I just love the way the French developed a plan to save two car companies from going under from a market that does not want to buy their car. Here is the plan. Give the taxpayer 1000 euros to buy a car if they turn in their car that is 10 years old. So imagine the simple frenchman thinking, what is wrong with my old car? Everything, now turn it in. But I like my old car it was built in France, I love it. Sorry, it is old. But why must I? You need a 1000euros that is why. Well perhaps, but still. Ok fine, you need to keep your countrymen employed. But they make a car I do not wish to buy. Too bad, buy it now. But they cost more to make here, let us use Romania instead. No, you will buy from the French who make a car you do not want and you need 1000 euros because of the current crisis in the world. But that was not my fault. Well yes it is, because you did not spend enough now turn in your car. Its all circles for these guys. I do commend though Peugot the maker of the economical Peugeot 107 and the upgraded Peugeot 308 who said they do not want any stimulus money and will shut down plants because that is how the market forces operate. They are family owned, well at least for now they are!

With the revitalization in the auto industry you can find a list a Peugeot Dealer online through Perrys.co.uk where they offere a simple solution to help you find and locate cars online. With a simple search interface they are helping to make your next car purchase online easy and simple. You can even start to look for info on the newly anticipated Peugeot 308 RCZ which is the new sporty edition from the famed French automakers that should make it a serious contender in the sports car arena. Competing against such autos as the Audi TT this new souped up car will offer consumers a great option with a price point to help those afford their new car. At Perrys they offer the ability to research and compare various auto makers and find dealers to help you find locations to test drive some of the hottest makes and models for 2010.

Peugeot 308 RCZ

Well, in our new economy running at least the government has set aside some money to further our energy policy. Just how that will shake out is any-one’s guess, but we will see. The WSJ showed a nice graph today outlineing the money allocated for the policy. I appreciate the fact that 5.5 billion will be sued in Transmission infrastructure for renewable energy. This is critical if we are encourage municipalities to invest in wind or solar because this power will need somewhere to go and often they or the investor is on the hook to create sub stations where power generates say from wind turbines is then put onto the grid. Not cheap! One element that caught my eye in the articles was 2.3 billion in battery research. Now we are talking! Do you realize that the technology for most camcorders is still in play today but because we have smaller batteries, we can create smaller and more usable cameras. We could create more back up solar systems if we had the battery storage to keep all that power. The sun has not changed. The batteries have and that is where research needs to be. I like that number 2.3 billion. Finally,20 billion in tax credits. Ok, now we are talking real money and real initiative to give the end user/ buyer a reason to invest in solar and wind as well as for utility districts to get involved.

I know that many of us struggle with creating and maintaining good advertising on our sites to keep them up and running. Many of us creating them have very little return on investment and most of the time it is because of very poor tracking and analysis. This company is very skilled in tracking information. With their tools tagged to your ad you will get the critical info of phone calls, clicks and emails generated by your ad. This type of info allows us to create better targeting all the while our competition will have no idea what is happening behind the scenes of the ad. AdSymetrix Signup has very reasonable prices while sign up and click and email tracking are free. I read several testimonials on their site to show that regular businesses had no idea who was responding to their ads, now they know and perhaps more important they learn what does not work. Give them a try.

A new service has been launched by Websitesin48hours.com that will enable customers to promote and operate a successful business environment both on and offline. They offer a money back guarantee if your website is not completed within the 48 hours. In the fast paced world of the internet, every minute counts, and you do not want to loose out to your competition because of delays. They also offer eCommerce enabled site to help you start selling your products right away.

There are three different levels to choose from based on your business needs. They are Bronze, Silver, and Platinum.With the Bronze you will be able to select from a few templates that will be fitted to your business. With the Platinum package you will have over 2000 web templates to choose from. Remember that when starting out online, the look of your site will only matter if you have people looking at it. Work with the professionals at Websitesin48hours.com to find the one that best fits your needs. One that is simple and easy to navigate will help you generate more sales, than one that loads with a lot of graphics. And remember that not everyone will be operating from a High Speed connection, so all the nice Flash and animation will not be seen by certain percentage of your potential customers.

Remember to always to create with the customer in mind, and you will always win.

I have struggled to find just the right update on renewable energy for the site. I keep reading about certain bills being brought forward to create more initiative in this demanding area. Of course we have all heard about the new gas mileage mandates for our auto industry, but I cannot find anything that would create goals for wind and solar. It still does not have the voice that is should. Where is T Boone Pickens right now? Is it true that he is holding back on his windfarm investment in Texas? You would think that now there would be a ground swell of support. We could invest in our own country’s future and infrastructure that will last for generations to come! Yet, it does not make the headlines. Whose to say. Perhaps it should just be the power of the people and not what makes headlines. If the people in the grassroots were to stand up for this with their own personal investment in renewable energy, then the government would take notice and hopefully drive more to consider this amazing power without a government that hates us in control. Now would be the time to invest in your home to at least be ready to hook up your car to electric charging devices and have a back up solar package ready to go. Why not, I guess we are still spoiled. We’ll see how it all shakes out.

