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Article Check - Planning For Success
Your Communication Type - Take A Brief Quiz To See How Other People See You At Work or saying "yes" to an activity. Do you have a need to please? Do you think you are the only one who can do it right? Is it something that used to serve you to do but doesn't any more? It's ok to say "no." It's ok to elect to do only a certain portion of a project rather than be the leader. It's ok to stop doing some of the things you have been doing out of habit. Take a good hard look at why you are doing the things you are doing. And make a fresh choice. Accept only the ones that serve your current values and business strategies.Do you want to create better relationships at work, take charge of your career, learn a systematic approach to dealing with others, have more fun and become more successful? Then you need to learn how to be a better communicator.Take this brief quiz* to find out how other people see you at work. Read each comment and choose the answer that most closely describes how you act or feel at work. Please choose only one answer for each question. If more than one answer accurately describes you, go with your first instinct.1. When I start something new at work, I:a) Decide on the quickest way to get it doneb) Brainstorm some ideas of how to do itc) Ask someone else for suggestionsd) Make a list of all the things I need to do2. When I have to tell someone bad news, I:a) Tell t Schedule it! I made a typical weekly schedule in Excel and used colors to delineate the time spent on each project. I work at home. I am at my desk at 9 AM, take a 15-minute Falun Gong movement break mid-morning and get a cup of tea, take a half hour for lunch, and stop around 5PM. Often I go back into my office for another hour and a half at 7:30 or so. Saturdays are absolutely set aside for creativity and Sundays are lie-about-smartly days. Adjust them to your needs and expectations. Make this schedule fit you and your lifestyle but schedule it in your calendar. I find it really helpful to set aside a whole day for a certain activity. For instance, Mondays are about writing an e-magazine and posting artic At the Carwash; The Customer really is always Right If you want it to happen, you'll have to schedule time to make it happen. That's common sense, however, there is an art to creating time to do all the things that will assure your success.You have no doubt heard the saying that the customer is always right. When you are a customer you happy with this position, when you are the owner of a small business, sometimes you see this is like opening Pandora’s box. But for the sake of argument, let me add a caveat to that saying: “The customer is always right, even when they’re wrong and you know it.” After 27 years in the car wash and cleaning industry, I have heard it all. Here are some ways carwashes can mitigate upset customers.Handling ComplaintsWhen you handle a complaint, you need to treat the customer as though they are in the right for expressing their opinion, and since you are taking their money, they have every right to complain. You can handle these complaints by simply listening to what it is they have to say and offering suggestions as to how the problem can Self-Nourishment Time I didn't start out to put self-nourishment at the top of the list, but if you don't schedule this in, you will end up as a puddle in a lonely corner. Take care of yourself first. If that means meditation and journaling time, schedule it, if it means contemplative walks or long runs, allow time for it each day. Add to this the taking-care-of-yourself things like shopping for and preparing nourishing meals and keeping your home environment tidy. It includes family and relationship time. Schedule it first!!! You deserve it. Passive Income Creation This is your creative time. It is the time to write your workshop, teleclass, e-book, or audio book. Schedule time to create downloadable items that bring in passive income while you sleep. I have one whole day set aside for writing and it is my favorite day in the week. Marketing This could take the form of making calls, writing and posting articles, creating a podcast, optimizing your web site, contacting venture partners, strengthening your affiliate program, or creating sales pages and other new marketing materials. This would include attending networking events and giving talks and writing an e-magazine. If you create or strengthen one new marketing aspect a week, you'll have added 52 new marketing approaches in a year! Client Time Pick specific times you want to be available to clients and then schedule them there. You'll be amazed at how much time you free up when you ask them to adhere to your schedule rather than allowing yourself to schedule according to theirs. Of course, you can make acceptations, but you get to have first choice of the times you will be available. Pick two or three days a week for clients and schedule to those until they are filled. Then look at how you might need to raise your prices to increase your income while still having two days left to create new products and market. Product Delivery Delivery is about completing the things necessary to put your product or service up for sale. It could be a sales page, a CD cover, or a new web site opt-in offer. Delivery would include selecting delivery process for a new product, ordering the blank CDs or the covers. It could be about exploring the various mailing services. Sometimes it's just about finishing your product, like editing a CD or proofing an e-book. This may not take up much time, but do be aware that it is necessary to schedule this completion time. Organization Organization is one of those places in which you might hire some help. If you do it yourself you have to schedule in time to answer e-mails, research on the internet, pay your bills, put your files away and create new organizing systems for a new project. Sometimes simply putting off answering e-mails till noon gives you a free morning when you are at your freshest to devote to a project. One very good technique is to take the last 15 minutes of your day to straighten up and put away. Then create your "To Do" list for the next day. It's invigorating to begin your day in a neat environment. I have a TV in my office, so sometimes organizing can be combined