Monday Small Biz Buzz

What business are you now in...and for the future?

2012-01-25T11:31:00.002-07:00

Comment by Brian Tracy

The first and most important question is: what business am I in? This question is not as simple as it seems. To identify your career or business goals, you must first learn to define your business in terms of what you do for your customer or for your company. Expand the definition of your business so that it is as broad as possible. Never stop with the first answer. Take the first answer to this question and find new applications, new markets, and new definitions for it.

Railroads

For example, at the beginning of the last century, those railroads that defined themselves strictly as railroads—providers of rail transport—failed to see that new technologies and methods of transport, such as trucks and airplanes, were a potential threat to their business. If they had defined themselves instead as movers of goods and people—providers of transportation—their response to the changes in technology might have been different. When you define your business, think in terms of how your products or services affect or interact with the lives and work of other people and organizations. Consider both existing customers, and those customers that you would like to acquire.

Target the Future

The next question to ask is: what business will I be in if things continue the way they are today? Think about your career or business two years from now, then in five years. If you do not change the way you define your work or your business, what kind of work will you be doing?

Is it a sound and viable strategy to continue in your current way of working or doing business, or should be looking at changing in some way? Start by imagining what business you could be in.

Where would a dramatic change in knowledge or skills, products or services, or industries and markets lead you? To express it another way, if you were willing to take stock of the environment for your career or business and commit to taking action, what business could you be in if you really wanted to be?

Napolean's Key to Victory

2011-08-13T09:28:00.002-06:00

August 13, 2011

Napoleon's Key to Victory
By: Brian Tracy

The only real measure of business leadership is results. This requires the ability to act boldly with no guarantees of success. The greatest obstacle to overcome is fear of the unknown.

The Key to Confidence

Most fear however, is rooted in ignorance. The more knowledge or skill you have in any area, the less fear it holds. Napoleon Bonaparte is considered by historians to be perhaps the greatest single military leader who ever lived. More than 100,000 books have been written about him since his death on St. Helena.

Pay Attention to Detail

Napoleon's courage was legendary but it was not vain or impetuous. Napoleon was famous for his fastidious attention to detail, for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand every military situation he ever faced. He led the French army in hundreds of minor and major engagements and lost only three, the last one being Waterloo. The more you know about what you face, the lower your level of ignorance, the more courage and confidence you will have naturally. The more time you take to think through a situation, the more capable you will be of dealing with it when it arises. Napoleon planned for every contingency.

Think About the Possibilities

He carefully considered and followed through to its natural conclusion every setback or possibility of defeat he might encounter and then he prepared against it. To be caught unprepared for unexpected setbacks is a mark of weak leadership. Confidence comes from the constructive use of pessimism, thinking about what could go wrong long before it does.

Action Exercises

Here are two ways you can apply Napoleon's strategy to your situation.

First, become an expert in your field. Never stop learning and growing. The more you know, the more confidence you will have.

Second, get the facts. Double check everything. Be prepared for unexpected setbacks and reversals. The more prepared you are, the more confidence you will have.

Seven Simple Steps to Small Business Sucess

2011-07-28T16:05:00.004-06:00

July 28, 2011

Seven Simple Steps to Small Business Success
By: Brian Tracy

Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. They begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike pay dirt in something else. The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go. There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success. But action is necessary.

The Two Parts of Success

Success author Orison Swett Marden once wrote, the first part of success is get-to-it-ivness. The second part is stick-to-it-iveness. Every business beginning requires an act of faith and courage, a bold leap into the unknown. Only one in ten people who want to start their own businesses ever develop enough courage to begin and enough persistence to continue. Get-to-it-iveness. And stick-to-it-iveness. The fear of failure, more than anything else, holds people back. It paralyzes action. And it makes failure inevitable.

Begin With a Dream

Fortunately, even if you know nothing about business, you can begin with a dream, a castle in the air, and then build a foundation under it.

Whatever you do in life...unexpected stuff is guaranteed to happen. Will you be ready? Setbacks in your life and your business are unavoidable.

What happens next will determine whether you fail or succeed in meeting your challenge.

Seven Simple Steps

The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps. Number one, set a goal and back it with a burning desire. Number two, begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You cannot move forward until you start a savings program.

Use Your Current Job As A Springboard

Number three, use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view. Number four, experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success. Number five, search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.

Read Everything You Can Find

Number six, read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information. And number seven, implement your plans with courage and persistence. Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, never give up.

Action Exercises

Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:

First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!

Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, never give up until you are successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you will have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.

Overcome A Major Fear

2011-05-11T12:38:00.000-06:00

By: Brian Tracy

Overcome A Major Fear

A major source of stress in your life is the "fear of rejection" or "fear of criticism." This fear of rejection manifests itself in an over-concern for the approval or disapproval of your boss or other people. The fear of rejection is often learned in early childhood as the result of a parent giving the child what psychologists call "conditional love."

Rise Above the Need For Approval

Many parents made the mistake of giving love and approval to their children only when their children did something that they wanted them to do. A child who has grown up with this kind of conditional love tends to seek for unconditional approval from others all his or her life. When the child becomes an adult, this need for approval from the parent is transferred to the workplace and onto the boss. The adult employee can then become preoccupied with the opinion of the boss. This preoccupation can lead to an obsession to perform to some undetermined high standard.

Avoid Type A Behavior

Doctors Rosenman and Friedman, two San Francisco heart specialists, have defined this obsession for performance as "Type A behavior." Experts have concluded that approximately 60% of men and as many as 30% of women are people with Type A behavior.

Don't Burn Yourself Out

This Type A behavior can vary from mild forms to extreme cases. People who are what they call "true Type A's" usually put so much pressure on themselves to perform in order to please their bosses that they burn themselves out. They often die of heart attacks before the age of 55. This Type A behavior, triggered by conditional love in childhood, is a very serious stress-related phenomenon in the American workplace.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to deal with the fear of rejection, criticism and disapproval.

First, realize and accept that the opinions of others are not important enough for you to feel stressed, unhappy or over concerned about them. Even if they dislike you entirely, it has nothing to do with your own personal worth and value as a person.

Second, refuse to be over concerned about what you think people are thinking about you. The fact is that most people are not thinking about you at all. Relax and get on with your life.

Create Your Personal Strategic Plan

2011-03-06T10:45:00.001-07:00

March 6, 2011

By Brian Tracy

Your success in life is determined, to a large extent by your ability to think, plan, decide, and take action. The stronger your skills are in each of these areas, the faster you will achieve your goals and the happier you will be with your life and career. Personal strategic planning is the tool that takes you from wherever you are to wherever you want to go.

Difference between Train and Plane
The difference between people who use strategic planning to organize and direct their lives and those who do not is like the difference between taking a train and taking a plane. Both will get you from point A to point B, but the plane—personal strategic planning—will get you there much faster and without frequent stops.

Systematic Way of Thinking
Skill in personal strategic planning is not something you are born with, like eye color or perfect pitch. It is a systematic way of thinking and acting and is, therefore, something you can learn, like riding a bike or changing a tire. With practice, you can master the many different elements that make up this key skill, and you will get into the rhythm of thinking and acting strategically for the rest of your life. When you do acquire rhythm, you will realize extraordinary results. Your life and career will take off, and the sky is truly the limit.

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Save Time and Money
Why is strategic planning and thinking so helpful? The answer is simple: it saves you an enormous amount of time and money. When you review and analyze key strategic questions of concepts of your career or business, you find yourself focusing on the critical tasks necessary to achieve your goals. At the same time, you stop doing those things that keep you from achieving success. You do more of the right things and fewer things that get and keep you off track. You set performance goals for people and projects. You become skilled at measuring and tracking results. You move into the express lane in both work and life.

Design Your Life and Career
Your goals in personal strategic planning are similar. The key difference is that rather than improving your return on equity, your planning efforts will allow you to realize a greater return on energy. You might say that personal strategic planning will increase your return on life. A business measures its equity in terms of financial capital. On the other hand, you measure your personal equity in terms of your own human capital. Your personal equity consists of the physical, emotional, and mental energies you are able to invest in your career. Set a goal of achieving the very highest return possible on the investment of your energies.

Critical Question
Ask yourself this critical question: What is it that I do especially well? Examine the areas where you excel or are clearly superior to others in your field. You need to know what you can claim as your personal competitive advantage. This is the lifeblood of personal strategic planning. Your success is tied directly to how excellent you become at the most important part of your work.

Action Exercise
Clarify your career or business vision. What could your ideal career or business look like? What could you be doing most of the time? How much would you be earning? What kind of people would you be working with? What level of responsibility would you have? What kind of industry would you be in?

Great SEO for Small businesses: It’s Possible

2011-01-27T05:42:00.003-07:00

Here's a link for a great article on SEO that may be of interest to every small business owner or manager. In today's fast moving world it's a must!

http://www.andyjenkinsblog.com/2011/01/24/great-seo-for-small-businesses-it%E2%80%99s-possible/

Persist Until You Succeed

2011-01-09T13:54:00.001-07:00

January 9, 2011

Persist Until You Succeed
By Brian Tracy

The most important single quality of success is self-discipline. Self-discipline is having the ability within yourself, based on your strength of character and willpower, to do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution after the enthusiasm with which the resolution was made has passed.

Persistence is Self-Discipline in Action

Perhaps the greatest display of self-discipline is persisting when the going gets tough. Persistence is self-discipline in action. Persistence is the great measure of individual human character. Your persistence is, in fact, the true measure of your belief in yourself and your ability to succeed. Each time that you persist in the face of adversity and disappointment, you build the habit of persistence. You build pride, power, and self-esteem in your character and your personality. You become stronger and more resolute. By persisting, you become more self-disciplined. You develop within yourself the iron quality of success, the one quality that will carry you forward and over any obstacle that life can throw in your path.

Get Going and Keep Going

Orison Swett Marden wrote in his book, “There are two essential requirements for success. The first is 'go-at-it-iveness' and the second is 'stick-to-it-iveness'” Referring to the quality of persistence he wrote, “There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor, the conquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back.”

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Persistence is Your Greatest Asset

Perhaps your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay at a task longer than anyone else. B.C. Forbes, who founded Forbes magazine and built it into a major publication during the darkest days of the Depression, wrote, “History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeat.”

Adversity is What Tests Us

Throughout history, great thinkers have reflected on this paradox and have concluded that adversity is the test that you must pass on the path to accomplishing anything worthwhile. Herodotus, the Greek philosopher, said, “Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have lain dormant in its absence.” The very best qualities of strength, courage, character, and persistence are brought out in you when you face your greatest challenges and when you respond to them positively and constructively.

Action Exercise

Your greatest successes almost invariably come one step beyond your greatest failures, when everything inside you says quit. Think of failures in terms of how you can make them successes.

Analyse Your Competition

2010-12-15T10:03:00.002-07:00

By: Brian Tracy

There is a military adage that says, "No strategy ever survives first contact with the enemy." No business strategy ever survives the first contact with the marketplace either. It must be adjusted to deal with the realities of the moment.

Know Your Enemy
Here is a question for you: Who is your competition? Exactly? Your choice of competitor determines almost everything you do in your market, just as the choice of an adversary determines everything a general does in the process of conducting military operations.

Determine Customers' Buying Motives
Once you have determined why it is that people buy from you, you must then answer the question "Why do people buy from my competitors? What value or benefits are your potential customers convinced they receive when buying from your competitor rather than from you?"

Marketing Myopia
Many people dismiss or ignore their major competitors. They criticize or belittle them when their names come up. Often they think and say that customers who prefer competitive offerings are simply ignorant or misled. As a result of this self-inflicted myopia, they fail to observe and learn how to outdo their competitors in tough markets.

Offset Competitors' Advantages
As you study your competitors, look for ways to offset or neutralize the advantages their customers perceive them to have. What are your competitors' weaknesses? How can you exploit those weaknesses? What do you do better than they do? In what ways are your products or services superior to their offerings? In what areas do you have a distinct advantage over your competitors? What can you do to offset your competitors' strengths and maximize your own advantages? How can you better position yourself against your competitors in a tough market?

You Must Be Clear
The greater clarity you develop with regard to your competitors' strengths and weaknesses and to the reasons your potential customers buy from them, the better able you will be to counter them and compete effectively. Rigorous competitive analysis can be a vital key to business success. In its absence, you will always be at a disadvantage.

Action Exercises
• Who is your competition with the exact customers you are trying to attract?
• What would happen if you changed your offerings in such a way that you targeted a different group of customers who would be easier to sell to?
• Why do your potential customers buy from your competitors? What advantages do they perceive?
• What are your competitors' unique selling propositions? What special feature or benefit do their products or services have that yours does not?
• In what ways are you superior to your competitors? What can you offer that they cannot? How can you emphasize this advantage in your sales and marketing efforts?
• Where are your competitors vulnerable? How could you exploit their vulnerability to your advantage?
• How could you alter your marketing strategy in such a way that you could achieve dominance with a specific customer or market segment in a particular area?

The Law of Clarity - Plans

2010-12-12T13:50:00.002-07:00

By: Brian Tracy

Clarity accounts for probably 80% of success and happiness. Lack of clarity is probably more responsible for frustration and underachievement than any other single factor. That's why we say that "Success is goals, and all else is commentary." People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. This is true everywhere and under all circumstances.

The Three Keys to High Achievement
You could even say that the three keys to high achievement are, "Clarity, Clarity, Clarity," with regard to your goals. Your success in life will be largely determined by how clear you are about what it is you really, really want.

Write and Rewrite Your Goals
The more you write and rewrite your goals and the more you think about them, the clearer you will become about them. The clearer you are about what you want, the more likely you are to do more and more of the things that are consistent with achieving them. Meanwhile, you will do fewer and fewer of the things that don't help to get the things you really want.

The Seven Step Process for Achieving Goals
Here, once more, is the simple, seven-step process that you can use to achieve your goals faster and easier than ever before.

First, decide exactly what you want in each area of your life. Be specific!

Second, write it down, clearly and in detail;

Third, set a specific deadline. If it is a large goal, break it down into sub-deadlines and write them down in order;

Fourth, make a list of everything you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new items, add them to your list;

Fifth, organize the items on your list into a plan by placing them in the proper sequence and priority;

Sixth, take action immediately on the most important thing you can do on your plan. This is very important!

Seventh, do something every day that moves you toward the attainment of one or more of your important goals. Maintain the momentum!

Join the Top 3%
Fewer than three percent of adults have written goals and plans that they work on every single day. When you sit down and write out your goals, you move yourself into the top 3% of people in our society. And you will soon start to get the same results that they do.

Review Your Goals Daily
Study and review your goals every day to be sure they are still your most important goals. You will find yourself adding goals to your list as time passes. You will also find yourself deleting goals that are no longer as important as you once thought. Whatever your goals are, plan them out thoroughly, on paper, and work on them every single day. This is the key to peak performance and maximum achievement.

Action Exercises
Here is how you can apply this law immediately:

First, make a list of ten goals that you would like to achieve in the coming year. Write them down in the present tense, as though a year has passed and you have already accomplished them.

Second, from your list of ten goals, ask yourself, "What one goal, if I were to accomplish it, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?" Whatever it is, put a circle around this goal and move it to a separate sheet of paper.

Third, practice the seven-step method described above on this goal. Set a deadline, make a plan, and put it into action and work on it every day. Make this goal your major definite purpose for the weeks and months ahead.

Get ready for some amazing changes in your life.

Create A Sales Plan

2010-12-02T04:56:00.002-07:00

In less than 30 days 2011 will be upon us. As you consider your business goals for 2011. Take time to plan your plan of action for sales. This article by Brian Tracy is a great reference.

Create Your Sales Plan
By: Brian Tracy

Nothing happens until a sale takes place. Your actual ability to sell your product or service to your customer determines your profit or loss, success or failure, in business. The sales process, to be effective, must be planned and organized in detail from start to finish. Every word and action must be scripted, rehearsed and memorized. Nothing can be left to chance.

Sales Recipe
Making a sale is like cooking with a recipe. You must use the correct ingredient and blend them in the proper quantity with the right timing. All successful companies have developed a proven sales process that can be duplicated over and over. By using a proven sales system, you can accurately predict the quantity of your sales, the average size of your sales, and the profitability of your sales activities.

Prospecting
It is important to speak directly or by telephone to people who can and will buy and pay in a reasonable period of time. Start with your ideal customer profile. Who is he or she exactly-in terms of age, occupation, income, education? Who is he or she exactly--in terms of problems, wants, needs, attitudes, and experiences regarding your product or service? If you could advertise for perfect customers, how would you describe him or her?

Marketing and advertising is aimed at telling your ideal prospect that your product will help them. The ideal prospect has an immediate need for what you sell. The ideal prospect knows you, likes you, and respects your products or business. The ideal prospect can buy and pay for your product if he or she likes it.

Establish Rapport
Establishing rapport and trust with the customer is a must. The prospect will not listen to you or buy from you unless he/she likes you and believes that you are honest. Be friendly, straightforward and believable. Be punctual, prepared and properly dressed. Ask questions and listen carefully to the answers. Make no attempt to sell until the prospect is relaxed and comfortable with you. Identify what the customer needs so you can better sell to them. Ask carefully planned, structured questions so that you can fully understand the customer's situation.

There is a direct relationship between asking questions and sales success. Plan your questions word-for-word in advance. Make no effort to sell or talk about your product. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Presenting Your Product or Service
Repeat back the specific needs or concerns that your prospect has expressed. Position yourself as a trusted advisor, dedicated to helping him solve his problem or achieve his goal with your product. Position yourself as a teacher-showing her how your product works to help her satisfy her needs. Match the customers expressed needs and concerns to the product or service. Focus on helping rather than selling. Conclude your presentation with an explanation of how the product is delivered or used. Invite questions.

Action Exercises
List three phrases or questions you can use or ask to determine if this is a qualified prospect.

Small Business Marketing on the Web

2010-11-15T05:27:00.005-07:00

A recent article at Inc.com states the following information from a recent survey...

46 percent had no wesite at all
Most who have a site says it's basic
80 percent provide only general information
Only 45 percent provide customer service at their site
Less than a third (30%) engage e-commerce
Fewer than one in seven (15%) make appointments or reservations
only 13 percent surveyed have a blog

If you would like more information about this article from Inc.com, and it's worth reading...here a link:

This link was create using http://www.shorturls.com/ a great way to shorten long web site names: Here's the link to the Inc.com site: http://alturl.com/ivi6z

The Dragonfly Effect - Try it in your business!

2010-11-13T13:10:00.008-07:00

Proven strategies for harnessing the power of social media to drive social change. Many books teach the mechanics of using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to compete in business. But no boook addresses how to harness the incredible power of social media to make a difference.

The Dragonfly Effect, shows you how to tap social media and consumer psychological insights to achieve a single, concrete goal. Named for the only insect aht is able to move in any direction when its four wings are working in concert, This book, "Reveals the four wings" of the Dragonfly Effect and how they work together to produce colossal results. Features original case studies of global organizations like the Gap, Starbucks, Kiva,Nike, dBay, Facebook and startups like, Groupon and COOKPAD. Showing how they each achieved social good and customer loyalty.

Leverage the power of design thinking and psychological research with practical strategies. Revealing how everyday people achieve unprecedented results - whether finding an almost impossible bone marrow match for a friend, raising millions for cancer research, or electing the current president of the United States...or the next one.

Dragonfly Effect shows that you don't need money or power to inspire seismic change.

From Lana Howell's web post. We at Monday Small Biz Buzz would add...that this effect could be powerful for your business as well.

Bankers, Farmers, Agri-business and Capital

2010-11-12T11:48:00.011-07:00

By Benjamin Gisin
Financial consultant to farmers, lecturer and former banker,

At its peak in 1935, America, had almost 7 million family farms. Today there are a little over 2 million, a 70 percent loss. So how did it happen?

The background most people have from education and media is insufficient in being able to support an understanding of how it happened. This is not a criticism, but a statement that education and media don’t understand how it happened either. So if you like exploring outside the box, you will have fun with this one.

So why understand the capital in capitalism? Capital, and the processes that unfold downstream after capital is created, are what have driven America to cleanse itself of most family farms, job security and millions of jobs.

If you don’t understand capital, you won’t understand how capital can suddenly checkmate your farm.

In its purest form, capital is money. In its purest form, money is what banks owe. Now this requires a little more explanation that will be forthcoming in future discussions.

The nation’s banking system is at the heart of where capital is formed. So consider for a moment how the banking system’s primary role has been as the final undertaker of the family farm as opposed to its much weaker role in sustaining the family farm. There is great wisdom that will come over time from contemplating this.

Most all bank employees, like farmers, are innocent cogs with little or no understanding of the larger accounting matrix into which their life’s energy is given.

We must be careful in blaming bankers for creating the capital that we so eagerly pursue in our everyday constructions of a capitalistic world. The real blame may be in our shortcoming of never really questioning why capital saves farm numbers in small increments, while it cleanses the world of farm numbers in large increments.

Stay tuned for Discussion #2

Gisin’s 20-year banking career culminated as the senior agricultural approval officer for the nation’s 7th largest ag bank. Since 1997, he has and continues to consulted farmers facing challenges in the credit markets. He lectures nationally on banking, economics and the processes of capital.

Bold type has been added by our editor at Monday Small Biz Buzz

Small Computers, Small Price...Big potential

2010-11-11T20:01:00.003-07:00

If you're looking for a new computer and don't want to surrender the desktop. Check out this link for an affordable computer, high power and and energy saver.

http://alturl.com/hjj68

How to Negotiate Effectively

2010-11-06T13:42:00.003-06:00

Here's a great article on negotiate effectively. It's a skill we all need for business and especially small business.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20101101/how-to-negotiate-effectively.html

Shopping for auto insurance - Personal or Business

2010-11-01T06:10:00.008-06:00

Whether you’re a first time buyer of auto insurance or already have it but are looking for a better deal, you should be asking several questions.

First, is the person from whom you’re buying (your agent) a visible, established member of your community someone you know and trust?

Second, is the company from whom you’re buying well known? What is its reputation? What about price?
Because there are hundreds of companies competing for your business, prices vary – sometimes a lot. It may pay you to shop. Be sure the premiums you’re quoted are for equal amounts of coverage.

How about service? Price is important but saving money won’t mean much unless you get the service you need - when you need it. If possible, ask other clients of your prospective agent how they’ve been treated,especially when they’ve had a claim. Find out how the company handles claims. Is the method convenient for you, no matter where you have an accident?

How about solvency? Is the company you’re considering still going to be in business when you file your claim? Your state department of insurance has financial rating information on all of the companies that do business in its state.

Once you’ve decided on a company and an agent, there are more questions to ask. How much coverage do you need? The required minimum amounts of liability coverage may not be enough for you.

Consider your needs in light of your assets and income. How much can you afford to pay if there’s a big judgment against you because of an accident? What about deductibles? Deductibles lower your premiums - most commonly for collision and comprehensive coverages - but increase the amount of loss that comes out of your pocket. How much additional risk are you willing to take in order to save?

Should you carry collision and comprehensive coverage? As your car’s value decreases, you might consider dropping these coverages and pocketing the savings on premiums. But consider if the savings are enough to offset the risk of footing the entire cost of repairing or replacing your car.

Auto insurance is not a generic commodity. It is a product that should be tailored to each individual. Your agent can help you answer these questions and help you tailor your auto insurance to your specific and unique needs.

By Tammy Sluter

Tammy Sluter is a State Farm® agent in Rexburg Idaho. Tammy will be a featured contributor from time to time on Monday Small Biz Buzz, Tammy can be reached at: http://online2.statefarm.com/b2c/sf/agent/12/1393

The Law of Compensation

2010-10-17T10:52:00.001-06:00

The Law of Compensation
By: Brian Tracy

You Get What You Give

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Compensation," wrote that each person is compensated in like manner for that which he or she has contributed. The Law of Compensation is another restatement of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. It says that you will always be compensated for your efforts and for your contribution, whatever it is, however much or however little.

Increase Your Value

This Law of Compensation also says that you can never be compensated in the long term for more than you put in. The income you earn today is your compensation for what you have done in the past. If you want to increase your compensation, you must increase the value of your contribution.

Fill Your Mind With Success

Your mental attitude, your feelings of happiness and satisfaction, are also the result of the things that you have put into your own mind. If you fill your own mind with thoughts, visions and ideas of success, happiness and optimism, you will be compensated by those positive experiences in your daily activities.

Do More Than You're Paid For

Another corollary of the Law of Sowing and Reaping is what is sometimes called the, "Law of Overcompensation." This law says that great success comes from those who always make it a habit to put in more than they take out. They do more than they are paid for. They are always looking for opportunities to exceed expectations. And because they are always overcompensating, they are always being over rewarded with the esteem of their employers and customers and with the financial rewards that go along with their personal success.

Provide the Causes, Enjoy The Effects

One of your main responsibilities in life is to align yourself and your activities with Law of Cause and Effect (and its corollaries), accepting that it is an inexorable law that always works, whether anyone is looking or not. Your job is to institute the causes that are consistent with the effects that you want to enjoy in your life. When you do, you will realize and enjoy the rewards you desire.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remind yourself regularly that your rewards will always be in direct proportion to your service to others. How could you increase the value of your services to your customers today?

