ScannerCentral.co.uk

Here’s a widget packed with data from Sprint in the US.
Click here to see the full page of data from around the world.

Going self-employed or starting your own business takes a lot of work in the early stages.

You can start to feel like a hamster on a wheel running faster and faster and not going anywhere.

Before you know it, you’re working all the hours available to you (and a few more) and still not seeing much return.

Part of this is inevitable when first launching something. Ask NASA; the Apollo rockets used the vast majority of their fuel just to lift off and travel the first 20 miles. The rest of the 240,000 miles were a breeze in comparison.

The problem is that it’s easy to get used to working hard and being very very busy - and not checking whether what we’re busy with will actually produce the results we want.

Unfortunately, the way we assume business works when we first try it for ourselves is not always correct. I know I invested considerable effort into projects early on that didn’t pan out the way I expected. That’s why it’s great to get tips from people who have been there before us, because it’s like taking a sneaky shortcut.

On Wednesday November 19th you can come and learn from 3 experts who have tried all the stuff that doesn’t work in launching a business and have then found the stuff that does. Mike, Judith and John of the Creative Entrepreneurs Club will be boiling down all those years of experience into 3 critical things that will help you make twice the money in half the time (and have some fun while you’re doing it).

Come to November Scanners Night and find out how to step off your own hamster wheel.

Book your place for November Scanners Night now.

Brevity is not just the soul of wit but the soul of entrepreneurship too.

We scanners have too many ideas to struggle alone implementing everything we think of. We need to take the fast track - and the best fast track is to collaborate with other people. If you want to engage other people to collaborate, you’d better be able to explain what it is you’re creating, what you need and why they should help you quickly.

At Scanners Night, you have a chance to get some advice from our guest experts on the spot. But you’ll only have 2 minutes to explain your project and what you need. Whether you’re coming to the next Scanners Night or not, start practising your “elevator pitch” now. And although this is a kind of selling, it’s not the old fashioned cheesy kind, it’s a statement that excites people about what you’re trying to achieve and makes it clear how they can help you.

You never know when you might run into a life-changing business contact - wherever it’s Richard Branson, Steve Jobs or the head of commissioning for the BBC. Can you engage their help in the 2 minutes you have with them in the elevator, on the tube, or in the loo? Start practising now.

Would you like to spend a week with the world expert on Scanners in a nice spot in Italy along with 15 other Scanners?

Barbara Sher coined the term “Scanner” back in 1994 and recently wrote the book “What do I do when I want to do everything?“. If you’d like to spend a week with her in Puglia, Italy book for her Scanner Retreat now. It’s September 26 to October 1.

I attended her retreat in Autumn 2006 and thoroughly recommend it as a great mix of workshop and holiday.

Listen to Barbara talking about Scanners and the Retreat on this widgetabob:

Read more about Barbara’s Scanners Retreat here.

Or domains for that matter. If you’re a scanner and you haven’t discovered the joy of throwing together a website or blog for your new latest passion, it’s time to have a go.

My webhost 1and1 are celebrating 20 years in the biz by giving free hosting for a year, which is nice.

Go for the Home package and pay nowt for a year. Terms and conditions apply, no doubt.

I thoroughly recommend them because:

• They’re the world’s biggest web host and ultra reliable
• You can have loads of domains on one cheapie account (I have 53)
• You get a free blog
• You can use a free push-button website builder to make your website
• You get a free (basic) newsletter tool
• You can have loads of email addresses (if you’re one of those people still running your business off your ISP’s email address or even worse, a hotmail address, this is reason alone to sign up).
• The control panel is pretty easy to use
• Other cool stuff including some sort of “Easy Shop”

Click the banner below to find out more.

If you already have a main website, there’s no reason not to get a domain for your latest side project and point it at a blog or simple website. Have a fish for domains below:

I discovered this diagram on Wikipedia and found it fascinating. As a scanner, there’s something very satisfying for me to be able to quickly understand something that’s been foggy for a long time.

This diagram explains the relationship between terms like England, Great Britain, UK, and British Isles.

Did you know that the Isle of Man is outside the UK? Or that the Republic of Ireland is in the British Isles but not the British Islands? Am I the only person to care? Leave a comment and let me know!

Where I’ve Been In The World

This application is fun if a little broad brush-stroke outside of the US (e.g. going to Bali for a week paints the whole of Indonesia blue).

Suddenly I feel very under-travelled.

They call the web interactive but really it’s less interactive than a book - at least with a book you can mark sections to come back to or to show to others. Well now you can do that with web pages.

Go to awesomehighlighter.com, enter a website address, mark bits to highlight, then send a short link to it to other people. You’ll be doing a favour to scanners who won’t have to read the whole thing. You could also use this to keep your own highlights (install their toolbar to make it quicker).

Particularly handy if you want to show something on the web to somebody but it’s buried in the middle of a load of other stuff.

Have a look at this nifty page I’ve created with highlights to show what it does:
http://awurl.com/moogny139029

I’ve put a whole load of interesting links for Scanners up on the new ScannerLinks page. Check ‘em out.

Barbara Sher has a shop on Cafepress with products bearing the design below.

Visit the shop