THE ROAD AHEAD-CHANGE IS IN THE AIR!

NEW RULES OF THE GAME!

By Ralph Thomas With Notes By Barbara-Maikell Thomas

 

I am both excited on one hand and kind of sad on the other hand! I agonized over it for two months. The major portions of the NAIS newsletter THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S CONNECTION is changing from a published and mailed form to a digital form. The last hardcopy newsletter to go out this year talks all about this. The PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S CONNECTION has been in print four to six times per year for over fifteen years in hardcopy form but it has to move into the communications age. At first, it will be pure EMAIL but we have plans (very soon!) to use cross-platformed Portable Document Transfer (PDT) technology to send it as an attached EMAIL which will let you view it with hyperlinks, color photos, graphics, sound files, video and page layout. The world is certainly changing and we MUST change with it.

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Change is in the air. Digital media and high technology is the future. The American economy has crossed that invisible line and has moved from the information age into the communications age. What does that mean to you. Here are the new rules of the game.

 

ARE YOU THINKING RIGHT? THINK DIGITAL!

All forms of communication is pointing towards digital technology. The completely paperless office for business and professions is just around the corner. Television, audio, video, telephones, newspapers, Hollywood, and yes- even toasters and irons are moving to the computer chip digital world. Start thinking along these lines:

 

 

RULE ONE
UPGRADE YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM:

Several recent studies and surveys in the business world reveal the number one action to take is to upgrade your computer system. Those who have and done it correctly generally experience the communications revolution and find an increase in business.

 
THINK ALONG THESE LINES:
 

 

RULE TWO
GET A WEB SITE PRESENCE:

The whole world is moving to the web. This Xmas reason, you'll start to see internet TVs for sale. Despite the hype, the growth of the Internet hasn't even started yet. As bandwidth (the speed which you can obtain pages on your desktop) and ease of use develops in it's third generation, massive numbers of people who are not what you would call computer literate will be on the web. Those who develop a web page presence now will be light years ahead of those scrambling to get a web page up a year from now. Remember that MacDonalds doesn't sell more hamburgers than Windys because they make a better burger. They do because they are light years ahead of the fast food game.

 

THINK ALONG THESE LINES:

VERY SOON A WEB PAGE WILL BE LIKE A BUSINESS CARD.

THE PERCEPTION WILL BE:

IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE, YOU REALLY AREN'T IN BUSINESS!

 

The WORLD WIDE WEB is the new gold rush that hasn't really started producing any really big nuggets of gold yet--opportunity is waiting here! All the experts in business are now saying that you have got to think ten years ahead and then plan backwards otherwise you will loose your competitive strength. DO IT NOW!!!!!!

 

 

RULE THREE
NICHE MARKETING

The age of huge corporate giants gobbling up smaller companies is over. Corporate America is downsizing. The key word is not competition but innovation and it's the small business and small professionals who are the innovators of the last few years of this century. The key to success is development of expertise in a few areas.

 

THINK ALONG THESE LINES:

THINK--what is your niche market or target market?

THINK--what is your expertise!

Check Out These excellent References On Your Marketing! (Click Here!)

The desktop form of marketing is inexpensive, free of communication friction and lends itself to massive target marketing. You can start right now by learning all you can about the Internet, GETTING A WEB PAGE PRESENCE, and find out about Newgroups, mailing lists and how you can use Email. If you aren't up to par on this kind of stuff-you will soon be left behind in the communications age and mise well set down in a rocking chair and retire. One of the best books to get yourself up to par on this stuff is the award-winning book by Joseph Seanor, THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR AND THE INTERNET. If you haven't read this or at least one other book like it, you are committing a muder of your business that should be unlawful!

RULE FOUR:
GLOBAL MARKET PLACE

The business, industry and professional world has voided state and country boundaries. Those who can speak more than one language are in big demand. As American corporations move to overseas markets, new forms of security services and old standbys which where once marginal marketing areas become lucrative.

 

THINK ALONG THESE LINES

If you are thinking right-the above trend should turn on a light bulb connected with the following services:

 

 

 

YOUR SMART WALLET WILL BE ARRIVING SOON!

I just finished reading Bill Gates book THE ROAD AHEAD. It's very enlightening. According to Gates--like it or not-- we will soon all have a smart-card unit about the size of a wallet. With it, we will:

 

and all the other standard stuff such as calculate, check the time, and weather, obtain the news, and check out THINGS TO DO list. I wonder how much they will cost.

TIP!--THINK!
A smart investigative agency owner reads the above and looks for coming opportunity!
THINK LIKE A WINNER!
 
RULE SIX:
THE BUSINESS SIDE OF YOUR INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY IS GOING TO GET MORE AND MORE IMPORTANT
 
The office operations, procedures and accounting system you set up must be correct. The way you do your accounting and set up your business organization is important. The day of the lone ranger private-eye working his business out of his hip pocket will soon be a thing you only read about in history books. It's important to have all these things set up correctly and that's why we have started a new information based service subject specifically geared towards the private investigative agency and sole information-driven business. Click here to find out how to improve these all-important skills.
 
