ADMINISTRATION

1. Calling All Event and Meeting Planners: Success and Productivity Tips
   If you don't effectively handle the multiple demands of your every day life as an event or meeting planner, your customers will know! Your coworkers, industry peers, suppliers, and...

2. Collaboration Is No Longer A Luxury
   There is one powerful strategy all event and meeting planners use to reach the level of success they really dream about. It has nothing to do with event themes or locations, or you...

3. Decking the Halls While Running Your Business
   It's the holiday season, and, with all the decking of halls, jingling of bells and lighting of candles, it's getting harder and harder to keep your mind on work. What to do when...

4. Ten Step Paper Patrol
   Ten Step Paper Patrol Do you like to go on archeological digs? I hope so because your desk requires an archeological dig to find the desktop. And you know there are important paper...

5. Top 10 Time Savers
   How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! That's right. At first you take the first bite. You have created a business plan, set goals to provide the best product or service t..

6. Bureaucracy is the parasite to productivity
   A parasite is medically defined as an organism that lives on within another organism at the expense of the host. Bureaucracy is an administrative system, which places undue emphasi...

7. Time Management--Defining Stupidity
   Stupidity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results No one should be billing themselves as stupid. After all you are operating in a very high-pac..

8. Outlook Tips to Boost Your Productivity
   Most full-time office workers have an employer-provided e-mail account, and chances are, it's with Microsoft Outlook. Many of us send and receive dozens of e-mails per day. Here ar..

9. How To Manage Your Email Mountain
   Do you constantly check your inbox for new messages throughout the day? Do you instantly go and read new email when you hear that alert go? Emails can be a great time waster ...

10. A Document Management System Can Help Your Business
    A document management system is a computer program or a set of computer programs that help you organize the documents on your computer. Any business generates a large amount of doc...

11. Organizing Your Home Office and Paperwork
    Organizing your home office can truly be a hair raising task! By home office, I mean any area of your house which you pay bills in, write notes, send cards, store paperwork, etc. S...

12. Work less but make more money in your home business!!!
    More and more home based business owners are getting excited as they realize they can actually work less hours and make more money by following some very simple steps. James & K... 

13. Outlook Tips To Clean Your Inbox!
    One of the biggest distractions for most business owners is email. And when you get hundreds (or even thousands) of emails a day, it's really easy for it to quickly overwhelm you. ...

COMMUNICATION

1. How to Create A Network Map
   There is ultimately no better way to start networking than to try it for real. The easiest way to do this to commence with the people you already know, rather than to find new ones...

2. Networking - How To Reach Potential Contacts
   I truly believe that every individual in the whole world is potentially only five or six contact steps away. This ‘five or six degrees of separation’ shows that even an ...

3. How To Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech - Part One
   dynamite speech is built upon a strong foundation: form and structure. I call this the architecture of the speech. Without the proper form and structure - the right elements orga..

4. How to Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech - Part Two
   In Part One of How to Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech, I discussed Step One: Defining Your Core Message. Defining your core message is the first step of Phase One - Strategic D..

5. How to Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech - Part Three
   Phase Three of the 21-Steps is Preparation and Delivery. I was a professional actor in Chicago and Hollywood for 16 years. One of the nice things about being an actor on stage w..

6. How To First Understand And Then Develop Your Emotional Skills
   All forms of stress have an emotional element, but the emotional energy created by stress can be used to your advantage. Essentially, emotions are resources which when used skil...

7. 5 Ways to Create a No-Whining Zone
   5 Ways to Create a No-Whining Zone Be Ruthless About Keeping the Negative People At Bay Negative people take up too much time and valuable energy. We must be ruthless about p...

8. The Incredible Value Of Networking
   To some, networking means simply meeting or calling someone new for what might be a one-off discussion or event. In this limited sense, networking is only a trading relationship in...

9. How To Become An Active Listener
   Your role in the sales situation alternates between sender and receiver of messages. The very best sales professionals devote a large portion of the sales interview to listening...

10. How To Identify The Four Personality Types Resident In Every Boardroom
    If you are a regular visitor to my blog you will know that recently, we have been developing a new leadership suite of programs and this has led me to further investigate what I ...

11. How To Relate To And Communicate With The Four Personality Types
    Sometimes we get on instantly with other people, occasionally there’s a clash. Changing your behavior to suit different people is perfectly normal. It doesn’t change you as an...

12. Effective Client Communications
    Whether you know it or not, your past clients are your best source of new clients. Finding a new client is time consuming and expensive. If you can find a way to increase your pip..

CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. What is your Lagniappe?
   In my customer service talks, I refer often to a French word which was used commonly among French Creole store owners in Louisiana. It was used like this: a customer would order ...

