29th November
2010
Does the idea of running your own business sound exciting? Do you have a business up and running and want to take it to the next level? After coaching hundreds of entrepreneurs at various stages of their evolution, I've found that the answers to these 5 questions can make or break any endeavor. Of course there are lots of other areas that must be addressed, however these will get you moving in the right direction quickly. Shhh, don't tell anyone. Once you have these answers, you've created a ...
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Business
26th November
2010
A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble. The 5th C: Control Issues When control is in the picture it is a lose/lose proposition. First, it is an illusion that anyone can control a person or a situation. The need to control is born of fear, lack of trust and insecurity. A person who feels it is necessary to control is robbed of a sense of well being. In business, control or the attempt to control can occur in many venues. The attempt ...
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Business
25th November
2010
Like most good achievements, a magnificent meeting depends on planning and preparation. These are essential to a good conference and this article explains the basics of what you need to do. Planning The first stage in organising any conference is planning. Your plan should start with these questions: What do we want our audience to go home and say about the meeting, apart from the fact that they had a great time? What is the key message we want our audience to remember? What action do we want ...
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Business
23rd November
2010
While out for a run the other day, my mind wandered to the energy efficiency ratings associated with appliances and how we, too, utilize energy at different rates based on a variety of things. At the physical level, we burn energy constantly and can improve our efficiency through diet, exercise and weight control. We exert mental energy thinking, problem solving, brainstorming, worrying and more. We renew our spiritual energy through prayer, meditation or quiet time, reading, etc. It ...
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Business
22nd November
2010
I have a dear friend who is a medical doctor. I once mentioned to his secretary that it seemed to me that his ex-wife had really taken him to the cleaners in their divorce. His secretary very quickly and forcefully admonished me and explained that his ex-wife was the reason for his great wealth. I was fascinated when she described how his stay at home spouse has spent all of her free time learning to invest in stocks and turned their modest savings into a true gold mine! You can do the same if ...
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Business
21st November
2010
The retirement account I am going to tell you about is really neat if you work for a small company or own a family business that is home based or 'brick and mortar.' A company-sponsored IRA can even be opened by the smallest of businesses known the 'sole proprietor'. Under the SEP-IRA plan, an employer (your boss or any business entity you or your family owns that is recognized be the IRS) can contribute to an employee's existing IRA. The penalties for early withdrawal remain the same as ...
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Business
20th November
2010
About the Author: Cindy Hartman is President of Hartman Inventory LLC, a woman-owned business that provides business and home inventory services. She and her husband Mike also own Hartman Inventory Systems LLC, a complete turnkey business package for those who want to establish their own home inventory business. The package includes marketing materials, a website, hands-on training, a Designated Geographic Area, life/business coaching program, manual, downloadable templates, mentoring and ...
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Business
19th November
2010
How Effective is Your Leadership Style? Motivating employees according to their needs. by Dr. Marilyn Manning Would your staff say that you are easy to work with? Would they call you picky, overly analytical? Do they accuse you of dropping the ball on occasion? Or, might they label you 'bossy'? By the time we have been promoted several times as a manager, our leadership style has probably become rather consistent and fixed. After all, our style has worked so far and if people didn't like it, ...
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Business
18th November
2010
Embrace Diversity to Build Effective Teams: one of the biggest challenges faced by companies today is how to turn a group into a highly efficient global team. (reprinted from Semiconductor Magazine, May, 2000) Turning a group into a team is one of the biggest challenges leaders face. We find ourselves leading groups of very diverse individuals in complex projects and tasks. We don't always get to hand pick our team, but rather we often inherit teams and all of their past baggage. Whatever the ...
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Business
17th November
2010
Dealing with Anger Jason is a division manager at a large manufacturing plant. He has a reputation for being very loyal to the company, hard working, bright, and dedicated to building customer loyalty. Due to his stellar performance record, none of his supervisors have ever mentioned his 'flaw.' He is unable to express his anger, frustration, and impatience with his staff in appropriate ways. A simple request can be met with: 'You figure it out. I have eight other things to tend to,' Or, 'Why ...
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Business
16th November
2010
Tent caterpillars create a cocoon for an entire colony. Within one colony there are two types of caterpillar. One type, pioneers, weave long threads forming the skeleton of the tent. The others, the workers, weave cross threads filling in the structure. If there are too many pioneers, the tent is too big and collapses. If there are not enough pioneers, the tent is too dense and the colony suffocates. Viva la difference. Within the colony of human beings we can find similar differences. Some are ...
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Business
15th November
2010
About the Author: Cindy Hartman is President of Hartman Inventory LLC, a woman-owned business that provides business and home inventory services. She and her husband Mike also own Hartman Inventory Systems LLC, a complete turnkey package for those who want to establish their own home inventory business. The package includes marketing materials, a website, hands-on training, a Designated Geographic Area, life/business coaching program, manual, downloadable templates, mentoring and more. Hartman ...
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Business
14th November
2010
Hi! An article in a major American business magazine nominated personal organisation as the main reason that senior, top level super-executives are so successful. The story admitted that while vision and energy were very important, the most vital of all the qualities needed by these men and women is that they all have their professional lives together and also have a life outside of work. HOW??? For a start, they work in a clutter free environment. Everything in their office is in its right ...
