Articles
Document Scanning Services: Needed Or Not?
It is hard to imagine anyone in today's age of computers not being able to scan a document, let alone know what to do with it once it is scanned. Yet, there are countless services offering to do just that--scan, upload and make your file as you want. Whether you want...
Conducting An Effective Customer Satisfaction Program
Most customer interaction studies have a couple of core issues that we'd like to measure. Among the top are: satisfaction, importance, and loyalty. Satisfaction is how satisfied are your customers with respects to the various services and attributes of your engagement...
Benchmarking: Avoid comparing yourself to the industry average.
Most organizations conduct employee surveys of various types either annually, every two years or sporadically. Some organizations use the data from the employee survey to affect real change that contributes to their ongoing success. There are organizations who like to...
Better Than E-mail, Guaranteed
There's a rampaging fascination with E-mail. People send out billions and billions of messages every day. And they're missing out on a more effective tool. So what could be better than E-mail? What guarantees effective communication? What always lets you accomplish...
Action Vs. Inaction
Spring is a great antidote to long cold winters. It's the same with action and inaction. Action is a powerful antidote to the stagnation of inactivity. Being creatively alive involves abandoning a position of inaction in circumstances which have traditionally...
A ‘Four Square’ Statement
Here's a quick and simple way to develop a strategic plan for any written document. And while it doesn't require much actual writing, it will help you focus your attention and get a better response to your message. Take a sheet of paper and divide it into about four...
5 Mistakes I made in 2005
Even though I’m pretty happy with how 2005 turned out, there are still some things I wish I had done differently. Here are 5 things I aim to change for 2006 1. Didn’t take time out for me. I admit it, I have the typical entrepreneur bug. I spent way too much time...
10 Ways To Stimulate Employee Motivation
Today’s fast-moving business environment demands that the effective manager be both a well-organized administrator and highly adept in understanding people’s basic needs and behaviour in the workplace. Gaining commitment, nurturing talent, and ensuring employee...
5 Reasons Why Recordkeeping Is So Important
When you decided to start your business, was your first priority concerned with setting up your filing system for recording your expenses? I seriously doubt it. This simple task (yes it is simple) is usually the item that is the last thing on the new business owner’s...
5 Hidden Traps in Meetings
If you have sat through a few bad meetings, you must have experienced the following traps. Here they are and how to fix them. 1) People think they are experts. Many people tell me that they know how to hold a meeting. Actually, all they do is host a party. They invite...
4 Tips To Ensure A Rewarding Experience When Hiring Others
Hiring an employee can be a big step for many small business owners. It means the end of doing EVERYTHING yourself and passing off some of the work! In order to make the experience rewarding for both you and your employees there are a few things that every boss and...
4 Better Ways to Handle Complaints
If you WOW a customer at the Moment of Truth , the average customer will walk away and tell 5 people about the experience. If you fail to meet the customer's expectations at the Moment of Truth , customers are very likely to tell 11 people about the problem they had...
Four Lessons For The Underdog On How To Win In Business
The biblical story of David and Goliath is one pondered every day by many in the business world who face adversity and adversaries that seem unconquerable. As stories go, this one is captivating because it pits a seemingly weaker opponent, David, against the almighty...
3 Steps to Stop Absence and Make People Happy At Work
If you're an employer or a manager then work place absence is costing you money, inconvenience, and upsetting your customers. And as we all know, not all days taken off work are due to genuine sickness. Many employees "take a sickie" because their morale is low and...
3 Myths That Ruin Meetings
These myths have cost companies billions of dollars in wasted payroll money. Myth #1) Structure spoils spontaneity. I once attended a two-day long disaster that easily cost over $40,000. Thirty people spent the first hour seeking an issue to discuss, then spent the...
3 Lessons About Meetings from the Forest
Here are three lessons about meetings that came from a walk through the forest. 1) Giant Sequoias These marvelous trees are a living example that some things take time. True, we need to work with a sense of urgency. We need to do more with less. We need to move faster...
‘Greed Is Good’ – Remuneration, Motivation And Organisation
The 1980's business culture in the USA and internationally put a considerable emphasis on personal reward on the basis that highly motivated individuals could transform organisations and societies. The extreme example in film was Gordon Gekko in Wall Street stating...
Project Planning: A Step by Step Guide
The key to a successful project is in the planning. Creating a project plan is the first thing you should do when undertaking any kind of project. Often project planning is ignored in favour of getting on with the work. However, many people fail to realise the value...
Why Your Projects Are Not Being Completed
Here are 5 common reasons why your projects are going over schedule, over budget, and generally under expectations of quality. 1. Overextending on your resources: Or simply doing more than what your resources whether it be in finances, human capital, strategic...
5 Reasons You Should Outsource Your Online Tasks
If you've been online for a while, either as an internet user searching for information or an online business owner, you might have seen the ups and downs of entrepreneurs. You may also, for some extends, get frustrated by the result of your online activities....
Why Team Building Is Vital to Your Success
Great teamwork is one of the most important keys to your company’s success. The more harmoniously people work together, the better it is for your company. Teamwork is the way that things get done these days – and if you don’t have a cohesive team, you’re seriously...
Why Discussion Fails to Produce Results in Meetings
Most people use discussion for their meetings. And it seldom works. Here’s why. 1) No structure Discussion is like conversation in that it is a free-form dialogue without any direction. Each person responds to what the last person said. While this can produce...
A Woman’s Journey To Becoming An Intuitive Leader
"Young lady, are you sure you're in the right place?" Those were the first words spoken to me when, at the tender age of 25, I attended my first trade show in Europe. I was sent to represent my family’s interests after the passing of my father, a great and prolific...
Why Communicate When Nothing Happens?
Not long ago, after consultations with others in an association I represent, I made a partnership pitch to another organization with similar interests. If the idea had been accepted, it would have radically changed our organizations. So, you can imagine my impatience...
