budget plan, you can send that page to your client. There is also a “discussion” feature, in which you can connect with clients or co-workers to discuss a page you can all view on your own computers. This is accomplished by setting up a server your contacts can log in to in order to have the discussion.

Beyond organizational, presentational, and communicative features, it is also important to know safety procedures for Internet Explorer, especially when you are dealing with an entire company sharing a server and data. You need to know how to protect data and certain web pages, how to block pop ups and advertisements, how to monitor and track web site visitation history, and how to protect against viruses. There is certain software you can install to ward off viruses, and it can be a bit more complicated than just installing a CD. A class can help you decide the best software for your type of business and what you use the internet for, and then it will help you install it and implement it into your system.

There is also a lot of customization you can do with Internet Explorer, and you can really make the browser fit your business’ needs. You can basically take the standard and necessary commands (Stop, Reload, Home, Search), and build a toolbar based on what your employees or co-workers need to do on the internet browser. When you think of the options on the internet itself, they really are endless. So, you should be able to use all that information in different ways to benefit your career and/or your company. A class can quickly train you in all of Internet Explorer’s features and commands, as well as its protections plans.

Related Articles

• Learning Microsoft Access (0)
• How to Prepare For a Career Change (0)
• Why Learn Microsoft Word? (0)
• What You Can Get From a Computer Learning Center (0)
• What to Know About InDesign (0)

However, these programs are not just a good idea for some industries, they are necessary. Microsoft Project is extremely important for project managers to know. Adobe Dreamweaver is vital for web designers to know. Adobe InDesign falls somewhere between these industry-specific programs, and the programs that anyone can and should master. As The ACTS Learning Center owner Steven Patterson explains, InDesign has the same concept as Microsoft Publisher, but is a bit more technical. It is used to create logos, banners, letterheads, and layouts for articles, newsletters, brochures, posters, sings, magazines, and more. So, while InDesign is a great tool for any professional, it is especially vital for those going into the editorial industry. It is often listed as a requirement for these jobs, and if it isn’t, you definitely have a better shot if you can say you know this program.

InDesign is often learned in conjunction with programs like Photoshop and Illustrator because these all complement and complete an entire publishing process. This allows creation of images and graphics, manipulation, formatting, editing, and publishing. So, let’s say for example you are designing a layout for your magazine’s monthly feature. Using these programs, you can work with the photographs you choose, to manipulate and edit them to fit and look top notch. You can create and insert any other graphics. You can design the headline, and the byline, as well, choosing your own font, size, layout, etc. You can then lay out the actual body of the article and choose what will go where, if it will wrap around the images, and more. You can edit at any time, and publish. InDesign comes into play especially with all the text work, creating the headlines and any descriptions below, and then crafting the layout of the text itself. Learning the program gives you a better understanding of how to plan print work. What is easiest on the eye, most attractive, and most appealing? You can create and experiment with many different effects, and InDesign will help you structure these effects to adhere with the content and style of publication.

When going into an editorial career, it is important to know a program like InDesign, because crafting these layouts is much more complicated than creating a header with Word Art on Microsoft Word and choosing between one body or columns. You need to be able to incorporate pictures, graphics, captions, side tables, footnotes, and perhaps even advertisements. InDesign is like your editorial package deal for design and publishing, and especially when complemented by other programs like Publisher and Dreamweaver, can cover the entire process from initial idea to print.

Related Articles

• Why Should You Learn Photoshop? (0)
• Why Learn Microsoft Word? (0)
• What You Can Get From a Computer Learning Center (0)
• So You Think You Know Internet Explorer (0)
• Should You Learn Dreamweaver? (0)

1. People who master the program and all of its features
2. People who use the program for e-mail but haven’t explored much else.
3. People who are all together unfamiliar with the system.Only the first group, the masters, are exempt from the necessity to learn Microsoft Outlook to its fullest extent. You will be hard pressed to find a company that does not use Outlook. It is vital you know this program to make yourself a prime job candidate, not knowing it can seriously hinder your chances at a job. Even if you are already employed, Outlook can greatly improve your work life by saving you time and energy. It is the ultimate one stop shopping source for organization and communication at work. The ACTS Learning Center owner Steven Patterson explains why.

