All in all, I’m pretty happy with how 2005 turned out. My business is taking off. I’ve built a solid foundation to support even more growth (which I forecast for 2006) and I’ve even managed to take some time off.

I’d like other entrepreneurs and business owners to feel as good about their business as I do about mine, so I thought I’d take a moment to share 5 things I attribute to my successful 2005.

1. Attended seminars. This one is HUGE. Nothing beats getting out of your office and away from your computer and actually meeting people face to face. I’ve come away from these events with clients, joint venture partners, and more. (And that doesn’t even include the great information I absorbed and was able to put to use in both my business and my clients’ businesses.) If you only put one of my 5 tips to use, this would be the one to do — that’s how valuable I’ve discovered attending seminars to be.

2. Hired a coach. Again, this was another tough decision to make, but I’m really glad I did. It’s difficult to see your business objectively, so having a neutral observer on your team is extremely valuable. Coaches help you get out of your own way (and believe me, that’s a biggie for us entrepreneurs.) They can help you with both your inner game (your habits and mindset) and your outer game (your skills and business structure).

3. Started systemizing my business. Unless you want to be chained to your business night and day, you have got to start systemizing your business. Yes, all businesses should have systems in place, even if you don’t have anyone else working for you and you primarily sell services. The best part is when you do have systems in place, your business suddenly starts running a lot more efficiently and effectively (and you can start sleeping better at night and relaxing on vacation).

4. Outsourced. For all you control freaks out there, this one is for you. If you don’t start hiring some help, I guarantee you’ll never be able to grow your business because you’ll be constantly doing tasks you have no business doing. Do yourself a favor and get some help…NOW. I’ve just hired a project manager/director of client services, plus I have 2 backup writers and 2 virtual assistants. Building a team has been a big stress reliever for me.

5. Focused on my inner game. Shifting my mindset away from “freelancer” to “business owner” was another big piece of the puzzle. As soon as I made that shift, all the other four techniques fell into place because it suddenly made them easier to do.

It’s tough to change your inner game on your own — hiring a coach is probably the fastest way to do this. But there are some good resources out there if you want to begin dabbling in it first. Do a search and see what comes up, I started my journey with free ezines and articles.

Creativity Exercise — Make 2006 the best year ever

Go back and reread my list. Now get out a piece of paper and start brainstorming ways you can integrate my tips into your business. Which one do you think will bring the quickest results? Which one will be more difficult for you to start doing? Which is the one you SHOULD be doing?

Have fun with this exercise, really play around and see what comes up. Don’t censor yourself, just write down the answers that bubble up even if it doesn’t seem right. You might discover something important about yourself and your business that might be the key to launching you forward faster than you ever dreamed possible.

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting, marketing communications and creativity agency. She helps people become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at www.writingusa.com. Copyright 2006 Michele Pariza Wacek.

Preperation is vital when conducting a successful videoconference session. Thus there are a number of steps to remember prior to the videoconference session itself:

Always test the equipment before hand.

The WebVideo4U software is extremely reliable but it always pays to test the software prior to the videoconference itself. There may be problems with the Internet connection, the webcam or the microphone. Better to find out in time to rectify the problem than have embarrassing delays during the videoconference itself.

Double Check Timezones

The beauty of global communication also comes with the pitfall of negotiating the different timezones. Always check the timezones, double check them and confirm with both parties to ensure that there are no embarrassing hickups.

There are also several important steps to take when setting things up at your end to ensure that the videoconference runs smoothly.

Camera Angles

It seems an obvious thing but it doesn’t look very professional if your fellow videoconference attendees can only see the top of your head or your neck. Make sure you’ve got the camera set up so that your head is fully in shot and try and leave about 10% headroom.

Microphones

Test your microphone prior to the conference. Jimi Hendrix may have been able to use feedback effectively, it’s more likely to deafen your colleagues however and won’t get the conference off to a good start. If you do get feedback play around with the positioning of your speakers and microphone until you find the optimum position.