with entertainment. I also listen to classical music a lot. Turn up the music and dance around while putting stuff away! Reading There is so much information available to us on the Internet, in free reports, conference calls, e-magazines, and great business books that it is easy to increase your business knowledge. Schedule time to read. Read for inspiration too. Continued learning is a vital aspect of business growth. Special Project If you are launching a new project, schedule time for the meetings, discussions, thought process, drafts, investigation of new resources, etc. that you can think of. You may have to put this in your schedule first if the project will be especially profitable for you. For instance, I want to create a lot of audio products in the coming year. I absolutely must schedule three to four hours a week for every one hour of audio I want to produce. Make a plan for your new project and schedule all the aspects into your calendar. Stay Close To The Money We are the creator of our own business. We are the source of the new ideas, the inspiration, the drive, and the enthusiasm. That's what I call staying close to the money. This is how your business grows. As you schedule these aspects of your business life look for things you can delegate. These will be things you don't like to do very much, are not very good at, or that are taking up too much time away from creating new products. Say "No" If you find yourself super busy with no time to sit and watch the clouds change form, you might want to look at your reasons for saying "yes" to an activity. Do you have a need to please? Do you think you are the only one who can do it right? Is it something that used to serve you to do but doesn't any more? It's ok to say "no." It's ok to elect to do only a certain portion of a project rather than be the leader. It's ok to stop doing some of the things you have been doing out of habit. Take a good hard look at why you are doing the things you are doing. And make a fresh choice. Accept only the ones that serve your current values and business strategies. Schedule it! I made a typical weekly schedule in Excel and used colors to delineate the time spent on each project. I work at home. I am at my desk at 9 AM, take a 15-minute Falun Gong movement break mid-morning and get a cup of tea, take a half hour for lunch, and stop around 5PM. Often I go back into my office for another hour and a half at 7:30 or so. Saturdays are absolutely set aside for creativity and Sundays are lie-about-smartly days. Adjust them to your needs and expectations. Make this schedule fit you and your lifestyle but schedule it in your calendar. I find it really helpful to set aside a whole day for a certain activity. For instance, Mondays are about writing an e-magazine and posting artic How to Get the Job You Want in Any Economy... Act Like a Headhunter ing your affiliate program, or creating sales pages and other new marketing materials. This would include attending networking events and giving talks and writing an e-magazine. If you create or strengthen one new marketing aspect a week, you'll have added 52 new marketing approaches in a year!Having spent the last few years of my career in the staffing and recruiting industry, I’m asked all the time by friends and relatives if I can help them find a more desirable job. I’ve helped my fianc? get a job, helped my college buddies get jobs after graduation, and even helped a few high school buddies find jobs having not seen them for years. It’s a real joy in recruiting when you can help someone find a job that positively impacts their life. But the fact of the matter is, not everyone has the opportunity to work with a headhunter. I would say that only a small percentage of career moves are made at the hand of a headhunter. So what do the rest of us do when we find ourselves in a dead end situation and no one to conduct the hunt for you?I’ve heard lots of gimmicks, tricks, and tactics for aiding the process and I’m sure you’ve hea Client Time Pick specific times you want to be available to clients and then schedule them there. You'll be amazed at how much time you free up when you ask them to adhere to your schedule rather than allowing yourself to schedule according to theirs. Of course, you can make acceptations, but you get to have first choice of the times you will be available. Pick two or three days a week for clients and schedule to those until they are filled. Then look at how you might need to raise your prices to increase your income while still having two days left to create new products and market. Product Delivery Delivery is about completing the things necessary to put your product or service up for sale. It could be a sales page, a CD cover, or a new web site opt-in offer. Delivery would include selecting delivery process for a new product, ordering the blank CDs or the covers. It could be about exploring the various mailing services. Sometimes it's just about finishing your product, like editing a CD or proofing an e-book. This may not take up much time, but do be aware that it is necessary to schedule this completion time. Organization Organization is one of those places in which you might hire some help. If you do it yourself you have to schedule in time to answer e-mails, research on the internet, pay your bills, put your files away and create new organizing systems for a new project. Sometimes simply putting off answering e-mails till noon gives you a free morning when you are at your freshest to devote to a project. One very good technique is to take the last 15 minutes of your day to straighten up and put away. Then create your "To Do" list for the next day. It's invigorating to begin your day in a neat environment. I have a TV in my office, so sometimes organizing can be combined with entertainment. I also listen to classical music a lot. Turn up the music and dance around while putting stuff away! Reading There is so much information available to us on the Internet, in free reports, conference calls, e-magazines, and great business books that it is easy to increase your business knowledge. Schedule time to read. Read for inspiration too. Continued learning is a vital aspect of business growth. Special Project If you are launching a new project, schedule time for the meetings, discussions, thought process, drafts, investigation of new