Atricle Dump - Business

Show Me The Money!
Around the world's coffee machines, talk about the culture of an organisation and its impact on performance wastes thousands of hours a day. We talk about the results that would be possible if the culture were just right; we complain where we see issues of organisational culture impacting performance.Talking is one thing; what’s rare, however, is real recognition of the fact that great leaders explicitly manage the culture of their organisation. They understand that results are not only linked to culture, results are the expression of an organisation's culture.Results are the Expression of CultureResults are tangible, measurable, and objective. Results in business always include profit and cash. Results in other organisations may be different, but every credible organisation will have a set of tangible results to produce.The state of the results of an organisation displays the prevalent culture. We're not just talking about the long-term results; we're talking about results in every period - including this one! We're talking about the results that need to be produced this week, and even today. Where there is a shortfall in results, there is always a shortfall in culture. If you look for the cultural shortfall and resolve it, your required results will be easier to produce.A client recently was off track in producing agreed cost savings. They had a target of ?50k to find in one week. It was Thursday and they hadn’t properly identified any savings. They called us up and said that they wouldn’t meet the target - they had had a very busy week. They felt it would be OK, because they had a lot of ideas “in the pipeline”, and were confident they could recover later. Ordinarily, this would have been accepted, but we had them confront the culture that was being expressed: “It’s OK not to deliver on commitments; we’re busy and we’ll catch up later”.They decided to challenge this, and instead to build and develop a culture of: “We deliver on our commitments, regardless of the circumstances”. The result was that they identified ?50k of cost savings by the deadline on Friday.Culture Change hasn’t happened until t

nd others happen to lack. Instead, entrepreneurial effectiveness with a balanced life is a dynamic process that you must constantly work at. If you don’t keep developing and nurturing your entrepreneurial personality, it might just die. Then, only drastic action might revive that entrepreneurial spirit.

Invoice Factoring For Business Growth
Is cash a little bit tight? Have you ever risked missing payroll? Have you ever had to pass up an opportunity because you did not have enough money? If so, you are not alone. Every business owner goes through those same challenges every day. Some come out on top. Others perish.What is the biggest difference between those that succeed and those that perish? Cash flow. And plenty of it.If you work with commercial or government clients, then you are already used to waiting up to 60 days to get paid by your clients. That is ok if your business has lots of resources and a stash of cash in the bank. But what if you don’t?One of the most frustrating things that can happen to a business owner is realizing that his company is invoice rich and cash poor. Meaning, you have tons of money owed to you by clients (and payable in 60 days) but little cash to show for it. This does nothing for you, if you need to meet payroll in 3 days or need money to buy supplies for a new project. Fortunately, there is an easy way to turn those invoices into cash, without using any collections or heavy-handed tactics.The solution involves factoring your invoices. Never heard of invoice factoring? You are not alone. Factoring is one of the most used and least talked about business financing tools. It allows you to convert your invoices into immediate cash. It helps you turn your invoice rich business into a cash rich business.Qualifying for factoring is simple and only takes a few days. As opposed to business loans, you don’t need a long business history or reams of financial statements to qualify. All you need are invoices for credit worthy commercial clients or government clients.And how does factoring work? Well, it simpler than you think. As soon as you have completed a job, you submit an invoice to your client and send a copy to the factoring company. The factoring company will advance you a substantial portion of your invoice, usually within a day. Once your client pays the invoice, the transaction is settled.As you can see, factoring provides you with immediate cash as soon as you invoice. This helps you meet payroll, pay suppliers and take on new jobs. With fact

We have only one life, but we live in three overlapping worlds—our business world, our family world, and our other social world. Imagine bringing your spouse and kids to a meeting with seven of your salespersonnel. Sitting off to your left, Miss Wright asks the question on the minds of all her fellow sales colleagues, “Why did you bring your family to our meeting today? Will they be playing any sort of role in our discussion?” You simply respond, “No, they’re just here so I can tend to their needs.”

Of course, this is a highly unlikely scenario. You don’t bring your family into work with you every day. However, Heather Howitt does. Howitt, the CEO of Oregon Chai in Portland, Oregon, balances motherhood with her responsibility of running an eleven million dollar manufacturer of tea lattes. “Our office is a very casual place. We’ve got a family element going on here.”