Clothing

Your company may be relaxed regarding clothing but try and remember the camera. Bright colours and patterned clothing don’t help the transmission. Instead try and opt for colours such as blue or grey.

Lighting

Consider the effects of lighting on the camera. Up lighting is generally considered best and should be in front of the participants. Also beware of windows in the camera shot. If windows are in shot try and use curtains or blinds to prevent the glare ruining the shot.

Adi Gaskell is the founder of http://www.WebVideo4U.co.uk, a leading developer of Flash based streaming video solutions.

Does personal goal setting work? Many people want things, situations or accomplishments, call these goals, and then are disappointed when they don’t get them. Call desires goals if you want, but just naming your desires sure isn’t effective goal setting. Good goals have some or all of the following:

1. They are specific. “I want to be healthy” is too general. “I want to lose weight and walk three times a week,” is better.

2. They are measurable. How many pounds do you want to lose? How much money do you want to make? How will you know if your relationship is better?

3. They are in writing. There is power in writing down your goals. It makes them more real, and this influences your subconscious mind, especially if you review the goals regularly.

4. They are realistic. Sorry, but even if it is possible that you could become an astronaut, if you’re already 55, you better try for becoming a pilot for now. Unrealistic goals set you up for failure.

5. They have deadlines. You’ll have a new job by when? Setting dates really helps your progress.

6. They become plans. Making a goal into specific steps makes it much more likely. It isn’t overwhelming to take one step at a time.

7. They are motivated. Having the goal for the right reasons is a good start. You should also learn how to re-motivate yourself, and reward yourself when you make progress.

8. They consider personal factors. Can you really get what you want if you feel like you don’t deserve it? Maybe, but good goal setting takes into account personal changes that are necessary or useful.

9. They are followed by action. One of the keys to motivation and to getting where you want to be is to start with any movement towards the goal. Action begets action. Start slow if you must, but start.

10. They are not written in stone. Goals naturally evolve. Why would you become a doctor once you learned that you liked doing lab work better?

The last one is a tough one. An excuse and a change of course are not the same thing, but to know the difference means you need a certain level of self-awareness. Develop that, apply the keys to personal goal setting above, and you’ll get to where you want to be.

Steve Gillman writes on many topics including brainpower, weight loss, meditation, habits of mind, creative problem solving, generating luck and anything related to self improvement. Learn more and get FREE e-courses at http://www.SelfImprovementNow.com

Imagine the following scenario; Ten years ago you decided to
quit your job and start your own company. For ten years you
worked hard, made sacrifices, and it paid off in the end.
One of your first employees, a loyal, hard working employee
has been by your side the whole way.

Things were going great. Until about eight months ago.

All of a sudden, clients whom you had worked for for years
were not returning your calls or e-mails. Then, sales from
your online products site started dropping dramatically.
One day, out of the blue, that long time devoted employee
did not show up for work, nor would they return any calls.

What you did not know was that employee who you trusted with
your life had spent the last eight months intercepting /
reading all your e-mails, installing monitoring software on
your computers to watch everything you do, contacting
clients without your permission with the explicit purpose of
feeding them false information. The employee was downloading
all proprietary code for you online products store, setting
up a duplicate site on another server, and taking orders for
those products.

In another recent case, an employee of an institute of
higher learning was threatening to blackmail the executive
staff. They had been notified that any action taken against
the individual would result in loss of large amounts of
critical data and negative publicity. We were hired to
determine the validity of the threat and to collect evidence
for possible legal action. What we found was quite
disturbing. The suspect employee had installed logic-bombs
throughout the organizations network. These logic-bombs
required specific action be taken every 48 hours by the
suspect employee. If the employee did not perform a
specific task within the allotted time, for instance, if he
/ she had been terminated, the logic-bomb would execute.
There was much more to this story and none of it was
positive.

