Erich Stauffer

Blog

  • Tipton Computer Repair and Web Design Services

    Erich Stauffer provides IT and web design services for Tipton county.

    Are you looking for someone who knows how to troubleshoot computer systems, networking issues, and security concerns? Erich Stauffer has been helping business owners like you for over 6 years and is ready and willing to hear about your concerns.

    Tipton, Indiana, home of the Tipton County Pork Festival and the southern boundary of the Miami Indian Reservation, is also home to technology consultant, Erich Stauffer. From Tipton, Indiana, Erich is able to quickly help business owners in Tipton, Carmel, Kokomo, Fishers, Noblesville, and Westfield, but he also serves Plainfield, Brownsburg, Pendleton, Indianapolis, and Greenwood areas.

    Erich Stauffer offers both on-site and off-site computer services for small business owner operators in Tipton County. Erich will pick up the equipment if it is decided to continue with off-site service. All off-site options are billed using a flat-rate system.

  • Business Process Management Tasks

    Business Process ManagementBusiness Process Management Tasks

    Business process management tasks can be grouped into five categories: design, modeling, execution, monitoring, and optimization.

    Design

    Process Design involves both the identification of existing processes and the design or recommendations of future processes. Areas of focus include representation of the work flow, the forces that act on it, interruptions, deadlines, procedures, service level agreements, and inputs and outputs.

    Good design reduces the number of problems over the lifetime of the process. Whether or not existing processes are considered, the aim of this step is to ensure that a correct and efficient theoretical design is prepared.
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  • Foreign Exchange Rate Economic Indicators for GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, & CAD

    Foreign Exchange Rates for the Pound Sterling, US Dollar, Euro, Australian Dollar, and the Canadian Dollar can all be partially predicted if you know what to look for. Want more exchange rate forecasts?

    Pound Sterling

    Be on the lookout for the the latest edition of the Rightmove house price index, which can give indications for whether or not the Sterling is going to be moving positive or negative in the future. FXwords has a complete list of UK economic indicators.

    US Dollar

    Michigan Confidence survey seeks to understand US consumer attitudes and expectations about the US economy by gauging how consumers feel the economic environment will change. The survey’s Index of Consumer Expectations is an official component of the US Index of Leading Economic Indicators.

    Euro

    The OECD Leading Indicator measures the economic outlook for the Euro-zone as a whole. According to FXwords, it is “one of the most respected international economic research institutions, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) releases the Leading Indicator for early signals of economic expansion or slowdown. It takes a number of indicators known to precede changes in growth to serve as a short term forecast of Euro-zone developments. The OECD Leading Economic Index focuses less on how much economies change, but rather on the direction they are moving.”

    The Pound Australian Dollar

    Australia’s Westpac Consumer Confidence index, officially called the Consumer Sentiment Index, measures the level of consumer confidence and is an average of five indexes measuring different aspects of consumer fiscal health. According to FXwords, “This is one of the few indicators that are entirely expectation based. Households report their views on current buying conditions for household items and where they feel are the “wisest” places to invest savings. Views on future political policy (taxes, politicians, government) and economic conditions (wages, inflation, unemployment) are also surveyed.”

    The Pound Canadian Dollar

    Canada’s Ivey Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) is a monthly measure of the change in purchases by corporate executives. A headline value above 50 indicates an increase in purchases from the previous month and a value below 50 indicates a decrease, which can be a good economic indicator. FXwords has a complete list of Canadian economic indicators.

    Risk Warning: Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.

  • Don’t Change. Profit.

    Why are people so interested in the new(s)? Because they hate change. Here’s how to capitalize on that fear:

    I recently wrote about how people don’t like to change and it got me thinking, “What if I created products or services based on the premise that people hate change?” Tablet computers are revolutionary partly because they don’t have a keyboard, but one of the most popular accessories for a tablet computer is a keyboard. This is because people are used to computers having physical keyboards and they hate learning something new. Incandescent light bulbs are going to soon become illegal and people will be forced to buy fluorescent or LED light bulbs instead. People hate this and will now pay a premium for the regular old incandescent light bulbs. Nintendo releases the Wii 2, the most advanced gaming system yet, but people are still clamoring for games and accessories for the NES. It’s not retro – it’s change rejection.

