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NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets to read at least ONE new post added to my SD Nuggets blog on a different category from Tuesday till Saturday (sometimes even Sundays) in line with this publishing schedule

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1 of 2: PUBLIC SPEAKING – As an International Speaker, Manually Formatting Your MS Excel Invoice Values in Different Currencies Can Cost You [Hint: Watch this 2 Part Home Study ExcelVB Video Tutorial]

As an expert-who-speaks, you’ll periodically send out invoices. If you serve clients internationally (like I do), your invoices may sometimes have to be formatted in different currencies. For instance, I’ve had to deliver (by hand, but often email) invoices in Naira, FCFA, US Dollars, and Euros.

But doing it manually takes time and effort, and is prone to errors.

In the 2 part Home Study Video Tutorial linked below, I demonstrate how to use MS Excel VB automation to get it done.

Beyond the actual act/art of speaking, you are ultimately in business, to make money – meaning you’ll have to send in invoices requesting payments of advance and/or balance fees in relating with clients.

Depending on how busy you are, and the nature of work, there may come a time when formatting your invoice monetary values to reflect a particular currency, can involve drudgery.

I once had a client say he was familiar with the Naira and US dollars exchange rates for his country’s currency (Benin Republic), but that he wanted me to serve him the invoice clearly showing the FCFA equivalent values for each item.

Now, this was NOT a problem for me.

All I had to do was manually format the range of cells (as I demonstrated in the video added below).

But I ended up sending him a “faulty” Invoice Grand Total, because I accidentally left the “Grand Total” formula cell formatted in a different currency!

As a result, the upper values (meant to add up to the Grand Total) appeared in FCFA, while the Grand Total appeared in Naira!

You may argue that this is no big deal, of course. One would simply prepare a new one and send to the client in place of the old one – which was what I did, after the client pointed out the error to me.

However, leaving yourself open to making such avoidable errors can lead to shooting yourself in the foot professionally (even financially).

Consider two possibilities…

1. Sometimes the person you’re sending it to, may not bother checking and could forward it to a superior, who then discovers it…

The sender (who you sent it to) then looks bad before his/her boss, and even though s/he may not say it, s/he could silently blame you for it: you may lose his/her trust as a result.

We are all human of course, and prone to errors, but as professionals, our clients are DEPENDING on us to go the extra mile to serve them.

The decision maker hiring you is hoping you will make him/her good with your performance. Sending in an invoice that states money to be paid in conflicting currencies can result in the OPPOSITE happening!

2. Even worse, if you find yourself dealing with a particularly crafty (read: EXPLOITATIVE) client or decision maker.

For instance if the error you made is such that your grand total converts to LOWER than what it should actually be (e.g. summing US dollar denominated items to make the Grand Total, which you inadvertently leave formatted in Nigerian Naira!).

Such an individual could quietly accept it, and initiative payment processing for you, and then when you discover how much appears on your cheque s/he could claim “Well that’s what you stated as Grand Total on your invoice!”

Incidentally, the above could even happen with a decision maker who did NOT know better.

If the individual is a national of a different country, and not familiar with the considerable difference in value between the conflicting currencies on the invoice, s/he could innocently accept it, without realizing the need to call your attention to it.

NB: In case you wonder, I’ve actually had such an experience before – though not exactly as described above.

What I do is what is demonstrated in the 2 part video tutorial linked in this issue of my newsletter.

Take a few minutes to study it and empower yourself, if you do not already know how to do it

In the video, I start by demonstrating how to do format currency manually. Then I show the automated version of the workbook, in use – with single click form controls (command buttons and a drop menu) changing between the USD, Naira, Euro, GBP and FCFA.

In the second part of the tutorial, I demonstrate step-by-step- how to use Excel VB automation to switch – at the click of a mouse – your invoice values to different currencies.

Note that this can be applied to ANY spreadsheet you’re working on...

In other words, even though I’ve used invoice preparation as an example here, there are many other scenarios that it is relevant to. One simply needs to apply the same thinking as appropriate.