You have just been the victim of corporate fraud
————————————————
But how could this happen to you, and by someone who you
trust? It happens more frequently then you know. If you
can gather enough evidence and convince the District
Attorney to take action you might only have to spend $20,000
to $50,000 to sue this person. On the other hand, if you
can’t get the District Attorney involved, it may cost you
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you won’t know what
the outcome is until it’s all over!

A Few Things You Can Do
———————–
These are not fictional stories and everyone is equally at
risk for such an event. Make sure you have strict controls
and guidelines to keep your business safe. Any proprietary
information, whether it be code, sales information, client
lists, or financials should be well guarded. Obviously this
information must be shared with others in your organization,
but it can be done so with audit trails. As a business
owner you should know who has access to what, when, and
how.

The objective of this article is not to make people
paranoid; its purpose is to promote awareness. Most people /
employees are law abiding and productive, but don’t make the
mistake of letting your guard down.

About The Author
—————-
Darren Miller is an Industry leading computer and internet
security consultant. At the website -
http://www.defendingthenet.com you will find information about
computer security specifically design to assist home, home
business and small business computer users. Sign up for
defending the nets newsletter and stay informed and empowered
to stay safe on the Internet. You can reach Darren at
mailto:darren.miller@paralogic.net or at
mailto:defendthenet@paralogic.net

Have you ever wondered if anything can get your employees to care about the work they’re doing?

Managers who are self-starters, who enjoy and are motivated by the work they do and the organization they work for, are sometimes puzzled by the perceived lack of motivation of their subordinates. The operative word here is “perceived”, because they may, in fact, be motivated — just not in the same way as you.

If you think about it realistically, you don’t necessarily want them to love the work, do you? What you expect is that they perform well on the job and contribute to the success of your department. They can do that without being cheerleaders, because everyone is motivated by something. It’s a matter of finding out what it is.

Here are a few of the causes that might make your people tick:

• Career ambition

These people want to move up in the world, either in your organization or another. If they can clearly see the relationship between their performance in their current positions and the chance of promotion, that will do it for them. Your job is to help them see the possibilities.

• Approval and validation

In his groundbreaking 1982 fable, “The One Minute Manager”, Ken Blanchard urged managers to “catch them doing something right.” The idea was to give immediate positive feedback to people, which immediately makes them feel valued. Many people long for approval and validation, and will work hard to achieve a goal that will provide it for them. Your job is to provide positive strokes whenever possible.

• Competition

The sales environment is the obvious place to see competition among colleagues and peers. Often it’s their competitive nature that makes great salespeople. But this personality trait is not confined to one discipline, and some people will perform well on the job in order to be seen as the best. This can be tricky to manage, and your job is to enable an outlet for this need in one employee without creating enmity in the others.

• Money

Let’s face it, financial compensation is an important reason to work in the first place, and there’s nothing wrong with that. For some employees, it’s a powerful incentive and motivation. Your job is to demonstrate the connection between on-the-job achievement and compensation. Of course, if you can’t legitimately show that connection because it’s not there, you may have an employee who will never be motivated in that position.

As a manager, you need to find out what motivates the individuals that make up your team, and then do what you can to help them make performance on the job the factor that satisfies their particular needs.

Remember, what is rewarded is repeated. It’s a matter of discovering and offering the right rewards.

Helen Wilkie is a professional keynote speaker, workshop leader and author specializing in applied workplace communication. Read more articles on her website at http://www.mhwcom.com Subscribe to Helen’s free e-zine, “Communi-keys”, and get your free 40-page e-book, 23 Ideas You Can Use RIGHT NOW to Communicate and Succeed in Your Business Career!

Starting up a new venture or business can be one of the most exciting times of your life. It can also be one of the most stressful. In the early months, or even early years of your business, cash flow is often not what you would like it to be. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you’re wearing many hats - in fact, you’re probably wearing all of them.

Not only are you selling your product or service, you’re marketing it, doing the accounting, paying the bills, answering the phones, designing and updating your website and preparing and sending out mail. And, certainly for your own business, you can easily think of ten or fifteen additional tasks to be done in addition to these. In the early days of your start-up, many if not most of these tasks seem doable. But, once you’ve started making sales or the public interest in your business begins to grow, wearing all the hats becomes impossible, frustrating, and highly stressful.