Living in the rain soaked city of Portland, 32-year-old Howitt often arrives at her office lightly splattered with mud. She often spends her lunch break taking her one- year-old son, Sawyer, to a nearby park, or to her nanny who takes him home. On other days, she simply places him in his crib in her office.

With the growth of her company, Howitt hired some key executives including a chief operating officer to manage operations and finance. She also delegated the sales calls that she used to make herself. “I used to come in at 6 a.m. and make calls nonstop,” she explained. “I don’t have to do that anymore.” Howitt positioned herself in a way so that she is no longer personally over-worked or over-challenged by her daily responsibilities at the company. She balanced her business and private life. She not only recognized her strategic contribution to the success of Oregon Chai, but she also appreciates her unique role in the life of her young son.1

As an entrepreneur or a business executive, you must give your best in two entirely different worlds. The needs of your business and the needs of your family and friends compete for your time and attention. And both expect the very best from you. Heather Howitt found one way to do it; you may have another way.

To enjoy both the rewards of business success and family fulfillment, you need to constantly work to keep your balance. To successfully tackle the challenges of a fast-growing company, you need all the personal resources that come from a balanced life. “How do you develop a balanced business personality?”

Some entrepreneurial executives suffer from dangerous imbalance. Others achieve top excellence in maintaining optimal balance. “Early in my career, I use to think that entrepreneurship was more an art than a science, that it was a gift or something,” says Cherrill Farnsworth. “I don’t believe that anymore.”2 Entrepreneurial leadership is not some automatic personality trait or some artistic talent some people are just born with and others happen to lack. Instead, entrepreneurial effectiveness with a balanced life is a dynamic process that you must constantly work at. If you don’t keep developing and nurturing your entrepreneurial personality, it might just die. Then, only drastic action might revive that entrepreneurial spirit.

Setting Up a Customer of the Week Program for a Mobile Car Wash
In a mobile detail or mobile car wash business you are on a first name basis with your customers. You sink or swim with your ability to please your customer and rely on them to build your business by referring their friends, associates and neighbors. One excellent way to insure referrals is to set up a “Customer of the Week Program.” Here are some pointers to help you do just that.Programs And CertificatesThis program lets people know you value their business. If you don’t have a program yet but feel someone is worthy of a discount, simply tell them that they’re the customer of the week. If they ask why, tell them they’re the best customer in the office and their award is a dollar discount. Sometimes a person in a bad mood will be picked up and turned around by this little bit of attention.You’ll find in your Microsoft Word or Works program that probably came on your computer has templates for various certificates, which you can easily modify. Make yourself a file for a certificate that can be printed out for a Customer of the Week award. Carry these in the work truck or van and hand them out where you feel they’ll do the most good and to customers who are the most deserving.Free WashesIf someone goes into their office, spreads the word of your arrival and brings you a bunch of customers, when they ask how much they owe you let them know you appreciate their effort by giving them their wash for a discount or for free or collect and refuse the tip and hand them a free customer of the week wash for next week, this will insure more customers next week and a new customer for life. You might even consider letting them know if they continue to bring you business (x number of customers per week), you’ll wash their car for free each week. This will save you the time of selling through their building since generally they know almost everyone on a more personal basis than you do. This will create a bigger following of regular weekly customers much faster.Always keep your grass roots marketing and word of mouth advertising simple and never forget to ask for a referral when you know you have done well and deserve it. People are glad to give referrals

nsibility of running an eleven million dollar manufacturer of tea lattes. “Our office is a very casual place. We’ve got a family element going on here.”

