Thursday, May 13, 2010

How to Find The Customers

When seeking your ideal customer, you need to engage in market research and a number of other things that will draw them into your company. Here are some tips that will help you find your ideal customer:
  1. Attend conferences. One of the best ways to network with your customers and find out what they are interested in is by going to conferences. These events give you a chance to branch out to a new audience and interact with other businesses that may be able to help expand your business. Depending upon which type of conference it is you may want to rent a booth where you can interact with your customers and show them some of your products and services. Find out who is hosting the conference and try to book a workshop or keynote address if possible in order to reach out to your customers. This is also a great way to set your business apart in the industry and show others you are here to stay. Keep a stack of business cards with you to pass out when you meet with your customers. Business cards are a simple marketing tool that can help your business attract new customers.
  2. Change your marketing strategy. If your customers are not responding to the marketing efforts you are doing, it may be time to change them up. Print ads are effective but if you haven't created a new print ad in a few months or years, you are behind the times and it's time to update them. You also need to branch out to your customers by getting online and finding your customers on social media sites, blogs, etc.
  3. Do your customers come to you? Do your customers come into the store and meet with you and do they have positive interactions with you? Customer service is one of the best ways to convince your customers to come back for more. Training of your employees is essential to creating strong customer service connections. When you focus on training employees teach them how to handle customer complaints and make the customer feel as if they are right even if they aren't. One way to impress the customer is the way you dress. If your employees are dressed in sloppy clothes, it gives an immediate impress to the customer that you have lazy employees. Dressing your staff in business clothing's like slacks or skirts and professional tops will provide a different image to the customer. What your employees wear really does send a different message and can be the difference you need to show customers you are a professional organization.
Customers appreciate a business that provides them with a personalized message and products. You must be able to find a way to reach out to them in a way that your competition doesn't do. Sending out direct mail pieces can help your existing customers to come back for more. When sending out a direct mail piece you will need to offer your existing customers some type of discount or offer that will entice them to head to your website or contact your company.

Bosses You Wish Doesn't Exist

Most of us spend one-third of our time a day at work. Deducting the average eight-hour sleeping time, we spend at least half of our waking time at work. Majority of our working time are spent with customers, business partners, colleagues, and the topic of the day: The Boss. 

How many of you are swallowing unreasonable and unbearable bosses behaviour to get a pay check? Many self-help and motivation books will tell you to fire your extreme boss: Nobody deserves mental torture and humiliation from a place you spend most of your time at. 

The bosses could be stressed with sales figures, deadlines, customers’ demands, but all that do not give anyone an excuse to continually vent their frustrations on human. What then, are the three types of horrendous boss you wish they don’t exist? 

The Belligerent
You are in a meeting presenting a marketing plan—that you have spent two weeks of sweat—to the management. Everybody nods at what you said and you are confident of your proposal. Mark, a senior executive in the company who was late for the meeting, steps in and you could feel the ground trembling. Suddenly, your heart begins to pound faster and you could hear your voice going lower. You have an unstoppable reason not to continue your speech: Mark is confrontational, pointed, aggressive, and the ultimate pusher. Everyone knows nothing is pleasing to Mark’s ears and every sentence you said will receive a grenade. Does this sound familiar? 

The Belligerents "attack" when they want to get things done; it’s their way of asserting the authority through aggression. Watch your emotions when dealing with The Belligerent: Do not attempt to counterattack, defend, or shut down. 

The Belligerents do not attack at those they respect. Thus, when they throw a grenade, let it blast fully, and acknowledge receipt with an assertive response. 

The Inept 
You were two minutes late for work today and Peter is waiting for you at your workstation, with a stare. He "strolls" the office daily for latecomers in the morning and early boomers in the evening, but Peter takes three-hour "business" lunch every day, and claims for all of them. 

The Inepts are incompetent in their work and are thus uptight with their subordinates’ performances. Their primary role is to secure and keep their job! 

You were in the Pantry when Peter’s boss called. Unfamiliar with a project status, Peter walks to you at the Pantry: You have to prompt him the answers questioned by the boss. 