resources, etc. that you can think of. You may have to put this in your schedule first if the project will be especially profitable for you. For instance, I want to create a lot of audio products in the coming year. I absolutely must schedule three to four hours a week for every one hour of audio I want to produce. Make a plan for your new project and schedule all the aspects into your calendar. Stay Close To The Money We are the creator of our own business. We are the source of the new ideas, the inspiration, the drive, and the enthusiasm. That's what I call staying close to the money. This is how your business grows. As you schedule these aspects of your business life look for things you can delegate. These will be things you don't like to do very much, are not very good at, or that are taking up too much time away from creating new products. Say "No" If you find yourself super busy with no time to sit and watch the clouds change form, you might want to look at your reasons for saying "yes" to an activity. Do you have a need to please? Do you think you are the only one who can do it right? Is it something that used to serve you to do but doesn't any more? It's ok to say "no." It's ok to elect to do only a certain portion of a project rather than be the leader. It's ok to stop doing some of the things you have been doing out of habit. Take a good hard look at why you are doing the things you are doing. And make a fresh choice. Accept only the ones that serve your current values and business strategies. Schedule it! I made a typical weekly schedule in Excel and used colors to delineate the time spent on each project. I work at home. I am at my desk at 9 AM, take a 15-minute Falun Gong movement break mid-morning and get a cup of tea, take a half hour for lunch, and stop around 5PM. Often I go back into my office for another hour and a half at 7:30 or so. Saturdays are absolutely set aside for creativity and Sundays are lie-about-smartly days. Adjust them to your needs and expectations. Make this schedule fit you and your lifestyle but schedule it in your calendar. I find it really helpful to set aside a whole day for a certain activity. For instance, Mondays are about writing an e-magazine and posting artic Setting up a Daily Routine s. Sometimes it's just about finishing your product, like editing a CD or proofing an e-book. This may not take up much time, but do be aware that it is necessary to schedule this completion time.If you like to plan your day the night before, you are ahead of the crowd. But for the rest of us, planning is a general thing that will simply consist of a list of items to be accomplished. The list is tackled in an importance order and interruptions take a toll of what happens. In my office, I like to get in early to out my routine in order. Unfortunately, I do not always get the quiet time as I have a colleague that also comes in early and likes to talk about what he is doing (and he interrupts every 3 or 4 minutes or so). So how can you plan your day without worrying about the constant interruptions and get everything accomplished? I do my planning by setting up a daily routine. The routine consists of all the small things that I need to do on a daily basis which will make the difference between success and mediocrity. For Organization Organization is one of those places in which you might hire some help. If you do it yourself you have to schedule in time to answer e-mails, research on the internet, pay your bills, put your files away and create new organizing systems for a new project. Sometimes simply putting off answering e-mails till noon gives you a free morning when you are at your freshest to devote to a project. One very good technique is to take the last 15 minutes of your day to straighten up and put away. Then create your "To Do" list for the next day. It's invigorating to begin your day in a neat environment. I have a TV in my office, so sometimes organizing can be combined with entertainment. I also listen to classical music a lot. Turn up the music and dance around while putting stuff away! Reading There is so much information available to us on the Internet, in free reports, conference calls, e-magazines, and great business books that it is easy to increase your business knowledge. Schedule time to read. Read for inspiration too. Continued learning is a vital aspect of business growth. Special Project If you are launching a new project, schedule time for the meetings, discussions, thought process, drafts, investigation of new resources, etc. that you can think of. You may have to put this in your schedule first if the project will be especially profitable for you. For instance, I want to create a lot of audio products in the coming year. I absolutely must schedule three to four hours a week for every one hour of audio I want to produce. Make a plan for your new project and schedule all the aspects into your calendar. Stay Close To The Money We are the creator of our own business. We are the source of the new ideas, the inspiration, the drive, and the enthusiasm. That's what I call staying close to the money. This is how your business grows. As you schedule these aspects of your business life look for things you can delegate. These will be things you don't like to do very much, are not very good at, or that are taking up too much time away from creating new products. Say "No" If you find yourself super busy with no time to sit and watch the clouds change form, you might want to look at your reasons for saying "yes" to an activity. Do you have a need to please? Do you think you are the only one who can do it right? Is it something that used to serve you to do but doesn't any more? It's ok to say "no." It's ok to elect to do only a certain portion of a project rather than be the leader. It's ok to stop doing some of the things you have been doing out of habit. Take a good hard look at why you are doing the things you are doing. And make a fresh choice. Accept only the ones that serve your current values and business strategies. Schedule it! I made a typical weekly schedule in Excel and used colors to delineate the time spent on each project. I work at home. I am at my desk at 9 AM, take a 15-minute Falun Gong movement break mid-morning and get a cup of tea, take a half hour for lunch, and stop around 5PM. Often I go back into my office for another