Businesses use Outlook for a few reasons, the major two being the fact that Outlook offers more than just an e-mail system, but an entire organization system – you can schedule meetings, keep track of clients and vendors, schedule announcements, and more. The second reason is its universality. Everyone uses Outlook, and that is a huge benefit for compatibility purposes. E-mails can be written without concern that something will not attach or translate, because everyone is on the same system. Taking the time to learn Outlook is one of the most worthwhile things you can do, since you will have an extremely difficult time finding a company that does not use it. Your knowledge will always be extremely useful. Plus, Outlook is not complicated, so that time that you take will not even be that long. That’s what Outlook is all about: speed, simplicity, and organization.

Each section of Outlook is like a mini program for you to learn. First, there is e-mail. Simple enough, right? Well, yes. So, why go to a class to learn how to e-mail? Because there is more than just typing a message and hitting “Send.” Outlook is the sort of program that you really should be able to use to its fullest potential. Learn how to create your address book, and how you can import contacts from other applications. Learn formatting and how to add attachments in different document types. You can learn how to make Outlook a shared program so that employees can be on the same e-mails and access the same information. Sync Outlook to company Blackberrys so employees on the go stay in the loop. Post public folders on a server so that your client can access information. You can even coordinate Outlook and Skype for video conferencing or calls.

Then there is the calendar, which is really more like an interactive planner. You can enter appointments and meetings on the calendar and use this application to actually plan this event: how long will it be, who will be attending, are you completely unavailable during this time or can you take calls, etc. Then, everyone in the company can see this event. So for example, if you post a meeting on your schedule onto the calendar and mark yourself unavailable, then people know not to send calls to you, and when you will be available again. You can also use the calendar to invite people to the meeting without even going into the e-mail section. When you create the event, it will let you enter contacts and it will then send them notification and they can either accept or reject. The calendar will also give you periodic reminders of your upcoming events.

Along the same organizational lines, Outlook also offers a journal tool, a task manager, a content manager, and note taking. Basically, all these tools work together so you can quickly and easily outsource your information and need for organization and planning to the program. As you can see with Outlook, these are each simple processes on their own, but you should really take the time to learn each one so your possibilities are really endless.

Related Articles

• No related articles found.

Adobe Flash is the quintessential program for animated and interactive features in web design. It does more than create those annoying flashing ads that barrage some web pages you view. Flash is the way to create anything, well, moving that you see online. You can stream audio and video with Flash. You can keep the text about your company moving up the homepage with Flash. You can create a page where your web site visitors can answer questions with Flash. It is an important presentation, communication, and marketing tool in today’s business world. Flash not only makes your website more attractive, it shows that you are up-to-date on today’s technology and internet trends.

The first step to learning Adobe Flash is learning its “language,” ActionScript. A class will start you off with this method, where you learn how to give the program commands. Different symbols and words tell the program to animate this, increase the size of that, and insert video here. The ActionScript is the most important part of Flash use to learn. The language will begin to make sense when you start using multiple commands to create one overall page or image.

The next step is actually applying this language and learning all the capabilities of Flash. You can learn how to animate text, graphics, and photographs, how to create interactive applications, how to insert sound and video, how to work different elements together in one web page, and even how to create games.

Finally, there’s the editing and formatting. When you create one of these elements, say animation, for example, there is a lot more flexibility in editing when you use the ActionScript programming language rather than simply animating directly on an animation program. Now that you know the commands, you can simply go in and alter them to get a different effect. You are sort of editing from behind the scenes, and it makes things a lot easier. Newer versions of Flash include newer versions of ActionScript, which is not to say that the language itself has changed, but the capabilities of the language, instead. These changes make mastering the language and applying it easier, like a feature to save and reuse codes so it becomes like a quick command on your toolbar. You will also learn how to take your projects and import and export them to different documents, presentations, and web pages.

Adobe Flash is a bit more complicated and technical than your average office program, thanks largely in part to ActionScript. However, with the focused intensive attention of a class, you can master it – or, at least, learn it well. This program is obviously the most worthwhile to learn for illustrators, designers, web designers, and web hosts. But it can also be extremely helpful to know for anyone who is in the position of needing marketing or improved web activity for their business on a low budget.