Second, look for ways to go the extra mile, to use the Law of Overcompensation in everything you do. This is the great secret of success.

Protecting Your Business Bank Account

2010-09-28T15:11:00.006-06:00

(from your bank during a recession)

By Benjamin Gisin
Business consultant and former banker

Many businesses have bank accounts whose balances exceed the standard $250,000 FDIC insurance limit either occasionally or at all times. A business bank account may be a lot of things, but money in the bank is not one of them. A business account (or any other bank account) is merely an accounting of your claim to what your bank owes you. The nation and world run not on money, but promises to supply money the bank does not have, popularly called bank credit. Bank credit is simply what banks owe depositors. When you write a check, what your bank owes you is transferred to what another bank owes the person you wrote the check to.

When debts owed to banks default, banks can quickly default on what they owe depositors. Every quarter banks send reports of their financial health to the FDIC. Based upon a formula of minimum reserves, capital and profitability, the FDIC (or state banking regulator) then decides when to close a bank.

Thanks to efforts of the FDIC, at year end 2008, the Transaction Account Guaranty Program (TAGP) was approved and implemented. The program essentially provides unlimited FDIC insurance on non-interest bearing transaction accounts, the most popular being checking accounts.

Unlike historical FDIC insurance, the TAGP program is optional for banks and banks may opt out. Over one fourth of all banks (2,076 banks) of the nation’s 7,830 banks (as of 6/30/10) have opted out of the TAGP program. This means that if your business account is at one of these banks that then fails, you are potentially at risk to loss.

With the wholesale closure of banks over the last 3 years, the FDIC has fine-tuned its closure process. As a matter or course, the FDIC and state banking regulators work hard to find another bank to assume the deposits (liabilities) of the failing bank. In most cases, bank account holders, regardless of the size of the bank account, simply get a notice that their deposit account has been assumed by another bank. However, in those cases where no other bank wants to assume the deposits of a failing bank, the FDIC will close the bank and send out checks for bank account balances up to the $250,000 limit. If your business account is at a failing bank that no one wants to buy and has no TAGP coverage, balances over $250,000 are lost.

The FDIC’s TAGP program may well be the most important service that determines where you have your business account. Regardless of rumblings that the economy is improving, the banking system is a long way from being out of the woods when it comes to non-performing loans and loan losses – the primary cause of bank failures. For perspective, following are the losses banks have taken in recent years, with 2005 being a benchmark for what a more normal year might be:

2005 banking loan losses: $ 31.6 billion

2008 banking loan losses: $100.4 billion
2009 banking loan losses: $187.5 billion
2010 banking loan losses $100.7 billion (for first six months only)

The message in these numbers is that bank loan losses for the first six months of 2010 are the highest ever in U.S. banking history.

Banks are required to post in their lobbies clear signs if they have opted out of the TAGP program. The next time you go to your bank, look for the signs and talk to your banker.

The TAGP program will expire at year-end 2010 and will be replaced by another program of unlimited transaction account guarantees that will run for two years, expiring 12/31/2012 under the provisions of the Frank-Dodd Act. The law does not allow banks to opt out of this program. Hence, the risk from now till 12/31/2010 is real for businesses that have their bank accounts at institutions who have opted out of the TAGP program.

The activities of the FDIC, in preserving depositors’ claims to what their banks owe them, has been the bedrock that has prevented the nation from falling into absolute chaos during this financial crisis, as was the case in the Great Depression of the 30s. ■

Benjamin Gisin consults business and agricultural enterprises facing challenges in their banking and credit relationships. He can be reached at benjamin@ida.net or calling (208) 681-2717.

Don't Give Up...Look what can happen!

2010-09-26T13:21:00.001-06:00

"Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad... when the business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at their lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner."
-- Walt Disney, producer

The Seven Methods of Time Power

2010-09-20T15:46:00.004-06:00

By Brian Tracy

There are seven methods that you can use to help develop the habits of time management. The more you think about and practice these methods, the more rapidly you will program yourself to be efficient and highly productive.

First
Remember that your self-image determines your performance. You always perform on the outside in a matter consistent with the picture you have of yourself on the inside.

Practice visualizing and imagining yourself as you want to be, not as you may have been in the past. You can actually change your self-image permanently by repeatedly visualizing yourself as someone who is highly efficient and effective.

Second
Remember that it takes about twenty-one days of practice and repetition to form a new habit pattern. It has taken you your entire lifetime to become the person you are today, with the time management habits you have at this moment. It takes time and commitment to change, and for your subconscious mind to accept the new habits.

Third
Promise yourself that you are going to become excellent at time management. Promise yourself that you are going to be punctual, and that you are going to concentrate on your most important tasks. Then, promise others that you are going to be more effective and efficient in the future.

Fourth
In developing the habits of time management, start in just one area where poor time management is holding you back. Don't try to change everything at once. Change just one habit or activity where you know that improvement could be very helpful to you.

Fifth
Launch your new time management habit strongly. Never allow an exception once you have decided that you are going to become excellent in a particular behavior. Never let yourself off the hook.

Sixth
Use the “trial and success” method rather than the “trial and error” method. The trial and success method requires that you learn how to succeed by failing, and then by learning from your mistakes. Analyze your reasons for poor time management. Ask yourself, “What are the obstacles to my operating more efficiently in this area?” Take some time to reflect on recent behaviors.

Seventh
You must absolutely believe that you can and will become excellent at time management. The Law of Belief says that “Your beliefs become your realities.” The more intensely you believe that you can and will become excellent at time management, the more rapidly this belief becomes your reality. If you hold to your belief long enough and hard enough, it will eventually materialize as new behaviors with regard to time.

Action Exercise
Select one area where better time management skills can help you to be more efficient and get more done. Resolve to go to work on yourself in that area immediately.

Home - Based Businessess Need Business Insurance

2010-08-06T14:45:00.015-06:00

The dream of owning a business is becoming a reality for thousands of people each year. For many of these would-be captains of industry, that means starting the operation at home. However, your enterprise may be in jeopardy if you don't have business insurance.

You need business insurance because most homeowners policies place limits on business-related exposures. For instance, a copier or fax machine used for business and damaged in a fire may not be fully covered because it is considered business property.

Also, the homeowners policy does not cover business liability, loss of income, exterior signs and many other important items. If a client were injured at your home while conducting business, your homeowners policy would not apply. Anyone who operates a home-based enterprise and does not have the proper insurance coverage is putting his or her business and personal assets at risk.

Business insurance may provide many or all of the coverage listed below:
• Accidental direct physical loss coverage for business personal property.
• Broader off-premises property coverage Loss of income coverage
• Extra expense coverage
• Contractual liability coverage
• Liability of employees while acting within the scope of their employment.

Many entrepreneurs start their businesses on shoestring budgets and try to cut corners by keeping expenses at a minimum. But when you consider what you get, business insurance becomes a tool you can't afford to work without.

Tammy Sluter is a State Farm® agent in Rexburg Idaho. Tammy will be a featured contributor from time to time on Monday Small Biz Buzz, Tammy can be reached at: tp://online2.statefarm.com/b2c/sf/agent/12/1393

Unlocking Your Creativity

2010-07-05T07:36:00.000-06:00

By: Brian Tracy

Creative thinking can be stimulated by two things; intensely desired goals and pressing problems. Your creative capacities need something to hone in on and your job is to provide it.

Struggling with Cash Flow or even understanding it?

2010-07-01T16:06:00.002-06:00

Here's a link for a great article on cash-flow and understanding a profit/loss or income and revenue statement.

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/how-to-understand-an-income-statement.html

Seven Simple Steps to Small Business Success

2010-06-24T18:59:00.000-06:00

June 24, 2010

By: Brian Tracy

Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. They begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike paydirt in something else. The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go. There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success. But action is necessary.

The Two Parts of Success

Success author Orison Swett Marden once wrote, the first part of success is get-to-it-ivness. The second part is stick-to-it-iveness. Every business beginning requires an act of faith and courage, a bold leap into the unknown. Only one in ten people who want to start their own businesses ever develop enough courage to begin and enough persistence to continue. Get-to-it-iveness. And stick-to-it-iveness. The fear of failure, more than anything else, holds people back. It paralyzes action. And it makes failure inevitable.

Begin With a Dream

Fortunately, even if you know nothing about business, you can begin with a dream, a castle in the air, and then build a foundation under it.
Seven Simple Steps
The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps. Number one, set a goal and back it with a burning desire. Number two, begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You cannot move forward until you start a savings program.

Use Your Current Job As A Springboard

Number three, use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view. Number four, experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success. Number five, search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.

Read Everything You Can Find

Number six, read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information. And number seven, implement your plans with courage and persistence. Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, never give up.

Action Exercises

Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:

First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!

Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, never give up until you are successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you will have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.

Keeping Yourself Positive

2010-06-13T13:32:00.003-06:00

June 13, 2010

Keeping Yourself Positive
By: Brian Tracy

The most important thing you do for your success is to take control of the suggestive elements in your environment. Be sure that what you are seeing and listening to is consistent with the goals you want to achieve.

Listen Your Way to Success

Listen to educational audio programs in your car. The average person drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles per year which works out to between 500 and 1,000 hours per year that the average person spends in his or her car. You can become an expert in your field by simply listening to educational audio programs as you drive from place to place.

Take Courses in Your Field

Attend seminars given by experts in your field. Take additional courses and learn everything you possibly can. Learn from the experts. Ask them questions, write them letters, read their books, read their articles and listen to people with proven track records in the area in which you want to be successful.

Get Around the Right People

Associate only with positive, success-oriented people. Get around winners. As we say, fly with the eagles. You can't fly with the eagles if you keep scratching with the turkeys. Get away from the go-nowhere types and above all, get away from negative people. Get away from negative coworkers. If you've got a negative boss, seriously consider changing jobs. Associating on a regular basis with negative people is enough in itself to condemn you to a life of underachievement, frustration and failure. Associate only with positive people. Get around winners.

Visualize Your Goals

The last thing before you sleep and the first thing in the morning, think about and visualize your goals as realities. See your goal as though it already existed. Your subconscious mind is only activated by affirmations and pictures that are received in the present tense. See your goal vividly just before you go to sleep. See yourself performing at your best. See the situations that you're facing working out exactly the way you want them to.

Feed Yourself Mental Pictures

See yourself living the kind of life that you want to live. See yourself with the kind of relationships, the kind of health, the kind of car, the kind of home you really want. Visualize just before you fall asleep at night. The first thing you do when you get up in the morning is to feed yourself mental pictures. Those are the two times of the day when your subconscious mind is most receptive to new programming, when you fall asleep and when you wake up.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do, all day long, to keep your mind and emotions focused on your goals and financial success:

First, listen to audio programs in your car and when you travel around. Continue feeding your mind with a stream of high-quality, educational, motivational material that moves you toward your goal.

Second, resolve to associate with positive, optimistic people most of the time. Get around winners and get away from negative people who criticize, condemn and complain. This can change your life as much as any other factor.

The ABCDE Method for Setting Priorities

2010-05-17T12:07:00.001-06:00

May 17, 2010
I will share this one with you from my emails..

By: Brian Tracy

Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things. Your ability to plan and organize your work, in advance, so you are always working on your highest value tasks determines your success as much as any other factor.

The ABCDE Method for Priorities

The process of setting short-term priorities begins with a pad of paper and a pen. Whenever you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do and too little time in which to do them, sit down, take a deep breath, and list all those tasks you need to accomplish. Although there is never enough time to do everything, there is always enough time to do the most important things, and to stay with them until they are done right.

Setting Better Priorities

The best method for setting priorities on your list, once you have determined your major goals or objectives, is the A-B-C-D-E method. You place one of those letters in the margin before each of the tasks on your list before you begin.

"A" stands for "very important;" something you must do. There can be serious negative consequences if you don't do it.

"B" stands for "important;" something you should do. This is not as important as your 'A' tasks. There are only minor negative consequences if it is not completed.

"C" stands for things that are "nice to do;" but which are not as important as 'A' or 'B,' tasks. There are no negative consequences for not completing it.

"D" stands for "delegate." You can assign this task to someone else who can do the job instead of you.

"E" stands for "eliminate, whenever possible." You should eliminate every single activity you possibly can, to free up your time.

When you use the A-B-C-D-E method, you can very easily sort out what is important and unimportant. This then will focus your time and attention on those items on your list that are most essential for you to do.

Just Say No

Once you can clearly determine the one or two things that you should be doing, above all others, just say no to all diversions and distractions and focus single-mindedly on accomplishing those priorities.

