How are you feeling about the downturn? Governments may not yet officially have declared a recession, but the media and millions of ordinary people have. A knee jerk response for many businesses is to ‘batten down the hatches’, cut budgets and let people go.

But no matter what the economic climate, people will still buy what they want and need. The real battleground will be the value people see they are getting for what they spend. And the winners will be companies who take the opportunity to build a really strong organization. The biggest risk you can take is to try to survive doing business as usual!

What is the Opportunity? Read the rest of this entry »

As a customer, I know what it’s like to be on the customers side of the counter. You want to turn over your hard earned money for goods or services. You are then confronted with attitude, rudeness and utter disregard for just how hard you have worked for your dollar. Either the service is slow and the quality of the goods are poor, or worse the company you are patronizing rigidly enforces poor policies for handling customer issues.

As a business owner I realize the cost of poor service. Poor service decreases impulse purchases, leads to a reduction in repeat business, causes lack of referrals and negatively impacts customer relationships. When you are trying to build a business in a competitive market each of these are critical to your success. In an environment where customers have a dozen or more purchase options it is imperative that great care be taken to build your business.

How are you doing at building your business with customer service? Consider how you would handle the following customer interactions: Read the rest of this entry »

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and give them a reason to keep reading. You have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity. Here are five ways you can get creative.

The main ingredient in writing an article is creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some of us get writers block. It can be a hair pulling ordeal just to get your creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? That’s a fair question but unfortunately, there’s no surefire ways to get those perfect ideas to pop into your head. But, there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing and put you into a perfect mindset and state of mind. Here are five of them Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing a Virtual Assistant Business is crucial to your success whether it’s through networking, word of mouth, or other methods. There are several ways to market your Virtual Assistant Business, but we are going to discuss some of the common methods.

1) Networking

Many Virtual Assisstants (VA) utilize this method and have been very successful in growing their businesses. By networking with other Virtual Assistants, not only are you building relationships, you’re also building possible partnerships. The majority of Virtual Assistants subcontract out work to other VAs that they know and trust.

Building genuine relationships can have a two fold effect. One is that you have gained a friend who you can exchange problems, business advice, and successes with. The other is that they will be more willing to subcontract work to you, and this can help you to build your business and portfolio. Read the rest of this entry »

1) Set aside some time, even if it s just an hour every day looking for jobs. If you do it in the morning, it ll make you feel better later in the day, as you ll feel you are taking steps towards your job-hunting process. If you have a partner, they will appreciate it too, knowing you are making good use of your time.

2) Customize your resume for each job that you re applying for, writing in greater depth about the skills required for the job. This will bring greater prominence and attention to the employer.

3) Make sure that you have all the buzzwords on your resume, as agencies mainly identify candidates through searches. Read the rest of this entry »

The Internet is a modern day Gold Rush! It seems that almost everybody is looking to start an online business and make their fortune! Just search for “Online Business Opportunities” and you will be overwhelmed by the thousands of options available.

Before you go parting with your hard earned cash it is worth thinking the process through. You are entering into the world of the online entrepreneur and you will need certain skills to survive and flourish there. This article looks at the characteristics you will need in this world; some you may already have, others you will have to learn. But without them you will certainly struggle with your new endeavour.

The word “Entrepreneur” can be defined in many ways. It is about clarifying one’s vision, taking action, and bringing that vision to life. In simple terms it’s getting your butt off the sofa and actually making something happen – rather than drifting through life as a couch potato who’s biggest concern is what’s happening in the latest TV soap!

There are certain qualities or attitudes of mind that all successful entrepreneurs have: Read the rest of this entry »

On March 16, 2009 President Obama, in a long awaited address, finally reached out to the 27.2 million small businesses in this country and extended his hand. He may not have gone to the mountain, but he certainly walked down Main Street and acknowledged the perils of struggling small business owners. And it was just a matter of time that he did so. After all, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Recovery Act”) nicely laid out beneficial provisions for small businesses and just as promised, regulations have come out by the SBA to start the ball rolling. And I’m not talking about more government promises or red tape, but bottom line capital to be infused into the coffers of deserving business owners. So let’s roll up our sleeves and see one of the more important elements that was put into place on Monday.

When the Small Business Act was enacted in 1958, it had a very simple mission. Find Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve built a successful business or practice. You have an established customer base and you’re well-known in your geographical area – but now the economy is ruining your best laid plans! How do you weather the economic turbulence? How do you take your company to the next level during a recession?

Here are some ways to save money and grow your business during these difficult times:

1. Create worst case scenario/year-long cash flow scenario.

Take your current budget and give your revenues a huge haircut. This will allow you to see if you can weather the storm with less income coming in, but all of the same costs. Create a Plan A and a Plan B.

2. Incentivize cost savings.

Ask employees for cost saving ideas, after all they know the details of the business better than you. Offer to give them a percentage of the cost savings, or a gift certificate, or paid day off for their cost saving ideas.

3. Don’t sacrifice quality when cutting costs.

You could downsize your staff, but would your business run as smoothly. You can order cheaper supplies, but will you need to throw away half of them because they are sub par. Read the rest of this entry »

The economy being what it is, I’ve been wondering how secure my job is and how to best set myself up should the friendly pink slip be on my desk tomorrow morning.

Last week a friend put a help wanted ad in the newspaper. This is something he does in March for seasonal help. The past couple of years he received two resumes in response to his ad. This week he received 75.

These days, more than ever, a resume has to have some punch to even get noticed. Imagine having to read 200 resumes and short list it to 10. Until the stack of resumes is whittled down to Read the rest of this entry »

Almost all of us are fond of overspending! We buy things we don’t really need. Once we see something that catches our eyes, we automatically buy it – often without even thinking if we still have money or not.

People usually do this in order to please themselves. And lots of them have their own credit cards as a reserve once they run out of cash. They tend to spend a large amount of money in order to serve their caprices or to make them feel better about themselves. Unfortunately, this never really works, and it causes more damage than it cures.

Almost everybody has a credit file, maintained by a credit reference agency. Many people have bad credit facts on their files, such as defaults and bad payment history. This means that when these people apply for credit, such as loans, mortgages, credit cards, car finance or even for a simple bank account, they may be turned away.

Sometimes these people are not even aware of their credit information and credit files, which cause them to have a bad credit.

Having bad credit can adversely affect every aspect of your life. A low credit score means severe financial limitations and difficulties. As if this is not enough, you will also have handfuls of credit councilors and other so called money managers trying to take even more from you with their debt consolidation plans that promise to “cut your payments in half”, “save you thousands”, or our personal favorite – “get you out of debt with the click of a mouse”.

If only our computer mouse had the debt relief magic that those bad credit spam emails promise. Although getting out of debt can’t be done with a click of a mouse button, it’s probably not as difficult as you think.

If you are in this kind of predicament, it is imperative for…
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