2. An Unintended Result - Disempowering Clients
   All human beings make mistakes. The impact of our coaching does not always mirror our good intentions. Masterful coaches learn from their mistakes. Ethical coaches pay attention to..

3. Making The Most Of Customer Service
   Customer care has become one of the most important issues facing businesses in every market. Customer care programmes come under a number of titles - customer services, customer sa... 

4. Establish a relationship, do not just take an order
   Ensure a cure, don’t just take the medicine. Establish a relationship with the customer, don’t just take an order Superficial actions will not do in this competitive market....

5. Guarantees: Why You Should Offer Them
   There are many questions that often come up for new small business owners around offering guarantees - what kind, how lon...

6. It's Important To Keep Our Internal Customers Happy Too
   Ask a colleague to define the customer and they will probably say ‘Someone who buys from us.’ What about internal customers? Colleagues, other departments, branches,...

7. Customer Service -- Customer Loyalty Wins Sales
   Batteries not included. Three of the dumbest words. Your Company spent millions of dollars to develop this wonderful product. Engineers spent countless hours creating and refin...

8. Customer Complaints - Techniques For Special Occasions
   I need to say right up front, that most people who complain have a legitimate reason to do so and as I discuss in my article: "Do You Welcome Customer Complaints Or Do You Have You..

9. Reaping the Double Windfall
   Customer complaints can wreak havoc on any business and can easily neutralize the best marketing campaigns. An increasing percentage of complaints center around so-called ‘standa... 

10. The Devastating Impact of Customer Complaints
    Conventional wisdom holds that there are 25 to 50 customers with problems for every one who actually complains, making every complaint actually received only the tip of a very larg...

11. The X and Y of Customer Service
    Take a good look at yourself and any employees you may have who come into contact with your customers. This will likely be your sales staff but don’t overlook any area of your co... 

12. Customer Service: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
    I had my house painted last week. Part of the process required renting a paint sprayer to speed doing the bulk of the work. This seemingly simple task became an adventure that reve... 

ETHICS

1. Ethics of Outsourcing
   Many times, business organizations encounter the dilemma of ethical decision making. "If a CIO says 'I've never faced an ethical issue', they're not living in the real world," says... 

2. Leadership Lessons from Pope John Paul II
   "Heroes are rebels with a cause. Rebels because they challenge the traditional ways of thinking and refuse to follow the herd. They have a cause, a vision, that's larger than life...

3. The Great Importance of Doing Business with Ethics
   For most people, money makes the world go round and business bears that money. Businessmen will perhaps do anything just to achieve the ultimate goal of having a business, and that...

4. Ethics & SEO: An Oxymoron?
   Ethics & SEO: An Oxymoron? Often, life requires walking a fine line between right and wrong... the whole "shades of gray" thing. But when it comes to setting standards by which you...

5. Professional Ethics
   After graduation you become impatient, waiting for an opportune moment to apply your solid knowledge into practice. Now you feel able to realize your dream about wealth and recogni...

FINANCING

1. 12 Rules: How to Avoid Losing and Start Making Money from the Stock Market
   RULE 1: WHY DO YOU INVEST? Make more money, this is the answer to most people. If your reason is to make more money, then ask yourself these three questions: 1.Is your stra...

2. Stock Market Investing - Top 10 List
   The 10 dumbest things investors say to advisors. 1} When my investment gets back up to what I paid, get me out. This is surely a big mistake. That stock has absolutely no ide...

3. Don't Gamble With Your Business
   Don’t Gamble With Your Business Imagine… A business owner scrambles to come up with money to make his payroll. As a last desperate measure, he gathers up every last p... 

4. By the Time the Financial Numbers Show Red, the Company is Already Bleeding
   There are many important imperatives and factors which are not quantified or measurable by the traditional accounting system. Human capital is perhaps the single most critical s...

5. Small and Medium Business business decision tools
   Are you about to create your company? Will you acquire a company or sell your company to retire? It is time to think how to gather the right information and find the right contacts...

6. Casual with receivables, you may land up as a casualty
   Some companies' Achilles' heels are their accounts receivables, poor credit control or weak administration of credit policy. These weaknesses can smoulder the companies of their vi...

7. Why Practice Trading is So Critical
   When you are new at this game called the stock market, you will find it necessary to start off with the basics. Milk not meat! If you only knew what we know, after years of trading...

8. Timing is Everything
   Timing is everything! Especially when it comes to trading in the stock market. It amazes me the thought process a lot of students go through when it comes to trading. First, you...

FUNDING

1. Angel Investors: 7 Online Business Plan Scams and 1 Real Deal
   We've all seen the hype: "We'll put your plan in front of thousands of investors!" "We'll write you an award-winning online business plan!" "Only $3,000 for thousands of investors ...