Much stress that you experience in your work life comes from working on low-priority tasks. The amazing discovery is that as soon as you start working on your highest-value activity, all your stress disappears. You feel a continuous stream of energy and enthusiasm. As you work toward the completion of something that is really important, you feel an increased sense of personal value and inner satisfaction. You experience a sensation of self-mastery and self-control. You feel calm, confident and capable.

Action Exercises

Here are three ideas that you can use, every day, to help you set priorities and to keep you working at your best:

First, take the time to be clear about your goals and objectives so that the priorities you set are moving you in the direction of something that is of real value to you.

Second, remember that what counts is not the amount of time that you put in overall; rather, it's the amount of time that you spend working on high-priority tasks.

Third, understand that the most important factor in setting priorities is your ability to make wise choices. You are always free to choose to engage in one activity or another.

Resolve today to set clear priorities in every area of your life, and always choose the activities that will assure you the greatest health, happiness and prosperity in the long term.

Starting Small

2010-05-13T16:31:00.000-06:00

May 13, 2010

Starting Small
By: Brian Tracy

How and why you can start your own business with little or no money by using sweat equity.

Everyone Starts Off Broke

I used to feel sorry for myself because I came from a limited background and I had no money. Then I found that nobody has any money. Everyone starts off broke. In fact, most successful people go broke or nearly broke several times during their lives. Don't let this hold you back.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Transformational leaders empower others by keeping them "in the know," by keeping them fully informed on everything that effects their jobs. People want and need to feel that they are "insiders," that they are aware of everything that is going on. There is nothing so demoralizing to a staff member than to be kept in the dark about their work and what is going on in the company.

But if you are willing to put in the time to learn, remember about 95 percent of the working population in America have the ability to start and build their own businesses if they would only do it. Multi-level marketing is an excellent second income opportunity where you can learn vital business skills at low cost. Especially selling, organizing, making presentations, accounting, team building, negotiating, persuading, and communicating. 85 percent of what you need to learn to be successful in business you can learn from running a successful multi-level marketing business.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

Remember this, though. Leaders are always willing to do what is called dog work. They're willing to render humble service. They're willing to roll up their sleeves and plunge in. They never think of themselves as being too good for a job. There are an enormous number of people who are presented with second income opportunities who turn them down because they think that they're too good to do something like that. But the people who are thinking that they are too good are the people who retire poor. You'll find that leaders of all organizations are always willing to roll up their sleeves and to get in there.

Action Exercises

Now, here are two things you can do to put these ideas into action immediately:

First, remember that buying and selling things is the essence of all business. Look for opportunities to buy and sell things on your own account. Visit garage sales or hold a garage sale of your own. Visit swap meets and negotiate with people with things for sale. Make it a game to learn these skills.

Second, start in a small business of some kind. Look for a second income or multi level marketing opportunity where you can buy and sell on a small scale. Many people become wealthy starting off with virtually nothing in this way.

Develop A Sense of Urgency

2010-05-10T05:54:00.002-06:00

May 9, 2010

By: Brian Tracy

Perhaps the most outwardly identifiable quality of a high performing man or woman is "action orientation."

Take Time to Think and Plan

Highly productive people take the time to think, plan and set priorities. They then launch quickly and strongly toward their goals and objectives. They work steadily, smoothly and continuously and seem to go through enormous amounts of work in the same time period that the average person spends socializing, wasting time and working on low value activities.

Getting into "Flow"

When you work on high value tasks at a high and continuous level of activity, you can actually enter into an amazing mental state called "flow." Almost everyone has experienced this at some time. Really successful people are those who get themselves into this state far more often than the average.

In the state of "flow," which is the highest human state of performance and productivity, something almost mirac ulous happens to your mind and emotions. You feel elated and clear. Everything you do seems effortless and accurate. You feel happy and energetic. You experience a tremendous sense of calm and personal effectiveness.

Become More Alert and Aware

In the state of "flow," identified and talked about over the centuries, you actually function on a higher plane of clarity, creativity and competence. You are more sensitive and aware. Your insight and intuition functions with incredible precision. You see the interconnectedness of people and circumstances around you. You often come up with brilliant ideas and insights that enable you to move ahead even more rapidly.

Develop a Sense of Urgency

One of the ways you can trigger this state of flow is by developing a "sense of urgency." This is an inner drive and desire to get on with the job quickly and get it done fast. This inner drive is an impatience that motivates you to get going and to keep going. A sense of urgency feels very much like racing against yourself.

Create a "Bias for Action"

With this ingrained sense of urgency, you develop a "bias for action." You take action rather than talking continually about what you are going to do. You focus on specific steps you can take immediately. By employing this technique you concentrate on the things you can do right now to get the results you want and achieve the goals you desire.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, select one major task confronting you and launch into it immediately. Don't hesitate. Move fast.

Second, start doing this every morning, first thing, until it becomes a habit.

Telling Your Business Story: Or Spinning It!

2010-04-27T18:03:00.010-06:00

We each have a story to tell. Generally our business products or service story...We try to present our story in the best possible way. Here is a sad, yet difficult story, presented in 2 ways...your going to love it.

Version 1:

Remus Reid horse thief sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887,robbed the Montana Flyer (train) six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.

Version 2:

Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad.

Beginning in 1885, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Dectective Agency.

In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.

Two ways to look a given situation. How do you tell your story? Would love to hear ways to look at different situations and stories.

How to Identify Your Goals

2010-04-25T15:42:00.003-06:00

Love receiving emails like this one...enjoy it!

By Brian Tracy

Here are seven goal-setting questions for you to ask and answer over and over again. I suggest that you take a pad of paper and write out your responses.

Question Number One:

What are your five most important values in life?
This question is intended to help you clarify what is really important to you, and by extension, what is less important, or unimportant. Once you have identified the five most important values in life for you, organize them in order of priority, from number one, the most important, through number five.

Question Number Two:

What are your three most important goals in life, right now?
This is called the "quick list" method. When you only have thirty seconds to write down your three most important goals, your subconscious mind sorts out your many goals quickly. Your top three will just pop into your conscious mind. With only thirty seconds, you will be as accurate as if you had thirty minutes.

Question Number Three:

What would you do, how would you spend your time, if you learned today that you only had six months to live?
This is another value questions to help you clarify what is really important to you. When your time is limited, even if only in your imagination, you become aware of who and what you really care about.

Question Number Four:

What would you do if you won a million dollars cash, tax free, in the lottery tomorrow?

How would you change your life? What would you buy? What would you start doing, or stop doing? This is really a question to help you decide what you'd do if you had all the time and money you need, and if you had virtually no fear of failure at all.

Question Number Five:

What have you always wanted to do, but been afraid to attempt?
This question helps you see more clearly where your fears could be blocking you from doing what you really want to do.

Question Number Six:

What do you most enjoy doing? What gives you your greatest feeling of self-esteem and personal satisfaction?
This is another values question that may indicate where you should explore to find your "heart's desire." You will always be most happy doing what you most love to do, and what you most love to do is invariably the activity that makes you feel the most alive and fulfilled. The most successful men and women in America are invariably doing what they really enjoy, most of the time.

Question Number Seven:

What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you would not fail?
Imagine that a genie appears and grants you one wish. The genie guarantees that you will be absolutely, completely successful in any one thing that you attempt to do, big or small, short or long-term. If you were absolutely guaranteed success in any one thing, what one exciting goal would you set for yourself?

Action Exercise

Study the pad of paper that you used to answer these questions. This paper represents your future goals. Look at what you wrote every day and shape your life the way you see it on that paper.

Three Principles for Great Success

2010-04-10T13:59:00.003-06:00

Received by e-mail...worth looking at.
By: Brian Tracy

Get Better Results than Ever Before
There are several principles of military strategy that you can apply to your business, every single day. These can help you to think better and get better results than ever before.

Do the Unexpected
One really helpful military principle that can be applied to business is the Principle of Surprise. The principle of surprise says, "do the unexpected!" In sales and marketing, this means to be continually seeking ways to out-flank or upset your competition.

Do the Opposite of Before
Sometimes doing exactly the opposite of what you have been doing up till now can turn out to be the perfect solution. The natural tendency for a person, when they find themselves in a hole, is to dig deeper. In many cases, the solution is to go and dig somewhere else. Remember, the first law of holes is, "When you find yourself in one, stop digging."

Follow-up and Follow-Through
A second military principle that applies to business is the Principle of Exploitation. The principle of exploitation emphasizes the importance of follow-up and follow-through. In business, this means that, when you get an opportunity, you exploit it to the fullest extent possible. If you have a great promotional idea or product or service, you sell all you can. You take advantage of your idea or breakthrough and use every opportunity to capitalize on it.

Work Harmoniously With Others
The third principle of military strategy that applies to personal and corporate thinking is the Principle of Cooperation. In business, this is often called the principle of synergy. In military terms, this is often called the principle of "concerted action." In business terms, your ability to work effectively and harmoniously with other individuals and groups is more responsible for your success than any other quality.

Win the Cooperation of Key People
A key part of strategic thinking is for you to identify the individuals, groups and organizations whose cooperation you will require to achieve your goals. Make a list of them and then organize the list in order of importance. Then ask yourself, "How am I going to win their cooperation?"

Answer Everyone's Favorite Question
Everybody wants to know, "what's in it for me?" The effective executive is always looking for ways to help or assist others knowing that this is the only sure way to create within them a desire to help you to achieve your goals.

By doing the unexpected, by following up and following through, and by constantly looking for ways to get other people to cooperate with you, you will accomplish more in a shorter time than you might ever have imagined.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to apply these ideas in your business and in your work:

First, look at your job, especially the areas where you are experiencing frustration, and question whether or not there is a completely different way of approaching your problem or situation. Do the unexpected. Perhaps you should be doing exactly the opposite of what you are doing today. All success in business comes from surprising the competition in some way.

Second, identify the people, groups and organizations whose assistance you will need to achieve your goal. Continually look for ways to earn their support and cooperation by thinking in terms of what is in it for them.

Two Rules for Business Start-ups

2010-04-01T11:35:00.001-06:00

Great Article I received by email...
By: Brian Tracy

Entrepreneurship is the art of finding profitable solutions to problems. Every successful entrepreneur, every successful businessperson has been a person who has been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before somebody else did. Here are the five rules for entrepreneurship.

Find A Need And Fill It
First, find a need and fill it. Ross Perot, when he was working for IBM, saw that his customers who were buying IBM computers, needed help in processing their data. He went to IBM with this idea and they said they weren't interested, so he started his own business. He eventually sold it out for $2.8 billion dollars. He found a need and he filled it.

Find A Problem And Solve It
The second rule is to find a problem and solve it. A secretary working for a small company began mixing flour with nail varnish in order to white out the mistakes she was making in her typing. Pretty soon, her friends in the same office asked if she could make some for them. So she began mixing it on her kitchen table. Then, people in other offices started asking for it, and she eventually quit her business and worked full time creating what is today called Liquid Paper. A few years ago, she sold her company to Gillette Corporation for 47 million dollars.

Look on the bright side! Be a leader..

2010-03-08T06:14:00.005-07:00

I have seen this article / story before...it's worth looking at again...

An old man had a hot dog stand. He made great hot dogs, and people bought them. He put up signs to advertise his business, and stood by the side of the road hollering. "Buy a hot dog, mister?" and they bought. His sales increased, so he increased his hot dog and bun orders. Business was very good.

Then his son came home from college. "Dad, what are you doing?" the son exclaimed. "Don't you know we are in the middle of a great depression?" The local situation is terrible and the national problems are even worse. You must be more careful with your money."

"Well," the father thought, "my son goes to college and he surely knows what he's talking about. I'd better listen to him." So the old gentleman stopped investing money in his business. He took down the signs, and stopped standing by the side of the road to sell his hot dogs. Sales fell off overnight."

"You're right, son." the father said. "We are in the middle of a great depression."

Just as the misperceptions about the business community ruined this great hot dog stand, it can affect an entire community, state and nation. At a time of economic stagnation, it is critical for leaders in the business community to demonstrate where strengths yet exist, and what steps can reasonably be taken to capitalize on those strengths...

Article taken in part from the Post Register, Sunday, March 7, 2010 Idaho Falls, Idaho

Can the David's of Business beat Goliath?

2010-03-06T11:09:00.007-07:00

Small business and to some extent mid-sized business always face the struggle of beating the large business community. (Goliath)

Perhaps you have faced Goliath from time to time in different areas of your business. Our post today deals with advertising / marketing. An area many small business owners just slide by in.

In today's world the battle field is leveling. We have the internet in addition to other media to reach clients, just as the big boys of business.

Text ad's, Web display ads, content on your web site, your blog, facebook, twitter...the list goes on and on.

Meet one of the new and reasonably price media for small to mid-sized...video ad's.

A variety of sources and tools are now available to help small business to prepare, publish and broadcast video ads. This media will only grow if not explode in the next few years. Check it out, it's something to start using. In addition, it's an affordable solution for any business, anywhere!

With the click of a button...your can tell your story to a wide audience, even better to your niche.

This post was prepared by Wild Horse Media LLC. If you have questions or need more information about video ads, the concept, making or utilizing in your business. We can be reached at: whm (at)onewest.net

Napoleon's Key to Victory

2010-02-20T18:29:00.001-07:00

By: Brian Tracy

The only real measure of business leadership is results. This requires the ability to act boldly with no guarantees of success. The greatest obstacle to overcome is fear of the unknown.

The Key to Confidence
Most fear however, is rooted in ignorance. The more knowledge or skill you have in any area, the less fear it holds. Napoleon Bonaparte is considered by historians to be perhaps the greatest single military leader who ever lived. More than 100,000 books have been written about him since his death on St. Helena.

Pay Attention to Detail
Napoleon's courage was legendary but it was not vain or impetuous. Napoleon was famous for his fastidious attention to detail, for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand every military situation he ever faced. He led the French army in hundreds of minor and major engagements and lost only three, the last one being Waterloo. The more you know about what you face, the lower your level of ignorance, the more courage and confidence you will have naturally. The more time you take to think through a situation, the more capable you will be of dealing with it when it arises. Napoleon planned for every contingency.

Practice the ABC Method

2010-02-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

From an e-mail we received from Brian...
By: Brian Tracy

"The first law of success is concentration - to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right or to the left." --William Mathews

The more thought you invest in planning and setting priorities before you begin, the more important things you will do and the faster you will get them done once you get started.

The more important and valuable the task is to you, the more you will be motivated to overcome procrastination and launch yourself into the job.

A Simple and Powerful Technique
The ABC Method is a powerful priority setting technique that you can use every single day. This technique is so simple and effective that it can, all by itself, make you one of the most efficient and effective people in your field.

The power of this technique lies in its simplicity. Here's how it works: You start with a list of everything you have to do for the coming day. Think on paper. You then place an A, B, or C before each item on your list before you begin the first task.

Determine Your Top Priorities
An "A" item is defined as something that is very important. This is something that you must do. This is a task for which there can be serious consequences if you do it or fail to do it, like visiting a key customer or finishing a report for your boss that she needs for an upcoming board meeting. These are the frogs of your life.

If you have more than one "A" task, you prioritize these tasks by writing A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on in front of each item. Your A-1 task is your biggest, ugliest frog of all.

Decide on Your Secondary Tasks
A "B" item is defined as a task that you should do. But it only has mild consequences. These are the tadpoles of your work life. This means that someone may be unhappy or inconvenienced if you don't do it, but it is nowhere as important as an "A" task. Returning an unimportant telephone message or reviewing your email would be a "B" task. The rule is that you should never do a "B" task when there is an "A" task left undone. You should never be distracted by a tadpole when there is a big frog sitting there waiting to be eaten.

Analyze the Consequences of Doing It
A "C" task is defined as something that would be nice to do, but for which there are no consequences at all, whether you do it or not. "C" tasks include phoning a friend, having coffee or lunch with a coworker or completing some personal business during work hours. This sort of activity has no affect at all on your work life.

After you have applied the ABC Method to your list, you will now be completely organized and ready to get more important things done faster.

Start on Your A-1 Task
The key to making this ABC Method work is for you to now discipline yourself to start immediately on your "A-1" task and then stay at it until it is complete. Use your willpower to get going and stay going on this one job, the most important single task you could possibly be doing. Eat the whole frog and don't stop until its finished completely.

Your ability to think through, analyze your work list and determine your "A-1" task is the springboard to higher levels of accomplishment, and greater self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride.

When you develop the habit of concentrating on your "A-1," most important activity, you will start getting more done than any two or three people around you.

Action Exercises
Review you work list right now and put an A, B, or C next to each task or activity. Select your A-1 job or project and begin on it immediately. Discipline yourself to do nothing else until this one job is complete.

Practice this ABC Method every day and on every work or project list, before you begin work, for the next month. By that time, you will have developed the habit of setting and working on your highest priority tasks and your future will be assured!

Find A Market For Your Product or Service

2010-01-31T13:09:00.004-07:00

Finding the right market for your product or service can be a daunting task. How do you go about it? How do you find the "target client or customer." Here is a quote from www.paysoncooper.com that we found most interesting and helpful, while doing research for a some clients.

“You can find an extremely hungry market for your product or service. The key is in connecting with your target market and effectively communicating your message.

If your passion is to provide your product or service to help others and to make their lives better you have a responsibility to let them know it exists, you owe that to yourself as well as to them.”

Using this quote and perhaps others that are equally effective or powerful as a guide line can help any business develop a marketing / game plan to get the word out. Tell us about your experiences in "finding the right market."

Make Continual Course Corrections

2010-01-23T08:28:00.003-07:00

By Brian Tracy

Problems, difficulties, and setbacks are a normal, natural, and unavoidable part of life and business. When you set a new goal or launch toward a new destination, you will experience challenges and difficulties that you never expected or anticipated. By the true test of character is the inevitable and unavoidable crisis. Your ability to solve problems is important, but your ability to deal with a crisis largely determines your success or failure in life.

Leadership Abilities
In a multi-year study conducted at Stanford University, researchers examined the annual performance appraisals of hundreds of presidents and chief executive officers of Fortune 1000 companies, some of the most successful executives in every business or industry. This study revealed that top executives had two dominant qualities in common. The first was the ability to function well as a member of a team. When they were starting out, they were good team players, making valuable contributions to the teams they were on. As they were promoted to more senior positions, they demonstrated the ability to bring together winning teams of talented people and organize them to accomplish important goals and results for their companies.

We received this article by e-mail. Applies to small - midsized business as well.

Invoice Psychology - Smart Business Builder

2010-01-18T13:39:00.004-07:00

The other day I ran across a term that caught my attention, " Invoice Psychology."

We all know about invoices, a written billing for goods or services, showing what a customer or client is being billed for, individual line items with quantity a description, price per unit, sales tax, due date etc.

Invoice psychology is especially valuable as a marketing or sales tool for services. In addition to the traditional details of the line items or the invoice in general. Invoice psychology is simply adding value to your service as you add details or additional descriptions to a line item explaining why the service was done, what the service did to resolve a problem and how that service helped to improve the, average or general service performed.

An example might be from a computer repair business. Defrag hard drive and remove viruses.

With Invoice psychology this service might further explain...how many sectors were cleaned up, recovered and with the viruses, how many viruses and the names that were found on the computer, removed or quarantined.

As a professional in your industry...how can you use this "invoice psychology" concept to help up sell or explain the professionalism of your business. It's worth looking at to help increase your bottom line and keep clients in the long run.

Your business is better than your competition, because you know more and explained it...along with the normal billing.

Growing Your Business in 2010

2010-01-09T12:04:00.004-07:00

2009 is past, what will 2010 bring. Some say, "who knows?" and that's what they will get...who knows.

Plan your 2010 sales objectives and then implement the plan. Whether they be small or larger. A plan of action, with focus and constant execution can bring great results.

Direct mail, door-hangers, flyers, twitter, facebook, web pages, articles all build for your business story, new or on going, a sense of progressive action. Results will come.

From time to time, fine tune your plan if needed and always watch for new ways to tell your story.

Telling your business story...from whm at onewest.net (Wild Horse Media LLC)

The Need To Lead

2010-01-09T08:08:00.001-07:00

By Brian Tracy

The greatest need we have today, in every area, is for men and women to practice the values of integrity, discipline, responsibility, courage, and long time perspective, both as individuals and in their families. These are the key qualities of leadership.

Our society needs leaders at all levels who practice the principles that lead to long-term success. Especially, we need people in positions of authority and political power to support and encourage others, whose lives and work they influence, to develop character and resist the tendency to act expediently in ways that are harmful to themselves and others.

Everyone needs to take "The Values Pledge," to live by it, and then encourage others to live by it. It is only the solid bulwark of character, based on values, virtues, long-term thinking, and the accurate assessment of secondary consequences that can curb and mitigate the destructive influences and behavior of the Expediency Factor (the E-Factor)

Live In Truth
The philosopher Immanuel Kant postulated what he called "The Universal Maxim." He suggested that "you should live your life as though your every act were to become universal law for all people." The very best judge of truth for you is to ask, "Is it true for me?" If everyone was to be encouraged to live their life as though your every act were to become universal principle for all others, most government policies and programs would be abolished overnight. The fact is, that the only way that many "something for nothing" ideas in government and society can be put forward is with the hope that most people will not take advantage of them.

Think about it. What if everyone were to go on welfare? What if everyone were to apply for every government program that was available to them? What if everyone dedicated themselves to doing the very least amount of work that they could get away with? What if everyone began spending all their time trying to get free money from anywhere that it might be available?

New Year's Planning For Business Owners.

2009-12-28T16:25:00.002-07:00

Every business owner should from time to time pause and do some planning and reflecting. Here is a link to a great article. With 2010 coming this article has some great points.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/08/planning-for-business.asp?partner=forbes-hpm&viewed=1

Five Rules of Entrepreneurship

2009-12-10T10:37:00.002-07:00

December 10, 2009

Five Rules for Entrepreneurship
By Brian Tracy

Entrepreneurship is the art of finding profitable solutions to problems. Every successful entrepreneur or business person has been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before someone else did. Here are the five rules for success.

1. Find a Need and Fill It
Human needs and wants are unlimited. Therefore, the opportunities for entrepreneurship and financial success are unlimited as well. The only constraint on the business opportunities available to you are the limits you place on your own imagination.

2. Find a Problem and Solve It
Wherever there is a widespread and unsolved customer problem, there is an opportunity for you to start and build a successful business.

Once upon a time, before photocopies, the only way to type multiple copies of a letter was with carbon paper places between sheets of stationary. But a single mistake would require the typist to go through and erase the mistakes on every single copy. This was enormously clumsy and time consuming.

Then a secretary working for small company in Minneapolis began mixing flour with nail varnish in order to white out the mistake she was making in her typing. Soon, people in other offices began asking for it. The demand became so great that she quit her job and began working full-time manufacturing what she called “Liquid Paper.” A few years later, the Gillette Corporation came along and bought her out for $47 million cash.

"Rapidly Increase Sales, Cut Costs and Boost Your Profits!"

Just like you, I've laid awake worrying about money…I've started businesses with an idea and borrowed cash…I've made mistakes and had to try again to succeed. Believe it or not, profitability in any market is predictable—and I want to show you how to cash in year after year. Click for more >>

3. Unlimited Opportunities
There are problems everywhere. Your job is to find one of these problems and solve it better than it has been solved in the past. Find a problem that everyone has and see if you can't come up with a solution for it. Find a way to supply a product or service better, cheaper, faster, or easier. Use your imagination.

4. Focus on the Customer
The key to success in business is to focus on the customer. Become obsessed with your customer. Become fixated on your customer's wants, needs, and desires. Think of your customer all the time. Think of what your customer is willing to pay for. Think about your customer's problems. See yourself as if you were working for your customer.

5. Bootstrap Your Way to Success
Once you have come up with a problem or idea, resolve to invest your time, talent, and energy instead of your money to get started. Most great personal fortunes in the United States were started with an idea and with the sale of personal services.

Most great fortunes were started by people with no money, resources, or backing. They were started by individuals who came up with an idea and who then put their whole heart into producing a product or service that someone else would buy.

Action Exercise
Look for business opportunities everywhere, develop, an entrepreneurial mind-set, and continually be open and curious about the needs not satisfied and problems not solved.

One idea is all you need to make your first million.

Copy of an E-Mail received from Brian Tracy....great content

Daily: Eat a Frog First Thing

2009-11-30T13:02:00.001-07:00

November 30, 2009

The Truth About Frogs
By Brian Tracy

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worse things that is going to happen to you all day long. Your "frog" is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it.

Conquer the Hardest Task First
If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.

Don't Procrastinate
If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long. The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of “eating your frog” before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.

Received in an email from Brian Tracy

Employer's - I-9 Audits

2009-11-20T20:12:00.007-07:00

The following link will help with I-9 documentation for each employee your business hires.

www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/m-274.pdf

www.zibpans.com and www.countrysidedata.com are small business software sites. The payroll section of this software has the I-9 form with lists A, B and C. Not only the text but a area to save scanned documents. ie, green cards, birth certificates, driver's permits etc.

Gold Mine Advertising, Get it now!

2009-10-26T20:41:00.007-06:00

With 15 minutes to spare. Here is the link for, Gold Mine Advertising for your business.

Click on the orange display just to the right of this post. When clicked on, will take you to a whole new level of business.

3 Options are available for every small to mid-sized business. One recently added benefit, SEO help utilizing a 3 month jump start for your ad and web site.

Check it out and tell the world your story. We will take it from there...telling it over and over. Good Luck in your mining of the web to grow your business.

49 Hours until Gold Mine Advertising kicks off!

2009-10-24T20:11:00.005-06:00

49 hours until we kick off our Gold Mine Advertising concept. We had room for 195 small to mid-size businesses or professionals. 7 of our clients have already begged for a spot, what can I do, they been with us for a long time and have tried the test roll out!...so it's really going to be 188 open to the rest of the world. Don't miss it. www.zibpans.com

78 Hours until the small business advertising world changes!

2009-10-23T15:06:00.003-06:00

78 hours until small business marketing / advertising changes... at least for about 195 businesses!

Keep checking for sneak previews over the week-end and Monday. No bull or hype, just great effective ways to get the word out about your business and be part of a select advance group with special benefits.

Soft rollout users suggest adding 2 new features

2009-10-20T14:27:00.006-06:00

Our Gold Mine Advertising concept will be delayed for a couple of days, until Monday, October the 26th.

Early users suggested we add several powerful features and benefits. So, we listened and are now adding features and benefits into the Gold Mine Advertising products. Wow! is it going to be something...Remember Monday October 26th at 9 PM (Mountain Time-- 11 PM Eastern Time.)

It's getting better...Gold Mine of Advertising tips and hints...

2009-10-16T14:39:00.006-06:00

It's getting even better...Gold Mine of Advertising tips and hints...will be available on or before Tuesday of this coming week, October 20, 2009 at 9 PM (11 PM -Eastern Time)

We think you will be excited about the potential for your business where ever you live. During the early stages of the roll out we will be limiting the number of spots available, so check in from time to time but no later that the appointed time or shortly after...

Six great articles on starting a small business

2009-10-14T11:56:00.002-06:00

USAToday is currently running a series of article on, "Starting a Successful Small Business." Here is a link to the current week article. Check it out and checkout the past and future articles as well.

http://alturl.com/azwq

Gold Mine of Advertising ideas, tips and hints

2009-10-06T16:16:00.009-06:00

Gold mine of ideas, tips and hints for small business advertising. Work required. Results out of this world.

While doing research on advertising for a business client. I ran across this site. Simple, common sense stuff. http://alturl.com/onp7

We will introduce more on Tuesday October 20, 2009 at 9 P.M. (MDT) about a series of tools to help small business tell their story on the web. Stay put, be a leader or dominate your local market or niche. First come, first served. Catch the wave...

Create A Sales Plan

2009-09-29T09:39:00.001-06:00

In a recent email we received this article...it will be of interest to most of you...since your business lives on sales.

September 29, 2009

Create Your Sales Plan
By: Brian Tracy

Nothing happens until a sale takes place. Your actual ability to sell your product or service to your customer determines your profit or loss, success or failure, in business. The sales process, to be effective, must be planned and organized in detail from start to finish. Every word and action must be scripted, rehearsed and memorized. Nothing can be left to chance.

Sales Recipe
Making a sale is like cooking with a recipe. You must use the correct ingredient and blend them in the proper quantity with the right timing. All successful companies have developed a proven sales process that can be duplicated over and over. By using a proven sales system, you can accurately predict the quantity of your sales, the average size of your sales, and the profitability of your sales activities.

Prospecting
It is important to speak directly or by telephone to people who can and will buy and pay in a reasonable period of time. Start with your ideal customer profile. Who is he or she exactly-in terms of age, occupation, income, education? Who is he or she exactly—in terms of problems, wants, needs, attitudes, and experiences regarding your product or service? If you could advertise for perfect customers, how would you describe him or her?

Marketing and advertising is aimed at telling your ideal prospect that your product will help them. The ideal prospect has an immediate need for what you sell. The ideal prospect knows you, likes you, and respects your products or business. The ideal prospect can buy and pay for your product if he or she likes it.

How to keep track of employee I-9's

2009-09-26T09:17:00.004-06:00

Every United States business owner or manager with employees must have on file for each employee a current I-9 form. The I-9 form validates that the employee is documented to work legally in the United States.

The requirement of the I-9 has been around since 1986. Until recent times has been loosely enforced. This is about to change and fast. Be ready employers.

Information about the employee and the documents required and any expiration dates are in three lists. List A, B and C.

We will be posting a link at the bottom of this posting on September 28th. It will be worth checking out the details.

W-4 Hints! Employee updates

2009-09-16T16:30:00.003-06:00

Here are some suggestion to employers / managers on w-4 forms. This information came from AIPB

How To Implement a New W-4

—and Handle Complaints

Problem: Employees try to increase their take-home pay by handing in a new W-4 with more withholding allowances or by claiming exempt from withholding.

Solution: Tell employees that you are not required to post the new W-4 until the first payroll period ending on or after the 30th day from the date the new W-4 was submitted (see IRS Circular E). This is the most time that the law allows.

Example: Joe is paid on the 15th and 30th of each month. On September 10, he gives you a new W-4. The September 10th withholding changes must be applied to his paycheck of October 15, the first payroll period following September 30.

If we can be of further assistance visit our web site at www.zibpans.com and check out the payroll tab area.

Be a Lion for your business

2009-08-27T17:09:00.000-06:00

Coming soon! Twitter your Business

2009-08-13T17:58:00.001-06:00

Facebook for your business

2009-08-13T17:56:00.000-06:00

Backup 101 : Do It!

2009-07-27T15:08:00.003-06:00

It's scary. A disaster waiting to happen. I spend a good share of last week and the week-end helping to recover a clients accounting / payroll records. It would have been a piece of cake had they kept a backup copy of their records.

It only takes a minute or two, can be done on your machine or thru a web based or remote backup service. It is most critical to make backups. Besides having a valid backup can save hundreds of dollars of recover time, stress and perhaps...heart failure.

So, please, if you are reading this post. Take time to make backup copies of critical data on your computer or small network. Doing so will make life a lot easier.

Also, your web site...check with your web master or hosting firm. Do they have timely back up copies?

Client wants to hire an ad salesperson! Do you know one?

2009-07-20T19:44:00.004-06:00

I have a client that needs to hire an ad salesman (woman) for a new web based venture. He is stumped at how to start or where to even look for that person (s).

It's a challenge ...it would be on a commission basis, but would have opportunity to build and have great income potential for someone that can figure out how to get the word out about this product and the exposure it would provide for small business owners. (They would get a piece of the action)

So world, how do I tell them where to start and what to look for? Any ideas...if so send an email to whm@onewest.net and we will forward your tips, ideas or resumes ...stay tuned for the results.

2nd Quarter Payroll Tax Reporting

2009-07-13T12:37:00.005-06:00

With July about half over many clients I work with are frantically working to complete their payroll 2nd quarter reports done and filed.

While I help some clients with this issue. I am amazed at the stress and frustration for many small business owners or managers. Much of the stress comes from the current financial scene and the tightness of money. The headaches of payroll can be overcome or simplified by developing an organized way to do the reports. Using a hand ledger system or a computer program helps a lot. It's the dread of actually filing the reports. So what's your take on payroll tax reporting. Let us know how you handle it and what might make it easier on your end.

Several clients indicated that just having someone to walk them thru the maze would help. Others indicate having someone review or even do the reports would take a load off their mind and let them get on with the everyday running of the business...like meeting the next payroll.

We would like your comments on the following, "Simplify My Payroll reporting of the 941, SUTA, FUTA and state or local income tax."

Walk The Plank Tactics

2009-07-05T19:29:00.005-06:00

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July in the States and to our Canadian friends a great Canada Day on July 1.

It's great to be with family and friend on holidays. I spent part of the week-end at my mother's taping a landing / stair well. One of my favorite things. While I have done many landings and stairwells it is not one of my favorite experiences. Setting up the drop cloth to cover the stairs is the easy part. It's setting up a ladder or two with a plank and then walking out on that plank to reach to top and outer edges to mud the edges and embed the tape. Height is not something I look forward to either. I did everything right and minimized my risks to get the job done right.

That's how it is in business. We tackle risk and attempt to manage that risk with the tools we each have or can get. Then we move ahead with the job at hand. Hopefully we are successful in what we do. Some times we don't , so we pick up the pieces and try again. Even with taping and drywall, I have on some occasions have to start over or re-work some of my earlier attempts.

Walking the plank...so to speak is not the end of the world as with was in the days of the pirates. We as business owners/managers can regroup and give it another try. That's where success comes from...overcoming challenges, learning new skills and snapping victory from the jaws of defeat.

Vacations Over...Now What

2009-06-27T09:01:00.006-06:00

As you can see from the recent postings we have been absent.

Taking a break to enjoy everyday life and the family is something we all need to do. But most of us in small business probably don't do it often enough. The summer is yet new and not spent. Take time to go and see new things.

Travel and seeing new things can happen even in your own region of the country or world.

So take a break, plan one and then tackle the business with a fresh out look, renewed energy and...perhaps a different approach or products.

Some new products we discovered if your interested. Easy to use business 5 year planning that everyone can use, even coaching if you would like. Check it out at: www.ProBizPlanner.com Also, for those payroll headaches a new approach to United States payroll reporting at: www.SimplifyMyPayroll.com

We would like to start adding more and more business solutions in all areas of running a business, so let us know what you are aware of.

Increase Sales: Do a good job...Then talk about it?

2009-05-27T15:44:00.002-06:00

Can't or Won't

2009-05-16T20:55:00.000-06:00

The other day I read this sign, "Can't or Won't."

Punting (or Plan B for non football fans)

2009-05-10T20:23:00.000-06:00

Chrysler's Bankrupt...Now What!

2009-05-02T12:37:00.004-06:00

Shift gears, that's what they are going to do and perhaps so should you.

Take a look at the business landscape. Some think the sun is setting and will never rise or shine again. Others see the setting of the past with a new future coming with each sunrise.

So, you have failed, lost a major client, or some other opportunity. Take a look at your situation (as is Chrysler, the courts, the new possible owners, bond holders etc). Shift gears literally and revamp your business plan, products or services, financing, the market you serve or any other host of possibilities. The sun will rise and shine again in your world.

The old saying, April showers bring May flowers and you know what the Mayflower brought, "pilgrim's" and with the pilgrims came the hope of a new future and look what that brought over the years, a might America a country of new hope where anything is possible. Get out there and tell the story of your service or products. People will listen, we all need services and different products...

Think it over and get on with life and go for the new day. Business is just waiting to be discovered. Even in your neck of the woods.

Business Story Telling

2009-04-14T18:45:00.004-06:00

How well do you do at telling the story about your business?

How well you tell or explain your story is critical to your existence. Your potential or current customers / clients need to have a clear understanding of what goods or services you provide and why buying from you rather than your competition is in their best interests.

5 Minute Management Tip:

2009-04-09T18:34:00.001-06:00

Build your street! Not Wall Street

2009-03-27T14:41:00.001-06:00

Proposals to help small businesses

2009-03-15T16:00:00.005-06:00

Small businesses in the United States, Canada and the world as well. Are the cornerstones of the villages, towns, cities and countries in which they operate. They are the foundations of the economy.

While the impact and needs vary thru out the world. Lets look at the United States in general. The strengths of the American economy are at the farm and street level of every state. We as small business owners and managers can do our part by pulling our employees together and uniting with other businesses to strengthen our impact.

Tell your story. Tell about your products and services. Get the word out. Communicate your business mission to new clients / customers. Keep in touch with your past clients / customers. Run specials to acquaint others with your products and services. Go the extra mile in the coming months to refine your products and services. Display or explain them in different ways until your prospective market knows well what you do. Add value to what you do best.

As you plan the process of: getting the word out. Map out where you are and where you want to be in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years , 5 years and in 10. If you fail to plan your: getting the word out, you plan to fail or wander about.

Get to the point and go for it. Courage is what we need not fear or holding back.

proposals to help small businesses

2009-03-15T16:00:00.001-06:00

Challenges or Opportunites for Small Business?

2009-03-07T09:34:00.008-07:00

The old saying, if life gives you a lemon. Make lemonade. Is even more relevant in today's marketplace.

Small business: This is your opportunity to "squeeze" more juice from the lemons you may have been given or received. Take a look at your business, whether new or ongoing. What is your main product or service? Is there a new twist or repackaging you might do to increase your sales or profitability?

