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consulting Tagged Articles
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Unemployment is a State of Mind
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| A successful executive with a sterling reputation as a gifted manager is asked to leave his position. He grapples with having to "look" for a position, something he has never done. After working through the emotional process of losing a job, he reconnects with what is most important to him, and by doing so, creates a new and exciting business venture.
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Franchise Opportunities – Fears That Drown Dreams – Instalment # 3
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| While there are certainly legitimate reasons why a person may not become an entrepreneur, I will focus on a few of the main reasons cited by people that would like to begin a business but haven’t made that leap. |
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Understand Your P & L
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| While cash flow is the most critical financial measure for small businesses, it is imperative that the P & L us fully understood |
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A Topgrading Tool
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| What tools can I use to select the best employee? |
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ARE YOU FANATICAL FOR YOUR CUSTOMER?
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| Is your customer's best interest at the center of your attention |
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Buying Help at Discount Pricing
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| Do you always pay the lowest price for labor? |
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Cash is King
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| In small companies, managing cash is critical. Not managing cash is one of the primary reasons that small companies fail, even when they may be making a profit |
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Dealing with Difficult Employees
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| Managing people is never easy, and some employees make it even more difficult. These challenging employees can try your patience and take a lot of your time and energy. It requires skillful management to turn these employees around and make them into productive workers. |
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Dealing with the Current Downturn
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| The current economic times are challanging, but we cannot "throw up our hands" and just react. We need to take smart, measured actions. |
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Develop Alliances
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| The development of alliance can be one of the most successful ventures a company can make. |
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Disect Profit, Loss
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| How do you quickly analyse the profit and loss statement if you are not a financial expert? |
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Do You Know Your Breakeven
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| It is critical that all business know their breakeven point and it is even more critical today. |
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Listen to Your Employees
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| If you do not listen to your employees, you are probably making a major mistake. |
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Fraud Prevention
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| Fraud is a problem in small companies |
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Manage Your Sales Force
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| Many CEO's/owners do not feel that they understand the sales process, so they hire salespeople and do not manage them. They just tell them, "Don't just stand there, sell something". Does this ever work? Probably not. Do not fall for the old idea that you must be a sales expert to manage the sales process. |
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Not Enough Meetings
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| Not enough meetings. What a dumb statement. |
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Operations Plans
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| Why should small companies have an operations plan? |
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Performance Appraisals
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| All organizations should have formal performance appraisals. The following is a guide for a good appraisal system. |
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Performance Measurements (KPI's)
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| Every company must have Key Performance Indicators that they use the manage their company. |
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Planning and Implementation
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| If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail |
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The Art of Networking
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| Is networking an important part of your marketing plan? If not, it should be. |
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The Balance of Managing
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| How many small business owners say they don't have time to manage? They must do it themselves. |
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The Need for Strategic Planning
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| Every company should have a strategic plan, no matter what the size. In fact, it is often more important for small firms as they tend to lose focus very easily. |
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Too Much Inventory
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| Critically managing all your inventory is critical to long term success. You may be surprised at what I classify as inventory. |
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Topgrading
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| How do I chose the best employees? |
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Saving Your Way to Success
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| How many times have you heard small company owners say they can cut costs to save their company? |
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Do A Needs Analysis before Buying Your Phone System
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| “Too many times I see phone systems installed that don’t suit the needs of the business. If you needed a new delivery truck you wouldn’t buy a four-door sedan. But that’s how bad it is sometimes…” |
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Career Changes Take Courage
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| Career change is uncomfortable. Often times it is not clear where you are headed. At other times you aren't sure if you really want to make a change. Learn what you can do to get comfortable with the change so that letting go of the old is not as difficult. |
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Consultants Can Be Scary but Do They Provide Value
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| As a CEO before I became a consultant ten years ago I had very little time for consultants and did not have a high opinion of them. One of the things that always stuck in my craw - and still does for that matter -- is to see a consultant conduct sales training that never actually carried a bag themselves. Some have very little if any experience in the field as an outside sales person. Even more concerning is to watch a consultant give leadership or business acumen advice when that consultant never had to meet a payroll or run a company personally.
Consultants can provide real value on many occasions but they can also be your worst nightmare. |
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No Such Thing As A Sell-Out
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| Art vs. commerce. Where do the two cross? Where do the two meet? Is there anything wrong with combining them? That's what we're going to discuss. Entrepreneurs are found everywhere and there's most certainly an art to being an entrepreneur. |
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Commit to Change
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| “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” - John Maxwell |
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4 Ways We Kill Innovation
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| Yet when we separate innovation from our core business, set it apart as a unique process or proposition - we position innovation as "outside" our core business. We make innovation the exception rather than the rule, treat it as a point in time exercise rather than an integral part of the way we operate on a daily basis. Only when we embrace innovation as a conscious and continuous part of our daily actions can we reap the will rewards of innovation. |
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Your Consulting Business and Web 2.0
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| Using the internet to move your consulting business forward requires more than putting up a web site. Are you really leveraging the new social media aspects of the web for the future benefit of your business? Leslie Allan prods your thinking on how to use this new medium as he reviews a provocative white paper on this important business topic. |
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Reverse Mentoring and the Leader-Follower Theory
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| Navigating through the rapidly changing world of blogs, podcasts, social networking, tablet computers, smart phones and other technologies can be a daunting task for anyone. Managers and business owners find themselves facing the reality that they are increasingly out of touch with these modern technologies and the lexicon of the under-35 crowd. Equally challenging and frustrating is paying for specialized training in technologies that are sure to be out of date the moment you leave the classroom. One solution to this managerial quandary is “reverse mentoring.” Reverse mentoring helps managers to effectively use the skills and knowledge of their employee base without stepping outside the confines of the organization. Understanding the process of reverse mentoring is the first step to successfully embracing emerging technologies and ideas |
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Leader-Follower Theory and the Transformational Organization
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| Leaders often seek the secret formula of leadership theory in their pursuit of effective organizational transformation. They desire a method that will aid them in efficiently moving their organization towards specified goals and objectives with the least amount of resistance. The goal of this paper is to address the leader-follower theory and its use in the transformational organization. This paper will address the attributes of humility and servant leadership and its contribution to the effectiveness of the leader-follower theory towards organizational transformation. |
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Are Project-Based Consulting SEO Services Worth It?