2. Finance Your Small Business: So Much Money - So Little Time
   $47.4 million venture capital funded projects today. $86.4 million yesterday. $51.4 million the day before. These amounts are not made up. They are actual numbers from actual re...

3. The New Wave in Small Business Financing
   This is HUGE. This is tsunami in the making. Small business financing is on the brink of tapping into billions and billions of dollars that previously shut it out. The signs are...

4. Private Angel Investor - How to Take Their NO!
   Picture this scenario and let me know if it sounds familiar. You've met with a potential private angel investor about your new startup opportunity. During the meeting the private a...

5. How to Raise Venture Capital
   How to raise venture capital is only for the dozen companies that will ever be successful, right? If you spend enough time listening to venture capitalists and industry pundits tal...

6. Business Start Up Funding Silver Bullet
   Startup companies often get frustrated when they can't find investors willing to fund their new idea. What they don't realize is that in order to get an investment, they need more ...

7. Small Business Investor - Small Check, Big Headache
   I don't know if there is some sort of mathematical equation you can put to this, but it would certainly appear that the smaller the investor's check, the bigger the headache they b...

8. Venture Capital Angel Investors Don't Know Jack
   If you've ever pitched your new business idea to a venture capital angel investor, only to be tortured with an endless list of reasons your idea will never work, my sympathies go o...

9. How not to Raise Traditional Capital... How to Raise "Guerilla" Capital
   We have compiled a list of some practices which seem sure to kill your chances to attract investors. Ignore these lessons at your peril. * Poor market research, weak business pl..

10. How do venture capitalists rate proposals?
    Most venture capital firms concentrate primarily on the competence and character of the proposing firm's management. They feel that even mediocre products can be successfully manuf...

11. How are our chances for venture capital?
    Many of today's new ventures, particularly Internet startups with their enormous cash requirements, high risk, and high potential return, require approaching the venture capital ma...

12. How to convince a lender...
    In making loan requests, entrepreneurs tend to be confident that they will meet or exceed what they consider conservative financial projections. They then have trouble understandin...

GENERAL BUSINESS

1. The 2 Telltales Signs Your Competitive Outlook is Hazardous to Your Success
   Susan is standing in the wings getting ready to give her speech. At the podium is the speaker before her; a woman in her mid-thirties who is dressed beautifully, speaks eloquently...

2. Who’s Got The Monkey Now? How to find out how well you manage your time
   Are you a manager? Would you like more available time? Yes, then read on . . . How ...

3. Making Your Business Safer - Robbery Prevention
   Making Your Business Safer - Robbery Prevention by Albert Barneto With holiday shoppers out and about in record numbers this season, many restaurants and retail establish...

4. The Nature Of Networking
   Networking effectiveness starts with a positive personal attitude and an understanding that successful networking is built on a spirit of giving and sharing and not of bargainin...

5. How To Begin Improving Your Networking Skills
   Before you even begin to look at engaging seriously in lots of networking effort, it is useful to look at your own temperament or disposition,. This is the individual...

6. 5 Ways to Avoid the Biggest Bottleneck In Your Business
   Imagine for a moment that you have just spent a small fortune on marketing...you have a sale that you want to advertise and you have produced full page ads in the local newspaper s...

7. 7 Steps to Building a Successful Business
   Building wealth requires following a proven system to help guide you on your journey. Following a proven system considerably increases your odds of winning big. There are seven ...

8. RSVP: Failure to Reply Ranks Tops Among Business Etiquette Faux Pas
   One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is, "What is the biggest business etiquette faux pas that people commit today?" In a world where rudeness is rampant, it's har...

9. The Five Main Drivers For Improvement Within Organizations
   “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change" - Charles Darwin Whatever got you where you are toda..

10. What Does Your Business Card Say About You?
    Of the four business meetings I have held so far this week; only in one case was the other person able to produce an up to date and informative business card, despite the fact that..

11. Key To Success: The Dream
    "If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up." -- Anonymous We all have dreams, and I don't mean the kind we have at night. They can be ...

12. Covey's Seven Habits Should Be Revisited Regularly
    When a colleague loaned me Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People” many years ago, it took me about three months to get round to reading it – ...

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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

1. Evaluating Business Planning Software
   Once a business idea is selected, it is highly recommended that we sharpen the concept by a detailed planning process. The result of this step is a comprehensive business plan, wit...

2. Microsoft Word Templates Will Save You Time
   One of the issues that most small business owners overlook when starting out in business is the use of technology. Whilst computer technology may require a significant investment ...

3. Shared Or Dedicated Web Hosting? What's best for you?
   There is nothing more frustrating as a webmaster then waking up in the morning, firing up your browser to check your website only to find a message saying "This site has exceeded i..

4. Web Hosting Uptime - What Does It Mean For You?
   When you begin to look for a company to host your website, other than the amount of space and bandwidth that is offered, a company will usually promote their web hosting uptime. Mo...