Related Articles

• Why Learn Microsoft Word? (0)
• How Can Adobe Illustrator Help You? (0)

A lot of people think PowerPoint is something really only used in classrooms and boardrooms, and you could say those places are where the program got its start. You could say, though, that those places were onto something here. PowerPoint has the ability to make business models, plans, policies, schedules, artistic presentations, histories, predictions, sales reports, graphs – need we continue? – into supremely organized, clear, and interesting presentations. You can really drive your point home to your employees, colleagues, students, backers, clients, or potential clients. Again, like most programs that companies want their employees to know, PowerPoint can save valuable time and energy, time and energy that can asserted to other tasks. See, where you may take the time to compile information into a long report, PowerPoint can display that information quickly and easily. And it’s not only the time you take to compile that information, it’s the time your targeted audience takes to read that information. Like other communications technologies, PowerPoint is yet another way to convey information fast and conveniently. You were able to organize data quickly, and now your employees or clients can learn that data quickly.

PowerPoint also steps up your business game. Think of it this way: You’re a construction company looking to get hired for a new project in your city. You get a meeting with the development company behind the project. You go in with tons of information — your experience, the benefits of working with you, your previous successes. But it’s all on100 pieces of paper. The next construction company goes in with a clear, concise explanation of why they should be hired in a PowerPoint presentation. They hit on their experience with big pictures of their past projects and blurbs about those buildings. They hit on the benefits of hiring them with detailed but easy-to-read charts and estimates. Who do you think the development firm is going to hire? You may have the right qualifications, but the other company made the interviewing experience more interesting, more informative, and easier for the firm. They also sent the message that they are technologically up to date and computer savvy.

The more you learn PowerPoint, the more you will realize just how many jobs and industries the system is useful for. Your PowerPoint capabilities will truly set you apart from other job candidates or businesses, depending on what you happen to be using the system for. Plus, you’ll be able to create one mean presentation.

Related Articles

• No related articles found.

Within any industry that implements graphics – which can basically be any industry, really – a program like Adobe Photoshop is the most common and reliable go-to program for graphic editing. While the program is a vital tool for those in design, it can also be incredibly useful for other professionals. It gives them the possibilities of knowing basic design elements themselves. So instead of outsourcing the company letterhead design, or the graphic design for the company website, they can save that money and do it themselves. Photoshop and its usefulness starts within design and branches outward into other businesses. It makes design techniques more accessible for those with no design training.

Adobe’s power reaches from designing a brochure to creating animated film. The range of commands and features is so vast that it can prove extremely difficult to master just by doing some exploring yourself. A class will start you from the basics of graphic design and editing and take you to the most complex commands, that allow you to edit, transfer, and bring designs to life. There is an entire language of terms for a program like Adobe Photoshop. It seems simple, and many processes are. But to really use Photoshop to its fullest potential is to understand image language like bitmap, jpeg, alpha channels, clipping paths…there are many to learn. However, don’t feel overwhelmed: You will absorb and retain these terms because they make sense in the processes you will be performing. By taking a class, a teacher can teach you these terms as you learn, so the language all sticks with you and you go home remembering how to get from point A to point B. A class is virtually vital to mastering Photoshop, because there is just so much you can do to an image. Again, the sheer volume of techniques can be overwhelming, but learning them in a structured setting can help you remember each command and what graphics they work with.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 is the most advanced and complex version, offering features technical enough for filmmakers and video makers. CS4 offers the capabilities of creating 2-D and 3-D images, and even combining the two in different ways. The program can create intricate animation that can be implemented on websites, in presentations, and on video. CS4 can even generate scientific imaging. What CS4 has done for Photoshop is more than just create a new set of technological advances in the field. It has broadened the spectrum of Photoshop users. Now, you have the home user who has learned the program for fun. You have the designer who uses Photoshop as a daily tool. You have the entrepreneur who has learned the system in order to perform self marketing and create a website. So many industries and careers can be greatly aided by Photoshop.

The best way to tackle learning the program is to begin with a general class so you can become well-versed in all commands and features. Once you see what the system can do, and what you can do with it, you can start to apply that to your business. You will now start to learn the program with a slant toward the relationship between Photoshop and your business, which is undoubtedly strong for marketing, productivity, and presentation.

Related Articles

• What to Know About InDesign (0)