Writing a thank you letter may seem antiquated or even unnecessary in today's fast-paced world, with modern communication tools such as email and instant messaging just a click away.

But embracing the "lost art" of the thank-you letter can strengthen friendships, get results and even boost your career.

While some people truly intend to put their thanks down in writing, some procrastinate because the task seems daunting, or they don't know where to start. Fortunately, most thank you letters follow a fairly predictable pattern, which makes them easy to write once you know how to put the pieces together.

Just because thank you letters generally have a formula to them doesn't mean they can't be heartfelt. In fact, knowing the components of a thank you letter gives the writer the structure needed to easily communicate his or her genuine gratitude.

In many cases, it's fine to send a thank you note via e-mail. But rather than just dashing off a "Hey, thanks," it means much more if you put a bit of thought into the construction of the letter.

There are many situations in which a thank you letter is appropriate. In personal settings, a thank you note would be a nice gesture after a favor, after receiving a gift or after being treated especially kindly.

In professional life, a thank you letter can make the difference between getting the job, raise or contract. With fewer people taking the time or effort to write a well-constructed, meaningful thank you letter (or any thanks at all), those who do so really make a lasting impression.

When you sit down to write a thank you note or letter, first consider your goal. Do you want to express gratitude for a specific kindness, such as being comforted during a time of loss? Are you hoping to reinforce earlier communication, such as a follow-up to an interview for a job or a scholarship application? Do you want to make sure your child's teacher knows of the impact he or she has had? Once you know what you're hoping to achieve, and have the basic structure of the letter laid out, the rest of the words will come, almost automatically.

Write the letter with as few distractions as possible. Open the letter or note with a salutation. If the recipient is a personal friend or it otherwise seems appropriate, address the person by his or her first name. Then, get right to the point and say thank you, however seems appropriate. Then, follow up with a specific observation. If you love the gift and use it every day because it matches your décor, say that. If someone's offhanded compliment turned around a really bad day, let them know that. Just say what you feel, within the context of a well-structured letter.

Finally, proofread your thank you letter for spelling and grammatical errors and send it off, knowing that the recipient will appreciate the gesture.

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Thank You Letters Make a Difference in Personal and Professional Relationships

I have an American friend who recently joined a Chinese PR firm. When I asked him how it was going he mentioned that the experience was 'totally different' to working for a PR company in the west. Although this is expected, he went on to talk about swipe cards that recorded his times of entry into the office and how the company would fine him half a day's salary if his swipe card indicated he was just one minute late. This, along with being allocated new tasks as late as 8pm to finish 'as soon as possible', ultimately led him to feel dissatisfied with the company and resulted in a complete lack of interest in how the company operated.

Managers of Chinese companies frequently ask me why many of their employees show such a lack of commitment to their companies' operations. Employees change jobs like they're going out of season and show little, if any, interest to the company's wellbeing. The truth is, poor management breeds generations of poor employees who feel disillusioned by the lack of independence they receive from their managers.

No employee feels empowered if they are treated like a junior school student and very few employees will feel more committed to a company if they are fined because they have a morning dental appointment or their trusty alarm failed to wake them up on time.

Towards Trust
Trust is the foundation of any human relationship yet for some reason many people seem to assume that, because employees are paid, trust is not essential in the employee/employer relationship.

The swipe cards are an ideal example of how many Chinese employers fail to trust their employees and give them the independence and space to feel valued by their company.

The horrible truth is, and I hate to be blunt, if you don't trust your employees in China, they really shouldn't be working for you. If you genuinely worry that your employees will not be more committed if you unblock social networking sites or scrap swipe card systems, do you really think that these are the best people suited to work for your company? Most people in the world are good, decent and trustworthy. Managers need to trust their instincts: identify the employees they can trust and make other plans for the ones they can't.

In general, untrusting management results in untrusting employees, trusting management results in trusting employees.

Creating a Results-Oriented Workplace
Many companies in China measure their employees' performance by how many hours they spend in the office. This may, from the outside, seem like a good way to keep people working but it doesn't work. Some of my friends who have forced working hours in office jobs seem to spend the vast majority of their time on MSN or finding the latest fad to buy on Taobao. There is nothing enrolling about being cooped-up in an office and forced to sit in front of a computer against one's will.

If you are one of those companies that order lunch packs in for their employees instead of giving them a much needed break, they, unlike employees who are given flexibility, end the day exhausted with little energy.

Companies in China need to shift their perspectives and focus on the output achieved by employees instead of measuring performance by looking at the number of hours spent in an office. This requires good management and the implementation of strong systems that measure the quantity and the quality of output from employees.

It's simple. Trust your employees, give them freedom and measure them by what they achieve and not by how long they stare at their computers. The result will surprise you.

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Want Committed Employees? Learn to Trust Them

Does the economic climate have you feeling threatened? With all of the changes brought on by the arrival of the information age, do you feel left behind? Most of us do feel uneasy and a little behind the eight ball. Sometimes it seems we have to run as hard as we can just to stay in one place! Everything is changing so fast that what we learned yesterday could very well be outdated tomorrow.

So how do we keep our competitive edge in our business?

The fundamental strategy of a high achiever is their focus on being learning-based. Being a learning-based person means that you take education, training, and self-development as the foundational piece of your plan to achieve your goals.

Maybe learning is key?

No matter what we do, no matter where we go, owner or employee, now more than ever before, we must stay sharp...continue to study, learn and remain curious. Everyone in our business, everyone, every day will stay engaged when we emphasize and encourage learning. Learning is the key to innovative, creative, out of the box solutions. It is not enough for us as leaders to stay abreast of our industry, attend training programs or read books. We need all of our employees playing at their very best to stay in the game of business.

The irony is that the issues that are creating so much potential for anxiety like the economy, global business, changing cultures and technology are potentially the learning opportunities that can potentially propel you forward.

Consider the unprecedented wealth of information available on the Internet, in seminars, webinars and books. When I feel threatened by the economic uncertainty and by all of the new knowledge and capability that's emerging, I just make a point to learn something new: e-commerce, business principles, or how my industry is adapting to the marketplace. Learning anything that will keep me thinking ahead and tweaking my existing business is so very gratifying.

How do you maximize what you are learning? Focus on the top 5 areas:

People - training, coaching, developing, and managing effectively.

Money - how to project, manage, budget and leverage.

Business Development - web 2.0, promotions, retaining and recapturing customers etc.

Operations - process, systems, functionality of the business.

Personal growth - learning about yourself will make you better at all of the above.

When I have that insight or acquire that new understanding or capability I feel stronger, I feel resourceful, like I gained a little ground in the marketplace. Maybe today I put the heat on somebody else? My competitive advantage...me.

Give it a go, and then share what you learned with your employees. The only thing better than knowing that you just got a little smarter is knowing that your business did too. Learning is everything.

Alicia Fruin

Does the economic climate have you feeling threatened? With all of the changes brought on by the arrival of the information age, do you feel left behind? Most of us do feel uneasy and a little behind the eight ball. Sometimes it seems we have to run as hard as we can just to stay in one place! Everything is changing so fast that what we learned yesterday could very well be outdated tomorrow.

So how do we keep our competitive edge in our business?

The fundamental strategy of a high achiever is their focus on being learning-based. Being a learning-based person means that you take education, training, and self-development as the foundational piece of your plan to achieve your goals.

Maybe learning is key?

No matter what we do, no matter where we go, owner or employee, now more than ever before, we must stay sharp...continue to study, learn and remain curious. Everyone in our business, everyone, every day will stay engaged when we emphasize and encourage learning. Learning is the key to innovative, creative, out of the box solutions. It is not enough for us as leaders to stay abreast of our industry, attend training programs or read books. We need all of our employees playing at their very best to stay in the game of business.

The irony is that the issues that are creating so much potential for anxiety like the economy, global business, changing cultures and technology are potentially the learning opportunities that can potentially propel you forward.

Consider the unprecedented wealth of information available on the Internet, in seminars, webinars and books. When I feel threatened by the economic uncertainty and by all of the new knowledge and capability that's emerging, I just make a point to learn something new: e-commerce, business principles, or how my industry is adapting to the marketplace. Learning anything that will keep me thinking ahead and tweaking my existing business is so very gratifying.

How do you maximize what you are learning? Focus on the top 5 areas:

People - training, coaching, developing, and managing effectively.