5. Create your methodology based on a standard framework (Part 1)
   This article, the first of a series of three, gives some tips on designing and implementing a methodology based on a standard framework such as ITIL or PMBoK. OK. So you have de...

6. Palms and database software - Pros and Cons
   There are many types of computerized organizing products that claim to save us time. We can choose between information or contact management software such as Outlook, Act!, Goldmin...

LAW

1. Understanding Copyright
   When you create original content, it is automatically copyrighted, but you should know about copyrights and how to specifically mark your work. Also, establishing the date of crea...

2. Litigation can put you out of business in a heartbeat
   Many companies underestimate the potential gravity of getting into litigious situations. Lawsuits, especially in cases where one does not have strong legal legs to stand on, are po..

3. Self-Employed Taxes: Helping You Know Your Responsibilities
   1. Estimated Tax Payments: If you are a sole proprietor, a partnership, or a shareholder in a Sub-chapter S corporation, you are considered self-employed. Since you don't have an e...

4. Starting A Business: Learn What Legal Paperwork You Need
   Getting A Business License: Once you have met with the zoning and business license departments and have determined that your business meets all the specific requirements for operat...

5. Forms of Ownership
   One of the first decisions that you will have to make as a business owner is how the company should be structured. This decision will have long-term implications, so consult with a...

6. Business Laws: What you Need to Know
   There are a myriad of things you must think about when opening any type of business whether it is a small business or a large corporation and one of those is how business law may a...

7. Step by Step guide to Intellectual Property: PART 1
   Doing The Rights Thing Intellectual property has been a hot news topic recently. From the Chinese planning new IP laws to combat illegal downloads, and former FT Editor, Andrew ...

8. Step by Step guide to Intellectual Property: PART 2
   Managing your IP and Unlocking The Value Of Your Creativity STEP-BY-STEP STEP 1 - IDENTIFY YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY · List any creative 'assets' - your intellectual proper..

LEADERSHIP

1. How To Conduct A Successful Interview
   It is easy to forget that the recruitment interview is a selling event: Obviously the interviewee is doing everything he or she can to impress the interviewer(s) and provide suffi...

2. You Have Reached An Important Decision - Now To Sell It To The Troops
   So, you have reached a decision that will affect other people and you need to now advise them of your deliberations and conclusions so that the decision can be put into effect or i...

3. Actions Speak Louder than Words
   "If you want to know what people are committed to, pay attention to what they do, not to what they say." I wish I could claim authorship of that line. I do not know who wrote it...

4. Leadership: Genuine Service or Ego?
   For about a year, I considered applying for a position on the board of a local non-profit organization whose mission I believe in deeply. I felt that my education, skills, and expe...

5. Decision Making - The Herrmann Brain Theory
   Everyone has a different make-up that influences how they take decisions. Ned Herrmann’s extensive research in this field led to the Herrmann Brain Theory. These are four part...

6. Why Some Decisions Are Harder Than Others
   While some decisions are easy (what to eat for supper) many more are extremely hard. Usually, a hard decision involves greater consequences/implications or, in some cases, a higher...

7. Why Most Leadership Development Efforts Fail
   George was seen as an up-and-coming leader in the organization. People the worked for him liked and respected him. And those in Senior Leadership saw his potential, so he was slate... 

8. How Leaders Can Achieve More by Doing Less
   Every leader I've ever talked with has been busy. Some are more stressed by their workload than others, but the reality of work today is that we all (leaders included) have plenty ...

9. How to make the most of change
   Our recent article, 4 types of peope who affect change, describes the types of p...

10. Rating The Boss: If Donald Rumsfeld Were CEO?
    Donald Rumsfeld defended George Bush policies, conceded no errors, and said the nation needs patience. And from day one, he alienated top military brass and powerful congressional...

11. Decisions - What They Are And What They Are Not
    Decision making is an essential requirement of management and the very best leaders appear able to make crucial decisions effortlessly “standing on their feet” But what exactl...

12. Is There An Increasing Need For Leadership, Or Is It Just Hype? 5 pointers
    Of all the things that have changed over the last few centuries, and particularly the massive amount of change experienced duri..

MARKETING

1. Back Door Into Google?
   Let's face it, everybody in internet marketing, whatever their business or interest, is trying to get their web site into Google. I can't say that I blame them. It can be difficu...

2. Testimonials with Impact
   Like many aspects of running your coaching business, getting valuable testimonials is part art, part science. The science is in how to make the request. The art is in working with ...

3. Claiming Clients
   I'll bet that right now you know anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of people who would buy your coaching services -- if only they knew your services existed and you were willing to...