Looking for the Best Business Opportunity
What’s the best business for you? Work for somebody or own your own company?There are many kinds of businesses that flood the market today aside from owning your own business, meaning you run and finance it, there are others which are also businesses in their own way. All of these are businesses and each has their own advantages and disadvantages as you try to work them out. Should you wish to enter these ventures, it is good to have some knowledge of what you are getting into.Working for somebody. The first of kind of business which most of us usually enter into at some point in our lives, is becoming employed as an employee to a company now our own. If you are a newbie at this business the first thing you should remember is polishing your resume. The resume is your way of getting into the business of becoming employed by an employer you wish to work for. Another thing that you should remember is do some research of your own about the company you wish to work for, so that when you get to have the chance to become any employee of that organization you already have some knowledge of what kind of business you are getting into.Becoming an employee is considered a business since you enter into a contract with that organization you wish to work for, that you will render services for their company and a corresponding compensation is given for the services rendered. Your function as an employee a business in a sense that you work for the company and they pay you for the work you have done for a corresponding period of time.Employment is a good business choice for those who do not want to handle running their own business. When you are an employee, only the responsibilities given to you by the boss would be the things that you have to do routinely or regularly depending on the kind of job that you have. On the other hand, if you own the company, you would be more concern in making a profit on your business endeavor or at least making it break even if income is not a lot.Working for somebody may have its advantages and disadvantages. When you enter a contract to work for somebody, there is a fixed salary, wage or compensation that would be given to you by yo

explained. “I don’t have to do that anymore.” Howitt positioned herself in a way so that she is no longer personally over-worked or over-challenged by her daily responsibilities at the company. She balanced her business and private life. She not only recognized her strategic contribution to the success of Oregon Chai, but she also appreciates her unique role in the life of her young son.1

Why Cost Reduction Efforts Fail
Every business is trying to improve profitability, after all this is why the business exists. To achieve this goal there are only two paths that can be taken – increase revenue or reduce costs. The path of increasing revenue is typically seen as the most positive step. It is exciting, involves expansion and creates opportunities. Conversely, reducing costs is seen as negative and backward and so this approach often gets much less attention that it deserves.The problem with continuous improvement is that it can be really hard work. But, just like its glamorous sibling, achieving lasting and positive cost reduction requires creativity and imagination. Most continuous improvement initiatives begin as a last minute and unplanned way to ‘make budget’. The focus is short term and as a result the approach can be a destructive ‘slash and burn’. Managing costs should be a strategic decision not an ad hoc reaction to short term revenue failure.The hard work of continuous improvement occurs because it is often seen as boring and internally focused. And it often is! Cost reduction is seen as being ‘tight fisted’ and squeezing more out of the lemon or getting blood from a stone.Also, whatever cost base exists is a reflection of the past management, after all somebody set up the system or allowed the development of the current cost base. This poses a problem for many because it can be seen as admitting past failures. This is also the reason why it often takes a change in management to kick start a true continuous improvement initiative.It is because of these issues that people take short cuts and this leads to mistakes and unsatisfactory outcomes. The book A New Strategy for Continuous Improvement explains all the issues with continuous improvement activity but the eight reasons why continuous improvement efforts fail are:There is no base to build upon - Most continuous improvement initiatives just start with whatever systems the company has in place at that the time. They do not review the suitability of those systems or what can change to provide a ‘good practice’ base for future activity.They rely on finding breakthroughshe rewards of business success and family fulfillment, you need to constantly work to keep your balance. To successfully tackle the challenges of a fast-growing company, you need all the personal resources that come from a balanced life. “How do you develop a balanced business personality?”

Explosive Chemicals - How Dangerous are They?
Enter at your own risk! The flammable hazard signs with their bright red flame graphic and danger wordings say it all. You are now entering a restricted area...Many people have a natural fear of chemicals that catch fire easily. In fact, I know of some people who became so nervous whenever they have to come into the chemical areas that they lost their concentration and fumble about with their activities, visibly shaken. It is as if the whole place is going to explode in their faces anytime.However, if this natural fear is allowed to paralyze us, there will not be any oil refinery, oil wells or even petrol stations anywhere. Industrial processes will literarily grind to a halt. People will be so afraid to handle these chemicals in their work.This article tries to eliminate this natural fear by explaining the properties of flammable chemicals so that people will treat flammable chemicals with respect but not with fear.Flash PointChemicals that are flammable will usually have a low flash point. What is this low flash point? It's the temperature at which the chemical will give out fumes sufficiently enough to catch fire when a lighted flame is brought near to it.This means that a chemical having a lower flash point than room temperature will give out fumes capable of catching fire even though it is stored at normal room temperatures.Thus, gasoline with flash point of -20 degree Centigrade will already be able to catch fire at normal room temperature if a light flame is present, while kerosene with flash point of 38 degree Centigrade will not burn when it is kept at a room temperature of 30 degree Centigrade.Well, that's not totally correct either. In order to burn, three things must be present at the same time: fuel, oxygen and heat. When we talk about flash point, we are talking about the heat to generate sufficient gaseous fumes that can burn, but the chemical will not burn until a higher temperature is reached. That temperature is the ignition point.Ignition PointThe ignition point can be reached if a lighted flame is brought near to the combustible fumes, or it can be from a sparking electrical contact or even from s