One of the more frustrating issues with any software upgrade is that just when you got used to using the old tools and were very comfortable with them, things changed and now who must learn a new menus. Well, thanks to the people at www.addintools. com you can now download the classic menus for several office tools. For example, they offer the classic menu styles for Office 2003 to be used with your Office 2007. You don’t need any training or tutorials for Microsoft Office 2007 if you have ever used old versions of Office. What a great concept and great idea to make life easier for all of us. Why not bring back the menus and tools of Word 2003 and use the classic style main menu and standard toolbar? This could be a good message back to Microsoft where we love the product and we love these classic menus, Why did you ever take them away. Plus, www.addintools.com offers the classic menus and tools for Word 2003. What I really like is the 60 day money back guarantee which should give us all the time we need to see if the product is as good as they say. What is more is that they offer free updates and product support for 24 months.  This is great company that stands behind there product and meeting the customer needs. Why spend so much time retraining yourself when this type of product is available?

I realize that endorse the WSJ all the time, but who else in major media are endorsing renewable energy as they do or even at the extent they do. How about taking the majority of the back section of the paper? In today’s Journal Record, Alex Frangos reports how architects would create a green home with sustainable energy efficiency. You absolutely must look at the Energy section to see the fantastic ideas that were created. Of course I am biased, but all three plans published in the paper make use of both wind and solar power. The argument that underlies their creativity is a challenge to all of us because we must redefine just what home is, what it looks like, how we live etc. We built major sub divided neighborhoods in the hey day for simple bedroom communities with little to no upkeep so we could focus on what is important; our careers. We drank from the trough of careerism and materialism, commuted back home slept and did some more. In fact, the suburb was just a bigger condo or apartment. Well, now that we realize that material growth cannot sustain itself and we still have those bills and mortgages its time to step up and create a house that makes sense for these times.

William McDonough created a home like a tree. What he has created is a new way of using solar. Instead of the panels, the PV would be woven into the fabric of the exterior. The article goes in more depth, but suffice it to say, Mr McDonough is meeting the challenge of the aesthetically poor solar power panels. They are ugly but they do not have to be. He goes on to show how better roof lines are in order, creating a habitat and garden plus using car batteries to capture solar energy which could also put power to the homes grid.

I thank the WSJ for again bringing to the forefront of what must be accepted; we are in new times and we must rethink the way we live and build a home!

One of the best ways that we can get our image across to our customers is in the uniforms that we wear.  If you think of a restaurant, each person has the brand on their uniform, while at the same time the uniform allows the customer to know what our role is within the business. We take this for granted, but our customers expect it. At the restaurant, what the host is wearing immediately tells the customer what they do and what type of restaurant this will be. This goes for the chef as well whose chef shirt is critical. We all look back at the kitchen and asses the professionalism of the chef. I found a solid company that can produce these uniforms for us at www.iDbyLandau.com. Look at the chef jackets and you will see that the iD0104 projects a different statement than the equally nice iD0131. Take a look at these chef coats again, you see the difference in image and branding. You need to take the time to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. iD by Landau has put together a great site with nice images to make a sound buying decision. I appreciate the way they use models so I can get a real life idea of what my restaurant will look like. iD by Landau also has many other uniform styles to shop for. They create uniforms for small businesses, Spa’s, hotels plus they can help you withe your Logo and monogram needs! I love a site that is so laser focused. This is where business needs to be!

I thought it was just me but after reading the Newsweek article about our growing culture of young Narcissist behavior and I am now validated. I love me is the mantra. Hey, if I just show up for class I deserve a B. This is just the beginning. How did we get here. The parents of the new dashing 20 year olds are our favorite 70’s flower power folks who we all thought were anti establishment, took a huge 180 degree turn. These are the guys who buy the SUVs and own the companies that keep us running with our out of control spending habits. What happened? The article argues that these parents felt that that culture would keep these kids in check. The problem is that the love of self behavior is reinforced by everyone around them. The adults look the other way hoping and waiting for society to say enough is enough. Too late. I am not sure what to do with this. I know that if I were a hiring manager, I would tremble the thought of hiring someone who felt they deserved the job and not earning it. I wrote before about the Golden Child statue and article in the WSJ, how these new kids want to be a manager in 3 years and when they are bored they are gone! What to do???

Traditional advertising is continuing to take a back seat to Internet marketing. Just think of the millions of English speaking people who connect to the Internet everyday to explore, learn, shop etc. If you want to get your message across in a meaningful way, it will take a professional firm to help you with web and graphic design. I found a solid portland web design firm named at www.cyphondesign.com. This firm is best known for its portland web design services working with major companies like Intel. They have a long list of Portland, OR companies that have benefited from their expertise and up to date knowledge of all the new technologies in web and graphic design. Look at their portfolio in their portland web design solutions and you will see some very professionally made designs that have helped Porland, OR companies get their message out. Other companies such as Movidis, Firefly Technologies and Strategic Contact have all used this portland website design firm to maximize their marketing efforts. They offer a multitude of services in website design including: branding, animations, flash sites, shockwave and application integration. With graphic design, they offer solutions for brochures, packaging, logos, annual reports and books. This is the kind a firm a business needs so that they can focus on their core business and let the experts take care of the technology and graphic design. Plus, this is a very easy website to use that is laid out well and easily communicates what their expertise is. Basically, Cyphon offers affordable, professional, high quality web and graphic design to any type of business be it for profit or not. Any Portland, OR firm must look at the premier design firm: Cyphon Design