Funny sounding topic for this maiden newsletter issue isn't it? Well, I can tell you it is a serious and very real one. This year, I aim to go beyond developing spreadsheet software/solutions for clients, to EMPOWERING competent professionals to do what I do for their own clients.

Over the past seven (7) years, I have worked closely with seasoned Chartered Accountants/Auditors especially, and in some cases Quantity Surveyors, to develop applications for their companies using MS Excel.

What I noticed was that most of them were good with MS Excel, but lacked my ability to program Excel. I believe that by helping these kinds of professionals learn to program MS Excel for their purposes, they will spawn a new breed of skilled professionals that will expand the market I have created for spreadsheet solutions out here.

Are you an Accountant/Auditor, Engineers, Marketer Or Insurance Broker, who uses MS Excel spreadsheets for routine data handling and report generation?

Or let me ask: Does your work require you to carry out elaborate data collection and analysis for formal report generation purposes? Do you routinely use MS Excel spreadsheets to get your work done, but sometimes wish you could do so FASTER, with LESS effort and in LESS time?

Do you in fact wish you could AUTOMATE most of what you routinely do with MS Excel so that you could get more work done?

Consider how the professionals I have mentioned do their work using MS Excel without knowing how to PROGRAM it:

a. Accountant/Auditor: There's been a new wave of interest in personal and other kinds of income tax estimation and payment, driven by government's need to generate income streams outside those from oil. So many Chartered Accountants/Auditors have experienced increased demand for their services from individuals, and businesses of all sizes, to prepare end of year accounts and estimate tax returns due.

To meet their clients' needs, they use MS Excel spreadsheets - even in cases where the client uses Accounting/Financial Management software, they still find situations that require their use of MS Excel.

b. Engineers: Quantity Surveyors and other construction Engineers often use MS Excel to prepare bills of quantities etc in their routine work. Very often they may need to track expenditure vs budget for up to 10 different projects simultaneously, over a period of months or even a year.

This results in their having to create multiple folders containing spreadsheets for each client's project, and updating them as the need arises becomes a cumbersome, but necessary task - in addition to the physical project running around that needs to be done.

c. Marketing Executives: Top marketing professionals often have to collate, analyse and generate various reports using data obtained from the trade. Same applies to Distribution Managers and even top personnel in Logistics etc. That was why for instance in 2004, I was engaged by a leading telecommunications provider to provide personal coaching in Advanced MS Excel use to their National Distribution Manager, who was to take over from a superior leaving for South Africa.

d. Insurance Brokers: They often use Excel spreadsheets to record, analyse and generate their many important reports. I once had the rare privilege of being present when the staff of a Lagos based Insurance company were preparing their month end report using clients' Life Insurance data.

I almost fainted from shock when I saw how they manually posted the year for each record into a separate column, instead of applying the YEAR function down the more than 20,000 rows of data! What was worse, transferring the data from client supplied spreadsheets was done by hand. Adding more information was a cumbersome process that took months - no exaggeration. A lot of it was repetitive and routine, and automation could have made it happen in a tiny fraction of the time it took.

You Can Become SUPER Productive: Step Up To The NEXT HIGHER Level Of Competence In Using MS Excel For YOUR Work!

Most of the above mentioned professionals use MS Excel spreadsheets they build for themselves and/or their clients, to deliver the solutions demanded. By learning MS Excel Programming, they can dramatically boost their productivity and effectiveness.

Most importantly, they can explore programming MS Excel spreadsheets they use for EACH client into "custom spreadsheet software" that they can then sell to their clients, thereby earning EXTRA income beyond their professional fees! The potential benefits are limitless.

Have you seen the automated modeless floating data entry forms I build into the custom spreadsheet software I create for my clients? The flash movie in the column to the right of this newsletter shows a perfect example of ONE such form, that is used to dramatically ease/accelerate posting of data into various spreadsheet cells at once. Visit www.excelheaven.spontaneousdevelopment.com to see a video of that software in use.

Your spreadsheet needs to be laid out according to certain rules, to make preparation of reports and subsequent automation effective and efficient. There are so many powerful ways to setup/use spreadsheets to make your work easier - even without automation.

If you belong to any of the groups I have described above, you are very likely to be a competent user of MS Excel. Indeed, it is possible you are widely considered an EXPERT by those you work or relate with, because very often, you are the one who solves other people's problems using your spreadsheet skills.

That's why my offer of personal, confidential coaching in MS Excel Automation using Visual Basic is likely to be a NATURAL progression to the NEXT HIGHER level of competence that will appeal to you. Believe me when I tell you that what I can TEACH you to do with MS Excel is nothing like anything you may have done in the area of using MS Excel, or indeed in automating it.

In 2010, any Accountant/Auditor, Engineer, Marketer Or Insurance Broker - indeed anyone who needs to improve the speed, accuracy and reliability of data collection, analysis and report generation - who wants to be able to get more work done, and MAKE MORE MONEY, will find my personal MS Excel Programming Coaching Service Useful.

GET STARTED: Add me as a friend on Facebook, and send a message to me for details of how you can get started. Remember, acquiring this new competence can effectively help you earn more recognition, respect and INCOME from others. In 2010, this seeming dream can become a reality in a matter of weeks, if you let me help you. Add me as a friend on Facebook now, and send me a message to get started.

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SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Built-In Excel Solutions Development

ON-DEMAND LEARNING EVENT: In-House Excel-VB Programming Coaching For Your Employees

Minimise Expensive Software Purchase By Developing In-House Excel-VB Programming Expertise Among Your Staff.

Your company can eliminate vital decision making delays due to IT personnel being overloaded for instance, by empowering “champion” employees within individual departments to quickly and easily develop solutions to that address the immediate business data analysis/reporting needs of their respective units.

Other benefits of having In-House Excel-VB Solutions Development expertise:

(a). It will provide temporary alternative to - or relieve pressure on - the IT department.

(b). Provides users a useful/friendly development environment for new reports and analyses - which in turn enhances software needs definition - reducing software development or purchase costs.

(c). Empowers employees to analyse company data to improve performance.

It is my belief that just as I was able to develop over four(4) automated spreadsheet applications to solve real-life problems – in my spare time - as a non-IT staff in Guinness Nigeria Plc (read details on the about page at www.excelheaven.spontaneousdevelopment.com), your staff, if equipped with similar skills, can do the same for your company – and possibly help you AVOID expending scarce cash (1). buying expensive commercial software or (2). hiring "pricey" software developers.

Click here to learn how I have built custom Excel-VB driven software for client companies for as much as N200,000.00(Proof Available). While there you can request/download my FREE MS Excel Coaching Skills Matrix workbook and a one-page Excel VB Programming Coaching Course Outline.

Call 234-803-302-1263 to request further details.

Web www.spontaneousdevelopment.com

Click here to view other recommended resources

Yours in Self-Development!

Tayo K. Solagbade
Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist