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ANATOMY OF A GOOD DIRECT MAIL PACKAGE
An analysis of a good direct mail package.

Low Hanging Fruit
Begin anew with the basic fundamentals everyday and one of the best business fundamentals is to remember to pick the low hanging fruit.

SEVEN WAYS TO RELIEVE STRESS IN YOUR LIFE
To help you relieve stress in a crazy world seven examples are provided to give you actions you can consider when dealing with some of the often-cited causes of stress.

Understanding and Managing Your Stress
Stress management is, in its simplest terms, your ability to deal effectively with all the combination's of pressure that come at you on a daily basis. It is your ability to operate under optimal levels of stress without letting the pressure build to the point where you cannot cope. This is normally accomplished by developing a process of both prevention and intervention.

Five Elements to Financial Freedom AND Fulfillment
In ancient times, five elements were used to symbolize the harmonious workings of the universe. Using a similar approach, I have identified five elements that, when properly deployed, will help us build a solid financial structure and reach high for our dreams - elements that will lead us to our ultimate joy and fulfillment in life.

The 7 Pillars of Purpose Driven Entrepreneurship
Follow your passion, uncover your purpose, and create a successful business, living it. Learn the 7 pillars essential to create a purpose driven venture.

5 Tasks a Virtual Assistant Can Do For a Business or Executive Coach
Are you a business or executive coach overwhelmed with administrative tasks? By working with a virtual assistant you will have more time to create additional revenue and build your practice. Here are 5 tasks that you can easily delegate to your virtual assistant.

THE ACORN THEORY

The Acorn Theory was first postulated in the modern era, at least in the public domain by James Hillman, author and psychologist, in his bestselling book; The Soul’s Code. It is Hillman’s view that one of life’s greatest mysteries is the question of character and ones destiny. In this theory he proposes that our calling is inborn and that it’s our mission in life to realize its imperatives. He has called it the “acorn theory,” the idea that our lives are formed by a particular image, just as the oak’s destiny is contained in the tiny acorn.

Resume Writing: 3 Quick Tips To Get You Noticed
Resume writing is as much an art as it is a skill. This article gives practical tips on improving your resume.

How To Evaluate The Performance Of Your Top Sales Executive
This article present the performance appraisal factors that should be used to assess the performance of a top sales executive. Also, it provides the format of a monthly sales call report that should be used to record the sales call activity of sales reps.

100% Positive Employee Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal meetings between boss and subordinate are too often disastrous encounters in which anxiety is generated in both parties, the motivation and trust the boss generated throughout the year are undermined, and employee dissatisfaction with his/her work and the company is planted. This article explains how to avoid these performance appraisal session mistakes and make employee appraisal 100% positive and motivating every time.

Why Social Media is Just Like Sex.
Let me start with an apology. For those who don't know me, you might be put-off by the title of this article, "Why Social Media is Just Like Sex." But if you do know me, you might be a little more comfortable with the title. After all, there really are some parallels between the two. So check out the article and find out for yourself why social media actually IS like sex.

Which Social Media Tool will be the First to Become Irrelevant?
A recent survey conducted by the 60 Second Marketer with marketing directors around the globe asked "Which social media tool will be the first to become irrelevant?" The answer may surprise you. Check it out.

The Top 13 Social Media Tools for Marketers

There are hundreds of different Social Media tools available, so it’s easy to get confused by them. But social media tools are a little easier to understand if you break them down into three categories - tools that help you network, tools that help you promote and tools that help you share content. Here’s a quick rundown of the top 13 Social Media tools for marketers. I’ve also included some brief tips on how to use each of them.

What's Wrong With Multitasking?
Switching back and forth among tasks creates stress and divides your attention. Plus, it’s harder to remember where you left off and requires more thinking.

What's Your Passion?
80% of the working population feels on some level, unhappy, dissatisfied, and unfulfilled. In all likelihood, 4 out of every 5 people you meet are frustrated, under-enthused and not feeling like they are living their “purpose”.