Mistaken that the tele-conversation has ended, you turn your back to Peter and continue making your coffee. Suddenly, you feel something on your right shoulder and realises that Peter has thrown a table cloth at you! Speechless, you walk away and did not help him with the last answer. 

The Bedevilment
It’s ten in the evening and you are still in the office. Your male boss presented himself with an excuse to pick up some documents and insisted to drive you home. With another excuse to discuss a project, you reluctantly end up at a lounge drinking with him. 

The Bedevilments are high-profiled male executives who abuse their authority on female colleagues and forbid other male colleagues to get close to their "target". 

Soon, rumours spread that you are seducing your boss! 

You wish all these are fictions, but they are not. If you have encountered any of the above examples, update your resume.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Office is Not Important


I had an interesting conversation about my view that management control over employees is a myth. I have believed for some time now that an office is often a total waste of money and completely unnecessary. Most of the time I’m told it’s OK when you work by yourself, but not if you have employees, as they need to be supervised and somehow “controlled”.
I have now been working for almost ten years from home, and most of my staff works from home too. Apart from being an eco-friendly way to work, it saves people time and frustration to travel in and around London to come to an office, where we all sit in cubicles or offices. In the days of broadband internet, Skype and OnlineOffice, there is no need for an office, even to have meetings.
Offices, like cars are are often nothing else but status symbols – what other reason can there be for a small business to have an office? If that is true then how is the office helping with your business, it’s a big expense. Seriously, if you do not have clients coming thru your office doors several times every day, why have the office. Even if you have, do really all your people need to be in the office every day? I guess not!
We are in an economic downturn, what is more important – your ego or your business – ask yourself that every time you walk into your office. I’m sure there a good reasons for some micro businesses to have offices, even so I currently can’t think of any, but I’m convinced in most cases a healthy bootstrapping and outsourcing mentality would be more beneficial for your business.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Transformational Leadership

Achievement of corporate goals and employee goals at once is no easy task. This is very important, because the effectiveness of a leader is measured from the performance and growth of the organization he leads and the satisfaction of the followers of pemimpinannya. Therefore, a leader must be able to influence followers to accept the request without using the compulsion so voluntarily subordinates will behave and perform according to the demands of the organization through referrals leaders.

To be able to influence the behavior and performance of followers, we need a certain leadership styles or behaviors. Where is the leadership style which is owned by a leader in a company with one another there is no equality, if there are similarities perhaps from one side only, while the other side there are differences.
Leadership or leadership is a process of directing and influencing work-related activities of member groups. According to the Hersey and Blanchard, leadership is a process of influencing the activities of individuals or groups in an effort to achieve goals in specific situations. Leadership is a style of a leader affects the subordinate, in order to cooperate and work effectively in accordance with his orders.
Leadership style is what caused a person elected as a leader or manager, because it is most closely associated with corporate goals are achieved, the types of activities should be led, the workforce characteristics, motives, and other businesses. According to Stoner terms of leadership style or leadership style is: different patterns of behavior are favored by the leaders involved in the process of directing.
One theory is the most comprehensive change agent is the theory of transformational leadership was first developed by James MacGregor Burns in a political context. The theory further refined and introduced into the organizational context by Bernard Bass.
Basically, the theory of transformational leadership emphasizes the importance of a leader create a vision and motivating environment for subordinates to perform beyond expectations. In this case, the subordinates feel trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect for the leaders, so they are motivated to do more than what they expected. Even sometimes beyond what they thought they could do. This leadership model is based more on efforts to transform the leader of various values, beliefs, and needs of subordinates.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Get the Better Payment Term!


There are two ways to get better payment terms from your suppliers – make sure you know what the pricing is and negotiate the payment terms last, without warning. Most businesses do not expect small business and start-up business to negotiate payment terms, so you have the element of surprise on your side – and it makes you look more professional.
Firstly there is the extended payment term, of 60, 90 and 180 days – see if your supplier will allow any of those terms. Even if they only give you 60 days, you can always go back after 3-4 month using this payment terms in which you have shown to be trustworthy. If it is declined and only 30 days are offered – because you have no history – then this is the perfect scenario of our second method.
Early payment discounts of 2% if you pay within 7 days. This is like a 24% p.a. discount on the invoice value, not a bad way to compensate for the overdraft interest charges from your bank.
Surly you supplier is interested in your business, and is not going to decline both offers – you win either way – if they decline, then look for a new supplier. Because you are not only helping yourself with your cash-flow, but theirs too.