hour and a half at 7:30 or so. Saturdays are absolutely set aside for creativity and Sundays are lie-about-smartly days. Adjust them to your needs and expectations. Make this schedule fit you and your lifestyle but schedule it in your calendar. I find it really helpful to set aside a whole day for a certain activity. For instance, Mondays are about writing an e-magazine and posting artic Financing Your Business-What's The Difference Between Debt And Equity? ion too. Continued learning is a vital aspect of business growth.There are two kinds of capital: debt and equity. Both kinds are typically used by a company during its lifetime. Lenders have different objectives than investors and therefore look at different factors about a company when deciding whether or not to invest or make a loan.Debt Debt is money borrowed, which must be repaid at a set time period and generates income for the lender over that time period. Lending sources include not only banks, but also leasing companies, factoring companies and even individuals.Lending sources look primarily at two factors: how risky the loan is; and whether the company can generate sufficient cash to pay the interest and repay the principal. The growth potential of the company is secondary; the primary considerations are the track record and asset base of the company. Usually the debt must be Special Project If you are launching a new project, schedule time for the meetings, discussions, thought process, drafts, investigation of new resources, etc. that you can think of. You may have to put this in your schedule first if the project will be especially profitable for you. For instance, I want to create a lot of audio products in the coming year. I absolutely must schedule three to four hours a week for every one hour of audio I want to produce. Make a plan for your new project and schedule all the aspects into your calendar. Stay Close To The Money We are the creator of our own business. We are the source of the new ideas, the inspiration, the drive, and the enthusiasm. That's what I call staying close to the money. This is how your business grows. As you schedule these aspects of your business life look for things you can delegate. These will be things you don't like to do very much, are not very good at, or that are taking up too much time away from creating new products. Say "No" If you find yourself super busy with no time to sit and watch the clouds change form, you might want to look at your reasons for saying "yes" to an activity. Do you have a need to please? Do you think you are the only one who can do it right? Is it something that used to serve you to do but doesn't any more? It's ok to say "no." It's ok to elect to do only a certain portion of a project rather than be the leader. It's ok to stop doing some of the things you have been doing out of habit. Take a good hard look at why you are doing the things you are doing. And make a fresh choice. Accept only the ones that serve your current values and business strategies. Schedule it! I made a typical weekly schedule in Excel and used colors to delineate the time spent on each project. I work at home. I am at my desk at 9 AM, take a 15-minute Falun Gong movement break mid-morning and get a cup of tea, take a half hour for lunch, and stop around 5PM. Often I go back into my office for another hour and a half at 7:30 or so. Saturdays are absolutely set aside for creativity and Sundays are lie-about-smartly days. Adjust them to your needs and expectations. Make this schedule fit you and your lifestyle but schedule it in your calendar. I find it really helpful to set aside a whole day for a certain activity. For instance, Mondays are about writing an e-magazine and posting artic Selecting the Right Business Coaching Course and Business Coach or saying "yes" to an activity. Do you have a need to please? Do you think you are the only one who can do it right? Is it something that used to serve you to do but doesn't any more? It's ok to say "no." It's ok to elect to do only a certain portion of a project rather than be the leader. It's ok to stop doing some of the things you have been doing out of habit. Take a good hard look at why you are doing the things you are doing. And make a fresh choice. Accept only the ones that serve your current values and business strategies.Business coaching can be very helpful in streamlining business processes, harnessing business potential, and increasing profitability. However, these can only be achieved by using the right kind of business coaching that is cost effective and does not hinder the day-to-day functioning of the business. Before selecting a business-coaching course, it is important that you spare some time for learning about the coaching facilitators, their experience, their areas of expertise, their educational qualifications and the type of coaching they are willing to provide.Although organizations such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF) do accredit commercial coaching companies, the fact is that most of these large associations are guided by their own private business agendas that concentrate on adding more and more members to their database Schedule it! I made a typical weekly schedule in Excel and used colors to delineate the time spent on each project. I work at home. I am at my desk at 9 AM, take a 15-minute Falun Gong movement break mid-morning and get a cup of tea, take a half hour for lunch, and stop around 5PM. Often I go back into my office for another hour and a half at 7:30 or so. Saturdays are absolutely set aside for creativity and Sundays are lie-about-smartly days. Adjust them to your needs and expectations. Make this schedule fit you and your lifestyle but schedule it in your calendar. I find it really helpful to set aside a whole day for a certain activity. For instance, Mondays are about writing an e-magazine and posting articles to the Internet. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are client days. The time you spend planning is time well spent. Remember, you can always create a schedule and then adjust what you have created. If your project changes, or a new opportunity shows up, rearrange and prioritize. As you do, choose the projects and activities that speak to your heart and bring you the most income. Plan for success!!!!
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