Is Your Financial Comfort Zone Keeping You Stuck?
If you'd like to change your financial set point and increase your income here’s what to do:

What You Should Learn From Union Organizing
This article discusses what companies should learn from union organizing and how management by listening to the voices of the workers can build a better work environment

Losing Focus and Clarity of Vision
This article discusses the lack of focus and clarity in vision and mission statements an how to regain this clarity and focus.

Survey Shows Business Leaders More Successful at Major Change During the Recession
In this article Rick Maurer discusses his findings from an online survey conducted by Maurer & Associates regarding the challenge of change in today's organizations

The Stuff of a Winning Organization
The company that secures the best people, motivates them most effectively, and nurtures their creativity will surpass its competitors in the marketplace. The success of this kind of company is assured.

How Can a Virtual Assistant Help Me With My Bookkeeping Virtually?
Are you a small business owner who hates to do their own bookkeeper? This article reviews the steps involved in working with a virtual bookkeeper. By utilizing a virtual bookkeeper this will allow you more time to do the things that you love to do.

When Did You Last Put Your Ear To The Ground?

Adept trackers, Native Americans used to put their ears to the ground to hear horses' hoofs miles away. The ground carried the sound. Later, the train tracks did the same thing if you put your ear to the track, you could hear the train coming from miles away. When Did You Last Put Your Ear To The Ground? Explore these simple ways to "tighten" your marketing tactics from face-to-face to voice mail. Start measuring how you connect with your prospects and make it matter.

A Progressive, High Motivation Wage Payment Plan

A progressive, high motivation wage payment plan based on achieving performance objectives is one of the most important elements in a program aimed at motivating employees to achieve high levels of output, to care in performing their duties, to master jobs quickly, to desire to move into more demanding and higher paid work, to work as a team, and to grow with their employer using their continuity of employment and deep knowledge of the organization, its work, its operations, and its customers to innovate and bring new ideas to the firm.

Quick Checklist-Is Your Firm Ready For Success In The Coming Economic Rebound?

This article provides a quick checklist for a company to use in beginning to rethink and plan its management and operational strategy for the economic rebound ahead. It touches on changing a company’s orientation from “defense” to “offense,” attempting to move away from price only relations with customers to price and long term relationship connections with customers, re-establishing training throughout the organization, bringing in some mavericks, creating a new company mission statement, and locating a new top management recruiting resource to bring in top notch executive resources as the market for these individuals tightens in the rebounding economy.

THE NEW RULES OF ATTRACTION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
Recently, we’ve heard a lot about how we should be using social media to appeal to the younger generation. However, much of the focus has been about the tools and how they work, but little about how and why they appeal to the younger generation.

KNOW THE ‘HOT SPOTS’ OF YOUR DM PACKAGE
What are the ‘hot spots’ of your direct mail package? They are the parts that you want your readers to be drawn to, to pay attention to.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CONSUMER FATIGUE, ONLY MARKETING FATIGUE.
Don’t just blame the recession, there are other factors at play when trying to market to consumers.

"WHAT WE’VE GOT HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE."
When it comes to charities, one neglected area where communication fails miserably is during Post Gift Communications.

EFFECTIVE Meeting Facilitation - Say Goodbye to the WOMBAT

"Oh no! Another meeting! That's 3 hours of my life I'll never see again!" If you've ever felt this way or suspect you've evoked this response in others, read on. A new acronym has popped up that defines many meetings. Many people are now referring to meetings as a WOMBAT (Waste Of Money, Brains And Time). To turn your meetings from WOMBATs to EFFECTIVE, here are some tips to create an environment where participants can bring their strengths and ideas to the table. EFFECTIVE meetings have not only positive discussion, but also a will to make important decisions and to take action.

How to Get More Things Done With Ease and Elegance
Here’s is a quick checklist of what you need to know so you can beat the odds, and create more and more of what you want in your business and in your life with ease, grace and flow.