    Call it whatever you like, there is money to be had in working against the onslaught of new products. Solo or one-cup coffee makers like the Keurig and their K-Cup system is now all the rage, which means there could be a market for the standard, large coffee pots you grew up with. Ebook readers and ebooks are now sold more on Amazon than traditional paper books. This could mean there is an opportunity for well-designed paper books to make a comeback. Ten years ago, in the height of the CD era, vinyl was cool. Now cassette tapes are coming back into style. Whatever is normal can become cool when change comes around. Digital wallets that use your phone to store credit and debit card information will soon replace your regular wallet, which means regular wallets will start to become cooler than ever. (more…)

  • My Local Heroes

    I’ve previously written about my media heroes, my ceo heroes, top entrepreneurs, and bulldozers, but today I wanted to talk about my local heroes, the ones who live in or around Indianapolis who have influenced me in some meaningful way, are hubs of influence in Indianapolis and who I have recently been able to meet:

    Douglas Karr – Author, designer, programmer, speaker, and social media guru, I first ran into this CEO of DK New Media and Founder at Marketing Technology Blog in my search for a coworking facility back when Doug met regularly at The Bean Cup. He has been the Vice President of Blogging Evangelism at Compendium Blogware, Director of Technology at Patronpath, and a Product Manager at ExactTarget. He is also active in Smaller Indiana and the Southside Smoosier Tech Club. He has been an inspiration to me as a blogger, web designer, and social media advocate. He packed the house at Blog Indiana 2011 with his session on 40 tools and he continues to be a valuable resource to our community.

    Robby Slaughter – Author, speaker, and productivity specialist, like Doug, I ran across Robby in my search for coworking in Indianapolis. Robby is a Principal at Slaughter Development and a member of the Speakers Bureau at Rainmakers. He has written his own book, Failure, the Secret to Success, and is a frequent contributor to the Indianapolis Business Journal. As a business analyst, author, and business owner, I look up to Robby for his acumen and professionalism in his field. Robby recently spoke at Linking Indiana’s September 2011 event and, like Doug, had a session at Blog Indiana 2011. I enjoyed hearing Robby speak on Social Media at Linking Indiana as I did not get to hear his session at Blog Indiana. (more…)

  • Comments Sense

    There are as many ways to run a commenting system as there are ways to comment. In this post I talk about some of the main strategies and how common sense sometimes doesn’t apply.

    There are main choices to a comment system:

    1. Turn comments off or don’t use them.
    2. Turn comments on with a website, but filter for spam.
    3. Turn comments on, but if a website is added, don’t allow.
    4. Turn comments on, allow all comments with or without a website.

    Michael Hyatt, a popular blogger and public speaker, uses Disqus for his comments system and encourages people to not just comment, but to backlink as well. This means that he falls into the 4th category of allowing all comments with or without a website. Michael knows this helps the commentor with their SEO and yet he still allows it.

    Douglas Karr’s site, DKNewMedia also uses Disqus for it’s comment system, but he falls into the 3rd category which doesn’t allow comments with a website. Doug is a social media guru and knows a lot about SEO and blogging so he probably doesn’t want his Google juice spilling out all over the Internet’s floor.

    I don’t use Disqus, opting for the standard-issue WordPress commenting system. I use Akismet to help filter for spam and I manually approve or decline comments. I will allow links to websites in comments as long as they are relevant and not obscene. This puts me in the 2nd category.

    And instead of giving an example of the 1st category of no comments at all, I wanted to mention Ed Dale‘s commenting system of choice: Facebook comments. Ed believes in the transparency that Facebook comments provides. He likes knowing exactly who is making the comment. In Facebook comments you don’t have the opportunity for a website backlink, just a link to your profile. (more…)

  • Who Asked You to Start a Business, Anyway?

    So you want to start your own business? Great. Here’s what your’e up against:

    The Government – It seems like the government should have your back. After all, you’re creating taxable income for them and either do or will help create new jobs, which in turn creates more taxable income for them, but your new business is a change – and no one likes change. First the state wants you to register your business with them. This costs money upfront and then again every year or so to keep it registered. Then you may also have to register with your local government and even with your local sheriff’s department. These are all people who could say, “No”. And if you are thinking of setting up a physical presence, there may also be zoning restrictions, which leads to the next roadblock.

    Your Neighbors – Your neighbors may be friendly now, but if customers start showing up or you have daily deliveries or pick-ups from FedEx and UPS, they may not be so happy. See, people expect things to stay the same and now you’ve decided to all of sudden up and do something different. Shame on you for disturbing the peace around your neighborhood. Even if city officials don’t mind that your business is not really zoned for it’s location, your neighbors might, and once they start complaining to the government all of a sudden those zoning restrictions matter more than ever. You can try to be nice to your neighbors and work with them, but remember, they don’t like change.

