I have developed a new course to meet a critical need in electric and gas utilities. It is entitled 'Explaining and Defending Your Rate Increase to Customers.' It teaches utility employees how to understand their current rate case and, more importantly, how to explain their rate increases to customers and friends in a clear, concise and powerful way.

In this course I list 20 common customer questions and complaints customers make about utility rate increases or quality of service. Then, I carefully teach utility employees knowledge and skills they need to answer these questions and complaints. If your utility is doing a good job of providing service to customers, there is no effective rebuttal customers can give to the answers I teach in this class.

You might ask, "Why is this course important?"

My Business Basics course attendees are always asking me for my portfolio balance recommendations for their 401(k) retirement fund. They want to know the proper balance of their retirement investment accounts for their age and family situation. They ask me questions like: "How much of my 401(k) should be in stocks?" or
"How much of my 401(k) should be in
Bonds?" or
"How much of my 401(k) should be in Cash?"

Well, I have found some answers for you in Smart Money magazine.

I thought some of you might be interested in investing in very safe, short-term investments. These investments would be for cash sitting in your checking account earning zero. This would be cash that you are not going to use for several months, or even for several years. To put this cash to work, you could consider a

Lucian's Trip Down Memory Lane

I recently flew to Louisiana to attend the Board meeting of the Business School at Louisiana Tech University (La Tech). They had requested that Board members wear La Tech clothing in honor of La Tech Homecoming activities. I wore my college football letter jacket. Terry Bradshaw has one just like it.