The Four C’s at Work: A New Approach to Team Building & Why It’s So Important
The Four C’s at Work: A New Approach to Team Building & Why It’s So Important

Which Would You Prefer, Wealth or Welfare? (it's a trick question)
The relationship between the words "wealthy" and "welfare" would surprise most people today. By the time you finish, you will realize you should have both.

An Accountant or a Leader - but rarely both
Sometimes I think that the world is divided between the people who make things happen and those that account for it. I know it is an over simplification but all the personality assessments, type indicators and their like break us into four types: The Pragmatic, the Analytical, the Amiable and the Extrovert.

Cubicle Courtesies Unlock Doors

It’s true that the close quarters of office cubicles in companies are a breeding ground for hot tempers, resentments and damaged relations. It’s also true that most of our complaints about our co-workers are valid and should not be ignored. The challenge is to devise and employ strategies to create goodwill in the office so that minor annoyances do not explode into a toxic work environment that no one will benefit from. Open environments and cubicles are here to stay. Ensure that your business relationships enjoy that same longevity by employing strategies of cubicle courtesies which will open doors to a more productive and enjoyable workspace.

The Day our Icons let us down

In the seventies Marks and Spencer plc, in UK was the icon of the retail industry. Everyone used M&S as a benchmark by which they measured their performance and aspired to achieve. National Westminster Bank was the biggest bank in UK and the bank that handled the Bank of England. British Airways was the major airline in the world and a company that other airlines looked up to. There were similar organizations in North America as well and other parts of the world. Then the world changed. In the 80’s the world shifted gear. The icons were found to be set in their traditional ways. In fact all three of these companies were challenged to the level that they nearly disappeared.

The Hidden Power of Questions
Business leaders who know everything and always have a great plan can climb a good distance. But they rarely make it to the top. Why not? What’s missing? Good questions—that’s what’s missing. Or more specifically, a strong questioning strategy.

Build Your Business with The 5 A’s Method
This is a simplification of basic best business practices. It is a quick tune-up check list to recommit you to what you love to do—your business. See how the ideas work for you.

Secret Pal or Powerful Tool—Your Coach
Consistently I'm asked how to select a coach or why would I want one by people I meet. This teels me they have not had a coaching experience. This article offers insights about coaching and how it may be a powerful business and personal tool for you.

Pushing Boundaries
Have you ever noticed how children are constantly pushing boundaries and checking how far they can push things? It is a natural thing to do as the child endeavors to discover what works and why.

Being Connected
There is an interesting situation in the work place these days caused by the social networking sites.

Another Conference
Who would put a team together that did not share the common goals and seek to work in harmony to complete the outcome?

Remaining Focused

Christopher Columbus set sail heading West to look for new lands. It was a daring move at a time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between states. It was risky and many thought that he would disappear off the edge of the world. However, Columbus remained focused even though he did not know exactly what he would find. In fact, he totally underestimated the circumference of the world and when he landed in the Bahamas he thought he had landed on the East Asian mainland. As with all these voyages in history, Columbus prepared as best he could for the months ahead. In part he was preparing for the unknown, but there was a lot he knew he could plan for and he recognized that his team would need to be able to adapt and change as challenges arose.

Obama on Leadership
After eight years of the Bush Administration and the last year of electioneering, the whole world watched in January, as the first African-American took the oath of office and became the 44th President of United States of America.

When to Fold 'em
One of the important aspects of leadership is to know when to stand firm and when to fold.

Leadership in Difficult Times - Lessons learned from President Obama

There’s no doubt that businesses today are facing difficult times. Those in leadership positions may be experiencing the additional burden of finding the support or direction needed to keep their teams motivated and productive when confronted with a bleak economic outlook, layoffs of their colleagues and friends, greater competition and slashed budgets. Where better to look for advice than the newest leader of the largest employer in the United States, the U.S. Government. Let’s have a look at some excerpts from President Obama’s inaugural address and see how we can apply these lessons to corporate leadership.

