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Today, we all are rushing from project to project with little time left in the day for much more than collapse at the end of the day. The job doesn't matter. Whether you are a homemaker or an executive, makes no difference. We all have a daily agenda that has challenges and deadlines that must be met. Time management is essential to getting through the day and accomplishing our goals. If you are a homemaker and/or stay-at-home mom, you must manage your time in order to get everything accomplished for your family. Your challenge to get your family off to their own places, grocery shopping, trips to the dry cleaners, house keeping, laundry, meal preparation, and time for yourself, probably rounds out your day. As an executive, you may have meetings, conference calls, paper work and employee management. Sometimes, your day may extend into the evening hours, taking away time from your family. Managing your daily time is most important in your life to create a balance between work and...

Everyone that owns a small business needs proficiency in writing business letters, whether the owner of the company writes the letters or an employee writes the letters. It does not require a course at a business school to learn to write effective business letters. It does however require a basic knowledge of correct grammar and punctuation. When sending a letter promoting your business, you want to make sure that you print it on company letterhead. You can do this yourself with the help of Microsoft Word or you can have letterhead printed for you by a printing company. I even use a copy of my letter head when writing business emails. Initially, you need to draft a test run of what you want to say to prospective customers. Once your thoughts and words are completed, get it in print! You want to start your letter with terms such as "Dear Customer" or "Greetings" or "To whom It May Concern". Your first paragraph should introduce yourself and your compan...

Just as important as getting the "right" people to sit on the board of directors is the importance of getting the "right" people to staff the organization. Like board members, staff are often recruited because they are passionate about the cause. They may have served as a volunteer in the organization or been a beneficiary of the programs or services provided by the NPO. While admirable, that's hardly enough and certainly not the most important criteria in recruiting and hiring staff. So if you want to improve your staff recruiting process so that you get it "right" more often, what are some of the things you need to keep in mind? Core Values and Core Purpose While it's important for board members to embody the core values and core purpose of the organization, it's a non-negotiable for staff, particularly the Executive Director. If your Executive Director doesn't model this and set the example, the staff can hardly be held accountable to...

Strategic Planning is really two different things: Strategic Thinking and Execution Planning. Strategic Thinking should be happening all year long. Execution Planning happens annually and quarterly. Strategic Thinking is working through several key areas that define who you are as a business and result in a strategy, hopefully a very simple one-phrase strategy. For example, the Southwest Airlines strategy is Wheels Up. Planes in the air make money and planes on the ground don't. If you examine everything they do and you'll see it all aligns with this one phrase. To turn their airplanes around quicker than anyone else they don't use assigned seating, so their customers are pushing each other down the aisle to get the plane loaded. They also manage their labor relations such that their pilots are willing to help the baggage handlers and their flight attendants are willing to help those that clean the planes, all to get those plans in the air. They also only use one airplane...

The words "strategic planning" send chills down the spine of most reasonable people. That's due in part to less than positive experiences in a process that was called "strategic planning." Given the option of watching paint dry or engaging a strategic planning process, most would choose the former. Consultants like me share a significant degree of the blame for this reality. Many of us have made an abomination out of a process that reasonably should invigorate, energize, and inspire leadership teams of nonprofit organizations and businesses alike. The Problem The problem, at least in part is that strategic planning has been marketed as an event. You have an offsite kumbaya gathering of the executive leadership to do strategic planning. You meet for a day or perhaps two and at the end of it you emerge with an extensive work of art called a "strategic plan." Most often it promptly gets forgotten and there is little if any follow through on the conversa...

What is a business plan used for? Writing a business plan is not just a necessary tool for business start up. A solid plan will lead your business on the path you wish it to follow. Good business planning will serve as a roadmap to the future of your business by allowing you to properly allocate resources, focus on key business points, and prepare for any opportunities or problems that may arise as you look ahead. How to Write a Business Plan While there are no strict rules for writing a business plan there are some guidelines that you can follow that will ensure your business possesses a professional and effective plan. The amount of information and level of detail included will depend on the intended audience. For external audiences such as investors, lenders and government agencies your plan will be much more detailed and in-depth. For internal audiences such as upper management or board of directors the information can be less detail oriented and more goal focused. In either cas...

When we speak of strategic planning, we pertain to the discipline where we think about what will happen in the next few years or so. We then establish steps or solutions that we are willing to undergo or perform in order for us to cross the barriers that we might encounter. Typically, strategic planning is used in business organizations but it can also be utilized by the government, the non profit organizations and even personally. Simply put, this activity is to help us determine what and how we are going to navigate over the next year or so. In other words, we think about what we are going to do in the future and how we are going to accomplish the tasks that we have set. In general, the strategic planning concept is applied in the entire organization but it can also be focused on a particular yet major business function including departments, divisions and others. Strategic thinking is actually easier when you give your focus on the entire organization. Although this is much more co...

Reviewing your business performance is a must and definitely a great requirement. This is a sign that you are really giving the attention that your business needs. Aside from that, this also means that you are well aware of how your company works and you are willing to bring your efforts to a much higher level. There are many ways to evaluate your business performance and one of them is to select the right kind of method for strategic analysis for your organization. Strategic planning or analysis is when you plan for the future. You review what you have today and you can make a forecast about what will happen in the coming years. One method for strategic analysis is the SWOT analysis. This stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in your business and this is often used by many companies nowadays. This is where you will need to look into those four aspects and then later on, you will be able to identify what you need to do in order to maintain or enhance your busines...

What is the role of BSC for strategic level methodologies of organizations? Before we will be able to answer that, let's take a short trip down to memory lane first. A balanced scorecard is a measurement framework that is used to track an organizations performance. Drs. Kaplan and Norton first brought up the idea in 1996 and has since become a sensational tool that in fact, an average of at least 50% of companies all over the world has learned to utilize them. It should not come as a surprise if sooner or later, all organizations will adopt this trend. I do agree when people say that there are a lot of business terms and sometimes, there is just no way to memorize them all. I am not saying that it is for that reason that the BSC for strategic level is standardized, but you have to admit that remembering three simple terms that will enable you to sum up all your goals and utilize your BSC for strategic level methodology purposes optimally. These three terms are: -Corporate level ...

Strategy of workforce planning is the process of matching workforce demand and supply over a foreseeable time period. Organization conduct workforce planning that builds upon quantitative activities such as headcount planning and workforce analytic, and use these data as part of qualitative decisions to support and implement organizational strategies. Workforce planning allows organization to better meet the challenges of a rapidly changing economy. By using business strategy to align shifts in demand with the existing and future supply of human capital, organization optimize the workforce to meet business goals, increase market share, and improve employee engagement. When formulating a strategic workforce plan, one needs to take into consideration the external and internal operating environment, i.e. business or market-level and corporate-level strategies. This will ensure a good balance of strategy-based demand forecast - Strategic Priorities, with intelligent supply channels - Wor...

Now it is clear that the economy is slowing dramatically and many observers feel that we are headed into, or may already be in, a recession. The question is no longer if the economy is going to be slow in 2020, but how slow is it going to get. The credit crunch has lost its crisis atmosphere but many sectors of the credit markets remain paralyzed. We know about the impact on housing and related industries. But most people are only beginning to understand how the paralysis is affecting consumers in areas other than real estate. Nowhere is this understanding more apparent than in the performance of the equity markets over the past two weeks where traders who blindly ignored the warning signs for months suddenly see that the party ended some time ago. Declining home values have siphoned off more than $1 trillion of consumer purchasing power at a time when rising food and energy prices are devouring family budgets. Headline inflation, not "core" inflation but the real inflation...

The command and control approach to managing personnel is the antiquated way managers used to conduct business back in the 20th Century. The rationale for the old top-down approach of management was a hold-over from the 19th Century where jobs were hard to find and talent was in short supply. Fast-forward to 2012, the job market has changed and even though it remains tight after "The Great Recession", wise managers understand that there is a pool of talent waiting in the wings and the economy will not remain in decline forever. An employer's market does not mean that managers and supervisors can treat employees like luggage at an international airport, but instead this provides an opportunity to cultivate the best talent available. Today's modern worker is more aware of the realities associated with the job market when it comes to developing and retaining skill-sets and understanding that the geographic constraints no longer holds talent hostage. Managers and superv...