Money - how to project, manage, budget and leverage.

Business Development - web 2.0, promotions, retaining and recapturing customers etc.

Operations - process, systems, functionality of the business.

Personal growth - learning about yourself will make you better at all of the above.

When I have that insight or acquire that new understanding or capability I feel stronger, I feel resourceful, like I gained a little ground in the marketplace. Maybe today I put the heat on somebody else? My competitive advantage...me.

Give it a go, and then share what you learned with your employees. The only thing better than knowing that you just got a little smarter is knowing that your business did too. Learning is everything.

Article

Are You Learning Based?

Are you concerned about the accessibility of your business to clients in this tough economy? Are you worried that your customers will not place an order and will not communicate with you by phone because they are unwilling to spend a few dollars to make a call?

If you have these concerns, consider the merits of a toll free number to make you more accessible to your clients. Contrary to what is generally believed, getting such a number is not an expensive investment. For as little as $10, you can get 100 monthly minutes and for twice that, you can receive 500 minutes per month. If you have a more active business, you can get about 2,600 (almost 50 hours) for as little as $50.

Due to its affordability, you can now level the playing field with large businesses. Much of the success of your business depends on your image and the professionalism you project. Toll free numbers attract customers to your business because they give it an air of professionalism. They also increase the customer's confidence in the security of financial transactions with your company. With a toll free number, you can create a virtual office in your home-based business.

One of the greatest benefits of a toll free number is the ability of your company to increase its client base because you can now sell your goods and services to those who live outside the area in which your business is located. People do not need to hesitate before contacting you and there is no longer an advantage for them in dealing with local businesses.

You can also provide better customer service. Should a customer have questions or concerns about a product, they can call without hesitation, providing your business an opportunity to build a relationship with or troubleshoot with clients. Otherwise, those long-distance clients who have issues with your products or services may just remain silent, never to be heard from again.

Perhaps one of the most critical benefits to having a toll free number is its portability. If you have to move your business for some reason, you can still be reached by your customers, without any interruption in the services that you provide. A related benefit is that you can be mobile in your day-to-day business activities, as your toll-free number can be forwarded to your cell phone, pager, email address, and even you home phone.

Another perk to having a toll free number is that you can have a plan in which you only have to pay for the usage and the calls made to your number. Thus, your bills don't shoot up if just a small number of calls come in. They only go up once usage of your toll free number goes up as well. This is great news for small, start-up businesses that do not yet have a large customer base.

Toll free numbers are also easy to set up and come with a lot of features and bonuses. These include the capability for audio conferences, professional voice announcement feature, call screening, call recording, call forwarding, auto attendant, and many other features.

Most significant, however, is that having a toll free number is a guaranteed means of staying in touch with your customers. This will keep you attuned to their needs and will boost customer service. Taking good care of your relationship with your customers is a surefire way of keeping them and enticing more to expand your clientele by way of referrals from your old customers. By making it easier for your customers to reach you, you get to stay up-to-date on trends in the market. Obviously, customers love toll free numbers because they wouldn't have to spend anything to get certain information or to comment on your goods and services.

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The Benefits of Getting a Toll Free Number For Your Business

In order to provide modern solutions to modern problems the 21st century manager has to adopt accordingly. One area which requires such emphasis is in their intercultural management skills. Almost all the major companies nowadays get involved with buying, selling or working with people from varied cultural background.

Multinationals have offices around the world; native audiences are not the sole consumer of products or services; manufacturers have to depend on foreign markets and distributors or even labor.

In a nutshell all companies must understand intercultural communication requirements.

Intercultural Management - The Basic Issues

In today's world of cut-throat competition, companies are realizing that to attain an advantage and for overall growth and diversification, intercultural management skills have become crucial. The term "intercultural management skills" is loosely defined as the ability of a manager to deal and communicate with people from different cultures. In all forms of people management, communication is a recognized key ingredient for success and intercultural communication is a term of increased complexity.

Where you have a multinational organization, intercultural communication is necessary for business development in many ways. Within the business, an multicultural manager plays the role of a go-between for senior personnel and employees and must have clear and effective communication with all.

The manager must also build and oversee an efficient team of often worldwide employees to ensure that and strategies and global plans get delivered at the sharp end. Externally a multicultural manager will have expertise in broad and varied cultural awareness for supervising the entrance into foreign markets. The selection and training of people who will work in foreign interests must be overseen.

Negotiation and client conflicts should be managed. Potential areas of success and failure arising from culture differences must be analyzed carefully, managed effectively and, where possible leveraged for the value such expertise brings.

Intercultural Management - Clear, Focused and Experienced

The intercultural manager therefore must ensure that there are no misunderstandings due to cultural differences between colleagues, customers and clients.

For achieving this goal the intercultural manager must possess certain attributes such as:-

1. A broad international awareness

2. Vision to capitalize on differences

3. Multicultural and personal behavioral flexibility

4. A great sense of patience!

Intercultural awareness is the basis of wide ranging management skills. Having a hands-on experience of working amongst varied cultures is critical.

Knowledge about the different relationships and their manifestations across international boundaries is necessity, because such managers can only develop the requisite skills by absorbing the many intercultural differences in the target country.

Flexibility Is The Key For Cross-cultural Managers

Flexibility will often happen naturally once a manager becomes aware of cultural differences and can see beyond superficial level experiences. Flexibility means thinking out of the box, when considering solutions to intercultural challenges.

A flexible manager deals with such problems smoothly with positive solutions. Likewise a manager with international responsibilities must use intercultural differences positively. Despite the challenges, cross cultural differences can only yield positive results when managed well.

Thus the assessment of the potential of personnel, products and policies leveraging cultural differences is a huge opportunity. Managed well, by an effective manager, experienced in extracting the benefits of such a role, will lead to added value for the organization, as well as to the advantage of employees in the target country too.

There is a Dutch proverb that says, "A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains".

Thus patience is the key for success in intercultural management, because it helps maintain focus and leads to a coherent analysis and an effective solution.

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Intercultural Management - Getting the Best From the World

If being late has become acceptable it should come as no surprise that not showing up at all is no longer taboo either. It's hard to believe but "no showing" is all too common today. If you commit to attending a meeting or event you must follow through and show up. Plan your day so you can attend and arrive on time.

When you book a meeting or RSVP for an event and fail to show up you send a message loud and clear that you do not value commitments. Not only is time not important to you but your word isn't much good either.

While emergencies happen it is rare that something is so urgent that it cannot be put off until you complete your commitments. Every client will understand and appreciate that you honor your commitments. Those who call demanding that you drop what you are doing so that you can serve their needs will often wait if you just suggest a more appropriate response time. Just advise the client of your previous commitment and schedule a time promptly thereafter. Of course everyone will excuse a genuine emergency.

To be certain that you have done everything you can to honor your commitments, ask for the mobile phone number of the person you will be meeting with or the event coordinator that you send your RSVP to. This way you can make contact if a genuine emergency arises and advise the other party that you will either be late or unable to attend. In either case you will be appreciated for your attention to detail.

Go the extra mile. Endeavor to arrive every time, on time. Have a contact number in case you have an emergency and use it when you do. You'll stand out from the crowd and be remembered as someone who has integrity. That's the type of person everyone wants to do business with.

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Back to the Basics - What You Do Says a Lot About You - Honor Your Commitments

Rapid Induct is Australia's leading employee induction framework service. Rapid Inducts' service allows quick and easy publishing of induction and training materials, with full featured editing capabilities; your materials can be edited at any time, with changes being published instantly. This ensures that new hires will always be provided with the latest information.

Rapid Induct allows you to insert images to every page in your induction materials as a standard feature. Image sizes from small to full page are supported; for instance, site maps and evacuation procedure diagrams. You can change background colors at any time.

Your inductions materials can also be customized with your corporate logo. Your logo will be in the top left corner of each page throughout the induction session, as well as in the certification and license which are generated. Rapid Inducts' online publishing framework makes this individual branding easy.

Rapid Inducts' service provides you control over the criteria for passing and failing marks - any percentage score between 0 and 100% can be set for your inductees.

You can also customize the screen which congratulates your inductee once they have successfully completed the induction program. You can also create customized further instructions for induction - your inductees can also print the induction for future reference. If your induction materials contain sensitive information, then this feature can be turned off as well.

You can also choose to turn the induction license and percentage score on or off. Administrators can also decide whether or not a certificate of completion is needed for the inductee upon completion.

Along with the default customization options, Rapid Induct offers further customization with add on modules which can be purchased separately.

Your preexisting training videos can be incorporated into Rapid Inducts' framework easily. The John Temple Group's partnership with A/V specialists can help you with converting your instructional videos to make for seamless publishing with the Rapid Induct program.

Audio tracks and voiceovers can also be included in your induction program, helping inductees to more clearly understand your program and overcome language barriers.

The hard coded check sheet is a data gathering tool which can let you gather the information you need from inductees - such as any physical limitations which may affect job performance, licensures and so on. You can view the information you've collected in Rapid Inducts' database at any time.

There is also an acknowledgment template included which you can employ to ask yes/no questions of your inductees. This template is fully editable; the inductee can be asked to confirm their response, with the induction session ending and the inductee being prompted to speak with the administrator for instructions if the incorrect answer is given.

You can customize inductee email if you need more information to be given to inductees than will be provided by the default email containing the induction password. You can write and edit any text you like for this email.

Rapid Induct also offers a site specific feature which lets you turn your default Rapid Induct system into your own site specific version. Inductees can work through a generalized introduction without site specific information, which can then be customized by having inductees select the site where they will be employed; this can be further customized to include job description, site, or whatever you wish to incorporate.

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Rapid Induct - An In-Depth Look at the Company and Its Product

Many people are tempted to start a business with a friend or an associate thinking if one person can start a successful business, than two must be able to do the same, only better, faster, and without as much risk of failure. They figure that two heads are better than one and having a partner provides extra security with two people working towards a common goal. The problem with this scenario is that sometimes two heads are not better than one and it is rare for two people to have the same long-term goals. What follows are five reasons why you would be ill advised to start a business with a partner.

The first reason you should stay away from starting any business with a partner has to do with decision-making. If you and a partner agree that each of your decisions carry equal weight then it is only a matter of time before you run into a problem where you are not going to be able to agree on a course of action.

The next reason you would be better off without a partner has to do with money. Most businesses do not make a profit for quite a long time and the longer a person goes without income, the more likely they are to get out of the business. If you have a partner with whom you split all the money, then the time it will take before the business is able to support you will have essentially doubled.

The third argument against having a partner concerns the work ethic of each partner. What will happen to the business if one partner ends up doing most of the work? What will happen to the friendship the partners shared before starting? The answers are easy, but the fighting and finger pointing that will likely occur will be anything but. This is one of the most common reasons for partnerships to break up.

The next reason it is not advisable to go into business as a partnership is because of the differing long-term, and even short-term, goals the partners are likely to have. If you ask, people going into business will give many different answers to what they are looking to get out of it. These are likely to include making enough money to support themselves and their family, provide a secure way to make a living not dependent on an employer, to make a difference in the lives of others, or maybe to simply prove they can do it. The answers are as varied as the people you ask, and that is a problem because each partner is actually working towards a different goal.

The final reason to not start a business as a partnership concerns trust. Will you be able to trust this person with everything you own? You better, because that is exactly what you will be doing. Liabilities entered into by one partner become the liabilities of both and if your partner decides to not pay, or skips out on you, you will be responsible for the entire amount.

Starting a business can be difficult and expensive and even overwhelming, so why make it more difficult than it needs to be? Forming a partnership with a friend, an associate, or even a family member can look like the answer to all these potential problems but the reality is usually quite different.

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5 Reasons to Not Operate Your Business As a Partnership

Too many people, when thinking of business opportunities, focus solely on franchises that serve consumers directly, completely missing a wide spectrum of opportunities that address the various needs that other businesses have. Especially now, when consumer spending has fallen off a great deal, working with other existing businesses to help them increase their profitability is a great way to make your own way in the business world. Of course, with the list of business service franchises being as large as it is, it can be hard to determine exactly which business opportunity is the best on the list and, more specifically, the best one for you. To make your decision just that much easier, here are 10 of the finest business service franchises available.

1) Liberty Tax Service

Striving to be the "#1 tax preparation business in the universe," Liberty Tax Service was built from the ground up by John Hewitt, a 39-year tax veteran who began his career with H&R Block. This comprehensive turnkey franchise packet comes with a one-of-a-kind tax-preparation software, a complete marketing system that brings clients right to your door, and a communication system allowing franchisees and franchisor to freely discuss the best methods of operation that they all have found.

2) Breathtesters USA

This home based business is one of the latest developments in the world of vending. Found in increasing numbers of bars and restaurants across the country, the Breathtesters USA machine is a pay-per-use, automated machine that tests each customer's blood alcohol content (BAC). This business is entirely cash-operated and requires no stocking or refilling on the part of the franchisee, because there is no physical product to sell.

3) 1-800-WATER-DAMAGE

This national brand name is known for the one thing that they do exceptionally well: fixing flood damage to homes. Unlike many businesses, this is a truly recession-proof business because they specialize in emergency services and are only called into action by insurance companies, so they are not at the mercy of consumer spending trends. There is one name, one website, and one phone number, so even though each franchisee has a protected territory, clients have an easy time scheduling an appointment with the franchisee in their area.

4) ServiceMaster Clean

One of the best commercial cleaning businesses in the world, ServiceMaster Clean is ranked #12 in Entrepreneur's top 500 franchises. Join the ranks with 4,500 other franchisees who have seen great success using the ServiceMaster Clean name on the side of their van to build their own local cleaning business. Everything is provided right from the start, from products and equipment to initial client leads.

5) Nerds We Can Fix That

At a much smaller initial purchase cost than the other guys, this computer-repair business for sale has everything necessary to turn a computer geek into a business whiz. To date, Nerds We Can Fix That has the largest customer base of all the franchised businesses of its kind, and the company is focused on expanding that client list, funneling a great deal of ongoing franchise fees to marketing, and not just national marketing, but localized to each franchisee's area, ensuring that they see the effects of their fee dollars.

6) Blue Coast Financial Group

Providing business clients with expense recovery and cost-saving services, Blue Coast Financial Group franchisees are seeing exceptional growth in the midst of the nation's current economic downturn, because now, more than ever, businesses need their services. Cost segregation studies, equipment lease brokering, and commercial funding are just a few of the services Blue Coast Financial Group franchisees offer their clients. And the franchisor provides everything a new entrepreneur needs to succeed under the Blue Coast Financial Group name, including one-on-one training and online tutorials.

7) Intelligent Office

Many small and mid-sized businesses don't have the financial resources to provide themselves with even simple positions, like a fulltime receptionist, even though having that would be a huge advantage. Intelligent Office gives smaller business owners access to such services for a much lower fee than it would cost to hire in-house. Remote receptionists, address services, and meeting spaces are just a few of the services that clients receive for their investment.

8) High Speed Service

In his own specific territory, the High Speed Service mobile franchisee serves the dental community by performing on-site dental equipment repairs. Trained and overseen by ProDrive, one of the most noteworthy names in the world of dental hand tools, home business franchisees receive first-class initial and ongoing training for everything about tool function, tool development, and cutting edge product innovation. Undoubtedly they are equipped to handle any dentist and any equipment malfunction.

9) AlphaGraphics

At the forefront of the printing and visual communications industry for the last 35 years, AlphaGraphics has revolutionized the way the world does document creation and marketing communications. The central facility works to keep all franchises up on the latest trends in printing, and the research and development team keeps them on the cusp of that trend. Though it comes with a relatively high initial cost (anywhere from $240,000 to $375,000 depending on size), the success that 260 other franchisees have had in all 50 states and abroad proves the worth of this investment.

10) Barmetrix

Barmetrix, in its franchising debut, is seeking franchise candidates with the entrepreneurial drive, management skills, and a dedication to meet company objectives. Working with bar owners and managers to refine systems and strategies for optimum business performance, this business has been so successful in the last 10 years that they are now opening up the business opportunity to franchisees as well, allowing them to turn this concept into a work from home business in their regions as well.

These 10 names provide some of the best business opportunities in the business-to-business industry, but the decision as to which is the best for you is yours to make. Seek further information about these and other franchises and compare your options.

