And organise your relaxation

• Organise a staff party to show how you value the hard work of your team.
• Give out awards and presents to boost staff morale, reward loyalty and encourage team spirit.
• Make time to
  Publicity and Marketing - The Perfect Niche for Successful Virtual Assistants
  We all realize how Virtual Assistants have revolutionized the way we work today. Most businesses now count on their Virtual Assistant the same as they used to count on their secretaries, only so much more. VAs are a prized and respected part of their client’s team, and unlike secretaries, who often were taken for granted, Virtual Assistants are praised for their professionalism and skills. Most businesses today can’t imagine where they would be without their VA. And as the poten
  As a business coach, December and January are months when I help lots of business people with their stress management. The festive season comes round every year without fail yet many small businesses seem to be surprised by it every year.

  Following a particularly bad time when he not only under-stocked his inventory and lost sales but also failed to relax for Christmas Day, one of my clients created this festive checklist to ensure that he could enjoy all his future holiday breaks properly.

  Set yourself a goal of planning ahead

  • Predict your expected demand levels from what happened during the last festive sales season.
  • Hire temps to meet seasonal demand without adding to your long-term costs.
  • Plan your cash flow through the holiday period and organise stand-by funding to boost your working capital in case your sales peak.
  • Send greetings cards to your best customers, remind them what you offer, and tell them your closure times.
  • Ask your suppliers which days they close and their arrangements for late deliveries.
  • Check how the late supply deliveries might impacts the service you offer your own customers.
  • Find out the arrangements for postal collections and for banking before the holiday and into the New Year.

  Ensure that you can deliver your promises

  • Check your stock levels, note which is stock seasonal and would have to be sold cheap if you over-stock.
  • Don’t over-trade or accept contracts that you cannot meet because this will damage your image.
  • Prioritise regular customers because they provide loyal custom throughout the year.
  • Pre-book a reliable company to deliver your customers’ goods because holiday gifts that arrive late will damage your reputation.

  Schedule how you will close down cleanly

  • Clear your paperwork before you break: post your cheques and money transfers for prompt bill payment during the holiday period and send out your own invoices to get prompt payment from your customers.
  • Check your security procedures and brief your key holders before you close down.
  • Agree a roster to update your answer machine regularly. (How burglars rejoice when automated email or phone responses say “everyone’s away, come round anytime you like”.)

  And organise your relaxation

  • Organise a staff party to show how you value the hard work of your team.
  • Give out awards and presents to boost staff morale, reward loyalty and encourage team spirit.
  • Make time to
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    How much of our career path is destiny and how much is free will? In my opinion, it is 50/50. We are given a life map at the beginning of our lives, and there are things we are meant to learn, people we are meant to meet, work we are meant to perform. But many of us are not tuned into ourselves and the signs that are presented to us. We often miss important information, and miss out on those lessons, people, and jobs.The use of free will comes about when we are presented
    nning ahead
    • Predict your expected demand levels from what happened during the last festive sales season.
    • Hire temps to meet seasonal demand without adding to your long-term costs.
    • Plan your cash flow through the holiday period and organise stand-by funding to boost your working capital in case your sales peak.
    • Send greetings cards to your best customers, remind them what you offer, and tell them your closure times.
    • Ask your suppliers which days they close and their arrangements for late deliveries.
    • Check how the late supply deliveries might impacts the service you offer your own customers.
    • Find out the arrangements for postal collections and for banking before the holiday and into the New Year.

    Ensure that you can deliver your promises

    • Check your stock levels, note which is stock seasonal and would have to be sold cheap if you over-stock.
    • Don’t over-trade or accept contracts that you cannot meet because this will damage your image.
    • Prioritise regular customers because they provide loyal custom throughout the year.
    • Pre-book a reliable company to deliver your customers’ goods because holiday gifts that arrive late will damage your reputation.

    Schedule how you will close down cleanly

    • Clear your paperwork before you break: post your cheques and money transfers for prompt bill payment during the holiday period and send out your own invoices to get prompt payment from your customers.
    • Check your security procedures and brief your key holders before you close down.
    • Agree a roster to update your answer machine regularly. (How burglars rejoice when automated email or phone responses say “everyone’s away, come round anytime you like”.)