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| Article discusses how to calculate pricing for SEO services as it is very easy to calculate project based fees but the result might be ambiguous and to implement value based pricing many other factors needs to be considered. |
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Hourly Consulting Model for SEO Services – How Does It Work?
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| One of the most common questions a consulting client asks before hiring a SEO consultant: How much should I pay for hourly consulting? Here are some tips.. |
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SEO Contract Services – Do They Deliver?
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| If you are thinking of hiring SEO company/consultant then it is very important that you safeguard your interest by entering into a legally binding SEO agreement. Here is important discussion regarding SEO contract. |
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Classes to Motivate and Manage a Team:
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| Team management courses will focus on skills to help the team building.
In all team building, training seminars, managers need to develop a course of team dynamics and also learn how to use the dynamics of their team as a tool to improve communication and performance.These classes train members how to use many techniques to motivate and create team unity. |
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Could a Coach Get You There?
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| You know what coaches do for athletes. You've heard what they've done for the rich and the famous. What about you? Have you ever thought about partnering with a coach? Barbara Garro spent the time to graduate from both Corporate Coach University and Coach Training Institute. Why? Corporate/entreprenerial coaching entails complexities personal/life coaching does not. Why else? Business people have personal lives and I wanted to combine my skills so my coaching clients get Work-Life Coaching or Life-Work Coaching. Garro coaching is all about getting you where you want to be when you want to get yourself there. |
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The Benefit of Safety Debriefing - Developing a Culture of Learning through Lessons Learned
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| Safety debriefing skills learned from a qualified consulting firm is a necessity in today's rapidly changing business environment. The forces of rapid global change can render limited professional skill sets obsolete almost overnight, and continuous learning about business processes can give professionals invaluable 'lessons learned', helping to prevent succumbing to obsolescence or irrelevance. |
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Five Reasons Agency Compensation Should Not Be Relationship Based
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| Don't get me wrong, measuring and managing a high quality relationship is important between agencies and marketers. But at the ANA Marketing Financial Management Conference last week in Phoenix, Arizona, there was a presentation by Sarah Armstrong on Value Based Agency Compensation. |
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Fulfilling Your Dreams by Changing Careers
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| How I went from drama teacher to Invention Marketing “Guru”. |
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The Reluctant Consultant
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| The letters, emails, faxes start like this:
“Dear Ms, Mrs, Sir (I love that one!), Miss Lefkowitz:
I need advice, and I know only you can help me. I have a great idea for a fashion accessory
(or whatever) invention. I know it’s good because I told my family and friends, and they think
it’s great too. I know this product could make a lot of money. The only problem is I don’t know
what to do now, or, I don’t have any money, or, I want someone to take my idea and do whatever
it takes to get it out to the public. Can you help me?” Does this sound familiar?
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How to Find Your Ideal Client
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| Nearly every client I have says their perfect client is “everyone” because “I can help everyone” or “My book can help everyone.”
That might be wonderful but it is bad business. You can’t afford to market to “everyone.” And “everyone” doesn’t want you. They want to work with someone who specializes in “them,” not in everyone.
That’s why I was delighted when I signed a new coaching client who works with lawyers who are in a certain transition point in their careers and must make career and life choices. How cool is that! |
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C-Level Relationship Selling – How to Differentiate When Selling
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| Differentiating is a good talking point, but it doesn’t close sales. Showing you’re competent does. Use numbers, names and details to show your difference makes you competent in what matters to the C-Level buyer.
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C-Level Relationship Selling – Good Work Won’t Win the Next Sale
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| To win sale after sale from the same customer, you must do more than good work. You must let buyers know what it took to make it good. You must associate yourself with the winning solution and prove that you’re special. Read and learn how.
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Building a Consulting Practice
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| The Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted a rise of about 55 percent in the number of consulting opportunities in the period between 2002 and 2012. This is the best time for baby boomers who are on the lookout for career growth opportunities. Consultancy provides an opportunity to postpone their retirement and advance their career at the same time. Building a consulting practice can help you establish regular clients that can look up to you for advice and guidance. In addition, you can also have flexible working hours that leave plenty of free time to pursue your hobbies.
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SEO Consulting
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| It’s one of the hottest, freshest industries that have people around the world clamouring to get into. SEO consulting has become the latest cool job among the typically not so cool. People who were once thought of as nothing but geeks are today proving invaluable to small business owners looking to take their website to the top. If it’s a line of work that you are interested in getting into, read on for further tips on how to succeed. |
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What is a Personal Brand?
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| Have you heard the term "personal brand" before? What is it? And more importantly, why should you care about it. This article will provide some insight into personal branding on the what and why dimensions. |
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C-Level Selling - The Great Customer Experience
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| C-Level Selling - The Great Customer Experience Happens When the
C-Level Executives Are Satisfied. The Great Customer Experience requires making C-level executive constantly feel you are helping them succeed. Learn what’s required in this C-level selling article.
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