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Top 10 Business Service Franchises

Though it may come as something of a surprise, home repair businesses are often some of the most stable when the economy takes a dive, and the biggest reason for that is a relatively simple one. People are most likely to spend money on what means the most to them, and for most homeowners, the house is one of the things that is most important in life, because it's the biggest investment the average person will ever make. Therefore, even in recession, people remain willing to spend the money it takes to keep their homes in good repair. For that reason, home repair businesses rarely see a large downturn, even when the rest of the economy is dropping off, like it is now.

The fact that the home repair industry will hold strong in the face of economic downturn may be enough to keep a home repair business afloat, but alone it isn't enough to keep a business successful. To do that, even in a strong market, takes a good deal of business strength, character, and a small host of helpful practices. For the home repair entrepreneur hoping to keep his small business strong during this downward season, here are a few tips from other home improvement entrepreneurs for pushing your business ahead.

1. Constantly Learn and do New Things

The last thing the owner of any home repair franchise wants to do is pigeonhole himself. Whatever your client needs done, take the steps to learn how to do it and then get it done. Even when clients are only requesting services you're well versed in, keep your nose in home improvement magazines and websites; learn everything you can, when you need it and when you don't, because it's sure to come in handy sometime.

2. Grassroots Marketing is the Way to go

Almost all franchises come equipped with well established marketing plans, which are vital to the success of their franchisees, but absolutely nothing can replace good, old-fashioned grassroots advertising. Building relationships and getting your name out there are the keys. One good idea is to take donuts into the local hardware store on a Saturday morning. Make friends with the staff and ask if you can post an ad somewhere at the counter. Go to neighborhood places like the community center or your church and post your ads there. Send out postcards with company refrigerator magnets or go door to door with door hangers. Visit Home Depot on the weekend and leave your big truck in the lot with your business name and phone number painted on the side where everyone can see it.

3. Seek Guidance in Pricing Bids

If your franchisor doesn't have a set pricing system, talk to friends and associates in the industry about how best to price your bids, because though labor is what gets the job done, it's cash flow that keeps the business going. If you under-price, you won't be able to afford the business, but if you over-price, you'll never get a job. Either is equally fatal, so seek some help.

4. Price Yourself to Account for "Non-Billable" Hours

It's tempting to believe that only the hours actually spent building walls and windows count toward labor when you're billing your clients, but that's only part of the puzzle. In reality, buying materials, doing office work, and drawing up bids (none of which have any direct impact on how many square feet drywall go up that day) can often account for 25% of your day, and your bids must be priced to account for those hours too.

5. Having a Cell Phone is as Important as Having a Hammer

Very simply, your clients must be able to reach you at all times, and talking to an actual human being is vital. If your business can't afford to hire a fulltime secretary to answer a landline during work hours, then spend the far lesser cost of having a cell phone on you, so that you can talk to your clients directly. It also comes in handy when a job or task winds up taking longer than you expected and you're forced to postpone something else for a day or two. You can call up all affected clients and immediately let them know, which is something they are sure to appreciate.

With those tips in mind, the entrepreneur who doesn't yet own his own business may be wondering what business opportunities exist in the home repair industry. Here are a few franchise opportunities for you.

CTi-Concrete Technology

Serve clients with this business for sale by restoring and beautifying the concrete they already have around their homes. The concept is simple, and so is the business model, requiring no more than one or two employees to assist the business owner with the day-to-day work on client's pavement. There is already a well established marketing plan, territories are protected, and profit margins are huge, making this a perfect opportunity for a wise work from home franchisee.

N-Hance

This franchise business has perfected a method of restoring and refinishing hardwood floors and wooden cabinetry in a fraction of the time it generally takes, and with no dust or foul odors. Startup is cheap and quick and there's little overhead, which makes this a low-hassle opportunity for the franchisee, who profits from his labor as well as from the sales of cleaning solutions and tools.

Stone to Foam

Specializing in custom garage floor coatings, this home based business works in association with the Home Depot, whose local stores provide business leads for nearby Stone to Foam franchisees. Five days of training gets franchisees off the right foot, then continuing training keeps them that way, and everything needed for sales and installation is kept in a simple trailer pulled behind the company vehicle, making work a piece of cake.

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Tips For Making a Successful Home Repair Franchise Business

I don’t think I’ve ever met a business owner who wasn’t busy. Managing your time is one of the hardest things you’ll need to do as an entrepreneur. There’s always too much to do, so you’ll need to manage your time well in order to get everything done. Here are my top time management tips:

1. Find out what you’re doing with your time. One of the first things to do is to actually find out what you are doing with your time. Try monitoring your time for a week and see what’s going on. Use colour coding if it makes things easier i.e. yellow for administrative tasks; blue for marketing; green for client work and so on. At the end of the week, you’ll be able to see what you’re spending too much time on and adjust your time accordingly.

2. Get organised The more organised you get yourself, the more you’ll be able to handle all the tasks you need to do. Tidy your desk; set up filing systems; and have procedures to deal with the work that comes in. I know it’s hard, but try to deal with each thing only once so that you get it out of the way.

3. Practise the "Do it now" philosophy As soon as a new task comes in, try to "do it now". You’ll be amazed at how many tasks you can get rid of. Things very rarely take as long as you think they will once you get cracking.

4. Do things in short bursts If you’re really not looking forward to doing a task, make yourself do it for 5 minutes only. If you know you’re only going to be doing it for 5 minutes, it doesn’t look as daunting. And once you’ve got started on the task, you’ll probably find you’ll continue on it once the 5 minutes is up.

5. Ask yourself "what’s stopping you?" Lack of time is often used as an excuse for not doing something. If you find yourself putting something off because you "don’t have the time", ask yourself what’s going on. Questioning what’s stopping you completing tasks can often really help you decide whether or not to do them.

6. Don’t be afraid to drop a task Look, if you haven’t completed a task; you’ve asked yourself "what’s stopping you"; and you’ve reached the conclusion that you really don’t want to do it, don’t be afraid to drop the task altogether. We often agree to things that don’t actually benefit us and if a task falls into this category, make the decision that you have the choice to drop the task.

7. You have a choice As entrepreneurs, we start each day with a blank piece of paper and choose how to fill our time. You don’t have to agree to everything unless you want to do it or it helps you to achieve your goals.

8. Set goals Setting goals will help keep you motivated and focused. Decide on three personal goals that you’d love to complete over the next year and three business ones. The goals must be things that you really want to do. Your time should then be spent on tasks and activities that help you complete these goals.

9. Accept that it’s impossible to get everything done There’s only so much time in a day. Even if you’re the most efficient person ever, if you have too many tasks you won’t get them all completed. Accept this and don’t feel too guilty if you miss out on a few.

10. Have fun Finally, remember as an entrepreneur to have some fun. Running a business isn’t all about working – take some time off too. If you develop a hobby or an interest that takes your mind off the business, you’ll be much more productive as a result.

There’s no one solution to managing your time. The trick is to find things that work for you, Try different things, have fun and do the things that help you to achieve your goals for what you want from your business.

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Top time management tips for busy entrepreneurs

One of the many challenges for the executive coaching professional is having the skills to navigate a conversation when it potentially could trigger the client to react in a defensive or aggressive manner. Only the courageous executive coaching practitioner will push the boundaries when the consequences could result in his or her contract termination. This discussion focuses on how to hold the space for these types of conversations.

Executive coaching professionals often walk a fine line. Do they dare go where no one has dared to tread before them or do they push the boundaries to get the core issues for sustainable resolution? Often the executive coaching practitioner is apprehensive to cross the line mainly due the fear of negative consequences or not having enough know-how to hold this challenging type of coaching conversation.

One the key elements in this conversation is to create and hold the space in which it is not only safe for the client to converse and emote but also that it is an honouring place that the client feels has opened up to explore deeper issues. For this to occur, the executive coaching practitioner will be required to suspend all judgements, assumptions and beliefs about what the client will say. Any hint of this will shut down the conversation for the client. Another crucial aspect is for the executive coaching professional to be as neutral as possible with his/her body language. Any obvious changes in facial expressions, posture, glances and the like will send an unspoken message.

The next key factor in holding the space is the power of silence. The natural response for the executive coaching practitioner in normal circumstances is to keep coaching conversations fluid and in rhythm and not to break the flow especially when the direction is heading toward a favourable outcome. In this situation the opposite is true. The executive coaching professional will need to become comfortable with silence and long pauses. This is a crucial aspect in holding the space for the client.