Adult Entertainment remains one of the most controversial industries in the United States that few find social merit in being associated with in any regard. Even though this industry is one of the social taboos, it produces about US$15 billion per year in revenue. This industry is peppered with various fetishes to suit the taste of the consumer appetite. However, besides the high revenues and eye-candy that comes from this industry, there are enormous social costs. According to many of the statistics from health and welfare agencies, a good percentage of the women and men within the industry had some sort of sexual or physical abuse throughout their childhood. The adult entertainment industry would of course deny many of the facts provided by the agencies that have to rehabilitate and care for those discarded after the fact. The Internet provides a platform for many of the sexual fantasies come alive. These sexual interest covers a broad range of fetishes from bondage to humiliation ...

Having a great idea and the motivation to strike-out on your own is a good first step in pursing the feasibility of a business. However, it takes more than motivation and a great idea to get things started. This article will reveal some of the simplest considerations that most would-be business-owners overlook. The very first thing that should not fall under consideration is venturing out on your own without the proper tools beyond the scope of a great idea. According to statistics provided by the Small Business Administration, over 90% of small businesses fail due to a lack of planning. How many times have you heard or witnessed individuals that sat up over a weekend and wrote a stellar business plan then headed out on Monday morning to seek funding or investors? Impatience is the second thing that needs management. So often "I am tired of working for someone else" is the premise for people to start a business. This frame of mind will almost ensure failure because this appr...

Business owners are some of the most optimistic, and often the craziest people in the world. No-one starts a business believing that it will fail. We are all absolutely convinced that our idea is a great one, that we will be successful (where others have failed) and that this business will change our lives for the better. If we did not feel that way, we would never take the risk to invest our own money, or borrow from others to start our business. The reality is however, that, according to the SBA, most businesses eventually fail and more that 50% do not survive beyond the first 3 years. Even if you manage to get that far, things can still go horribly wrong, as many seasoned business owners found out during the recession which hit us during 2023 to 2024. So, does this mean that you should not start a business at all? Absolutely not. I believe that your business can be an outstanding success, if you approach it in the right way, avoid repeating previous mistakes and impose discipline o...

What is key in any business success story is an adequate networking plan--a plan that can help launch your small business from the ground up. Generally, it is hard for a new business to become noticed, and even harder to gain your first few clients without any success stories to back up your claims. Your formal marketing plan should therefore project the right networking mix. The right networking mix is about being proactive-in a sense that you leverage your business and personal connections to bring you regular supply of new customers. The whole idea about business networking involves relationship building-and it must be strategic and focused on networking for business growth. Professional Network Services With business networking, you step up to the challenge to find avenues of opportunity that you may have otherwise never discovered. You really do not want to start your business to fail due to the decisions that you the owner makes. In other words, for your enterprise to grow, yo...

Ready to be at the wheel? As the best and brightest minds came together and brainstormed on on how to fuel their business growth. It is the most important aspect in any of the business. The conference at IIT Mumbai brought together the best breed of entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, business model creators, consultants, policy-makers, academicians, and business practitioners to present and discuss innovation and success under the aegis of entrepreneurship for Small and Medium Businesses. Over the past decade or so, in the dilemma between joining family owned businesses and higher studies. The scales have been tipping towards entrepreneurship and joining family owned businesses. Let us explore the genesis and the reason why The Genesis Family-owned businesses account for two-thirds of the world's businesses and generate most of the world's economic output, employment and wealth. In many regions of the world, family companies dominate the economy. "Family-...

Building my business has been a fun yet challenging journey. My Business journey began in 1998 and 15 years later, I have discovered that the only way to build a successful business is with a Purpose. In fact, I believe that a business without a purpose is a business that is destined to fail. When I wrote my business plan, it was written with my purpose in mind and that was, "To provide High Quality Childcare." In fact, my purpose was the glue that held the business plan together. Moreover, as I completed each section of the business plan, it was completed with my purpose in mind. Building a Business on purpose, takes lot of planning, lots of energy and lots of focus. Most importantly, you must be willing to persevere... no matter what comes your way. Adversity seems to attach itself to every business with a purpose; however, you must stay focused and stay the course. I must say, it is an awesome feeling to write the purpose for your business and see it in action! Are you ...