    Other Businesses – Other businesses are like the old guard or the established society. You’re the new guy who wants in. They have the websites you need backlinks from. They have the cash flow to outlast you. They don’t want to help you get started. They are just waiting for you to go out of business and leave them alone so they can keep doing what they’ve been doing. Businesses, like people, do not like change. You’re a nuisance to them just like you’re a nuisance to your neighbors. We’re not talking about competitors here, but since you brought it up, just hope your competitors don’t have your Craigslist ads taken down, click on your Google ads to run you out of funds, or report your business closed on Yelp.

    Your Family – Your family will, like your neighbors, smile to your face and talk about you behind your back to each other. They will all hope that when you run out of money you won’t come to them begging for help and won’t try to change their lives in any way. Remember, people do not like change. You were supposed to keep your job, not start a business. Did they say you could do that? What will the rest of the family think when you fail? When they ask you how your business is going, expecting you to say it’s failing, try hard to keep a straight face when they act concerned about your future and wish you well. There only wish is for you to go back to doing whatever it was you were doing before (and to never ask them to change).

    Yourself – You are the biggest obstacle to your own success. It’s you who decides how you are going to handle each and every obstacle you face. No matter what life, the government, your family, neighbors, friends, or other businesses do or say to you, it’s your choice on how you react to them. You are your own hero and they are the dragons. Will you slay them? So you have no money and rent is due. What does that have to do with how you feel? Who controls your feelings, really – you or your rent? Choose to be a success and do the work it takes to be successful and you’re 90% better off than any of those change-averse people (just like you). If what you’re doing isn’t working. Change.

    “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain

  • Welcome Tipton County Pork Festival Visitors

    If you had the opportunity to watch the Tipton County Pork Festival parade on Thursday, you may have recieved a flyer about Erich Stauffer’s services. If so, thanks for visiting our page. We offer several services to help you with technology whether that be your computer or your phone. If you’re wondering what the strange black-and-white box is on the right side of the flyer, it’s called a “Quick Response” or QR code. They are a special type of barcode that can store information like a web address, phone, number, and other information.

    Our technician, Erich Stauffer, is a Microsoft Certified Professional and is CompTIA A+ and Network+ certified. This means he has successfully completed programs about advanced Windows XP and Server 2003 settings as well as general hardware and network troubleshooting. He also has over 5 years of experience helping home and business owners with their personal and business needs. Erich is very friendly and professional. Although very tall, he has a soft demeanor and will patiently listen to your problems before he begins to fix them.

  • 5 Ways to Save Money on Corporate Blackberry Accounts

    Blackberry Torch 9800

    There are four basic things you can do if you own your own business or manage Blackberry’s for your business to save money on your coverage:

    1. Ask your corporate provider if everyone is on the same corporate billing account number (BAN): Doing this ensures a base line of corporate minutes and/or data per month for all of your users. This will decrease the surprises for what should or should not be included and reduce hassles as to why messages or bills are over their quota.

    2. Train those who travel the most frequently on roaming charges: Understanding roaming fees and SMS/calls is critical. Ensure that Blackberry Messenger (BBM) is used versus SMS since Canadian/North American providers charge the most in the world for texting and roaming in Canada is especially expensive.

    3. Instruct users to avoid dialing 1-800 numbers while outside of the US: In the United States, 1-800 numbers simply use ‘minutes’, but outside of the US they are no longer “toll free”. International long-distance rates will apply when they are dialed and therefore simply training your users not to dial them internationally will help.

    4. Isolate those who have the largest bills and revisit the their plans, specifically: User habits and behavior issues with how they are using the devices may be causing them to increase your costs without their knowledge. Once you identify what they are doing, you can instruct them on how to change habits or adjust their plan.

    5.  Work with your BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) administrator to create a standard device model and operating system (OS) base:  When Blackberry users are due for a free upgrade, this allows for a smoother transition and cheaper training across the corporate board. Having to increase training time/costs to train for multiple OS versions and questions and guidance will affect the corporate budget.

    If your coporation is in need of BlackBerry skills training or support, Erich Stauffer conducts workshops focusing on how to be more efficient and productive when using your BlackBerry or Android Smartphone. Most smartphone users only use 10-20% of the device functionality. Our workshops will enable your staff to use their new skills to better utilize all the dynamic functionality their device has to offer, which can make them more productive for your corporation. For more information, contact us.