Whether you are just starting out in a business or a seasoned "professional" you should have a contract when doing business - if not for your own safety, but for the safety of your clients.

Not a day goes by that I don`t hear horror stories about mi...

The purpose of a resume is to get an interview. If you are not getting interviews, chances are that your resume is not doing its job. Either that, or you?re not applying for the right jobs! You can go a long way to having success with your job search by remembering a few simple ideas related to resu...

Does having an ebook cover or mini-site header graphic on your website increase your sales or does it hurt your business in through long run. Having been in the graphic design business for over 2 years now, here are a few things that I?ve learned that it all comes down to; professional images. Do yo...

Searching for employment is one of the most nerve-racking activities to engage in. As if the direct need for income is not stressful enough, the process of writing a résumé, networking in your industry, and applying for jobs can leave anyone shaking in their tracks. Once you have hit the pavement ...

If you follow the prevailing logic of most modern companies, you will inevitably fall into this trap. Line extension is using an existing brand name or image and extending it to new products. Sounds like a good idea, right? Why not use the equity of your known brand to draw attention to a new pro...

For centuries companies have used on-the-job training (OJT). OJT works because it follows much of what we know about adult learning theory. For example, we know: 1. Adults learn best when new learning can be applied immediately. 2. Much of classroom ?learning? is lost because it does not transfer ...

Outsourcing has been the cause of much debate in recent times. There have been arguments for and against outsourcing. The supporters of outsourcing are primarily those motivated by the desire to cut costs and streamline their business processes while those against outsourcing are those primarily aff...

Pssst, want a stock tip that will make you rich? Okay, here it is: phone a public corporation and ask to speak with the CEO. If a secretary tells you that the CEO expects to be busy in meetings for the next six hundred years, call your broker and sell the stock short. Any company unable to manage...

7 Qualities Of A Strong Brand: 1. Commands premium pricing while retaining loyalty 2. Shortens the sales cycle 3. Deflects competition 4. Resists commoditization 5. Establishes top of mind awareness (mindshare) 6. Generates referral ?word of mouth? momentum 7. Meets and exceeds shareholder expectati...

Metric fasteners are fasteners that are manufactured and labeled according to a worldwide standard of measurement. That worldwide standard is set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. That worldwide standard is based on the metric system....

Many people in business lay-out (design) their own ads. That old adage "If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me" prevails. Do it yourself and you may get what you want. Many newspaper salespeople are poor at conveying customer wants to the design department, and slow are retunring proofs. The result is an ad ...

It`s a well-known fact that it costs many times more to acquire a new customer than to keep doing business with your existing ones. For this reason, the best way to become profitable is to have loyal customers who keep coming back again and again. It`s all about relationship building. So what can yo...

Our calendars are full, and our to-do lists are long. We live in a world that seems to bring more information, expectations and options to us each day and all of these things tend to accelerate the pace of our lives. There was a time, not that long ago that a trip across the United States. would ta...

When you are creating an ad to generate a desired result, it is sometimes not possible (or affordable) to tell all the rationale in the time or space allotted. Therefore, it is best to deliver a stimulus that says, "I`d be nuts not to look further into this." If you give them enough information to f...

Cold Water Comments - What They Are and How to Manage Them!

Cold Water Comments are those comments, phrases and ideas that are meant to discourage, disparage, discredit and generally douse your ideas!  There are several things you can do to keep those comments in someone?s b...

Babies make the best and the worst subjects to photograph. They are the best for two reasons, people are more tolerant at looking at baby photos, as well as the fact that babies are not aware their image is being captured, and therefore they do not tend to put on the ?camera face? so typically used ...

"Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense." This Ralph Waldo Emerson quote opens one of the most impressive works on customer service: Michael LeBoeuf`s book How To Win Customers and Keep Them For Life. I am a fan of the book, and of the man, who has become a good frien...

There are various ways to purchase highly targeted advertising at very low prices. Google AdWords is one simple and quick way to to do this. Regardless of your budget, you can actually get your text ads appearing on search result pages within minutes! You can also target your ad to a specific langu...

One of the most important responsibilities any executive must handle is seeing that his company gets "the most" from its workers. This is particularly so when it comes to creativeness- the production of the ideas upon which the company is dependent to make money, or to operate efficiently and at a p...

HANDLING OBJECTIONS Sales presentation is not always going to be plain sailing. You must expect objections. The important thing is to know this and be prepared to deal with them. Welcome them as sign of interest which can be turned to your advantage. Most of the objections we come across will arise ...

This feature has been around since I started in the cash register business some 25+ years ago. I haven?t heard POS salespeople talk about this for over a decade and if it isn?t being used in your business you are opening yourself up for theft and possibly armed robbery of your business. All cash reg...

One of the tactics I love to employ in the landing of new clients is something I call an "Info Storm." Here`s the basic idea. You meet a new prospect, go over the solutions you have for and then jointly decide on some next steps involved in them hiring you. Now, most people go away promising to send...

We already know this from our history books. If you want to make money today, you must first look back in time to the first time in history that a large portion of our country all tried to get rich at the same time in the same place. The first discovery of gold was at Sutter`s Mill by James W. Marsh...

Out of the blue a business contacts you wanting to use one of your pics. They have seen it at your web site, on your blog or at an exhibition and are requesting availability and price. After the warm glow wears off how do work out what it is worth? What can you ask for and still get the sale? But yo...

The most critical job of a manager, when you boil it all down, is communication. To be successful, a manager has to be effective in communicating one-on-one, in writing and in groups. While weakness in any of these three disciplines will compromise the ability to lead, the weakness most often seen i...

Dumb Excuse #1 "I`m not sure I want to invest any money in my internet business right now." Yes, it`s sad to say but I hear this one from time to time. Let me be very frank with you. If you`ve already checked out my own top search rankings and still don`t quite understand just what a top search engi...

A telecommunication tool that sends and receives documents or graphics via telephone lines is known as ?fax machine?. Fax machine is basically a package of image scanner, a modem and a computer printer. Scanner is used to convert the content of physical documents into digital image whereas modem sen...

You get a flash of inspiration and an interesting topic for an article comes into your head. Here we go then! You write the article, and even come up with a `catchy` title. You post the article on your web site, and even add a link to a product you might sell as an affiliate. Then you wait for the s...

The rewarding of high compensation packages to top executives who turned over weak quarterly earnings, or who were involved in corporate scandals, adversely affected short-term investing, and collectively contributed to the downturn of the global economy over the last couple of years. Even the help ...

The other day I was talking to one of my consulting clients on the phone about the return on investment from his Google Adwords campaign. And, he asked me a question that I get several times a week from clients and other online marketers. His question was? ?Eric, how on earth can my competitors...