Often we feel the need to break the silence as it creates a level of discomfort. The rule here however is that the first person to break the silence is the one that has the stronger need to have their voice heard. If the executive coaching practitioner does so, he takes away the tension that is necessary for the client to finally reach the place of talking his truth. If this happens it will be very difficult to recreate the space a second time.

The payoff however is that when deeper conversations ensue, clients feel the need for change from a core place inside of them and it is this place that moves them to committed action.

As it has been illustrated holding the space is not an easy process but its rewards far outweigh the effort and risk.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

Executive Coaching: Holding the Space

Many different types of businesses and companies make use of cubicles as a way to efficiently divide up office space, while giving each and every employee their own semi-private workspace. Typically, a cubicle is a workspace that is only partially enclosed. Visually, employees are separated from one another (with the exception of a doorway or entrance, as well as a lack of ceiling), though in terms of audio most sounds will carry. The partitions that make up the average cubicle are five feet or six feet in height. The cubicle will be partially or entirely open on one or more sides to allow access in and out of it.

The purpose of a cubicle is to isolate employees from one another. Without the distractions that sights and sounds can provide, employees will be able to work more efficiently, as well as have a bit of privacy during their work day. Because cubicles are not often very large, hanging shelves and other types of overhead storage will often be present inside of them.

The nice thing about cubicles is that they are quite easy to setup, modify and arrange. Cubicles can be put together and moved around using standard hardware or special fasteners, depending on the design that the employee or supervisor has in mind. Cubicles easily allow for the introduction and modification of drawers, shelves and bins, and generally offer the employee ample horizontal workspace.

Many jokes are abound in reference to cubicles. A cube farm is a term that refers to companies that set up dozens or even hundreds of cubicles in their office space.
Cubicles are great for employees who want their own space at their place of employment. The desk within a cubicle, as well as the walls, allow for personalization. Photos, nooks, small hanging objects and calendars can easily be displayed on the walls of a cubicle. Many types of cubicle walls have holes and hooks on them, so hanging personal items is quite an easy thing to do.

Cubicles come in different forms. The typical cubicle is made up of three to four walls (if four walls are present, then one of those walls will have a break in it to allow entrance in and exit out of the space that is created within the cubicle) placed together and hooked together securely.

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Cubicles: More Interesting Then You Might Think

Whether you are planning to start a brand-new business, expand an existing company, or get financing for a business venture, you will need to write a business plan. A business plan not only lends your business a sense of credibility, but also helps you to cover all your bases, increasing your chances of success.

Although writing a business plan can be a lengthy, intimidating project, it is not necessarily difficult. Here is an overview of how to write a successful business plan.

What to Include in Your Business Plan

Your business plan needs to demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered all aspects of running your business. To that end, the standard business plan has nine major sections, covering everything from your business’s mission statement to a detailed financial analysis.

Executive Summary

The first – and most important – section of your business plan is the executive summary. This section is so important that it should literally be the first thing the reader sees – even before the table of contents! However, it should also be written last, as you’ll have a better understanding of the overall message of your business plan after you’ve researched and written the other sections.

One of the most important parts of the executive summary is the mission statement. The mission statement is only three or four sentences long, but it should pack the most punch out of everything else in your business plan: Those four sentences are responsible for not only defining your business, but also capturing the interest of your reader.

The rest of your executive summary should fill in the important details that the mission statement glosses over. For instance, your executive summary should include a short history of the business, including founder profiles and start date; a current snapshot, listing locations, numbers of employees, and products or services offered; and a summary of future plans and goals.

This section is a candidate for a bulleted format, which allows you to list main points in a manner that is easy to scan. Avoid using too much detail – remember, this section is a summary. A page or two is usually sufficient for an executive summary.

Market Analysis

The next section of your business plan focuses on market analysis. In order to show that your business has a reasonable chance for success, you will need to thoroughly research the industry and the market you intend to sell to. No bank or investor is going to back a doomed venture, so this section is sure to fall under especially close scrutiny if you are looking for financing.

Your market analysis should describe your industry, including the size, growth rate, and trends that could affect the industry. This section should also describe your target market – that is, the type or group of customers that your company intends to serve. The description of your target market should include detail such as:

• Distinguishing characteristics
• The needs your company or product line will meet
• What media and/or marketing methods you’ll use to reach them
• What percentage of your target market you expect to be able to wrest away from your competitors

In addition, your market analysis should include the results of any market tests you have done, and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Company Description

After your market analysis, your business plan will need to include a description of your company. This section should describe:

• The nature of your business
• The needs of the market
• How your business will meet these needs
• Your target market, including specific individuals and/or organizations
• The factors that set you apart from your competition and make you likely to succeed

Although some of these things overlap with the previous section, they are still necessary parts of your company description. Each section of your business plan should have the ability to stand on its own if need be. In other words, the company description should thoroughly describe your company, even if certain aspects are covered in other sections.

Organization and Management

Once you have described the nature and purpose of your company, you will need to explain your staff setup. This section should include:

• The division of labor – how company processes are divided among the staff
• The management hierarchy
• Profiles of the company’s owner(s), management personnel, and the Board of Directors
• Employee incentives, such as salary, benefits packages, and bonuses

This goal of this section is to demonstrate not only good organization within the company, but also the ability to create loyalty in your employees. Long-term employees minimize human resource costs and increase a business’s chances for success, so banks and investors will want to see that you have an effective system in place for maintaining your staff.

Marketing and Sales Management

The purpose of the marketing and sales section of your business plan is to outline your strategies for marketing your products or services. This section also plans for company growth by describing how the growth could take place.

The section should describe your company’s:

• Marketing methods
• Distributions methods
• Type of sales force
• Sales activities
• Growth strategies

Product or Services

Following the marketing section of your business plan, you will need a section focusing on the product or services your business offers. This is more than a simple description of your product or services, though. You will also need to include:

• The specific benefits your product or service offers customers
• The specific needs of the market, and how your product will meet them
• The advantages your product has over your competitors
• Any copyright, trade secret, or patent information pertaining to your product
• Where any new products or services are in the research and development process
• Current industry research that you could use in the development of products and services

Funding Request

Only once you have described your business from head to toe are you ready to detail your funding needs. This section should include everything a bank or investor needs in order to understand what type of funding you want:

• How much money you need now
• How much money you think you will need over the next five years
• How the money you borrow will be used
• How long you will need funding
• What type of funding you want (i.e. loans, investors, etc.)
• Any other terms you want the funding arrangement to include

Financials

The financials section in your business plan supports your request for outside funding. This section provides an analysis of your company’s prospective financial success. The section also details your company’s financial track record for the past three to five years, unless you are seeking financing for a startup business.

The financials section should include:

• Company income statements for prior years
• Balance sheets for prior years
• Cash flow statements for prior years
• Forecasted company income statements
• Forecasted balance sheets
• Forecasted cash flow statements
• Projections for the next five years – every month or quarter for the first year, with longer intervals for the remaining years
• Collateral you can use to secure a loan

The financials section is a great place to include visuals such as graphs, particularly if you predict a positive trend in your projected financials. A graph allows the reader to quickly take in this information, and may do a better job of encouraging a bank or investor to finance your business. However, be sure that the amount of financing you are requesting is in keeping with your projected financials – no matter how impressive your projections are, if you are asking for more money than is warranted, no bank or investor will give it to you.

Appendices

The appendix is the final section in your business plan. Essentially, this is where you put all of the information that doesn’t fit in the other eight sections, but that someone – particularly a bank or investor – might need to see.

For instance, the market analysis section of your business plan may list the results of market studies you have done as part of your market research. Rather than listing the details of the studies in that section, where they will appear cumbersome and detract from the flow of your business plan, you can provide this information in an appendix.

Other information that should be relegated to an appendix includes:

• Credit histories for both you and your business
• Letters of reference
• References that have bearing on your company and your product or service, such as magazines or books on the topic
• Company licenses and patents
• Copies of contracts, leases, and other legal documents
• Resumes of your top managers
• Names of business consultants, such as your accountant and attorney

Writing a Successful Business Plan

Despite the quantity of information contained in your business plan, it should be laid out in a format that is easy to read. Just like with any piece of business writing, it is important to craft your business plan with your intended audience in mind – and the bankers, investors, and other busy professionals who will read your business plan almost certainly won’t have time to read a tedious document with long-winded paragraphs and large blocks of text.

