St Louis Web Designer – tip of the week

Ok this has nothing what so ever to do with designing web sites but a is a tip for all those St Louis gardeners battling with deer infested gardens. This is a nugget of gold found online and provides a very cost effective way of protecting your plants from ” deer digestion” Many web designers I know are very keen gardens so I felt I should share

Ingredients:-

2 eggs
1 cup of skimmed milk
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons of dish detergent

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into a old “409” type spray bottle. Spray all the plants in your garden that the deer like to eat.

The deer are repelled by the smell of rotting eggs… but I have been unable to detect much of a odor. It is cost effective and bio-degradable.

I whip up a batch of this a week and it does the trick

Email Phishing

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths email scammers will go to persaude you to divulge personal information …the techno term is Phishing.

The emails can be constructed to look like they have come from your bank, credit card company etc, with branded graphical elements and links that look like they are going to take you to the bona fide web site.

If you follow the links you reach what appears to be the bona fide site … it will have been designed exactly like the real thing. Enter your user name and password and bingo the scammer has your personal information that can be used on the genuine site.

The best policy is to be highly suspicious of any email asking you to log in via a link within the email.

People Matter

It’s easy to get excited about your new business strategy – you’ve assessed the market, evaluated the competition and developed a compelling offering that will position you for success. Now comes the hard part – execution. Unless you are a sole trader you are going to be heavily dependant on your employees to determine the extent of your success. No matter how great your strategy it can fail in numerous ways if your people don’t implement it correctly.

The larger your business becomes, the more you are dependant on others and the more important it is that you can achieve through your team. Training is obviously a part of the equation but most people develop fastest when they are given new responsibilities and challenges. Unless you want your employees to be the limiting factor in your success you need them to grow with you and deliver more over time. So how do you give people the right amount of challenge? It’s a bit like holding the safety rope as someone climbs a cliff face – if you don’t let the rope pay out they can’t progress, but if you give them too much slack and they fall it will not be a pleasant landing. On balance, though, people tend not to be stretched enough and to develop too slowly as a result.

Another key issue is hiring – if you hire the best people, lead them effectively and constantly challenge them then you’ll be rewarded with an organization fit not only to deliver on the plans you develop but to build on them and drive you to the next level. The power of a well-chosen, trained, energized and motivated team can be an awesome thing to experience.