Problem: Article: Check email addresses carefully and don’t open an email that looks suspicious. Be suspicious of emails from people or organizations you do not know or have not done business with.  You can also identify phishing emails by the messages contained in the body of the email. They often claim that your account has been compromised and invite you to click on a link to confirm your identity. Or, they claim your account has been overcharged and that they need you to call them.  If you do open an email, don’t download files, click on links, or respond. If you need to contact a company and provide personal information, choose to do so over the phone rather than through email.  Don’t just call the phone number provided in the email. Look at prior correspondence, or do a web search, to check whether or not the phone number in the email is the one you should actually call.  Also don’t enter personal information into an embedded form. A reputable company would never ask you do to that. You should also have an updated software security package that includes anti-virus and spyware detection features. Make sure that you download the most recent security patches.  Services like Norton AntiVirus or McAfee cost between $30-100 a year.  Be sure to perform financial transactions only on an encrypted, secure web page. You can tell a page is secure by looking for a closed padlock on the status bar and checking for a URL that begins with “https” instead of “http.” APWG is a consortium of law enforcement, financial institutions, research and security companies, Internet retailers, and service providers. They share phishing and spoof email information among member organizations, and they spread awareness of new threats to the Internet community. They keep a list of current phishing attacks. You can visit their website here.
Summary: Refuse to open suspicious emails. Communicate personal information only by phone. Install a firewall and a spam filter. Visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).

Problem: Article: To improve client efficiency, you can personally check in with your clients, or focus on specific high need clients, and discuss possible inefficiencies or issues. Ask your clients how their overall experience with the company has been, as well as how they feel their project manager, leader, or contact is doing in terms of time management and communication. You should also make sure employees are maintaining active communication with their clients and touching base on a daily or weekly basis. Though your employees may have a lot of projects on their plate, it is important that they keep communication with their clients open and accessible. This will show they can efficient with their time and maintain an efficient relationship with clients. You should be willing and ready to note any feedback from clients you receive in your weekly check in. Create a client feedback system where feedback is entered weekly or monthly in a survey or checklist. You can then review the feedback with your employees to give them a sense of client expectations and needs. You can also use client feedback to identify client inefficiencies, such as missed deadlines or failed communication. You can work with your employees to create possible solutions for these inefficiencies, such as scheduling deadlines one week early to ensure they are met or maintaining daily check ins with clients to keep communication open and accessible. While you do not want to micro manage your employees or your clients, you should have a good sense of where client projects stand and recognize when deliverables are being met. This may mean walking the floor of the office several times a day to check in with certain teams or areas or scheduling daily or weekly check in meetings for employees working on certain accounts or projects. Try to identify projects where clients are high need or high risk and keep a close eye on these. You may also want to ensure the employees on the account or project are prepared to tackle the needs of the client and can respond well to the client expectations. A big part of setting a project up for success is making sure the employee and the client work well together.
Summary: Set up weekly check ins with clients. Ask clients for feedback on your company’s efficiency. Monitor project timelines to ensure deliverables are met.

Problem: Article: Beans are flexible plants, able to grow in both sun and shade. When possible, choose a garden plot in most or partial sunlight. Because pole beans grow primarily upwards, you need only a small space for them. Bush beans grow outwards, meaning that they require much more space; choose a plot 2–3 feet (0.6–0.9 m) wide and as long as you desire (for the total number of beans you wish to plant). Beans should be planted after the last frost has passed, typically in the spring months of March and April. Planting too early in the season will cause the seeds to freeze and die, while planting too late may not give them enough time to mature for a harvest in the fall. Check with your local agricultural extension to find out the best planting time for your area. Beans are one of the few plants that should not be started as seedlings indoors or transplanted into your garden. This is because they have a delicate root structure that is easily damaged, and may not survive the transfer. As a result, you should sow your seeds directly into the ground come spring. Beans grow best in soil with good drainage and lots of nutrients. To prepare your soil, mix in a garden compost and gardening topsoil into your garden plot. Use a hoe to till the soil thoroughly and break apart any clay-like chunks. Incorporating the compost into the soil will help to provide plenty of nutrients to help the beans grow. Beans are nitrogen fixing, meaning they can pull nitrogen from the air and add fertility to the soil. They do this in symbiosis with bacteria. If you have not previously grown beans on your plot, consider adding a bacterial inoculant. You can dust your seeds with it, or add some to each hole when planting. If you’re planting pole beans, you will need to put your trellis in the ground prior to planting the beans. Place the trellis, stake, or pole in the exact area you plan to plant. As the beans grow, they will naturally wind themselves around the structure for support. Dig a hole deep enough to stabilize the trellis/pole, should there be bad weather or heavy winds.
Summary:
Choose your garden plot. Know when to plant. Know how to plant. Prepare your soil. Set up your trellis.