1. Even your simple emails might not get through shocking lesson learnt - Business Success

2. Questions to ask when hiring staff - Get more done in less time

1. Even your simple emails might not get through

Background
Last month our service provider accidentally sent two copies of Quick Tips to everyone. Perhaps it was a knee jerk reaction, but I sent a follow up apology to everyone in plain text, rather than a colourful email.

Lessons Learnt
While only 25-35 people complained or unsubscribed (out of 13,700), the overwhelming number of replies saying no problem, or we love the newsletter was a surprise. It took me over a week to reply and thank those that responded (I felt compelled to since they took the time).

Lesson 1
Never underestimate the vast amount of goodwill a regular, informative, un 'me,me,me' newsletter can generate for your business.

Stunned and scared
What I never expected though were the number of people that wrote in saying 'what email are you talking about; or I haven't heard from you in a while'. I thought 'how can they not be receiving the Quick Tips? I put each newsletter through a vigorous spam check, and know to write circumspectly.' Additionally the original email had over 1200 bounces. When I sent the apology email to the very same list only several hours later, there were only 177 bounces. How many more aren't being delivered?

Lesson 2
Ever wonder why you're not getting replies to your normal email correspondence? The screws are wound tighter each day, especially with large companies. Learn what you can about spam filters, but then again - don't bet on it. The latest stat's for 2005 is 22% of permission email isn't being delivered (with emails going into junk folders or not being delivered). The worst is Hotmail, Yahoo and GMail as you would have guessed.

Learn More
If you're interested in learning more about filters and getting past them, I have several chapters in my book Successful Marketing Your Complete 'How-To' Guide. Sorry, couldn't resist the plug.

2. Questions to ask when hiring (plus a little story)

Kirsty my right hand over the past two years recently left so I advertised to replace her.

The ad read
Office Manager for International Speaker and Author. Run the office and assist with admin and marketing. Flexible part time position

Skills required
o Excellent up to date computer software knowledge.
o Very skilled in Excel, Outlook, the Internet, Word and PowerPoint. Dreamweaver and Access would be great.

You might be thinking to yourself 'gee Debbie, you're just a speaker. Why do you need someone so computer literate?'

Why? Because the more shortcuts and tricks you use, the more productive your office is. 5 hours work can be done in 2. And to be frank, the lower your operating costs are.

One Candidate
I got calls and cv's from all kinds of people. Only one person stood out enough to interview. Rose. Rose had a lovely voice with a soft accent. 'Ahh, she'll be good on the phone I thought.' When Rose told me where she worked and her duties I said to myself 'that business would only hire a very smart cookie indeed' . We set Friday for the interview.

The doorbell rings
A lovely dark haired woman. About my height. A bit chubbier perhaps. Mid 40's. She had on a black knit top and a nice skirt. Absolutely lovely. I could see we would get on very well.

Rose told me about her current job. About the vast amount of time she has used a computer, about how good her computer skills were. Meanwhile I'm thinking. "Oh Rose. We're a match made in heaven."

We spoke of the job, and I mentioned the new book I wrote about working smarter with email and contracts. 'I'm good with Outlook' Rose said. 'Wonderful' I replied.

Then I asked 'so how do you use rules?'
All I got was a blank quizzical stare from Rose.

To me rules is a life changing function in Outlook/Outlook Express. All my joy at finding Rose came crashing in. How could someone saying how fabulous they are on the computer not know this?

Lesson Learnt
Just because someone spends a lot of time at the computer doesn't mean they're advanced or even intermediate. It means they spend a lot of time on the computer.

So the next time you're looking to hire someone, think of the top computer shortcuts you know, and ask them to show you them on your computer, or explain them.

These are a few key shortcuts I recommend (and again, they're all in these books, plus hundreds of additional time saving tips). Yes, another plug. Forgive me - I've got to make all the work put into this newsletter pay off just a teeny, weeny bit - don't you agree?

Debbie's Favourite Computer Shortcut's

1. Rules
2. Tasks
3. Categories
4. Text to Columns
5. 'If'
6. Personalised merge
7. Drag and drop
8. Concatenate
9. Find and replace
10. Keyboard shortcuts