4. 55 Reasons To Send Out a Press Release
   When should you send out a press release? You want to know my acid test? If it's newsworthy and if it's useful to the reader. It's that simple. There are many factors to weigh w...

5. Hire a PR Firm... Before You Need One
   How can a company or individual know if it needs to hire a public relations/marketing firm? There are many factors to weigh when considering if you need to hire outside help to ...

6. How to Market Your Business During Your Lunch Hour
   As a publicist and marketing expert I've worked with a number of doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and authors in their marketing efforts. I've used practically every form of marketi...

7. Seven Tips to Get on a Panel at a Conference
   Admit it. You've been to an industry conference and you look at the people on the panel and you wonder, "How in the heck did 'that' guy get on the panel? I could do that." Well,...

8. My Favorite Books on Book Marketing and Promotion Every Author Must Read
   As a book marketing guy and book publicist it's imperative for me to keep up with all of the great books and magazine articles being published on the topic of book marketing. I'...

9. Navigating the Radio Advertising Landscape for Maximum Performance
   Understand Fourth Quarter Hazards to Maximize Profit and Strategic Advantage. Like all mediums, radio has various structural characteristics that make c...

10. The Fundamentals of Direct Response Radio Advertising
    Direct response radio advertising, at its core, works in the same way regardless of what type of business you are in. Whether you own a direct-to-consumer model business, a retail ...

11. To Blog Or Not To Blog
    Blogs (or web logs) have been described as online diaries. According to Andy Wibbels, more than 70,000 new blogs are created each day! Blogs can have many purposes. Some people hav...

12. Event, Conference and Meeting Planning Guidelines: 10 Steps to Success 
    Every event whether it's a meeting, party, seminar, conference, charity event, or your high school reunion will have common threads regardless of what it is, where it's held, when ..

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MOTIVATION

1. Here's Six Way to Get Your Mojo Back
   Think you're in the doldrums? If you are pondering that question, then there's good chance you are! You must recognize the signs such as stress, boredom, lack of get-up-and-go etc.... 

2. Have You Been Appreciated Lately? - 6 Ways To Feel Good About Yourself
   We all want to be associated with a winner, be it a winning person, a winning team, a worthwhile cause or a successful organiza...

3. Where Are You Heading In 2007 - Do You Know?
   It is that time of year when we should be focusing on what we want to achieve next year. Having said that, most people, and I would estimate 80%, because Pareto’s principle is al... 

4. Dreams Do Come True! You Can Build A Company That Can Be Different.
   Do you ever wonder whether your dreams will come true? Our dreams are coming true! Bryan, my partner, and I have envisioned, dreamed, believed and worked towards having a company t...

5. The Power Of Focus
   One of the most compelling reasons why businesses fail, or business owners, managers, and sales people do not succeed is their lack of keeping a focus on what is vital, important, ...

6. Key To Success: Motivation
   Motivation is not a new concept to most of us. We have felt that first burst of enthusiasm. Perhaps it was an ad or news story on TV, an article in a magazine, a chance remark, or ...

7. Key To Success: Perseverance
   He that can quietly endure overcomes. --English Proverb There are all sorts of factors which contribute to success, but there is one that is often more important than all the ot... 

8. What Enemies Are Stopping You?
   When you dig deep into your soul you will identify the things that are most important to you. You can also find the things that you really want to do, the things that will make a d... 

9. Purpose of Life: Why It's Important To Know What Your Purpose In Life Is...
   When people look at you, are they inspired by someone who's fulfilling their purpose in life? Or, do they see someone who's a drifter on life's highway and for who they have l...

10. Planning A Corporate Team Building Event? Help Is Close!
    Managers and workplace experts alike agree that in concept, corporate team building activities are an important part of team development. In reality, the meeting planner is often o...

11. The Five R's - A Negative Thought Stopping Procedure
    Rule #2 of the 'Seven Rules of the Mental Road' states: "You can't NOT think about what's on your mind". In fact, the harder you try to 'not think about' something that is negative...

12. The Freedom of Truth
    “You cannot live a lie and have peace. You cannot live a lie and have joy.” I recently had the pleasure of meeting author and healer Deborah King and of reading her book Tru...

OPERATIONS

1. Who's Steering the Ship?
   So I get a call from a new client who wants some help managing his time better. He is so swamped that he can’t keep our initial phone meeting and, when we finally connect, keeps ...

2. Management Lessons from a Car Wash Guy
   If you're serious about strengthening customer loyalty, consider this management lesson I learned from an odd source - a car wash attendant. It's an easy customer service concept t...

3. 8 steps to getting your inventory under control
   Back when I owned an inventory-based business, one of my better customers had a clever barb in his repertoire. If we were out of anything he needed in his order, he would say "You ...

4. Ten Meeting Management Issues to Watch Out For
   Meetings are valuable components of organisations. Yet they need process, discipline and leadership/facilitation to work best. Here are some indicators to watch out for to highligh... 

