Safety Consulting Corner

Technical Presentations with a bonus

After attending many presentations at the ASSE conference and the AIHce conferece, both held this past June, I saw that many safety consultants still don't understand how to properly create and use a PowerPoint presentation. Too many people try to cram as much information on the slide as possible - either because they are not confident remembering their content or because they hope everyone will read the slides instead of focusing on them. Fortunately, I just found a great post over at The Public Speaking blog (highly recommended by the way) that tells you how to put together a great technical presentation. Check it out here.  This post provides a bonus as well since the topic the author chose to use as a demonstration is social networking and I know many consultants are still confused about what this is as well. So  - kill two birds with one stone and check it out.

Computer Help

If you are a solo consultant or even a consultant in a small firm that doesn't have the benefit of an IT department or Support Desk, your productivity can be seriously affected by a variety of computer problems. You can spend hours trying to fix the problems yourself or get outside help. There are probably many individual computer experts available in your area but I would recommend you get some good recommendations for one before you hire him or her and check their references carefully. The other alternative is to contact one of the larger support companies that are sprouting up across the country.  Three that you might want to check out are Geek Squad (www.geeksquad.com) , DeBugIt (www.debugit.net) and Rescuecom (www.rescuecom.com). Most of these types of services can even access your computer remotely so you don't have to unplug everything and lug it to a repair center.

Another option for less serious problems is the Smart Computing hotline. Smart Computing magazine and the support it provides was described in a February  24th post (read it here).  You can also reach them at 800-368-8304.

Whatever way you go, it is good to know you have options so even when you are attempted to throw your computer out the window, try one of support companies.

Honey, I'm cuttting back a bit...

Earlier this summer I posted my ambitious (at least for me) reading list for the summer. One of those books was "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferris. To be honest, I have only read about 1/2 way through this one but I think I have the gist of it. A great review of it in the Wall Street Journal book section helped to fill in the blanks (read it here). If I understand Mr. Ferris's message correctly, then I should put the book away now and ask others to fill me in on the important details which is what the WSJ summary does. Mr. Ferris says that you shouldn't read newspapers or watch TV to get the news but just ask other people what's hot. So can this work with a book by just reading someone else's review? Maybe. Mr. Ferris talks about the 4-hour work week using the acronym "DEAL." Would "DEAL" work for safety consultants? The "D" in deal stands for definition. Mr. Ferris is big on deciding what you really want to do. Do you really want to be a safety consultant working 60 hours a week or traveling 10 days of the month? Determine what you really want. The "E" stands for eliminate which most of us could probably do with at least a few of our daily activities. How much of your work day is spent doing stuff you shouldn't be wasting your time on? Sure - safety consultants can delegate a lot of activities but probably not all, unless you want to outsource everything to subcontractors. To get started, visit www.guru.com, www.elance.com or get a virtual assistant (VA) at someplace like www.getfriday.com or www.vaassist.com.  The "A" stands for automation. Again, Mr. Ferris relies on technology and the ability to outsource a lot of his tasks using virtual assistants like those named above. What else could you automate and how? I use an auto-responder through www.easywebautiomation.com for sales and responses that do not require a personal touch. The "L"stands for liberation, i.e., quit your day job and travel. This would be pretty hard for most safety consultants again, due to the nature of our business, unless you want to outsource absolutely everything. All in all, there are some good recommendations in the book even if you aren't ready to follow Mr. Ferris's dream life. Checking email less frequently and finding a good VA are two steps I plan on taking although I admit, I have been considering both even before reading this book. Note: If anyone wants to borrow my copy of this book, just drop me an email and I'll send it off.