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Why Should You Believe Me?

Ten Reasons You Can Trust My E-Book
And Other Excel Dashboard Products

by Charley Kyd
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Is this just another internet rip-off?" several customers have asked over the years when they wrote for help with their purchases.

"Definitely not," I responded each time. And then I followed through to leave them delighted.

But those questions got me to thinking...

You and I never have met. You've probably never heard of me. So how do you know that you can trust me and that I know what I'm talking about?

So here are ten reasons that you can trust me and my products:

"Can I trust Charley?"

1. One-year guarantee, with no fine print. If you aren't completely satisfied within one year of purchase, I'll give you your money back. It's that simple. I take all the risk.
    
2. Less than 1% refunds. Most of my refunds are about evenly split between people who thought my products are either too advanced or are too elementary, so I seem to have hit the right balance. The third-largest category consists of people who bought my products for a project that was later canceled. Virtually no one has asked for a refund simply because they disliked my products.
    
3. Testimonials. I've received many testimonials, usually from people who couldn't give me permission to quote them. But this page has about 50 testimonials from people who did allow me to quote them, usually by name and company. You'll see people working for large companies and small. And you'll see many titles, including Owner, President, Managing Director, and Any Title I Feel Like at the top of their organizations. And you'll see Analyst, Engineer, Consultant, and Audit Lead below the top.

"Does he know anything about business or spreadsheets?"

4. Beta-tested both VisiCalc and Excel for the PC. In 1979, while working for Hewlett-Packard, I beta-tested VisiCalc on a prototype of HP's first personal computer. And because I wrote the cover story for Business Software magazine about the introduction of Excel for the PC in 1987, I had the chance to beta-test that product.
    
5. Four books about spreadsheets for major publishers. I've written one book about using Lotus 1-2-3 for McGraw-Hill and three books about using Excel for Microsoft Press. (Because these books are about spreadsheet versions that have long been obsolete, I don't recommend that you buy them. But if you search books at Amazon.com for "Charles Kyd" you'll find listings for several new and used versions of those ancient books.)
    
6. Articles in national magazines. I've worked as a monthly columnist for Inc, Lotus, and Business Software magazines. I've also been published in PC World, Byte, Management Accounting, and PBM (Business Performance Mangement) magazines. (Most of these magazines have stopped publishing, but probably not because I wrote for them.)
    
7. Excel MVP. Microsoft first designated me an Excel MVP in 2006, and for the years since. Here's a link to my MVP Profile on the Microsoft Web Site.
    
8. Business Experience. Before getting my MBA, I worked as the CFO for a small high-tech manufacturing company that grew at a 90% rate for the five years I was with them. After the MBA, I worked as an accounting manager at HP, then as a CFO for several small companies. I worked as a consultant for nearly 20 years, concentrating on the use of spreadsheets in business, including Excel dashboards. Clients were in many industries, including public utilities, telecommunications, interstate trucking, manufacturing, software, and fat rendering.
   
   Most of my employers and many of my clients faced tight budgets, negative cash flows, and serious questions about their survival. So today's economic climate looks very familiar to me.

"Does he know anything about Excel dashboards?"

9. Invented spreadsheet dashboards. I introduced spreadsheet dashboard reporting to the world in 1986 in my Sybex-McGraw-Hill book, "Financial Modeling Using Lotus 1-2-3." I created the first Excel dashboard in 1990, created the first Excel dashboard using public data by 1992, and by 1993 Tektronix was using several dashboard designs to promote their wax-deposit color printers. (They no longer are in that business. Again, probably not because I worked with them.)
    
10. Dashboard users worldwide. Excel users in more than half the world, and in every business sector, are using my dashboard products. And so far, not one person has asked for a refund because they weren't able to localize my products.

Here's the bottom line:

Kyd Dashboards are used in more organizations, in more countries, than any dashboard product in the world. This definitely is not "another Internet rip-off." Try my Excel dashboards. I think you'll be delighted.