5. One No-Cost Step to Employee Motivation
   How many times have you been asked "What are you going to do to motivate your employees?" If you are like most people, you immediately start spouting off ideas about incentive p...

6. Do you delegate it or do it?
   One of the biggest weaknesses of poor managers is their inability or unwillingness to delegate tasks, responsibilities or outcomes. In order to be an effective manager you need to ...

7. Best Practices: Dissemination of a Great Idea
   Good news spreads quickly News of the invention of the wheel must have traveled in every direction as quickly as horse or camel could run. Those who learned of its advantages ov... 

8. The Problem With Business Is People!
   The problem with business is people as the old joke goes however there are truth in those words. I deal with failing companies as a line of endeavor and from experience I can tell ... 

9. Operator Error Is Why Most Businesses Fail
   Q: I am thinking about starting my own business, but statistics show that most new businesses fail. Why do you think most businesses fail? A: This is the column that probably ge...

10. Recognition As Part Of Performance Management
    Performance Management is a system developed out of the best practice of top performing organizations to provide managers with a structured approach to the key retention criteria... 

11. Five Tips for Thinking on Your Feet and Becoming The MacGyver of Your Work
    Thinking on your feet is a critical skill for any business leader when it comes to solving unexpected issues that arise on the job. This is the n... 

12. What's Your Magic Number?
    The most successful businesses -- and certainly, sales departments -- have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome o...

OUTSOURCING

1. Outsourcing's Next Phase has Begun
   "Outsourcing in India has reached a near term peak and meaningful expansion from this point forward will result in higher costs and lower quality delivery." Business Leaders in Asi... 

2. The End of Call Center Entrepreneurship
   There have been few entrepreneurial ventures in business history as rewarding as the offshore call center. Within Asia, there are numerous tales of entrepreneurs who made tons of m...

3. Security Risk in Outsourcing
   Both India and Philippines are the subject of long-standing travel warnings from various embassies. Some say India is on the verge of nuclear war with Pakistan. In Philippines, ter... 

4. On Hiring a Coach
   So you’ve decided to hire a coach to help you take your business and/or personal life to the next level. Congratulations! Now all you need to do is decide who to hire. This is a b... 

5. Why Hire a Coach?
   I work on the belief that each of my clients is an expert at both what she or he does and who she or he is. You know more than any human being alive how to run your business and go... 

6. Coaching 101
   What exactly is a coach? That’s an excellent question. Here is my answer. I define a coach as someone who facilitates and champions the client’s existing strengths while ... 

7. Attain the nirvana of low fixed overheads through outsourcing
   The way forward for most organisations is not only to be lean and mean, but to be flexible. Dell Computers and Nike have demonstrated the power of flexibility and speed through out... 

8. Making a Decision to Outsource: Strategic Constraints
   Offshore outsourcing is commonly considered to be a source of increasing companies effectiveness. Managers tend to use it when their company is lacking qualified labor, to lower or... 

9. Making a Decision to Outsource: Driving Factors
   Offshore Outsourcing is rapidly changing the shape of the modern industry. It is important for companies not to underestimate the speed of this process and jump in to grab the oppo... 

10. Offshore Outsourcing: Risk Factors
    Offshore outsourcing is attracting companies all over the world due to its numerous advantages. However, it is a commonplace to overestimate the pros of outsourcing a part of your ... 

11. Ten Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit From a Virtual Assistant
    Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be one of the smartest business moves you will ever make. A good VA will be able to assist you in handling your administrative workload, allowin... 

12. Support Staff Outsourcing in a Developing Economy
    Esi Hamilton is the savvy young Manager in charge of Human Resources and Administration in a medium sized bank with 5 branches in Ghana. She manages a staff strength numbering 370 ... 

RESEARCH

1. Before You Start Your Business
   Many people decide to start a business using their gifts. Having your own business affords you the luxury of a flexible schedule, being able to choose who you work with, and doing ... 

2. Marketing Research Tips: Gathering Requirements
   I never gather requirements for a new product, but I always gather requirements by asking for feedback for an existing product that I am about to update. I create new products w... 

3. Fundamentals of Preparing an Effective Business Plan
   Commencing a new business can be easy or difficult and the most essential step when starting a new business is to have an effective business plan. So the question arises, what actu... 

4. Sole proprietorship as a business structure - Advantages & disadvantages
   Do you know what sole proprietorship is? A sole proprietorship is a business which has only one owner. It is a "sole" proprietor in the sense that the owner has no partners. A sole... 

5. Before you buy a Business...
   One alternative to starting a business "from scratch" is to buy an existing business. To some extent, buying a business is less risky because its operating history provides meaning... 