Who, are your clients? Many businesses do not know who they really sell to or who seeks them out. Where do you stand in the market place of your neighborhood, community or vertical market (niche)?

With the coming future and hopefully eventual upswing of the economy, are you now or soon to be planning to "capture" a larger market share when things turn around.

This past couple of weeks we have been learning quite a bit about how to deal with the current situation in the country, in our business and what we need to do better in the future. It is really exciting to move forward.

It's not all gloom and doom...Happy days will soon be here again!

We have a new friend, Zib, that we will be introducing soon who can help get the ball rolling for all of us. Happy days are here again...or soon will be.

Small Business Stimulus Deals

2009-02-28T09:40:00.009-07:00

The big boys of business have received billions in bail out funding. Now it's time for small business to enter the stage.

The U.S. Government is now spending billions on stimulus packages to get the economy growing and moving forward once again. Most of these stimulus dollars may never reach the small business owners of the United States, Canada or the world in general.

We as small businesses need to take things into our own hands and rebuild the prosperity of our villages, towns, cities, states and nations. This is a call to action on everyone's part.

Long journeys begin with one step...step up and let's tackle this problem as business owners / managers the best way we can. Provide great products and services at a reasonable price and at a profit. Take courage and take charge.

We have located a "small business stimulus" deal that can help plan, expand or promote your business. We will be providing the link over the next week or so. The number of packages available is unlimited. There is something for everyone in this package. We need your help in spreading the word once it's ready to go.

This package will benefit your business and all businesses not only in the short term but the long term as well. If we stick together as business owners we all win. If we go at it alone...We will be just that...alone.

Small Business Bailouts? or Work Outs?

2009-01-30T12:47:00.003-07:00

Small Business Bailouts? or Work Outs?

2009-01-30T12:47:00.001-07:00

Small Business Bailout: One last thing...2008

2008-12-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Small Business Bailout: Can't, Won't, Don't know how?

2008-12-20T13:02:00.002-07:00

Small Business Bailout: Action Planning

2008-12-06T08:55:00.006-07:00

I run into it everyday! Constant (justifiable) worry and concerns about the current economic conditions. One should be cautious, but at the same time, look for the opportunities that your business has. A plan and action can go a long way to improving your situation.

What did you want to achieve in 2008? Did you do it?

What do you want to achieve in 2009, 2010, 2011 and beyond? Give it some thought, look long and deep. it's all up to you...if you set your mind to it.

Check back in just 17 days from now for new tools and ideas to help you wade thru this planning, goal setting and achieving. We will have only 500 copies of this tool available on release. When they are gone that's it!

Check Fraud - Part 2

2008-10-30T18:53:00.001-06:00

Check Security Features – A Primer (sidebar)

There are numerous security features available today, with new ones coming available all the time. While it would not be practical to include all the features on a single check form, the more security features your check has, the better you are protected against fraud and liability.

The best approach is to combine "overt" and "covert" features. The overt approach makes it clear to anyone looking at the check what features you have implemented, with the effect of deterring criminals and providing bank staff and your staff with an easy method of identifying tampering. Covert features are deliberately hidden to surprise and fool most would-be tamperers.

Tamper Detection and Prevention
A common approach to fraud is to alter the amount or other information on the check by erasing or using various chemicals. Some inks used on backgrounds and some papers react to these chemicals by disappearing, fading or staining in a very obvious way.

Laser printer toner is notoriously easy to remove. Some check papers are treated so that toner fuses much better to the paper. This goes by names such as "toner grip" or "toner fuse".

Beating The Color Copier
The most recent wave of fraud was brought on by the color copier. They can do such a good job, that security features beyond the copier's abilities have been developed. These include:
• One of the most recent and exciting features uses thermochromic ink, such as TouchGuard TM used by ASAP. The ink changes color when rubbed or breathed on, and reappears when you stop. This requires no special equipment to check, and the color change characteristic cannot be reproduced using color copiers or inkjet printers.
• Flourescence is something that color copiers cannot reproduce. Secure checks may include some printing using flourescent ink, and/or have flourescent fibers woven into the paper. While some banks have UV lights which can be used to detect that the check does not glow, many banks do not, nor do tellers typically check for this.
• Visible fibers are also used for the same purpose. A close examination of a copied check will reveal that the fibers are only copies.
• Depending on the type, watermarks can be viewed from one or both sides of the form when held up to light at a 45 degree angle, something that cannot be photocopied or scanned and is very difficult to duplicate.
• A void pantograph is a special way of printing a message in the background that is not obvious to the naked eye. Because of the resolution used on many copiers, this printed message becomes very obvious when copied.
• Microprinting is a technique where signature lines or borders are printed using such tiny text that it looks like a line, but magnified you can see the text. The text is so small, however, that current copiers cannot reproduce the text.

Warnings
Several types of warnings can be used to discourage criminals and to raise alarms that something is wrong.
• A message such as "The face of this check is blue and contains the security features listed on the back" is very effective.
• A padlock symbol indicates that your check contains the minimum set of security features standardized by the Financial Stationers Association.
• The "MP" symbol is used to indicate that elements of the check have been micro-printed.

Les C. Cseh is the owner of ASAP Checks, Forms & Supplies, a check printer operating out of Alexandria Bay, NY and Perth Road, Ontario. He has been involved in financial documents since 1985, and had participated in ANS X9B standards work. He can be reached at info@asapchecks.com and at 888-85-CHECK. In addition to a variety of secure checks, the ASAP web site (http://www.asapchecks.com) offers a non-commercial section related to check processing issues called the MICR Repository.

Check Fraud...You are at Risk!

2008-10-26T13:00:00.000-06:00

CHECK FRAUD

You Are At Risk

You Could Be On the Hook!

Did you know that the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) regulations place responsibility for forgery losses partially on bank customers, rather than solely on the banks? But in addition to this exposure, there can be significant expenses and lost time investigating the crime, not to mention damage to your credibility and reputation.

Your only defence is to show that you have taken due diligence. One way to demonstrate this is by implementing careful practices regarding your checks. Another is to use checks with well implemented security features.

How Bad Is the Problem?

The problem is so serious that the banks don't like to reveal the extent of the problem. Estimates range from hundreds of millions to 10 billion dollars annually.

In 1991, the FBI tracked over 26,000 cases, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, because the FBI mostly focuses on cases where the amount exceeds $100,000. Just one example comes from The Green Sheet (a publication to the Financial Services Industry), reporting an incident where a family had allegedly stolen more than $1 million from area merchants since 1993 by writing checks on closed and non-existent accounts at 11 financial institutions in Indiana and Chicago under 25 different names.

In just 4 years, Northern Trust Bank has detected more than 3 million dollars worth of counterfeit checks.

What Kinds of Things Do Criminals Look For?

It is an endless list, but here are some of the types of things that someone looking to counterfeit or tamper might look for:

· High volume bank accounts where a fraudulent check can easily slip through.

· Checks that are easy to reproduce using a color copier.

· Checks that are easy to tamper with.

· Easy access to checkbook or check stock.

What Can I Do To Protect Myself?

By protection, I mean reducing the chance of someone counterfeiting or altering your checks, as well as reducing your liability when it occurs.

Be aware that is is impossible to prevent fraud. But you can significantly minimize the risk using a two-prong approach. It is critical that good procedures related to your check processing are put in place, and that you use a check that is difficult to counterfeit or alter (see sidebar).

· Reconcile your bank statement promptly. Now that bank statements are available online, you can do this as frequently as you feel is necessary for your situation.

· Restrict access to your checkbook/check stock. Ensure that only trusted staff that need access have it.

· Audit your checks. However, this can be difficult because often checks are removed from the bottom or middle of the book or stack.

· Use a custom design. While this isn't an affordable option for many businesses, look into it. The next best thing is to ensure that your check supplier uses comprehensive security features. Remember though that a custom design is not a substitue for security features.

· Advise your bank branches' officials of the security features in your checks .. in person or in writing (and keep a copy of the letter on file!).

· If you issue a large number of checks, particularly with a low amount (eg. rebate checks), open a separate account and alert the bank staff of an upper limit for that account.

The Bottom Line

Don't take unnecessary chances. The more security you have through procedures and choice of check form, the less likely that someone will tamper with your checks.

Les C. Cseh is the owner of ASAP Checks, Forms & Supplies, a check printer operating out of Alexandria Bay, NY and Perth Road, Ontario. He has been involved in financial documents since 1985, and had participated in ANS X9B standards work. He can be reached at info@asapchecks.com and at 888-85-CHECK. In addition to a variety of secure checks, the ASAP web site (http://www.asapchecks.com) offers a non-commercial section related to check processing issues called the MICR Repository.

Getting the Word Out : What's the Deal?

2008-09-20T09:21:00.004-06:00

Headlines grab readers attention. Once you have their attention. Present or explain the "offering" or deal you want them to try, is a major task. Simple and clear explanations of what you are offering is absolute.

With letters, utilize the outside of the envelop to explain why they should open it.
Use short sentences in the sales letter.
Use "power" words on postcards or shorter letters
Present the offer or deal in a straight forward way. Easily, understood and recognized.
Make it easy for the reader to respond..ie, 800 number, hours of business, reply card...
Explain the time limit of the offer or deal...ie, limited number or expiration date
Use different options of the product or service...ie, Good, Better and Best
Have the owner or president sign the letter or postcard...
Over time, refine your "sales pitch" until you discover the golden letter or postcard.

Getting the Word Out- With a Post Card

2008-09-16T18:10:00.006-06:00

You don't have to open it! People can quickly read the headline! The costs are reasonable. People respond to them. Great reasons to do postcard marketing.

Design a sharp looking, to the point card with a strong offer
Use a quality printer that knows about sizing and direct mail needs
Use your current client / customer list
Rent a list of potential clients / customers
Find a mailing house or mailing service to save on postage costs
Figure out a time frame to mail the cards over
Be ready for the responses
Do mailings on a frequent basis (generally is not a one time shot!!!)
Don't be afraid to change text, timing if the response isn't where you want it to be

Be patient. Offer great value, savings, stretch the purchase of money or solve a problem for your potential clients / customers.

-Getting the Word Out - With little Money

2008-09-13T11:48:00.007-06:00

Every business faces this issue. How do I tell my story and let the world know about our business?

Especially, if you're a new business or businesses launching a new product or service. The next question we are ask much of the time. How do we do it with little or no advertising / marketing budget?

Good Question? Here are some ideas and hopefully others will send in examples of how they accomplished this great task.

Identify what makes your business or product unique or special. What sets you apart from others?
Have a great product or service. The word will spread...over time.
Start a blog to tell your story, experiences, solutions etc. Done correctly it can be most effective.
Take part of each day to tell a few people about what you do. (networking)
Do a press release with the local paper about your business.
Pass out as many business cards as you can. Don't forget to use the back of the card as well.
Check back in a few days and we will give you the high powered ideas.. Until then, get started, now.

I-9 List A

2008-07-19T17:16:00.006-06:00

Documents that establish both Identity and Employment Eligibility to work in the United States.

1. U.S. Passport (unexpired or expired)

2. Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card (Form I-551)

3. An unexpired foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp.

4. An unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photo. (Form I-766, I-688, I-688A, I-688B)

5. An unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record, Form I-94, bearing the same name as the passport and containing an endorsement of the alien's non immigrant status, if that status authorizes the alien to work for the employer.

If you have further questions check with your attorney or government agencies that handle employee qualifications.

Here is the link for more details on the I-9 form and requirements. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=184163,00.html

IRS new mileage cost guidelines.

2008-06-26T10:48:00.006-06:00

The IRS plans to raise the amount of automobile mileage that businesses are allowed to claim.

The IRS made the addition to help assist businesses and charities struggling with high gas prices. Business vehicles will now be able to claim operating costs of 58.5 cents for the last six months in 2008--up from last year’s deduction level of 50.5 cents.

Others that will also benefit from the rise in deduction levels are individuals who are moving or traveling for medical purposes. The IRS is changing the deductible for those purposes from 19 cents to 27 cents per mile.

In an interview with the Associated Press, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said, "Rising gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans. Given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile."

Shulman told the AP that the adjustments can be made as early as July 1.

The current blog posting is from a variety of sources including several national news groups including Foxnews. Further information is available at: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=184163,00.html

I-9 Form Guidelines

2008-05-25T08:45:00.002-06:00

Every employee in the United States should have on file with their employer an I-9 form.

This immigration or proof of documentation to work in the United States has been required since 1986. Over the years more and more employers have started to have this form on hand for new hires to file out before they start working. The information on the I-9 form has employees verify with documents they are "legal" to work in the United States. (This form is in addition to the w-4 form for income tax withholding)

Areas of Information on the I-9 form are as follows.

