If you are like most people, you have great ideas come into your head all the time.  Things you would like to do, or write, or create.  But working all those projects into daily life can be very difficult and time consuming.

The solution all too often is - nothing.  The idea is forgotten, and whatever benefit it may have had for you, your business, or the world is lost, possibly forever.

Our world and society has become very fast paced, mostly due to technology.  However, we can use that same technology to "capture" and "slow down" those moments where we need to focus, if only for a few seconds.

One such tool is a web site called "CopyScape".  By setting up an account on this site, you can do a number of things that can help you not only come up with new content for your own site, but it can help you protect the content you already have from being copied or plagiarized.

By entering your site information, you can have the system scan the web for similar material to see if your material is being stolen.  The results of the search can also be used to develop new content and to link to other sites as sources for your own material.  Sort of 'reverse engineering' your own knowledge and sharing credit with others.

It will also show you where you have copied your own material and shared it.  This is important because the search engines need to know which of the copies is the "original" - there are ways of marking the "copies" so that they link back to the original, give it more credibility and preventing search engine penalties for duplication of content.

One of the bad things that the computer has done for our society is that it has made us impatient.  We expect everything to work right away.  What is worse, we expect things to work "right" without even giving any thought to what we are doing.

A great example of this is installing software.  ANY software.  Now, the folks you bought it from are not stupid - they know that words like "custom" or "advanced" are going to scare away the majority of users.  This way, you can install using the "common" settings of a software package, which many times will include things like virus programs, new search settings for your browser, and a bunch of other crap you didn't want.  Sometimes they will "ask" you if you want it, by which I mean it is already checked as the default and they just expect you to hit "continue" without really reading the little screen.

READ EVERYTHING - even if you don't understand it.  This way, when weird stuff happens, you have some idea of how it might have started and which program is to blame.  Many times, you can just uninstall the offending bloat-ware.  Sometimes, however, you need to jump into the bowels of the computer to change some basic settings.

This is where your "IT Guy" can help.  Or, if you don't have an "IT Guy", you can contact us.  Either way, most of these fixes can be done remotely over the Internet and it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to an hour.  Unless, of course, you have download some nasty stuff - then it could take a bit longer.

DO NOT BE AFRAID OF YOUR COMPUTER - that is what "they" want.  Read everything.  Experiment.  The likelihood of you doing something really terrible is small.  If you are concerned, have your "IT Guy" set up a backup system for your computer so that even if you delete you autobiography, you can can restore it with little to no effort.

As business, marketing, and technology professional, I have been quite prolific on and off the Internet for over 20 years.  Unfortunately, the majority of what I have shared has been scattered through countless sites, messages, emails, and articles.

I am now about to start taking my own advice - if it is mine, I should own it.  That means it should be on my own site.  I can link to my own content from anywhere, which means that no one else has the ability to remove it, modify it, or profit from it without my permission.

I have been consulting for small businesses now since 1987.  In that time, I have used many business names - Family Business Enterprises, PC Sphere, Expert Support Services, Wizards Market, TDS Technologies, FACTA Fix, Cross Country Card Systems, and most recently, Hawks Mountain Consulting.  Each business had a particular focus, either in terms of services, clients, or geography.

Hawks Mountain Consulting, however, is the "umbrella" for all of the things that I have learned and can now share with all of my clients, from marketing to business management to implementation of technology solutions.  This blog is going to be the launch point for sharing all this knowledge with the world.  Stay tuned for a LOT of posts in the near future!