One quick and easy solution is to hire an intern - a college intern. During my corporate career in finance, I made use of many college interns over the years. Not only were they diligent, responsible, and some of the best employees, they were eager to learn and to contribute ideas. My interns were reliable and many of them hired on as regular employees after graduating from college.

With more and more college students choosing to start their own businesses rather than working for others, having a first-hand opportunity to work in a business start-up, like yours, might be just what they’re looking for. So how can you find an intern that will be just right for you and your business?

Simples Steps to Hiring an Intern

1. What do I need to do? What can the intern do? One of the first things to do is to take a clean sheet of paper and begin writing down all the tasks that you perform in your business - and I mean everything. Next, decide what tasks you absolutely need to do yourself and which ones might be assigned to an intern. Typical tasks that you do might include:

• inputting business card data into your database

• contacting local chambers of commerce and ordering mailing lists

• marketing mailings - printing letters, stuffing envelopes, putting stamps on letters

• writing and updating your marketing plan

• keeping your marketing calendar current

• calling on prospects - phone and in person

• writing marketing collateral

• updating website information

• confirming appointments with clients

• writing and updating your business plan

• appearing at tradeshows (perfect for an intern to work as your assistant)

• buying office supplies

• going to the post office to mail packages, letters, etc.

• miscellaneous errands

• meetings with clients

• reviewing local newspapers, business periodicals and trade journals for possible business prospects or other opportunities

• article clipping

• attending chamber functions and other networking events

• filing

• answering phones

• bookkeeping

Certainly there are a lot of things to do in your business! And, obviously, not all of these can be done by anyone other than you. Once you’ve drafted a comprehensive list of tasks, using different colored high-lighters, or something as simple as a check-mark, determine which of these tasks can be assigned to someone else. This will become the basis for writing up a job description for your intern.

2. Drafting a job description. Write up a simple job description that includes a list of tasks you need completed on a weekly basis. Also, estimate how much time these tasks will take and, if possible, what days of the week might be best for someone to work for you.

3. What type of intern? My suggestion is to hire a college intern who has background in the areas that you most need help with. For example, if your start-up is heavily focused on using computer technology to either produce your product or service, or if it is a significant part of the interface with your clients, hire an intern who is studying computer science. On the other hand, if you have a business focusing on delivering corporate sales training programs, hire a marketing major. If you have general office work that needs to be done, consider a business administration student.

4. To pay or not to pay? That is the question. Nowadays, interns are readily available for pay or no pay. The hiring market for new college graduates is rather strained so they know that any and all work experience they gain prior to graduation will serve them well in the future.

5. Offer benefits other than money. Money is not the “be all, end all” of a relationship with your intern. Many interns are looking to learn new skills which can best be learned in a real-life scenario. They also know the importance of networking and the possibilities that might accrue by meeting the right person at the right time. In addition, if they really enjoy the experience (and you do, too), they’ll want you to write them a letter of recommendation or serve as a reference in the future.

There are other ways you can “compensate” your intern. Consider developing a coaching program for them which entails teaching them your business in an organized manner. Teach them the steps of creating a business from scratch. By having them assist with all aspects of the business, you may be opening up the door for them to start their own.

Consider offering them commissioned-based compensation based upon product or service sales they close on their own. Or, you might design an internship where they can earn college credit. Contact the appropriate faculty member in charge of credit-based internship programs to see if you might be able to create a development program which will fulfill some of their elective credit hour requirements.

6. Minimum requirements. Before you’re ready to contact your local college or university to place the advertisement for an intern, make sure you have the following information ready:

• Company Name

• Company Address

• Your Name

• Telephone Number (you may not wish to give out your telephone number so that applicants are forced to submit resumes through fax or via email)

• Fax Number

• Email Address

• Job Description (including complete list of expected tasks, expected number of hours to be worked, days to be worked (if necessary), hourly rate of pay (if applicable), negotiable rate (if you wish to evaluate their qualifications before setting a rate)

• Type of college major desired (business administration, accountancy, finance, computer science, etc.)