That’s exactly what happened to Sam T. Goodner. His software company, the Austin-based Catapult Systems Corp., ranked 77th among the fastest growing companies in America while Goodner served as the founding CEO. At age 33, Goodner decided to step down as CEO of Catapult to take on the new challenge of serving as CEO of Inquisite Inc., a Catapult subsidiary that sells software over the Internet. But Goodner soon found his new digs to be “harsher, more spartan” than what he was accustomed to. “Half of it is actually under ground,” he explained, describing his much less attractive new office space.

But Goodner was not complaining. After all, it was his own idea to leave the comfortable CEO position of Catapult with a staff of 115, to head Inquisite Inc., with only 20 employees. But now something was wrong. To be sure, there were plenty of challenges to attend to. The phone rang for his attention, paper kept filling the “in” box, and email messages steadily came in from employees, venders, and customers. Every day, and every hour, urgent decisions had to be made, so much so that anyone in his shoes could have been overwhelmed by the “tyranny of the urgent.”

But increasingly, he felt like he was only reacting to demands and not taking a visionary proactive role any longer. And too often, long hours of work would crowd out what he’d prefer to do in his home and personal life. Even worse, he realized that even if he could experience any gratification in his personal world, it could not make up for what was missing in his business world.

“I had none of my entrepreneurial creativity left,” Goodner reflected. “I was falling back on what was easy. You know that’s happening when you start just going through your email all day long.” Recognizing that his former entrepreneurial spirit was gone, he resigned and hired a new CEO to head the company.

Perhaps Goodner had already achieved financial independence and had other worthy goals to pursue in life. In that case, relinquishing his CEO position could be the best decision to make. But could there have been another way to recover his entrepreneurial spirit with a healthy balance of attention to work, family, and friends?3

Entrepreneurial functioning can range from the low level, “You are personally over worked and over challenged”—to the most desirable level, “You regularly implement action plans to improve every aspect of your life.”

The lowest level of functioning leaves your company endangered. Top management is personally over worked and over challenged. The unrelenting urgent matters of your business seem to demand so much of your time that you go to work earlier and earlier, and stay later and later into the evening. You are like a runaway tire, rolling down a steep hill, turning faster and faster and faster until finally, you run out of control and then crash.

Or, you might think of it this way: The underlying foundation of your life at work and at home is built on sand instead of a solid rock. Even the slightest storm will plunge you into a danger area, damaging your relationships with your business associates and with your family and friends.

You are barely surviving, but you are endangered like a stick of dynamite that has been lit; you don’t have much time before things will blow up in your

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Finding A Reputable Local Plumber

If you are a homeowner, you will almost assuredly have plumbing problems once in awhile. Anything from simple tap leaks to more complicated problems like clogged or leaking pipes. If you find yourself in a plumbing situation that you cannot - or should not - deal with yourself, you need a professional plumber.

Steps to True Internet Success

If you are think about buying into some membership site that promises to teach you how to cut the corners and quickly get you to untold millions; think again. What works best in this field are three things; willingness to learn, hard work, and diligence.

Rewarding Failure

Article deals with issue of why executives who fail seem to get excessive severance packages. Why this is oxeymoronic behavior insofar as it relates to pay for performance. Where are the Boards of Directors who are supposed to be watching the corporate cash register? Corporate scoundrels slurping at the trough.

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