Business plans for startup companies and company expansions are typically between twenty to forty pages long, but formatting actually accounts for a lot of this length. A strong business plan uses bullet points throughout to break up long sections and highlight its main points. Visuals such as tables and charts are also used to quickly relay specific information, such as trends in sales and other financial information. These techniques ensure that the reader can skim the business plan quickly and efficiently.

Think of your audience as only having fifteen minutes to spend on each business plan that comes across their desks. In that fifteen minutes, you not only have to relay your most important points, but also convince the reader that your business venture merits a financial investment. Your best bet is a well-researched business plan, with an organized, easy-to-read format and clear, confident prose.

Writen by: Jason Kay

How To Write A Successful Business Plan

Since saving money is the hot topic now days I thought an article about saving a bit while starting a new business would be appropriate.

I made a list of things you can do when starting new tech business either as a freelancer or what not.

1. Buy used office equipment. Go to auctions where you can bid on desks, chairs, printers/copy machines, computers and laptops etc… from companies who have refurnished or sold out.

2. Don’t break the bank on software alone, Use Open Source Software. You don’t need Vista to run a company or to prove you’re a professional. OSS free and almost better than a lot of the crap you pay for. In fact, a few well known businesses are switching to open source for several reasons. There are a lot of great free open source, Linux and Unix, distributions that are more than suitable for business and personal use.

3. Buying an cheaper computer. If you only have a few bucks to blow on a computer, buy something cheap. Once again, using open source software will help you out. If you’re a Windows person you’ll have to spend a few thousand on a computer, since Vista is in and XP is out the door. Though if you want to run Linux, all you need is something with the right hardware and enough RAM. Something that works and isn’t a pain to use and fix, yet something that doesn’t break the bank.

Hope these help. The rest of the stuff like advertising, marketing, a web site, blog, web presence etc… is where you want to spend big if you own a business at all. In times like these every dollar saved helps.

Ultimately make sure your business has what it needs. You can’t compromise quality to save a buck and expect your business continue on an upward slope.

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3 Ideas to Save Money — Starting a New Business

Working in marketing you begin to get a feel for how advertising works. By this I mean techniques that either make your life simpler or draw in clients. Before you start your own business its of benefit taking the following advice into your thinking otherwise you may find that you lose momentum ahead of your business gets started.

· Set a marketing allowance in readiness ahead of getting your business going. (Marketing makes the task of makers and retailers simpler by letting them focus on the thing they are best at).
· When you have your limit stick to it, until you can see it is providing for you.
· Simplicity, make all things about your business easy to remember.
· Make your business name easily remembered and about the Item or service you are offering. (This will benefit people with association and makes it simpler for ranking in the search engines)
· Having a memorable 0845 number, immediately helps your company appear more professional, allows your business to change premises but have the same number and allows you to keep statistics on people phoning you and if the marketing you had the number on is working.
· Make your logo simple and easily remembered, to many colours means more expense to much detail can lose clarity and presence. Printing is more costly and placing it into new design schemes becomes harder.
· Have a website designed that is defined and to the point and that it lets your customer to get to where they want in one click.
· Put 0845 numbers on the website so that you can keep track of the amount of custom you are receiving from the website.
· Optimise the site, SEO will ensure you get found in the search engine’s the term Be found or die has real meaning when it comes to the web. It doesn’t matter how pretty your website is if you cant be found there isn’t any reason for the website.
· Finally, give yourself plenty of time to start the business as marketing takes time. Pay Per Click will ensure you get immediate results but will vanish as soon as the cash runs out. Natural results will bring you the clients that you need but will take a while to gain in the search engines.

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A Few Bits of Advice for Business Marketing

When a manager feels unable to be away from their business, because they do not have capable people in place, it must be a very frustrating experience.

Empowerment - A Management 'Must-Have'

Many managers are taught to be "hands-on" and not pass on tasks of any importance to their subordinates. When they try to take a step upwards into a full management role, it makes them feel uncomfortable - as if they are now working 'hard enough'.

So they find it hard to not do the whole job, despite having people around them who would willingly do a bit more.

Without Empowerment Employees Will Do Less

If employees don't develop the understanding that they are empowered to do what they can with the freedom that provides, they will always pass the monkey back to the manager. That way they can get off making a decision and risk less.

By having this sort of relationship with employees where they know the manager takes all the key steps, they will do only what they are told, which is a big burden on the manager.

Managers Bring This On Themselves

Many managers do this without even thinking. It's quite a step to recognize that employees will evolve their capabilities when they have the trust of the manager and are allowed to do more.

Particularly for customer-facing employees, the ability to act fast and delight customers needs to be a given in any business.

Customers Want Employee Empowerment

Customers like to have their problems fixed by the first person they approach. Having an employee call for the manager only causes irritation and frustration.

They believe that the manager is waiting in the back office, or that the employees have been trained to give this response, and therefore, it becomes an excuse for the employees to blame it on the manager, and the customer to blame it on the manager. It's a no-win situation for a manager that wants to portray that they are in control.

A Manager's Strength Is His Team

A manager cannot do it all - their performance depends on how they get the best from their team. By giving employees the capacity to act on the manager's behalf they will benefit incredibly with that level of trust.

You will stand behind the logical decisions they make, and then let them know what you might have done different, you are teaching them to become a manager.

You are giving yourself more freedom in the process, and mentoring them into becoming a manager.

With Empowerment Everyone's A Winner

Of course, when a manager has been used to keeping every tricky decision to themselves, it's a bit of a fear to let things go - and it can be one of the best things they can learn to do.

They get a sense of ownership, power, and self-taught initiative that they can never get from somebody dictating to them. This is the principle of management development through empowerment.

Turning Teams Around

Any manager who develops the way they empower their people will be pleasantly fascinated at how they see individuals develop as part of the team output.

They begin to reach a level of management development that all managers should desire-a staff that can exist without them.

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Empowerment Skills - Developing Your Leadership Capabilities

Who makes the better manager, men or women? Of course, like most questions the answer is not definitive. However, certain female characteristics may provide women with some advantages.

MANAGEMENT

The basic job of a manager is often described as performing the functions of: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Who is better at this? Of course, men have dominated management jobs for decades, centuries, even millennia. Men naturally assumed working roles because of their size and strength, when most jobs required these attributes. And, just as naturally they progressed to management roles. For much of recent history, women did not enjoy a significant presence in the workforce. However, during World War II, women were needed to assume manufacturing and other jobs, while men went off to war. Still, following the war a sentiment of "a woman's place is in the home" reemerged.

For the past several decades women have re-entered the workforce in large numbers so that now the male/female worker percentages are not too far from parity. While men still occupy most top positions, the number of women serving as managers and executives continues to increase.

EVOLVING JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR MANAGERS

As the nature of work has evolved so has the job of management. Far from requiring physical prowess, managerial positions now require such abilities as: mental agility, communications skills, technical and computer savvy, writing ability, analytical skills, etc. Most of our work is now cerebral, not physical. Higher level skills generally require more education.

WHO'S BETTER SUITED TO TODAY'S DEMANDS?

Interestingly enough, women college students now outnumber men. And, with more professional jobs in the employment market, women have the "edge." Women also have the temperament and communications abilities employers value so much. With these educational, emotional and verbal advantages they are tough contenders for management positions. However, not all women are "talkers." and not all men are the "strong silent type." Most of the differences between the sexes can be attributed to parenting and socialization. So, there are wide variations.

There have been several recent studies that support the hypothesis that women may be more capable managers than men. Ratings by peers, superiors and subordinates show higher scores for women on a wide range of measures-- everything from decision-making, to idea generation, to motivation and encouragement, goal-setting, quality of work, mentoring and staff development, etc. Various studies, as reported in Business Week (Online edition, Nov. 20, 2000), uniformly found women managers exceeded the performance of their male counterparts. Several of these studies were not industry-specific, and some were quite comprehensive. One involved a sample of 58,000 mangers.

There is an interesting caveat with all of this data. Evaluations of managers by their bosses (only) found less difference between men and women managers. Part of this may be due to stereotypes, and the fact that more males occupy the top positions.

THE BASIC DETERMINATION

Yes, in fact, women may be better-suited to succeed in management in contemporary work environments. And not considering women for top management slots would be a huge mistake. But we must not be simplistic in concluding they are the best managers. Although women have strengths, so do men. And, not all women, or men, have the same strengths or weaknesses. To definitively conclude that one sex is better than the other would result in the error of unwarranted generalization. Furthermore we want to avoid the stereotyping that has characterized the assessment of people for far too long. And, we must consider how well that individuals talents match with those needed in the specific position. In the final analysis each individual must be evaluated on their particular merits.