• How best to contact you (phone or email) and what to send (resume, letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc.)

7. Contact career services. Once you’ve gathered all the necessary information, contact the career services center of several local colleges and universities. They will either give you online access to a system where you can input your job description information, or you can simply provide them with the information and they will do it for you. Once your posting is approved, it will be made available for students to access.

8. Gather resumes and start interviewing. Allow your advertisement to be posted for at least two weeks. Start sorting through resumes right away to see who might be the best fit. Begin setting up interviews immediately to find the best candidate for the position.

9. Interviewing. Ask both closed and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions require a yes or no answer, whereas open-ended questions request explanation and elaboration. Find out about their prior work experience; ask for examples of how they’ve handled particular situations, all while carefully evaluating their communication skills. You might even ask for a copy of one their class papers to assess their writing skills. Make sure that you are comfortable with them in every aspect. After all, you will be entrusting them with your top priority - your business.

10. Status reports. You might consider asking your intern to fill out a weekly status report which tracks the assignments completed, including how much time each task required. It will give the intern a sense of accomplishment with respect to their contributions, while providing you with useful information about what has been completed.

11. Enjoy the benefits. There’s so much to gain from building relationships with others. While the intern is learning from you, you’ll be surprised at how much you will learn from him or her. Encourage them to take ownership and pride in what they are doing, praise and acknowledge them frequently for jobs well done, and welcome their comments, criticisms, and contributions.

Using college interns to help you with your business is not only a cost-effective way to get things done, but it’s a wonderful way to contribute to the knowledge and experience of someone who might very well follow in your footsteps. In any case, it can be a win-win situation for everyone.

About The Author

Tara Alexandra Kachaturoff is an executive coach, trainer, consultant and professional speaker with over 15 years of corporate experience. She coaches executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs on leadership, business and lifestyle issues and has been featured in radio, print, and television. She is the owner of CoachPoint, www.virtualleverage.com, and www.relationshipplanning.com.

Are your people consistently following your procedures? Each year, organizations lose thousands of dollars through common mistakes and lapses in usability. But what does that mean for business owners and executives?

Ask yourself:

• Are your required actions described thoroughly and accurately, or are the details left open to interpretation?

• Is your content consistent and complete, or are your writers leaving gaps no one has noticed?

• Are revisions controlled, or are different people using different versions?

• Are your procedures compliant with regulations? Are you sure?

• Are all documents written to produce clear, measurable results?

If you’re unsure about any of the answers to these questions, there is good news: you can make your procedures clear and complete without combing through all of them yourself line by line. You have invested in your procedures; now ensure you are communicating clear expectations, and your professionalism, with the best tools possible.

Strengthen Your Management Procedures’ Documents

With a technical writing review, professional technical writers can review and edit your documents. Methodologies have been developed and used by experienced technical writers to strengthen policies and procedures, so you can put efficiency and expertise to work saving you time and hassle. You can eliminate the costly professional headache of poorly written management procedures.

Get the Help and Reap the Rewards:

• Easy upgrades to your documents

• Increased clarity for your written procedures

• Expert objective commentary on your documents

• Fast results to model other procedures

• Convenient tech writers at your service

• Detailed grammar and language correction

If your policies and procedures are incomplete, outdated or inconsistent, then you are probably not driving the performance improvement you intended. But no matter what your worst procedure headache is, you can eliminate your lapses in usability now and improve to “best practices” standards.

Chris Anderson has over 18 years of sales, marketing and business management experience producing the business process design, software and systems engineering. He is also co-author of policies and procedures manual products, producing the layout, process design and implementation of the information to increase performance. He is currently the Managing Director of Bizmanualz, Inc.
Visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com