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  • 26Mar

    The Missing Programmer

    Office Space, Virtual Office No Comments

    As many of my friends and family know, I develop websites and help plan companies online success. Most also know that I do not do all the back end programming myself. My skill set is planning and developing a team the fits each individual project, because different projects require different sets of skills and expertise.

    This week I met a client about a project that required a programmer that was skilled in Oracle SQL data bases that would be used both online and offline by the clients staff. I had one programmer in mind that I had worked with in the past. I tried to call him on a phone number that I had for him, my call was answered by a voice mail system, as it was after hours. The next day when I tried to call his number again, it was answered by someone with a thick southern accent, they said he was out of the office and again transferred me to his voice mail. When I did not hear from him until two days later, I put out the call to other Oracle programmers.

    I was getting myself a complimentary cup of coffee at my downtown Toronto office space, when another office space client came into the kitchen. I recognized him from previous conversations about technology, so I struck up a conversation about needing an Oracle data base specialist. He told me about a guy who he had work done by, I recognized the name as the same guy I had worked with, but the number was different. The number the other office client gave me was his direct cell number.

    When I returned to my executive suites Toronto, I gave him a call. I told him about the project and asked him to come into my office for a meeting the next day. The next day we had out meeting in one of the Toronto meeting rooms at my office space Toronto. Near the end of the meeting, I brought up how difficult it was to get a hold of him through the number he lists on his website and that it was another office client who knew him that had given me his cell number. He explained to me that he was using a virtual office service that handled his calls and that he picked up his mail from a locked room in a downtown office building. It turns out that the virtual office provider he was using was not even located in Toronto, they were just piggybacking on another companies service.

    Continue reading »

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  • 28Jan

    I am Always Asked-What DSLR Camera Should I Buy?

    Office Space, Toronto Virtual Office, Virtual Office Toronto No Comments

    As a photographer, I participate on a number of photography forums and blogs. I do this to learn new techniques and get tips on the things that I do not know about. I also like to give back by sharing my knowledge and answer questions. One of the most frequent questions I see on these forums and hear from friends and family is “What Camera Should I Buy”? The answer is not a simple one.

    Often the first reply on the forums comes from someone who has a personal bias for one brand over the other. The thread turns into a “My camera brand is better” type of debate. This is not often helpful to the person posing the question. The most common brand debate is Canon Vs Nikon because these two brands are the biggest selling brands of cameras, especially when it comes to digital single-lens reflex cameras (digital SLR or DSLR). This is a debate that will never end.

    When people do ask me my preference, I tell them Nikon. The only reason I tell them my preference is because over the years I have made a considerable investment into my two Nikon DSLR bodies. This along with the handful of Nikon lenses and other accessories that are Nikon specific I have purchased. I believe that both Nikon and Canon are great camera manufactures, when I purchased my first DSLR I could have easily started with a Canon.

    Here is my advice to choosing which camera to buy a DSLR.

    I would recommend Nikon or Canon instead of one of the other brands. Why, because they are more popular and widely used. You will find a wider range of body styles, lenses and accessories for the two brands that outsell all of the other brands combined. Even the aftermarket manufacturers make more lenses to fit these two brands.

    In deciding between these two brands, do not try to choose a brand based on the features of similarly priced models, each will have those same features in a lower or higher model. My best advice in choosing a brand is to ask those you know what brand they own and have the most knowledge. If more of the people you will be looking for help and advice from on your camera have Nikons, choose Nikon. If your support circle shoot Canon, then choose Canon. The other reason for this is that you want to be able to try their lenses or accessories on your camera body before you make a purchase.

    This reminded me of a situation last year when a friend asked me how would they find the right virtual office Toronto for them. Putting aside my bias for the office space Toronto that I first started out at as a Toronto virtual office client, I decided to show him how he should choose what he wanted based on his needs.

    I asked him if he needed a virtual office solution that included Telephone Message Service and Mail Service arrangements or just a Toronto mail service at a prestigious business address. He was not sure, so I explained the differences to him. He said that the virtual office in Toronto that he needed would need to have a live receptionist answering his calls and transferring them to either his home office, his cell phone or even directly to his voicemail.

    I then asked him where he wanted his virtual office to be. Did he want an uptown or a downtown Toronto office? He chose downtown.

    Did he want his mail forwarded to him or did he want to be able to pick it up when he wanted? He was clear that he wanted to pick up his mail when he needed to pick up special deliveries and cheques. I told him in that case, he would probably also want it to be a convenient location in terms of traffic and close parking.

