Will You Add? - Business

Chemistry is King When it Comes to Interviewing Successfully
Pornography is "hard to to define," but "I know it when I see it," wrote former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964.Chemistry between two individuals is another gray area that can be equally difficult to explain. In the context of a job interview, how is it you can have two candidates with comparable backgrounds, experience and skill sets: one the client loves while the other they could care less if they ever see again.You may be thinking, "That's obvious: it's a personality issue"--and I would agree, to an extent. But you don't have to dislike someone's personality to not have chemistry with them. I've interviewed a number of very likable (and capable) people that for whatever reason did not make a favorable i

tion of the company to the ownership, the employees and the public.

Advertising on Local Cable or Radio, Which is Best and Why?
Most advertising executives and their sales forces will have all sorts of statistics why radio is better than cable television advertising or why cable advertising is better than radio. And each set of statistics is rather convincing indeed.Yet they contradict each other completely, but why? Well simple really you see the radio advertising sales people want you to put your advertising budget, all of it with them, while the Cable TV advertising executives are dead set on capturing your advertising dollar to their firm.No doubt they are competing media and often the same company owns both and will either try to give you an advertising marketing mix or attempt to fill up whatever slots of whichever media needs to be filled

The objective of strategic planning is many times confused with that of a business plan. Whereas the strategic plan may be a part of a complete business plan, the timeframe and purpose is different and distinct. A strategic plan constructs a concept of the future of an industry or business and provides a roadmap to successfully guide the company to a set of goals in a defined point in time in that future.

Normally, the decision to develop a new strategic plan is triggered because some area of the business is not achieving the results the ownership has hoped or something new and unexpected has changed in the marketplace. Traditionally, the approach for developing a strategic plan was to define the market size, customers profile and competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Then, the preparer would review the company’s past financial performance, determine its key customers’ characteristics, calculate its market share and access how the company stacked up against its existing known competition. Using the past rate of growth to project the future, some optimistic, usually unrealistic, goals were established without a clear method of measuring whether they were ever obtained. The process usually involved only a small group of top executives and resulted in a document that quickly became obsolete. Because it was designed to meet yesterday’s needs, this type of strategic plan was eventually placed on the book shelf beside all the others that preceded it.

Strategic planning in today’s rapidly changing environment must not be constrained and limited by the past definitions of the industry, market, products/services, customers or competition. To be successful and usable as a functioning guide to the future, the strategic plan must be adaptable, sustainable and comprehensive. The entire organization must accept it intellectually and emotionally. In other words, the strategic plan becomes the essence of the vision and direction of the company to the ownership, the employees and the public.

Advertising With Safelists
Have you tried advertising using safelists? I have and I have found the whole process to be very frustrating. There is a great deal of work involved in safelist advertising. You need to write your ads so that they will capture attention. Your headline is probably the most important part of safelist advertising because that is what people will skim over to decide whether or not they are going to read your email. I know that I am subscribed to several safelists and if the headline doesn’t sound interesting, it goes right in the trash. I also automatically delete headlines that are exactly the same. So to be successful you need to be creative.I am not sure that safelist advertising is worth the time you need to put into it to be

e some area of the business is not achieving the results the ownership has hoped or something new and unexpected has changed in the marketplace. Traditionally, the approach for developing a strategic plan was to define the market size, customers profile and competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Then, the preparer would review the company’s past financial performance, determine its key customers’ characteristics, calculate its market share and access how the company stacked up against its existing known competition. Using the past rate of growth to project the future, some optimistic, usually unrealistic, goals were established without a clear method of measuring whether they were ever obtained. The process usually involved only a small group of top executives and resulted in a document that quickly became obsolete. Because it was designed to meet yesterday’s needs, this type of strategic plan was eventually placed on the book shelf beside all the others that preceded it.

