Editor's Notebook
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RSPA Inspire Day #3 Education: Marketing & Sales Advice For Resellers
2/1/2012
The education session on the final day of the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) Inspire 2012 winter conference was titled “Become the First Choice in Your Market: Marketing and Selling to Meet Your Financial Objectives.” Business owner, consultant, and author Brett Harward led the discussion. Here‘s what I thought were the best VAR-focused nuggets of advice from this education session...
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RSPA Inspire Day #2 Education: 140 Characters At A Time
1/31/2012
Business owner, consultant, and author Brett Harward, the featured speaker at the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) Inspire 2012 winter conference, discussed Key Performance Indicators For Resellers on Day #2 of the event. His presentation was chockfull of business wisdom applicable to VARs, so I took to my @Jim_Roddy Twitter feed to share his insight. Here are some of Harward’s best quotes – 140 characters at a time. By Jim Roddy, president, Business Solutions magazine and Jameson Publishing
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Rules for Increasing Organizational & Individual Frequency
1/31/2012
At RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) Inspire 2012, during this morning's day two education session, Brett Harward talked numbers to the packed room of point of sale VARs, software developers, and manufacturers. Specifically, he talked about measuring the performance of your employees, sales, business, etc. During his talk, Harward provided his "7 Rules for Increasing Organizational and Individual Frequency." By Mike Monocello, chief editor
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RSPA Inspire: Provide End-To-End Solutions
1/31/2012
In this video, Jim Roddy, the President of Jameson Publishing and Business Solutions magazine, provides insights from the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) Inspire 2012 Conference in Herradura, Costa Rica. Prior to Inspire, RSPA CEO Joe Finizio shared this article from the Wharton School of Business with members of his organization. The article is an in-depth interview with Sam Palmisano, who stepped down as the CEO of IBM in January. By Jim Roddy, president, Business Solutions magazine & Jameson Publishing
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RSPA Inspire Day 1: Editor's Video Blog
1/31/2012
Day 1 of RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) Inspire 2012 in Costa Rica was loaded with valuable education by Brett Harward, speaker, consultant, and author. The discussion was deep and rich with actionable information for attendees. Topics covered include business planning mistakes, creating a valuable inspiring mission statement, building a strong business culture, reinventing your company, increasing the collective IQ of your company, and more. Obviously, a lot of great info. The following video highlights a few of the topics.
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Top Tweets from RSPA Inspire 2012 - Day #1
1/30/2012
The Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) is hosting its annual Inspire winter conference at the Los Suenos Marriott Ocean and Golf Resort in Herradura, Costa Rica. Here are some of the most intriguing insights and comments shared via Twitter on Day #1 of Inspire (Jan. 30). I included a couple of my own Tweets, so let me apologize in advance for the self-promotion. I'd rather be accused of that than not share some key info from the event with you. By Jim Roddy, president, Business Solutions
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What's Wrong With Your Business Plan?
1/30/2012
At RSPA Inspire, during this morning’s day one education session, Brett Harward took some time to talk about business plans. While his material went into greater detail than I can share here, he did provide a handy list of ways that business plans commonly come up short. If you’re creating a business plan, or find yours not working out as you’d like, consider the following points of failure. By Mike Monocello, chief editor
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Inside Inspire 2012: Show Preview
1/23/2012
In anticipation of RSPA (Retail Solutions Provider's Association) Inspire held next week in Costa Rica, I asked RSPA President & CEO Joe Finizio to give attendees a sneak peek at what to expect from the event. "Each year we try to make our executive level education session at Inspire better than the last," says Finizio. "This year, our education session ties into some of the initial work being done by the RSPA Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and will focus on business metrics." He goes on to explain that the marketplace has changed significantly in recent years due to new technologies which are providing and driving new business models. "This year’s education at Inspire will address those new business metrics, provide comparisons to other successful companies, and give the attendees informational resources to better manage their respective business through this transition."
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What I’ve Learned From Jeff Yelton
1/19/2012
Jeff Yelton’s recent resignation as President of ScanSource’s POS and Barcoding division gave me an opportunity to reflect on his contributions to our channel. If you’ve never heard Jeff present or read his writings, you’re missing out on vital channel information. (After the jump, I’ve linked to some content produced by Yelton.)
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How Access Control & Video Surveillance Complement Your Business
12/14/2011
I recently sat down with Randy Teague, director of market development at Honeywell Security, and got his take on the security industry and how realistic it is for Business Solutions readers to add IP video and access control solutions to their line cards. By Mike Monocello, editor-in-chief, Business Solutions magazine