6. Should I Incorporate?
   The most common business structures are proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. A proprietorship is simply a one-owner business. It is the most prevalent form (on the orde... 

7. True Web Searching Tools For Business "Turf"!
   Searching for specific business related information on the Web, using specialized high precision searching tools, can "Turn Up Real Finds (TURF)"! But, where do you find the busine... 

8. Know The Advantages And Disadvantages Before Buying A Business
   A person can start a business from scratch and build it slowly or opt to buy an established, already existing business. There are several advantages and disadvantages to purchasing... 

9. Finding the Right Business for You
   If you think that starting your own business is the answer to your problems; whether it's money, child care, illness or a desire for more free time, then you MUST choose wisely. ... 

10. Buying A Business - 10 Important Items You Need To Know
    80% of all business buyers never end up buying a business! Many factors contribute to this statistic, but by following the points below, you should be successful in locating and bu... 

11. Marketing Research
    Market research is the collection and analysis of information regarding consumers (potential customers), competitors (same business type), and the effectiveness of marketing progra... 

12. Writing Your Business Plan
    Writing a business plan can be quite a difficult task for individuals new to the world of entrepreneurship. However taxing this task may prove, it is essential for the development ... 

SALES MANAGEMENT

1. Simply Put... Simple Sells
   Assuming I make it through the next day and a half without saying anything really stupid, tomorrow, at exactly 6:00 pm, my wife Linda and I will have been married for 17 years (in ... 

2. The Twelve Golden Principles Of Selling
   Yes, it is that time of year and it is amazing how many things go in "twelves"! I received a call from an ex-student this week, who is designing an induction programme for n... 

3. The Key Stages Of A Consultative Sales Cycle
   Before we identify a typical “Consultative Sales Cycle”, it is important to discover if you are currently selling in a traditional way or, if in fact, you are already se... 

4. Seven Lessons to Learn from Great Salespeople
   Seven Lessons to Learn From Great Salespeople Chances are this article's title gives you a strong opinion about whether or not to continue reading. You are either in sales and w... 

5. Are You Really Making The Most Of Your Most Important Accounts?
   A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunately, when compared over time, the c... 

6. Are You Managing Sustained Growth Efficiently, Reliably And By Design?
   In his book “Fundamentals of Selling”, Charles Futrell identifies careful use of selling time as perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of the successful salesperson....

7. 2007 - A Fresh Set Of Challenges - Are You Prepared?
   Essentially, the task of the Sales Manager is to produce revenue for their company through the operations of the sales staff for whom they are responsible. The size of this revenue... 

8. How To Deliver More Next Year With Less
   I want you to deliver more: - Profit - Sales - Productivity - Customers - Quality And, by the way, you’ve got less: - Money - Staff - Tim...

9. Getting Those Calls Returned: 5 Ways to Avoid Voice Mail Limbo
   It's been reported that 7/10 of your calls end up in someone's voice mail. These days, people are screening their calls, not answering their phones or just not available. If you le... 

10. Sales Training Speaker Rates Sales Prospecting Training
    Is Sales Prospecting Training a Key Element to Your Sales Results? Have you identified the key sales performance indicators that are dragging you down? I conduct Sales Performa... 

11. Motivational Sales Speaker explains the #1 Key to Effective Sales Interview
    Motivational Sales Speaker’s advice on how to use Key Sales Performance Indicators to ‘See if the Shoe fits’ on both Sides of the Sales Interview Table Sales Management:... 

12. Selling Is The Key Element In The Total Marketing Process
    There used to be a popular misconception that successful sales people are born, not created, which presumably referred to the belief that to be successful in selling one needed to ...

SMALL BUSINESS

1. Why Use A Corporate Turnaround Expert?
   In the movie, 'Ghost Buster', the theme song starts off, "If there is something strange in the neighbourhood, who do you call: Ghost buster". Similarly, a sick company needs to cal... 

2. Recognising Signs That Tell You Your Business Is Heading For Trouble
   Has your business started to take a turn for the worse recently? Are your cash flow worries keeping you awake at night? The following ten questions will help you to deter... 

3. Another Turnkey Online Business Disaster Report
   This is an excerpt from an emailed reply to a small business client who lost more than $10,000 making poor choices buying several online turnkey websites. Read between the lines f... 

4. Cost control is an important antidote to administer in desperate turnaround
   Most firms start out small and lean. Over time, some of them put on fat as they grow and prosper. Corporate fats result from the accumulation of unnecessary and excessive or out-of... 

5. Tap Customer Referrals, The Hidden Gold Mine
   This simple yet effective technique can boost your sales with very little effort. Learn what many small business owners have overlooked and how this easy referral system can help p... 

6. A sick company needs to undergo surgery, resuscitation and nursing
   Seriously ill companies need to be placed in intensive care unit. As with grave medical crisis, dealing with the business failure quickly becomes extremely exhausting and requiring... 