The Science and Art of Great Interviewing

Great interviewers use a structured process to gather the evidence they need to make informed hiring decisions. Plan your questions in advance. Build rapport. Investigate both sides of an issue. Check for capabilities, commitment and chemistry. Learn how to detect then trust your intuition. Keep your interviews on track. And record your observations during the interview in a structured way so you can fairly compare responses of all your candidates

Who's court is that ball in? Or, that ain't my job, man.
You want to be recognized for your contribution. You may not even mind a critique when you don't live to your aims. But you don't want to be blamed for someone else's shortcomings. The people who work with you feel the same way. This article points out how to manage, to keep the responsibility lines straight.

Just the facts, ma'am
Whether or not Joe Friday ever said "Just the facts, ma'am", the facts are necessary for your operation to judge what is not right, and what to change. Objective, open eyed facts, undistorted by opinions nor politics; nor by "it's always been done that way" nor by the dreaded Not Invented Here syndrome.

Policy
Productivity can be improved anywhere, including the board room. Basic policies set in place the mechanisms that control costs up and down the P&L and balance sheet. Be sure those policies serve the organization, and not vice versa.

Give the supervisor what he needs
Or what she needs, to be productive. But what the supervisor needs may not be what your system stresses, what it spews out. Here are points to consider.

What’s the worst word in Business? FAILURE!

What’s the worst word in Business? FAILURE! No one likes failure or those who have failed. Business is supposed to be about success, making profits, achieving objectives, going places and hopefully having fun! But being in business also means taking risks and making judgements that can and sometimes do go wrong. And hitting that brick wall of failure, sometimes when you least expect it; can be very painful both financially and personally.

Ethics and Business - Why Bother?

I have embarked on a difficult journey in developing skills in Counselling with the University of Hertfordshire. Part of that is a commitment to an ethical framework set out by the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I consequently considered that I need to make a similar commitment to my Mentoring clients (or prospective clients). I have separately adapted/abbreviated the BACP framework Now in business many people describe themselves as ethical and portray themselves to their customers and partners in that way. Rarely do they actually set down in writing the ethical framework of how they will do business.

Mentoring to buy and sell businesses

Buying or selling a business is an emotional activity. No matter how hard Managing Directors and their advisers try, the closer the deal gets the more emotional things become I have in my career bought and sold a number of businesses. The most important thing to do whether you are looking to sell or buy is to become detached and a good way to achieve that is to use a mentor like myself to enable that to happen. Detachment comes from precise and careful planning and most importantly from clarifying clearly what the objectives are for the disposal or acquisition.

Mentoring Management Commandments
My experience as a business mentor has shown that no matter what the SME business, the owner/MD has the same issues. These are usually ? Lack of a plan ? Lack of trust of their team ? Working too hard at doing the job ? Not planning or directing the business In response I developed the following commandments for MD’s to have on their walls; I share them with you.

The Vacuum Effect!

The Vacuum Effect! It is interesting how similar situations appear as you go through life. I suppose when something happens once you become more aware of when it happens again. Anyway this month I had a couple of instances of what I will call “The Vacuum Effect”. This is where in companies or organisations you have a key employee leaving with a consequential effect on the rest of the business.

Are you Mad to be a Director?
You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps! We all know this phrase from office notice boards and the like but there is an element of truth in it for Director/Owners of SME’s. For the disturbing reality is that they are driven mad by the schizophrenic nature of their role.

How do I get my sales people to create some urgency with the client?
If what you have will benefit your prospect enormously and they don’t go ahead now, who will lose? The prospect will, and of course so will you, but if you genuinely believe that what you have is right for your prospect you will be letting them down by not asking for the order then and there.

How to manage your time so you can get more done each day in sales
How to managing your time so you can get more done each day in sales

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