The Importance of Work Environment

Creating a positive working environment is important to strengthen employee morale. Stress can cripple your staff and make for a toxic working environment. When employees are overworked, they will experience high loads of stress which can lead to illnesses, reduced employee morale, lower productivity, and several other issues. The attitude a manager brings to the office can lead to higher amounts of stress. Are you coming into work with a dictatorship working style? Do your employees run around like crazy when you are in the office because they are trying to please you? 


A manager that causes stress in the workplace is not respected by their employees. Instead they are feared by their employees. The employees do not have a desire to work for you and they are going through the motions to get by. The productivity and morale will be low because you are causing high amounts of stress on your staff.

To develop a strong work balance and provide your employees with a healthy working environment, here are some tips:
  • Improve the physical working environment. A big stress to employees is the way the office is set up. Are your employees stuck in awkward positions when they are working? The working posture and positions you employees are in can cause stress on your employees. Introduce a healthy working environment by changing their desks, chairs, etc. An ergonomic working environment actually does reduce stress and will boost productivity as well as employee morale. Rearrange the office to make it easier to get around and to help your employees perform their job duties effectively.
  • Reduce their workloads. Employees always have a desire to please their boss, this often leads to them taking on large workloads and they may be unable to complete their work in a timely manner. Sit down with your employees and talk about their workloads. If you see that an employee is looking stressed, try to reduce their workload. Make sure the employees all have a balanced workload so they can perform their job duties effectively and efficiently.
  • Introduce exercise into the office. Try introducing a wellness program into the office to make everyone reduce their stress loads. Offer an on-site gym, add gym memberships to your list of employee perks, or try including an extra 30 minutes of "exercise time" during office hours. Encourage your employees to head to the break room for a yoga class or head outside for a nice walk. Including exercise in the workday provides your employees with stress reduction they need to perform their job duties easier and they will be much happier when doing so.
  • Take a look at your office environment. Are there things that are causing additional stress to your employees? Lighting plays a huge role in stress and employee morale. If your employees do not have enough exposure to natural sunlight, it leads to depression and stress. You can purchase new lights that actually mimic sunlight and have been shown to improve employee's moods and working environment. Wall colors can cause employees to feel stressed. Repaint the office soothing tones like light blue and tan as these colors help to soothe your staff and can provide a harmonious working environment.
  • Introduce laughter into the workplace. The easiest way reduce stress is to crack a joke with your employees and help them to lighten up a little bit. Laughter is one of the best ways to reduce tension in the office and to make your employees get along easier. Your personality plays a huge role in developing a relaxed and comfortable workplace where your employees will relax and become productive.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Internet Marketing Business

Internet can be used as a source of additional income. Through the internet marketing business, for some people the internet is a source of reliable income. Many people are interested to earn money from internet marketing business. In general, they rely on Google to find more information about internet marketing business.

Internet already is one tool that can be used to multiply the money through the internet marketing business, with little capital to start a blog so we can follow a variety of programs that can generate money, such as by following the PPC program (Pay-Per-click), Paid Reviews , or an Affiliate, or commonly known as the Multiple Sources of Income.

Automatic Money Machine Automated Money Machine or System of a lot of us met on a business ad or sales letter internet business. There are people who interpret it the automatic cash machines like physical machines or let's say money printing factory run automatically using a high-tech robots, there are those who interpret the automatic cash machines as a business system that any time can make money on the owner, there are also those who say automated cash machine does not exist.

In today's media with the internet already so wide and then run all the activities including a business becomes easier and without limits. When the usually marketed products or services offline is usually done in places of business as the store or through a network marketing business, now can sell products or services on the Internet using a website that directly markets become more widespread, the market could reach all of Indonesia market as well as a greater direct again to markets worldwide.