CHECK THESE PAGES OUT:
 
RUNNING YOUR INVESTIGATIVE BUSINESS
Savvy Business Management And Legal Manuals You'll Love
To Help You "Mind Your PI Business Practice"
 
STREETWISE SMARTS TO RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS
An Interactive CD Rom Course
 

 

RULE NUMBER FIVE
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!

Despite the rapid changing world we live and work in, two things are still as relevant today as they where five hundred years ago!

It's important to remember that PEOPLE not TECHNOLOGY and NOT COMPUTERS are the most important thing.

Studies show that of all skills that will make one successful and another not is THINKING! Abraham Lincoln knew it, John Kennedy knew it and every man throughout history who has studied what makes one man a success and another not is THINKING! Notice I mentioned the word thinking six times above! A wise old man once told me that he obtained his wisdom too late in life. He said he had spent 68 years worried about what others were thinking only to find out that most of them were not. So if you aren't yet 68, it's not too late-think about doing some thinking about things.

 

So the two age-old skills are:

PEOPLE SKILLS

THINKING SKILLS

 
WANT TO VASTLY IMPROVE YOU THINKING AND PEOPLE SKILLS?
THEN CLICK HERE!
 

AT NAIS THE FUTURE IS HAPPENING NOW!

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PART TWO: WHAT'S THOMAS READING--HOW DOES HE DO THIS????

By Barbara Thomas

 

You know Ralph-he always seems to have this insight on things. Some ask how he does it--He reads. He doesn't admit it but he speed reads and he reads a great deal to the tune of maybe two or three books a week sometimes. I'm going to start this little column to tell you what he's reading in the last month. It's an easy article because the bedroom is always cluttered with books on this and that and I can always tell which ones he's reading and which ones he really didn't. The ones he doesn't read, he usually takes back to the book stores. He filters stuff--that is, he might buy six or seven books on one subject and then kind of pre-read them to see which ones are the best. You can sort of use this as a filtering yourself since he's already done all the work. This isn't about selling his books--most of them he doesn't sell (yet!)--I have linked the ones he features right now. Here is what he's read recently:

 

THE ROAD AHEAD: By Bill Gates
(He's been taking a great deal lately about what's going to happen in the future and I think a lot of his ideas are coming from this. I for one am glad to see him read something by Gates! All of the sudden, he's talking kinder about the man! )
 
ONLINE LAW: By Thomas Smedingoff
(He read this last month and kept saying that it is scary because the online world is kind'a a huge legal gray area)
 
DYNAMIC THINKING: By Melvin Powers
( He reads this little book about once every two or three years- It's some sort of thinking book)
 
TECHNO TRENDS: By Daniel Burrus
( He just put this one down and it's kind'a related to the Gates book)
 
MAKING MONEY WITH CLASSIFIED ADS: By Melvin Powers
(He's always taking about this guy out in California who's another publisher by the name of Melvin Powers who writes marketing manuals and reads all his books again and again. He came home the other night all excited about something just because he had talked to Melvin Powers on the telephone that day--something that has to do with a combination of web marketing and some other direct response marketing---he kept showing me all these classified ads from magazines he had just purchased at the news stand and kept saying something about the classified ad guru was putting his web page address in all his ads and then kept saying after he read this one that he should have read it a year ago)
 
WEB WEALTH: By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
(This is yet another Lant marketing book--Ralph's a fan of Lant's although he doesn't rave about his work like he does about the Powers books. He reads as well as markets all of the Lant books)
 
MARKETING TO THE AFFLUENT: By Doctor Thomas Stanley
( He started spilling off a list of things the Affluent wants these days and I have a feeling he got a lot of those ideas from this book-he says it's a good one!)
 
THINK LIKE A WINNER: By Walter Doyle Staples
(Another thinking type book-I know he really liked this one because he kept taking notes on his Newton as he read it)
 
JACK AND JACKIE: By Christopher Andersen
(He reads everything that comes out on JFK anyway--I got a whole garage full of them--you'd think after about the 97th one that they would all seem redundant but he keeps reading them)
 
ELVIS, INC.: By Sean O'neal
(Every since I talked him into taking me to Graceland some years ago, he has become fascinated with the life of Elvis Presley--and AGAIN I got a bunch of hardcopy biographies on Elvis all over the house-he's got so many books I don't know what to do with them anymore-he will not throw them away. Maybe some of you guys should talk to him and tell him --he needs to give personal books that he has read away. He says that this one is about how poorly prepared Elvis was about finances and how the estate is now worth one hundred times more than it was when Elvis died all because Percellia Presley has become one of the world's best business managers. )
 
JAVA FOR DUMMIES: By Aaron Walsh
(I know this is some sort of computer book and has something to do with the Internet but that's about it!)
 
HOW TO SOLVE A MURDER: By Michael Kurland
( I don't know what he's doing with this--he just has this interest in forensic stuff)
 

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