Copyright © 2008, Dr. Ben A. Carlsen, MBA. All Rights Reserved Worldwide for all Media. You may reprint this article in your ezine, newsletter, newspaper, magazine, website, etc. as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, leave my name and bio box intact, and you follow all of the EzineArticles Terms of Service for Publishers.

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Who Are the Best Managers - Men Or Women?

Rapid Induct is Australia's leading employee induction framework service. Rapid Inducts' service allows quick and easy publishing of induction and training materials, with full featured editing capabilities; your materials can be edited at any time, with changes being published instantly. This ensures that new hires will always be provided with the latest information.

Rapid Induct allows you to insert images to every page in your induction materials as a standard feature. Image sizes from small to full page are supported; for instance, site maps and evacuation procedure diagrams. You can change background colors at any time.

Your inductions materials can also be customized with your corporate logo. Your logo will be in the top left corner of each page throughout the induction session, as well as in the certification and license which are generated. Rapid Inducts' online publishing framework makes this individual branding easy.

Rapid Inducts' service provides you control over the criteria for passing and failing marks - any percentage score between 0 and 100% can be set for your inductees.

You can also customize the screen which congratulates your inductee once they have successfully completed the induction program. You can also create customized further instructions for induction - your inductees can also print the induction for future reference. If your induction materials contain sensitive information, then this feature can be turned off as well.

You can also choose to turn the induction license and percentage score on or off. Administrators can also decide whether or not a certificate of completion is needed for the inductee upon completion.

Along with the default customization options, Rapid Induct offers further customization with add on modules which can be purchased separately.

Your preexisting training videos can be incorporated into Rapid Inducts' framework easily. The John Temple Group's partnership with A/V specialists can help you with converting your instructional videos to make for seamless publishing with the Rapid Induct program.

Audio tracks and voiceovers can also be included in your induction program, helping inductees to more clearly understand your program and overcome language barriers.

The hard coded check sheet is a data gathering tool which can let you gather the information you need from inductees - such as any physical limitations which may affect job performance, licensures and so on. You can view the information you've collected in Rapid Inducts' database at any time.

There is also an acknowledgment template included which you can employ to ask yes/no questions of your inductees. This template is fully editable; the inductee can be asked to confirm their response, with the induction session ending and the inductee being prompted to speak with the administrator for instructions if the incorrect answer is given.

You can customize inductee email if you need more information to be given to inductees than will be provided by the default email containing the induction password. You can write and edit any text you like for this email.

Rapid Induct also offers a site specific feature which lets you turn your default Rapid Induct system into your own site specific version. Inductees can work through a generalized introduction without site specific information, which can then be customized by having inductees select the site where they will be employed; this can be further customized to include job description, site, or whatever you wish to incorporate.

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Rapid Induct - An In-Depth Look at the Company and Its Product

A common practice among many companies is to join up with another company when it comes to marketing and sales to help promote both businesses.

Sometimes a company will try to find another one that works well with their particular products. This connection might be very specific, such as two different types of food stores or clothing stores, or this might be very broad, such as two different types of entertainment stores joining forces.

No matter what the companies are about the end result is stronger marketing. There are several ways you can get these partnerships to improve your marketing. A common practice is to have two different sales designed to improve business for each company's off seasons. During the busy season for one company they'll have a sale that encourages people to go to the other store during their slow period. This makes sure that both companies maintain stronger sales throughout the year.

Another added bonus is the savings you can get on marketing by sharing the cost of them. Many forms of printing like offset printing allow you to get large savings by increasing the size of your order. This gives each company a chance to maximize their profits by reducing costs on marketing material.

But what good is any of this if you aren't letting people know about your partnership? I've encountered stores before who had joined up months before but never really pushed it in their marketing, or had low exposure.

Here's a good idea: get some greeting card printing done as soon as you join up and send them to both of your customer bases. Tell your customers what you're doing and let them know that they can get better savings by shopping at both stores. You can add that greeting card printing in your larger than normal marketing orders where you're already saving money, meaning you won't even have to spend that much more to do it.

Now you make sure everyone knows what's going on so they're well aware of the additional savings they can get by going to both places.

To get the most out of something like this I would also introduce your partnership with a joint sale right from the beginning. This should be the focus of the greeting card where people can get a particularly good deal if they buy something from both stores.

Maybe you can reward them if they bring in their receipt from the other store, giving them additional deals. You might even print off coupons on your receipts for the other store, so even people who didn't get the greeting cards will still be able to see the sale, and be encouraged to check the other store out.

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Introducing Your Partnership

Are you walking around with gloom and doom in your head?

If so, put all the recession talk aside and take a walk down Main Street. Do you see people carrying shopping bags? Going into restaurants? Using cell phones?

You see, life goes on. Business goes on. Customers still need you. Yes, they may be more cautious about spending. Some may be in financial trouble. But if you keep your head on straight, you'll ride out the recession just fine.

Three Fundamental Principles of Marketing to Remember

1. Mine your customer list. Whether the economy is up or down, it costs five times as much to obtain a new customer as it does to sell more to an existing one. So treat current customers as gold, and make sure they know about everything you offer.

2. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Marketing succeeds with repetition. Do not try to economize by cutting the frequency of your marketing outreach. According to a study by the American Business Press, in past recessions companies that maintained their advertising had increased their sales four times more two years later than companies that had cut their advertising because of the economic downturn.

3.Stop marketing, and you soon won't have a business. I once asked a client of mine who closed down her business to retire how long it took after she halted all of her marketing before the calls stopped. Six months, she said. Too often I've seen consultants become complacent about how well word of mouth was working for them. One day they'd wake up and realize referrals had dried up, and they'd have to begin creating a marketing pipeline, which might not start yielding new clients for months. In both good times and bad, you must market to keep sales humming.

Extrapolating from the above principles, you can understand why it is a huge mistake to cancel all your advertising, pull in on your marketing expenses and stop spending on customer outreach. Instead, continue all the marketing efforts that worked in the past. Revive those that previously worked but you stopped because you got tired of them. And think about ways to tweak your marketing messages so they appear especially relevant to those suffering from the economic downturn.

Make sure clients are happy with your products and services and fix any quality issues. Consider reasons why, in good times, people remain on the fence about buying from you, and take away those doubts and objections. It's also a great time to join forces with other business owners to share ideas on how all of you can remain recession-resistant.

To paraphrase a famous saying of Eleanor Roosevelt, "Nothing can pull your business down without your consent." You have a choice about what attitude and actions to take. If you refuse to adopt the mindset of those running around right now like Chicken Littles, you will be able to look back on the era of gloom and doom with a smile on your face and a big bankroll in your pocket.

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Three Crucial Reminders For Outlasting the Recession

When it comes to developing and creating products, it is understandable for any company to want to create products that are of high-end quality. Let us face it, what customer would want to buy a product that is not of high-end quality, right? This is why it is important for quality metrics to be implemented, to ensure high-end quality all the time.

However, this is not as easy as it may seem. Changes are inevitable in any sort of business, and these changes are constantly present. This means that each company has to go through analysis so that the needed adjustments would be implemented. Target quality can then be stabilized and this stability will be further maintained.

Hypothetically, let us say that the needs of your target customers would radically change. Let us say, for instance, that you are in the business of selling cellular phones. Back in the day, there was a time when analogue phones were the popular ones in the market, and you own one of the companies that are profiting the most. Now, we all know that this market drastically changed with the advent of digital cellular phones. More and more people were turning in their analogue phones in place of digital phones. As the operator of that cellular shop, you would really have to change your existing standards - this means you would have to modify your product line. Out with the old and on with the new, so to speak. This means drastic changes on your part as well, with all the changes you need to implement. You need to take out your analogue mobile phones and replace them with the latest digital ones.

Furthermore, you would have to remember that the adjustments that you need to implement would not be as simple as these may seem. Product analysis is very much needed before the necessary adjustments and changes are carried out. There is also the possibility that some of your customers would not want for all analogue phones to be wiped off the market. After all, there are still some customers who find analogue phones still important and beneficial. This is something you would also need to consider so analysis is certainly needed to ensure the quality of all of your products still.