    After all this I went through a list of office business centres that offered downtown Toronto virtual office packages that would fit his needs. He asked me if my Toronto office space offered virtual office plans, because he would rather chose one that he knew some who would recommend it. Besides that he would also want to make arrangements so that I could pick up some mail for him from time to time.

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  • 26Jan

    Photo Quilting Seems to be a New Trend

    Downtown Toronto Office Space, Office Space Toronto, Virtual Office Toronto No Comments

    Virtual Office TorontoYesterday while I was working at my downtown Toronto office space, I got a call from a friend who wanted me to help them do something they had seen on Facebook. They wanted to do a sliced up a photo of their company logo to create a photo quilt for their company Facebook profile. I had seen this done on some web photo galleries and was quite impressed. The idea is to take a large image and slice into several smaller images and arrange them in a contact sheet style of a gallery so the thumbnails make one big image. Finding examples of this proved to be difficult, but I found this site that told me how to do it. hacking-facebooks-new-profiles.

    Downtown Toronto Office SpaceHere is an example of what a photo quilt would look like in a web photo gallery. Each of the thumbnails is a separate file. Individually they have no meaning, but when placed in a gallery they re-create the original image.

    After finding some tricks and tips on how to create this mosaic, I contacted my friend and told him that it would not be that difficult to do on his photo gallery too. As we chatted more, my friend brought up the fact that as his business was growing, it became harder and harder to operate out of the basement of his home. He started to think that his clients wondered if he was all that professional having his business address the same as his home. I told him that he should check out my office space Toronto, but he said that he was not really looking for an office, but more of a professional business address that was not a post office box. That is when I told him about how I started off with a virtual office Toronto at Telsec before I actually got a physical office. I told him he could get a Toronto mail service plan that would only cost him $30 a month and it had a much more prestigious address than any PO Box would give him. He really perked up when I told him that they had another reasonably priced plan that would give him a phone number with a professional receptionist answering his calls. He loved the fact that his clients could call him at his Toronto virtual office and have his calls forwarded to his home office without them knowing he was in his basement.

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  • 23Jan

    Buying a New Camera and Dealing with Sales Staff

    Downtown office space, Office Space No Comments

    This past Friday I forced myself to buy the new camera body that I have needed for the past year. My current camera is almost 5 years old and the time to upgrade has long passed. I really needed a new camera body and to put my old camera body into work as a second or back up camera body mode.

    I went to the local (well not local anymore) camera store where I purchased my first Digital SLR camera and all of my accessories over the past 5 years. I was assisted by a lovely young woman who did not shoot Nikon, but was very knowledgeable about the product. She joked that she had considered switching from Canon to Nikon, but she had too much money invested in Canon lenses and accessories. My intent was to purchase either a Nikon D7000 or the camera it was designed to replace, the D90. All of the reviews I had read and advice I was given was that the D7000 was somewhat superior to the D90.

    The sales girl reviewed my needs and wants for a new camera and ended up suggesting that I purchase the lower priced D90.  Her reasons were that I was not looking to totally overhaul my camera kit and replace all the lenses and accessories that I had previously purchased. While down the road I am eventually looking to upgrade my lenses and the rest of my equipment, changing camera body styles and purchasing at least  one new lens to work optimized on that camera body would cost me about $2500. If the sales girl had insisted that I go that route and make a major investment on the new body and lens, I probably would have taken that advice.  Instead she told me that I was better off to make the minor camera body upgrade and wait until spring to buy a new lens that would work on this body as well as a much higher body class I could purchase in the future. She was forgoing a much higher commission getting me set up with a new camera body that would suite my needs and wants, rather than pushing me to buy a new camera body that would require me to also buy some new lenses. Why do my friends not understand why I purchase my camera equipment from a store rather than on the web?  I get great customer service.  This is a prime example.

    As I was doing the paperwork to make the purchase and register for the warranty, the girl asked me if I wanted (the out of stock item I also purchased) to be shipped to my home or my office. At that point I wanted to call the office manager of my downtown Toronto office space and recommend they hire this girl. When I first signed up for my office space Toronto a number of years ago, I dealt with the office manager. She walked me through the office and told me of the different plans they offered. After filling out their Toronto office business centre needs assessment form and talking further with me, she recommended that instead of renting a physical office space from them, that I get a virtual office Toronto. That is what I did. Two years later when my needs changed, they were able to move me to shared office plan without changing my business address or phone number. Another year later, I moved to a Toronto semi-private office space without needing to make changes to my contact information.