    And organise your relaxation

    • Organise a staff party to show how you value the hard work of your team.
    • Give out awards and presents to boost staff morale, reward loyalty and encourage team spirit.
    • Make time to
      Ten Secrets for Getting FREE Advertising
      The opportunities for getting free advertising for yourproduct or services are only limited by your imagination andenergy. There are so many proven ways to promote withoutcost it’s truly mind-boggling!  Here are ten proven methods. 1.  Write an article relating to your area of expertise andsubmit it to all the publications and media dealing in thatrange of interest. Become your own promoter and writer. Getthe word out by establishing yourself as an ex
      e deliveries.
    • Check how the late supply deliveries might impacts the service you offer your own customers.
    • Find out the arrangements for postal collections and for banking before the holiday and into the New Year.

    Ensure that you can deliver your promises

    • Check your stock levels, note which is stock seasonal and would have to be sold cheap if you over-stock.
    • Don’t over-trade or accept contracts that you cannot meet because this will damage your image.
    • Prioritise regular customers because they provide loyal custom throughout the year.
    • Pre-book a reliable company to deliver your customers’ goods because holiday gifts that arrive late will damage your reputation.

    Schedule how you will close down cleanly

    • Clear your paperwork before you break: post your cheques and money transfers for prompt bill payment during the holiday period and send out your own invoices to get prompt payment from your customers.
    • Check your security procedures and brief your key holders before you close down.
    • Agree a roster to update your answer machine regularly. (How burglars rejoice when automated email or phone responses say “everyone’s away, come round anytime you like”.)

    And organise your relaxation

    • Organise a staff party to show how you value the hard work of your team.
    • Give out awards and presents to boost staff morale, reward loyalty and encourage team spirit.
    • Make time to
      Ten Crucial Questions
      I'm a business coach. I've worked with hundreds of small, medium and very large business, and over the course of the past eleven years, I've asked my business coaching clients endless questions which have helped them achieve much greater levels of success than they would have otherwise. While the following may not be the only ten questions -- or even THE ten questions, they are ten questions that you must answer if you want your business to flourish. The right answers are critical t
      ioritise regular customers because they provide loyal custom throughout the year.
    • Pre-book a reliable company to deliver your customers’ goods because holiday gifts that arrive late will damage your reputation.

    Schedule how you will close down cleanly

    • Clear your paperwork before you break: post your cheques and money transfers for prompt bill payment during the holiday period and send out your own invoices to get prompt payment from your customers.
    • Check your security procedures and brief your key holders before you close down.
    • Agree a roster to update your answer machine regularly. (How burglars rejoice when automated email or phone responses say “everyone’s away, come round anytime you like”.)

    And organise your relaxation

    • Organise a staff party to show how you value the hard work of your team.
    • Give out awards and presents to boost staff morale, reward loyalty and encourage team spirit.
    • Make time to
      When Your Business Feels Like an Arranged Marriage
      Q. I was laid off six months ago. Jobs in my field are scarce so I moved to a new town to start a home business. People have paid me for everything from website maintenance to pet sitting.But the money seems to be small and slow. And frankly, I really want a corporate job with benefits.A. Welcome! You’re what I call a reluctant entrepreneur. Often we start a business, write a book or develop a talent out of a deep and boiling passion. But sometimes we begi
      security procedures and brief your key holders before you close down.
    • Agree a roster to update your answer machine regularly. (How burglars rejoice when automated email or phone responses say “everyone’s away, come round anytime you like”.)

    And organise your relaxation

    • Organise a staff party to show how you value the hard work of your team.
    • Give out awards and presents to boost staff morale, reward loyalty and encourage team spirit.
    • Make time to relax with your family and recover before the New Year.

    Use your quiet time for forward planning

    • Review how this year has treated you, how you did against your business goals, how you exceeded your marketing plan and how your business is growing.
    • Reflect on what you want to change in the next 12 months.
    • Plan your large tasks in small steps - setting the long term goals and creating milestones and stepping stones to reach the goals in a reasonable timescale.
    • Plan your own training and self development to take place when your sales tend to be quiet after the holidays.

    If I was coaching you, I would encourage you to re-write this checklist in your own words, to make it reflect your own business issues. Then pin it up in a prominent place so you and your staff are aware of the list. This will help you to tick off each item as your achieve it.

    Then you can return refreshed to your small business, you can start the year afresh, ready to serve your customers to the best of your ability.