As soon as you are able to gather all of the information that is needed, you would then have to proceed to analyzing the current metrics that you are using to measure the quality of your products and services. You need to determine what metrics are still useful, as well as the metrics that need to be modified in some way.

There are still so many other reasons out there to keep tabs on your quality metrics. As long as your company is existing and contending with other companies in the market, you should always keep tabs on the metrics you use for quality. This way, you can keep abreast and ensure the overall success of your company. More importantly, these metrics should be used to avoid rash and careless decisions that might hamper the success of your enterprise - both at the moment and in the long run.

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The Importance of Implementing High-End Quality Metrics

To know this you should have adequate knowledge of what franchising is all about. In brief it is a contract between two people who have been given the right to promote a product or a service using the trademark of another company. It is very difficult to say exactly how much you can earn because it depends on various aspects.

The earnings in franchise business depend on how much you invest. If you were a passive investor, the general returns from your investment would be 10 to 15 percent. In franchise business where you are ready to invest both your money and time the returns are significantly higher.

You can earn more in this business by selecting proper franchise company. It is very important to know the reputation of the company and the demand for the product in the market. A high quality franchise company gives training programs thereby using the most successful methods. There will be marketing people to assist you with established strategies. And of course their brand adds value to your franchise.

There are some industries like hotel, fast food joint, education franchise, computer support, IT usually offer higher returns. Subway, McDonald's, are few to name where franchise has really showed good returns. This is because of the track record of profitability, easy and inexpensive to operate.

To make good money in franchise business it is important to select well-known established brand, good location, experienced franchisor, quality product etc. Make certain so as to make a knowledgeable decision in franchise and you can be a winner in franchising.

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How Much Can You Earn by Franchising

When it comes to developing and creating products, it is understandable for any company to want to create products that are of high-end quality. Let us face it, what customer would want to buy a product that is not of high-end quality, right? This is why it is important for quality metrics to be implemented, to ensure high-end quality all the time.

However, this is not as easy as it may seem. Changes are inevitable in any sort of business, and these changes are constantly present. This means that each company has to go through analysis so that the needed adjustments would be implemented. Target quality can then be stabilized and this stability will be further maintained.

Hypothetically, let us say that the needs of your target customers would radically change. Let us say, for instance, that you are in the business of selling cellular phones. Back in the day, there was a time when analogue phones were the popular ones in the market, and you own one of the companies that are profiting the most. Now, we all know that this market drastically changed with the advent of digital cellular phones. More and more people were turning in their analogue phones in place of digital phones. As the operator of that cellular shop, you would really have to change your existing standards - this means you would have to modify your product line. Out with the old and on with the new, so to speak. This means drastic changes on your part as well, with all the changes you need to implement. You need to take out your analogue mobile phones and replace them with the latest digital ones.

Furthermore, you would have to remember that the adjustments that you need to implement would not be as simple as these may seem. Product analysis is very much needed before the necessary adjustments and changes are carried out. There is also the possibility that some of your customers would not want for all analogue phones to be wiped off the market. After all, there are still some customers who find analogue phones still important and beneficial. This is something you would also need to consider so analysis is certainly needed to ensure the quality of all of your products still.

As soon as you are able to gather all of the information that is needed, you would then have to proceed to analyzing the current metrics that you are using to measure the quality of your products and services. You need to determine what metrics are still useful, as well as the metrics that need to be modified in some way.

There are still so many other reasons out there to keep tabs on your quality metrics. As long as your company is existing and contending with other companies in the market, you should always keep tabs on the metrics you use for quality. This way, you can keep abreast and ensure the overall success of your company. More importantly, these metrics should be used to avoid rash and careless decisions that might hamper the success of your enterprise - both at the moment and in the long run.

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The Importance of Implementing High-End Quality Metrics

It is inevitable for businesses to find themselves constantly on the go when it comes to measuring performance. It is because the business world finds itself running at a very fast pace. This is primarily why for every new project being considered by any business, there always has to be project metrics implemented. In fact, this should be the first step every chance the business gets in terms of releasing and launching new projects.

When an enterprise is considering a particular project, project run metrics do have to be implemented first. Why? This is because it is during this process where plans as to the monitoring of the project's progress would be determined and plotted out. Accordingly, the resources and funds of the enterprise would be properly allotted as well.

Project run metrics is actually a system that is used by enterprises and businesses for the purpose of checking and measuring the performance of a certain project. Because this is what determines the path that a certain project should take, this would then be a very efficient guide for the employees at hand. Because of this huge and very important role played by project run metrics, these have certainly become an indicator of either the success of the failure of a project.

However, this does not mean that the development of project run metrics is that simple. There is a need for quality planning so that an effective set of metrics can still be developed and implemented. During planning, the measures needed in carrying out a certain project are included, and you would have to consider the possible problems that can surface during the whole process of implementation.

Several requirements abound when developing effective project run metrics. The first rule to remember is that both the managers and the team players have to be involved in the whole planning process. Everyone in the organization should be informed of the nature of the new project at hand. More importantly, the objective of the project has to be disclosed as well. Every possible angle has to be discussed because it really pays off to have team members that are both dedicated and knowledgeable. The process of designing metrics and project monitoring are also important here.

Everything that is of concern to the project - people, budget, and processes - all of these should be included in the project outline. Before the creation of the outline, goals have to be determined and identified. All steps that you include in your outline should all be aligned according to the project's implementation.

Everyone in the team should also decide what particular project monitoring system to take on. Reports and relevant data that are significant to the project being implemented should be traced accordingly. This is because when you keep track of the project's performance, you can better assess the success or the failure of the project itself. With the many systems available, the dashboard method is actually one of the ones that are commonly used. The great thing about this method is that it actually gives you a fast assessment of how your project metrics are performing. And this is precisely why companies need to implement much-needed project run metrics.

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The Importance of Having Project Metrics

Phone number research is definitely on the rise, and there are many factors that could be contributing to this fact. One major element is the large increase in the amount of phone numbers in use. The more numbers that are in use at the same time, the more numbers there are to lookup. Another factor that might be increasing interest in number research is the vastly improved ease of use. Now that consumers can use reverse lookups, researching phone numbers is easy.

Without online resources like reverse lookups, researching phone numbers can often be difficult or impossible. Traditional search methods like internet search engines are almost entirely ineffective at looking up phone numbers. Other search methods like the white pages or social networking sites may help you find access to some numbers, but they offer nothing close to comprehensive coverage.

That's why reverse phone lookups are so widely hailed as being incredibly useful. With the help of a reverse phone lookup, you can research almost any number in little or no time at all. Reverse phone lookups have massive databases of owner information, which means they can help you find the address and identity of almost any phone owner nationwide. Moreover, reverse phone lookups are easy to use and work quickly, so getting answers can mesh easily with even the most hectic of schedules.

Now that you can learn who owns a phone number, you have the ability to help yourself in dozens of different situations. Not only can you handle all of your phone research needs, but you can even look up old friends and find addresses to go with old phone numbers that you might have thought were out-of-date. This is just another example of how reverse phone lookups can be a real help.

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Resources For Looking Up Numbers Are Available Online

Criminal records don't normally cross people's minds very often. But that doesn't mean that criminal records aren't important in many different situations. Being able to find a criminal record for someone is often the only way to confirm or deny that a given individual is a criminal. Knowing if someone has a criminal record can help you make informed decisions about the people that surround you and your family. That's why finding criminal records is so important and why so many people turn to public records searches.

Public searches are the ideal tool for almost any public records-based research project. By utilizing massive databases of online information, public records searches can help users find hundreds of millions of different public records, including criminal. Plus, while searching for criminal records, you can also locate other potentially related information like divorce records and court records. Moreover, even though public records searches are so powerful, they only take a few seconds to use, which can help make them fit into your busy day.

That means that finding the criminal records you're interested in is reduced to a simple, quick process. All you need to do is log on to a public search and become a member of the site. From there, you just search by first and last name (and perhaps city and state) to find the criminal records that you've been wondering about. This way, you can confirm the identity of a criminal or quit worrying needlessly about someone who doesn't have a dark past.

No matter how you think about it, being able to find online criminal records is a valuable and positive thing. It means that you won't have to worry about potentially exposing yourself or your family to a dangerous situation simply for a lack of information.

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Confirm Criminal Identities With Online Records