General information about the employee including:

Name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and a declaration by the employee (which they sign) their United States citizen ship, resident alien or having a special alien permit to work in the United States (a2 or other programs.)

Employers cannot specify which documents they will accept.

List A: Documents that establish both identity and employment eligibility.

List B: Documents that establish identity

List C: Documents that establish employment eligibility

Our next blog posting will describe documents that can be used in list A, List B, and List C.

If you have questions on the I-9 or any related immigration / legal status of employees please consult specialist or your attorney. Many state and federal agencies can be of help as well. Here is a link to get the I-9 form along with insturctions. http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-9.pdf

Summer Hiring Rules

2008-05-15T06:44:00.006-06:00

With the coming of summer, many small to mid sized businesses are faced with what to do for summer hires. Here are some suggestions from The American Institute of Professional Bookkeeper's May 2008 newsletter.

Withhold FICA on all summer workers, even high school students, unless under 18 working for parent/sole owners. Have all summer employees submit a W-4—even students working part-time—and withhold FIT unless someone claims exempt or has more than 10 exemptions.

Health care, other benefits and pensions. Giving benefits to temporary and part-time employees is optional, but if you do not give them, this policy should be written in a plan document.

Vacation and holidays. Federal and state laws do not require paying summer or part-time help for vacation or holiday pay any time of year. But if you give vacation pay, some state laws may apply.

Overtime pay: federal law. Pay overtime for all hours physically worked over 40 hours in a workweek. You are not required to include paid time off—e.g., vacation days. Do not substitute paid non-work hours for work hours to make all hours straight time to avoid paying some hours at straight time and some at overtime.

Family-owned firms employing the owners’ children. If the parent(s) own 100% of the business as sole proprietor(s), partner(s) or stockholder(s), their children can work for them regardless of age, hours or time of day. But if the owners regularly employ other than immediate family, they must pay their children the federal minimum wage. Their children under 16 generally may do clerical but not “hazardous” work, such as operating lawn mowers, sewing machines, etc., or working where food is cooked or near flammable or hazardous material.

If you have questions about your situation. Please consult your accountant, attorney, local, state or federal agencies that specialize in labor / employment.

Budgets: Part 4 - Cash Flow

2008-04-29T14:17:00.009-06:00

Since our recent posts on budgets we have had many interesting questions presented to us. One frequent question is: How can you budget cash flow? We all know that cash flow is the blood of every business. Without adequate cash flow life can be the pits.

A quick recap on the definition of cash flow is the following: Money coming in from any source matched to money going out of a business. Do you have enough cash to pay your bills or are you short?

For over 30 years we have worked with many types of businesses. We have learned both valuable and painful lessons. One of which is the importance of: Developing a cash flow plan (budget) for your business. Then, at least on a monthly basis(for the current year) figure out what money is coming in and going out, account by account. Project your money collections and what money is being paid out to operate your business. Do they match? Are you short of money or have a surplus?

If you are a cash basis business, it's simple. Your money coming in should at least match the money going out. Is it enough to pay current bills or do you need to delay payment or borrow operating money?

If you are an accrual business and are having great sales that may not be enough to keep your business afloat. The fly in the ointment is... are you collecting your accounts receivable at least at a rate that you need to pay your bills which are your accounts payable?

A cash flow budget is a plan to collect money from sales which is then used to pay the expenses incurred while generating those sales. If you have a surplus of cash during business operations invest it. Eventually you will be able to draw on these funds during periods when cash collections do not cover your bill payments. Should your sales and collections of receivables not cover your bills to stay in business you will need to borrow funds. Most businesses need to do this from time to time.

Your life will have less stress if you have a cash flow budget. Your backers or banker will be happier to know that you have an understanding of when you will be short of cash, and when you will have a surplus. Figure it out and plan it out.

If you need help with budgeting cash flow, send us an email at either cdi@srv.net or snap@srv.net and we will send you some links, suggestions and possible solutions.

Budgets: Part 3 - Enterprise / Job / Projects

2008-04-25T12:51:00.008-06:00

After our last posting of operational budgets for a business we received numerous calls and emails. Many of you wanted to know more about budgeting by different parts of the total business.

Great examples of budget needs for parts or areas of a business are the following:

Agriculture - By crop or livestock operation, to a field level or farm.
Agri-Business - By differing operations or locations
Construction - By type of job, such as remodels, new homes, commercial
Service Business - By truck, van, different communities, routes
Consulting Business - By customer, marketing area or projects
Software Developers - By project, product, updates or marketing area
Web designers - By customer, web site, updates or maintenance
Graphics projects - By customer, client, project
Property Management - By apartment, rental building, etc.

Budgets can be developed either manually or with the use of software. Budgets that are part of the total operation are invaluable to achieve the goals or cost management of a business.

Remember, parts of the business make up the total business. If you can identify success or failures at the lower levels of a business you, the owner or manager, can make quicker adjustments in controlling costs, time, materials or the marketing sales price of your products.

This level of overview of budget vs actual for components of the total business is once again a proven method to a successfully run business.

Budgeting: Part 2 - Operating Budgets

2008-04-21T16:12:00.003-06:00

Every business owner or manager wants to know how things are going during the year. For many the request may be about sales, costs, cash-flow or profits. Each are great indicators of what is happening in the business.

One guidepost generally overlooked is the actual for the year compared to what was planned or budgeted. Each business entity should seriously consider creating an operating budget for each year.

Your operating budget might simply be made up of last year's actual without changes or with modified numbers to reflect what you want your business to do this year compared to last year.

An operating budget plans for income, expenses, asset purchases, debt reductions, marketing, profitability and new business development (R & D). As the year progresses do a monthly or at least quarterly comparative of budget vs actual to see how your plan is working. Make changes and adjustments as needed.

Many software programs and some spreadsheets will help with planning, reviewing and tracking of budgets. Your accountant or bookkeeper can also be a great asset in this process.

Cash-flow tracking of budgeted cash-flow compared to actual cash-flow is invaluable for decision making. Cash-flow is the life blood of your business.

Budgeting: Better Road to Success - Part 1

2008-03-17T13:58:00.006-06:00

When I travel I like to look at a map or at least the itinerary of the trip and my destination. When I review the details or at least the general travel information of the trip I get a better feel for what is going to happen. In many cases the plans will get changed or be adjusted due to bad weather or other situations.

A trip for business or pleasure generally goes better if a map or plan is followed. Just taking off hoping to get somewhere usually is a waste of time and money.

The same holds true in your business. Planning is always better than no plan especially when financial objectives are at play.

Over the next postings I will discuss business budgeting using the experiences of clients, both good and bad. Budgeting is most helpful when clouds are on the horizon, yet sunny days also require budgeting as well. Stay tuned...

Part 3: How Search Engines Work

2008-03-06T18:16:00.001-07:00

By better understanding how search engines work, you can make subtle changes to your site to increase the chance that people will find you when they do a relevant search online. The science (and art) of figuring out how to improve search engine rankings by bettering your web site is called “Search Engine Optimization”, or SEO for short.

Thankfully, many SEO experts publish practical tips on increasing your search engine rankings. Here are some of them:

Plan Ahead. What keywords do you think people will use to find what you offer? Come up with a list, with the most important keywords at the top.
Use Keywords In Your Text. After you come up with your list, use those keywords on your web pages in the text of the web page. Search engines assume the text towards the top or front of the page is more important than the bottom of the page, so put your important keywords first.
Bold, Italicize, and Highlight important phrases. Search engines assume that if you've made a phrase bold, italicized, or big, then it must be more important than the rest of the text. Make sure your keywords are in there.
Use Descriptive Links. A link that says Click Here is not as helpful to humans or search engines as a link that says Learn More About Our Products. When appropriate, use keywords in the links.
Get A Keyword Analysis Audit. SEO experts invest in special software tools, reports, and programs and can give you a detailed roadmap of what to do to increase your search engine rankings. Warning: There are many SEO scams out there. You probably get SPAM e-mail from some of them. Stay away from “experts” that guarantee placement. Stick with companies you trust. See below for our recommendation.

Dan Purcell of Danemco LLC provided this content. Check it out at www.danemcoweb.com

Part 2: How Search Engines Work

2008-03-03T05:41:00.005-07:00

Step 1: The Spider Crawls the Web
The “spider” is like a robot web browser. It visits your web site link by link and remembers the text, photos, etc. on the web site. The spider gives the information it found to the engine.

Step 2: The Engine Crunches the Spider's Data
The engine takes what the spider found and organizes it. Understanding how the engine organizes this data is the key to bettering your search engine rankings. The result of the “crunching” is something called an Index. Search engines change its process from time to time– that's why nobody can claim to “guarantee” placement. Competing search engines, such as Yahoo and Google, have a different methodology as to how their engines work.

Step 3: Users “Query” the Search Engine
We ask the search engine a question by specifying keywords or phrases. The Engine looks up which pages best fit the query in its index, and sorts them by relevance. The more accurate and reliable the search engine, the more people will trust it and return to use it.

Content provided by Dan Purcell of Danemco LLC www.danemcoweb.com

E-Seminar: How Search Engines Work

2008-02-29T14:50:00.007-07:00

Did you know that U.S. Internet users conducted nearly 10 billion searches on the top four search engines in the month of December 2007 alone? Did you know that people rely on search engines to help them find their final destination on the web 50% of the time? And very few people look past the first few pages of search results? With so much dependence on Internet search technology, understanding how search engines work and how to adapt your site to rank higher can pay off.

First, a glossary of terms:

Spider – a program that “crawls” the web looking for web pages
Engine – a complex computer program that gives you the results from what you searched
Index – think of this as a phone book's yellow pages, a directory of web pages sorted by keywords and subjects

This post is part of a series on, How Search Engines Work. Content was provided by Dan Purcell www.danemcoweb.com

The big secret: ... the purpose of your web site?

2008-02-25T15:57:00.003-07:00

Continuing from the previous post:
Know what links the pages will have, what text will be on each page, and how things will flow. Some even have product images and text documents on a CD-ROM ready before the first meeting.

The big secret is this: take time to think about the purpose of your site is, what items will be on the site, etc., and demonstrate your preparedness to your web developer. Then, because you have come prepared, expect a reward. You have the footing to ask for a good deal because you have saved everyone time and money with your preparation.
Content provided by Dan Purcell of Danemco LLC
Check it out @ www.damemcoweb.com

The Secret to Getting a GREAT Deal on Web Development

2008-02-20T17:12:00.006-07:00

Having done web development for a few years, there is a secret that can give you a better negotiating stance when working out the plan for your web site.

I have worked with dozens of clients, and only a small handful have used this principle and gotten a great deal on a well-organized and well-designed web site, in a short amount of time.

There are two groups who come to me -- those who are not prepared and don't know what they want out of their web site, and those who do. Those who have come to me over the years and have given me very specific direction of what they want to achieve on their site get the better deals.

They know what they want the site to look like and can communicate it clearly. Saving time and money.

Content provide by Dan Purcell, Check it out at www.danemcoweb.com

What should I avoid in my advertising?

2008-02-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

When you are beginning a new campaign, be sure not to over-promise. You can’t do everything for everyone, everyday. Pick the best service your company can provide, and build around it. You can’t afford to make “cellophane” promises. Everybody can and will see through them. This kind of propaganda approach is a big turn-off to potential customers, and will quickly undermine all the positives in your business.

Content provided by Bonnie Green of Campbell and Associates: Smart Marketing
spongebonn@msn.com

Do I really need a web-site? Part IV—What should I avoid?

2008-02-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

If you’re going to go to the expense and time of building a web-site, don’t undermine all of your efforts by using inaccurate information or making spelling errors. If you are going to sell on-line, make sure your site is secure. Having their information stolen will definitely keep customers away. Keep your web-site fresh with tips and sale information, but don’t go crazy with flashing lights. Potential clients are looking to buy, not be annoyed. Also, budget for maintenance and up-grades, but stay in the budget. Don’t sink your physical location trying to keep your site afloat.

Bonnie Green of Campbell and Associates provided this content. sponngebonn@msn.com
Smart Marketing

Do I really need a web-site? Part III—What should I include?

2008-02-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

Your website is a great place to put the same type of information you have in a traditional brochure. It’s perfect for showcasing your products and telling potential buyers more about your services. People are looking to save time, so be sure to tell them who you are and why you are in business. Put your motto on the first page, and your logo on every page. Above all, keep it simple. If the customer gets lost on your web-site, it’s almost certain he/she won’t be a returning customer.

Bonnie Green provides this content. sponnbonn@msn.com
Campbell and Associates : Smart Marketing