    Last winter when I felt the need to move to a private window office, the office manager suggested I wait a month and get an East facing office. This had me curious. She told me that I was not a morning client and that based on my typical arrival time, an East facing office that had direct sun before I arrived would be best for me. She could have rented me a larger south facing office, but chose to make me more happy for the long term.  This is again what good customer relations are about. Good customer relations is about selling a client what they need today and retaining them as a customer of tomorrow.

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  • 07Jun

    Having access to 650 locations world wide

    Office Space No Comments

    I got an interesting email today from a friend who moved their downtown Toronto office space to Telsec a few months ago.  He made a business trip to New York City this week and was able to use a meeting room in New York as part of his office space Toronto arrangement. Having the access to this meeting room impressed his clients so much they signed a deal with him and now they want office space at the location. (hope I get a commission on that deal … LOL)

    This story is not unique, many business people with office space downtown Toronto at Telsec  utilize the available meeting rooms at one of the 650 office space locations in over 40 countries. When Toronto office space clients are planning a trip to another city, they can talk to the staff at Telsec who will help them book a meeting room or day office at one of the Alliance Business Centers in the city they are traveling to.

    While I write this, I also recall talking to someone who lives in Chicago, but has a virtual office Toronto at Telsec. She has a number of customers in Toronto and wanted to have a presence in Toronto without having to be here full time. When her customers call her Toronto 416 telephone number, they are greeted by the professional receptionist in Toronto, who then forwards her calls to her Chicago 312 telephone.

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  • 26Feb

    Day 14 of The Vancouver Olympics and Canada’s women win third straight hockey Gold Meda

    Office Space Toronto, Toronto Mail Service, Toronto Virtual Office, Virtual Office Toronto No Comments

    Another Gold medal for Canada’s women’s ice hockey team, they defeated a very tough USA women’s team 2 to 0, to take their third straight Olympic Gold medal. What made this Gold Medal sweeter was to take this one on home ice in front of not only a hometown crowd and the Prime Minister, but the greatest player who ever played the game who was seated next to Stephen Harper, Wayne Gretzky.

    While it was widely publicized that the team had spent weeks leading up to the Vancouver Olympic Games playing practice games against boys midget hockey teams . Thanks to an innovative strategy by Alberta Minor Hockey League, the boys teams’ games against the Canadian women even counted in the league standings, giving these teenagers more motivation for pushing the women’s team to improve.

    What many people did not know about was “Operation Aquarium”. It seems that in a covert move, they arranged two more practice games against Major Midget League teams, this time in secret. They let everyone believe they were taking a team activity to the Vancouver Aquarium, meanwhile they were off to play the Vancouver North West Giants of the B.C. Major Midget League at the Burnaby Winter Club. These games were played before family and friends and kept secret, even the opponents were asked to not talk about the games until after the medals were won.

    One of the other amazing Bronze Medal stories is Joannie Rochette. Only four days after her mother unexpectedly died following a heart attack and a heart-wrenching short program with a gutsy free skate won Olympic Bronze for her near-flawless skating. In the hearts of Canadian Joannie’s efforts were a Gold Medal effort.

    While the Canadian women’s hockey team had “Operation Aquarium”, your Canadian small business can have “Operation Telsec”. Your company can have a virtual office Toronto with a prestigious business address, while operating your business from wherever you like.

    With a Toronto mail service or a Toronto telephone answering service and mail service, your company can give a professional business image to your clients without the cost of a physical office space Toronto. With a telephone answering service Toronto plan, your calls are answered by a professional receptionist who handles your calls to your instructions. You could be working from your home, on the road or even at your cottage, your calls can be answered by your receptionist and transferred to wherever you chose.

    As your company grows and you need physical Toronto office space or even Toronto shared office space, Telsec can help you upgrade without having to change your telephone number or your prestigious business address.

    One of the big benefits of being a shared office Toronto client or a office space Toronto client is that you have access to meeting rooms and boardrooms absolutely free. Even Toronto virtual office clients have access to meeting rooms and boardrooms at a very nominal fee.

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  • 17Feb

    This Blog is getting recognized by other bloggers

    Office Space Toronto, Virtual Office Toronto No Comments

    A side note… it seems that A Better Virtual Office is paying attention to the Telsec blog.

    This blogger was recently informed that A Better Virtual Office read and shared a blog from this blog you are reading. In their Feb 5th blog they credited the Telsec.net/blog that mentioned Tiger Woods as one they found entertaining.

    I look forward to reading more from their reviews of not only the Telsec blog but also the Virtual office Toronto packages from Telsec.

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