How To Build and Maximize the Power of Your Database
If you have read any of my previous articles, you know that I am a big advocate of database management. The purpose of this article is to dig deeper into the nuts and bolts of how to build, develop, and maximize your database with the goal of increasing your profits.Many business people do not even have a database, and those that do many times do not consider it anything more than an electronic rolodex designed to keep track of phone numbers and email addresses. I can tell you from personal experience that a database, if properly cultivated, can be so much more, and can in fact be one of the keys to increasing your business.We will explore the following five key elements of building a successful database in this artic

its existing known competition. Using the past rate of growth to project the future, some optimistic, usually unrealistic, goals were established without a clear method of measuring whether they were ever obtained. The process usually involved only a small group of top executives and resulted in a document that quickly became obsolete. Because it was designed to meet yesterday’s needs, this type of strategic plan was eventually placed on the book shelf beside all the others that preceded it.

Local Government Relations for Small Business
Most small businesses simply go about their daily business and serving customers without ever worrying about local government relations. For some it turns out okay but for others it can become a disaster. You never know when a new project down the street may call for new plans to adjust the roads or put in center medians. If you are on a busy road you rely on traffic from both directions. A five-month road project can kill a business and what if it is in your busy season. If you are in retail that could be Christmas Time; imagine half you customers not being able to turn into your driveway? Then imagine after the holidays are over you have to deal with a center median which does not allow cross-over traffic. Or a do not cross over th

eded it.

Brand Name Identity in the Oil Business
I submit to you that Brand Name Identity in the Oil Business is just a important today as it was when Mobil Oil and McDonalds were building their brands. Perhaps in the future it may even be more so. I have often seen others using our business name and sought either injunction or stern warning. As a matter of fact I am preparing a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission for using one of his Brand Names and Federal Trademark in their Key Words and Meta Tags on the Federal Website, to attract visitors; a lawsuit which would have enough case law behind it to slam down the Federal Trade Commission with the help of the US Patent and Trademark Office.When picking a name or a company in the Oil Industry you might want to be cogn

tion of the company to the ownership, the employees and the public.

This is accomplished by "starting with the end". Beginning with an open mind and a blank sheet of paper, what is possible in the next three to five years? Dare to challenge some basic assumptions and break down the walls you constructed around your vision of your business! What will be your customers’ wants and expectations? What new uses will exist for your products and services? What new markets and opportunities will be possible in the future? Will new competition come from other companies like yours or alternative product and service providers? Are there operational cost reductions or productivity developments on the drawing board? What industry trends could be adjusted because of governmental oversight and regulations? Will there be shortages or new materials that will change your supply chain practices? How many of these possible changes can you influence and manage? What contingencies should you include in your planning process for those you cannot control?

Once a clear and concise vision of the future of three to five years out is defined and supported by the planning group, ownership and top management should set of goals for the company (revenues, net profit, gross margin, return on investment, etc.) as a whole and each major functional area (sales, operations, financial, human resources, R&D, etc.). Quantitative measures of success must be established for each goal both for the end of the planning period and for various milestones along the way.

Each total company goal should be analyzed as to what changes and actions will be required in the present operation of each major functional area in order to achieve success within the timeframe of the planning period. Viewing where each functional area is currently positioned from the point of where it needs to be in the future will form an outline of what has to be accomplished along the way. It must also be recognized that these changes and actions will not necessary result in linear improvements and may impact the short term performance of that group as well as other functional areas. For example, a planned implementation of new personnel software system may affect hiring procedures in human resources, payroll processing in accounting and employee communications in operations.

It is important to involve the entire organization in the tactical portion of

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Customers encounter your brand in numerous ways: products, packaging, price, marketing, sales personnel, etc. Each of these contacts or touchpoints molds the customer's impression of the brand. Some of these touchpoints are obvious, like product performance, and 1-on-1 customer interactions. Other touchpoints like the product manual, monthly statements or post-sales support, may be subtler in their brand affects.

In the fundraising profession, the act of requesting funds from a donor is called “the ask.” When you are writing a fundraising letter and you arrive at the place where you must actually, ahem, request a donation, you have arrived at the ask. And the ask, as you probably know, is one of the toughest things to get right in fundraising.

You've bought a great suit and a pair of new shoes. You're preparing to interview for a new job for which you feel very qualified. But you need help assessing the value of your skills and experience to calculate a respectable salary. You want to pinpoint a salary that you feel confident asking for and that your future employer will feel comfortable paying you. How do you figure out what you're worth and actually get it?

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Will You Add? - Strategic Planning-Start with the End

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