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Business
13th November
2010
This article is based on the following book: The Servant "A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership" By James C. Hunter Published by Crown Business, 1998 ISBN 0-7615-1369-8 187 pages In order to lead, you must serve. This is the solid premise of the book 'The Servant' by James C. Hunter. It is discussed through the tale of John Daily, a business executive who starts to lose his grip as boss, husband, father, and coach. He was talked into going on a week-long retreat at a ...
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Business
12th November
2010
Marketing gurus are always coming up with new lingo but oftentimes they are restating the old tried and true concepts in new terms. Marketing students from the 70's and 80's will be familiar with the acronym USP. USP stands for your "Unique Selling Position" and it should be the cornerstone of your marketing. Today they use a different acronym and talk about your HUB. HUB is a good one because just like the hub of a wheel, the image is that your HUB is at the center of your all of your ...
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Business
11th November
2010
When I travel, I've got standards set for such things as hotels where I get booked. They must be in a safe area, clean and reasonably close to the client site. My flights must be prebooked -- never standby -- on a major carrier and, unfortunately, coach class. My rental car must be from a major provider, not be a subcompact and have power seats - so I can see over the steering wheel and reach the pedals. These are my basic required standards for business travel, however, best practices take me ...
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Business
10th November
2010
One of the most asked questions I get is how many sales people does it take to get the revenue numbers needed. Personally, I believe in large sales forces because in highly competitive situations the largest army wins. That doesn't mean, however, that you can go out and hire 100 sales people if all you can possibly sell this year is a million dollars if everything goes right. So how do you decide how large a staff you need? The first thing to do is to determine how much revenue you want. I say ...
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Business
9th November
2010
The other day someone asked me for one of my informational brochures. As I was giving her the piece I stated that if I were printing these today it would be a little different. The piece was only about two months old and already the way I wanted to communicate things had changed slightly. Then I got to thinking. If I were to print informational brochures six months from now, they would probably be a little different too. Don't get me wrong. I am a big believer in consistency of marketing. ...
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Business
8th November
2010
As a child I can remember going through the tunnel that connects East Boston with Boston holding my breath. Absurd behavior? Sure, but in my mind I was preparing for the time when the tunnel would run out of air. A friend told me that as a child he taught himself to write with his left hand even though he was right handed. His reason was that he wanted to be sure he could write even if something happened to his right hand. Emergency planning, disaster recovery - these topics have been in the ...
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Business
8th November
2010
Russia government decides that will reduce reducing the tax fee that adds with the volt, famous wine brands blog use this type of indicates to decline reducing the selling price that the volt add.If the programs effectively, so volt's adding to be Russian uniquely do not increase in selling price on the market place anti- the day reducing selling price is utilized a customer goods.famous wine brands will be the Russian government plan limits the tax fee of numerous wine write-up and alcoholic ...
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Art and Entertainment
7th November
2010
President Ike Eisenhower once demonstrated the difference between leadership and management to his cabinet by putting a piece of string in a straight line on the conference table. He then asked one of the attendees to put his finger on one end of the string and push it. The string, of course, bunched up in an ugly bundle. He then asked the man to pull the string with his finger on one end. The string straightened up in a nice neat line and followed the finger across the table. 'This', said ...
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Business
6th November
2010
Recently I wrote a blog post about building a conscious small business.  That post really struck a cord with my readers. In fact it resulted in more comments than most of my previous posts. So I decided to write this follow up article, since this topic comes up often with my clients. How do you justify marketing and selling with your values? Many business owners, women particularly, want to build a soulful business; one that empowers and uplifts others. We want to share our breakthroughs with ...
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Business
5th November
2010
Hi! A couple of years ago I attended a presentation from Parenting Expert and well-known author, Stephen Biddulph on "Raising Boys". My son, Trent was 11 at the time so I was interested to hear what Stephen had to say. In fact, so were the 800 other parents in the room! The key point that I picked up on was that boys from the age of 6 -14 really need 'time' with their dads. That is the most influential period in their lives when they bond with him. And the type of time they need is not all ...
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Business
4th November
2010
a href="http://www.profitbuilders.com"> You can find more resources on sales coaching, executive coaching, sales training, time management, cold calling, prospecting and career coaching from New York Sales and Leadership Coach Keith Rosen MCC at http://www.profitbulders.com. When clients ask for help in closing more sales, I'd ask them to list the objections they are hearing that prevented the sale. It's when they start stumbling over their response that I ask, "Are these the objections you ...
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Business
3rd November
2010
Nothing gets done unless an action is completed. Everything we do is an action step. Of course some are so routine they don't really need to be written down or remembered. They are simply habit or ingrained in our daily lives. Wake up. Go to the bathroom. Say your prayers. Read the sports section of the newspaper. Take a shower. Brush your teeth. Get dressed. Drive to work. Do you have these tasks written down in your planner? Of course not. But they are still action tasks. You don't ...
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Business
2nd November
2010
If your business is online with its very own website then you most likely have a persona online, although you probably did not think about your online persona when launched your website.  You just wanted to get your business on the web.  Your website talks about your business, possibly you, and has pictures.  If you were to describe your online persona that your website puts out... what is it? I would wager that the word professional came to your lips. What about fun, hip, cool, classy, ...
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Marketing
1st November
2010
Are you one of those bosses that people just love to hate? Maybe successful, maybe very intelligent, maybe organized and moving forward but just can't get along with people. Communication and other people skills are as important to the success of your business as your talent, knowledge and entrepreneurial drive. After all, you cannot do it all by yourself and you need good people. I remember being a very arrogant and egotistical program director back in the mid 1970's when my boss called me ...
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Business