7. A Great Retirement Job – Become an Affiliate
   Internet affiliate programs are the best return for your effort with the least demand on your time. Being an affiliate is a great retirement job since it allows a very flexible wo... 

8. Outsourcing Projects on the Internet
   Many times people working on the Internet quit because they encounter problems that they cannot solve themselves due to lack of expertise or lack of time. Solutions can be found o... 

9. Write Articles and Multiply the Results of Your Effort
   Being an online entrepreneur is usually a solo experience. Since usually they are a company of one, they must find ways to multiply their efforts and get the most “bang” for t... 

10. Making money with Your Publications
    There are several ways to publish on the Internet and if you are profit motivated in your publishing, you need to know how to profit from your efforts. You can publish on the In... 

STRATEGY

1. Stakeholder Integration - A Key Competitive Advantage
   Complexity. Change. Uncertainty. These are the "givens" in your world. Yet, one simple "rule of business" remains constant. Your organization's ability to execute is the ultimat... 

2. How to Price Your Services Without Guilt or Fear
   To charge, or not to charge, that is the question. And, if you do charge, how do you do it without feeling guilty? As lightworkers and healers, it can be an internal battle when... 

3. Five Steps to Planning a Great Year!
   Have you started setting goals for the New Year yet? It's a busy time with the holidays, and it's hard to think about making time in your schedule for one more thing. But, it's imp... 

4. A Great Way To Plan A Task
   I am not sure that many sales people, managers, and small business owners that I know really have a systematic way of planning their tasks and programs. I must be far behind but I ... 

5. Five Strategic Management Tasks for the Small Business Owner
   You have been considering starting up your own small business for some time, now. You have read books and perhaps subscribe to some magazines that focus on small business. Maybe yo... 

6. Setting Business Goals: Overcoming the Fear of Failure
   Everyone starts to consider goals for the future when the year comes to an end. You may be in a position where you have been considering starting up your own business, or you may h... 

7. Writing a Working Business Plan
   Many women are so confused by the words - "Business Plan". What is it? Who do I show it to? Do I really need it? What is it really going to do for me? A business plan is a writt... 

8. Having Trouble With Your Goals? Apply 5 Simple Steps For Guaranteed Results
   Before I am about to introduce the simple steps how you can achieve results for your goals. I like to take this chance to explain what a goal purpose is for. Definition of Goal:... 

9. Product Differentiation? Hardly.
   It struck me the other day during lunch at a local Moe's Southwestern Grill that a new phenomenon has swept the restaurant landscape in the form of poor attempts to differentiate f... 

10. The Story About The Company With 3 Employees That Sold For £1.6BN
    I attended an interesting talk last night by Ajaz Ahmed, the Founder of Freeserve, which is the UK's largest ISP. (Currently known as Wanadoo). Ajaz was amazed when he bought a ... 

11. Don't Set Goals
    I am often asked if I engage in the practice of goal setting. I usually answer that I don't. I have tried that in the past and it didn't work for me. It recently became clear to... 

12. Mental Skills in Business: The 7 Key Rules of the Mental Road (Part 1 of 2)
    Why is it that in some situations, our personal performance is so good while in others we struggle and cannot seem to get into the groove where we do our best work? Is it because w... 

SUPPLY CHAIN

1. Supply Chain Integration Solutions
   Let's take a quick look and analyze your position in the Supply Chain. You are either the one driving the truck, the one pumping the gas, or the one paying the other two. It does n... 

2. Using Drop Shipping for E-commerce
   Thanks to the ubiquity of the internet, online virtual businesses have become very popular business opportunities. Online retail stores are gradually playing a more important role ... 

3. Working With Drop Shippers
   Drop Shippers, the manufacturers or distributors who are willing to ship their products to your customers, bring a powerful benefit to ecommerce. Online businesses that engage in t... 

4. Advantages Of Drop Shipping
   Drop shipping is 'a type of retailing where the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead passes the customer's order and shipment details to the wholesaler, who then disp... 

5. Sourcing For Drop Shippers
   The process of setting up a drop shipping business is pretty simple. It can be broken down into six steps: # Source for an ideal drop shipper of your products. # Design a websi... 

6. Important Considerations For Drop Shipping
   When selecting your drop shipper, there are also several important considerations you need to pay attention to. Such issues can determine the success of your business in the long t... 

7. What is Dropshipping?
   To understand Drop Shipping, we should first understand product distribution. People have been distributing products since before the first mastodon skinner traded a fur coat for a... 

8. Are Your Supply Chain Management Employees Thinking Domestic or Global?
   Global supply chain management has emerged as a major topic in the age of globalization and now it is sitting at the heart of the whole system. But ... 

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