Click here NOW to watch the video tutorial

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This newsletter (which I use to promote Burt Dubin’s Speaker Mentoring Products/Services) serves experts-who-speak. Starting – Monday 13th April 2015 – it MORPHED in name and content served, to a 2 part Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, to better serve them. You just read the “Public Speaking IDEAS” part above. What follows below is the “Web Marketing IDEAS” part.

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Burt Dubin works with people who want to be speakers, and with speakers who want to be masters. Click here to visit his website NOW and submit a contact form message telling him what challenges you’re facing, and how you’d like him to help you. Tell him I sent you, and you’ll get a pleasant surprise offer from him.

Burt Dubin’s monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter [Signup & get a 7-Part Email Course on “How To Succeed And Get Paid As A Professional Speaker“]

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1. Top Shelf [Click here]

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2 of 2: WEB MARKETING: To Achieve Sustainable Success, Closely Monitor News About Current Affairs and Politics! [FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD]

“If you want to achieve sustainable success in business (especially in a volatile market place like Nigeria), it’s in your best interest to develop interest in current affairs and politics, because those are the two key ingredients that really keep this country from having a stable sociopolitical climate.
And for as long as that stable sociopolitical climate does not exist, every person running a business will probably have to sleep with one eye open.” – Tayo K. Solagbade

It’s FREE for all my Web Marketing/farm business clients, and ALL members of my Inner Circle as well as for ALL subscribers to THIS newsletter.

If you are not yet ANY of the above, just send me a message here to let me know.

If you want me to send you the full MP3 recording, just say so in your message.

NB: If you’re already a client or subscriber, email me via tayo at tksola dot com and let me know you want it

Alternatively, click here to request the FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD.

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Question: But who is Burt Dubin, and why do I (Tayo K. Solagbade) think you should you learn from him?

Answer: Burt is a 3 decade veteran in the professional speaking business. After achieving top level cross continental success as an expert-speaker, he has established a reputation for mentoring some of the highest paid speakers in the world. He owns SpeakingBizSuccess.com, SpeakingSuccess.com and BurtDubin.com.

Burt helps those he mentors (experts-who-speak) to Position, Package, Promote, and Present* themselves successfully to clients (*He calls them the 4Ps). That’s why it’s no surprise that on Burt’s website, considerable space capital is devoted to useful business marketing articles as well as products.

It might also interest you to know that MANY years back, Burt established himself as one of the best marketing minds in the world. To really put this FACT in proper perspective, I’ll provide more specific details in form of an example.

A few years ago, Burt contributed an article to a powerful publication titled “The Most Effective Articles Ever – By The World’s Top Marketers“. That 574 page ebook features timeless marketing advice from 71 of the world’s top marketers – including Jack Trout, Joe Vitale, Yanik Silver…and Burt Dubin.

That’s ample proof that (in addition to Public Speaking), Burt would be a great resource to learn business marketing from!

Full Disclosure: I represent Burt as Sole Agent for his products/services, which means if YOU buy from him, I get paid.

But that’s NOT the main reason I represent and recommend him. I have benefited in many ways by learning from Burt. Through his writing, his audio recordings, and from directly relating with him.

Before we teamed up in 2011, I’d been studying his work and adapting it to succeed in my work from way back in 2002. It does not matter what part of the world you’re in. If you know how to adapt them to suit your peculiar local needs, Burt’s ideas and strategies WILL work for you. I am living proof of it!

That’s why I never tire of CONFIDENTLY recommending him to others.

If you need help putting the ideas shared above to use, let me know HERE.

Click here to tell me which of Burt’s speaker mentoring products or services you are interested in.

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Learn about Burt Dubin’s speaker mentoring products (books, audios etc) below…

If you need help purchasing ANY of Burt’s products (like “Presentation Magic”), call me on +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic, my base) or +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria)  or email tayo@tksola.com

Have a great week :-))

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