Month: July 2012

Categories
Success Attitude

Do You Make It Look Easy?

Did you ever noticed how some people make even the most difficult task look easy?

You know what I mean?

The trapeze artist simply flies through the air with a gentle smile on her face.

The musician makes heavenly sounds that make us laugh and cry.

The teacher explains the most difficult concepts and we understand.

I used to wonder, is it just practice, practice, practice?

When I was seven years old, I started learning the piano.  I went to classes once a week and practiced every day.  Every year I was entered into a National competition and once a year I sat an exam.

I was never a great pianist.  I could play and I enjoyed it but I was never a great pianist and I never made it look easy.

Practice helps, but it takes more than that.

It takes a combination of talent and passion.

Neither one is enough by itself.

If you have talent but are not particularly interested…it won’t work.

If you have passion but no particular talent, you can be a great spectator, a great supporter.

But to make something brilliant look easy, you have to have talent, passion AND practice, practice, practice.

Here’s the thing though, we all have talents and passion.  Every single person can do something exceptionally well.  Have you found what yours is?

Just today my friend told me he left his well-paying career to become a school teacher; it was a calling, it means the world to him. I’m sure he makes it look easy!

Last week, I was given the gift of a story about a woman’s commitment to compassion and charity. She makes it looks easy.

In the background, I can hear one of my favorite musicians singing his beautiful heart out, as if we all could do it! He makes it look SO easy!

What is your special talent?  Where is your passion?

It doesn’t have to be something grand. It doesn’t have to be magnificent. It just has to be you. The essence of you. The story of you.

And when you find it, tell the world. That’s your gift, and ours too!

Categories
Sales & Marketing

How Employers Should Use LinkedIn

Article Contributed by Dominick Frasso

Many businesses are just now getting the hang of how to use social media to improve their businesses. Sure, marketers have been trying to utilize Twitter and Facebook (and MySpace before it) for years; but today, other business units are finding ways to put the power of social media to work for them. For example, creating social media customer service channels has proven to be tremendously effective for some companies.

The human resources function is no different. There are plenty of ways to use social media in the recruitment process. In particular, LinkedIn offers businesses a direct hotline to professionals that might be a good fit.

Here are some ways that employers should be using LinkedIn today in the recruitment process:

  • Start by developing a highly-relevant network of professionals. As an employer, you’re going to have professionals with a number of different skillsets but all within your industry. For example, a materials manufacturer might include engineers, CAD specialists, lathe operators, plant managers, and more in her network of professionals. These contacts aren’t necessarily the people that you’re going to try to recruit into your business, of course. Most of them are happy where they’re at. Instead, they provide you with the most extensive referral chain in the world. Your network will reach out to others in their network, bringing in prospects in droves.
  • Develop active searches for candidates on LinkedIn using keyword searches. If a LinkedIn user lists their experience or qualifications, you should be able to find them via the search process. Share your contact information with these individuals, so they can come back to you when they’re job hunting (either actively or passively).
  • Develop a strong company profile. Don’t just give details about where you’re located, what you sell, and how many people work for you. Talk about your company’s goals, about your approach to corporate responsibility, about how your company treats its employees. Make your company look like an attractive place to work on LinkedIn.
  • Make sure your company profile can be found on LinkedIn. Likewise, you want to have keyword-rich company profile that indicates the types of work you’re likely to have. Don’t just stick with industry keywords; reach out into specific job functions, particularly those that seem to have the highest rate of turnover.
  • Look to colleagues, as well. People that you’ve worked with in the past can be wonderful assets going forward. If they parted amicably, they might be one of your best employees yet again. If not, it’s still likely that they could send you some of your best employees for the future.
  • Search for candidates by recommendations. Go to those key LinkedIn users whose judgment you trust. It might be an industry colleague, or it might be a former employee. Read the recommendations they’re making about others, and then reach out to the one being recommended.
  • Join relevant LinkedIn Groups. There are groups by industry, by employment skills, by background, by professional membership, and more. Groups can be a wonderful resource for referrals, as well.
  • Consider fee based posting of jobs on LinkedIn. The jury is still out on just how effective this will be. Chances are pretty good it’s going to bring in the traditional stack of resumes, from which you need to sift through and find the one needle. You’re almost always better off going the referral route and choosing half a dozen recommended individuals and bringing them into the interview and candidacy process.
  • Offer internships. If your company does internships, LinkedIn is a great place to find candidates. Almost everyone knows a young up-and-comer who could use some real-world experience, and it may as well be at your company.
  • Use LinkedIn cautiously. Be careful when it comes to zeroing in on your own employees and contacts on LinkedIn. Not all of the information on their profiles is going to be current. It might look like your VP of Finance is gunning for a position at a cushy job down in Southern Florida, when really he was simply messing around with his settings one day and forgot to change them back. Take everything on LinkedIn in stride, recognizing that not all of it is necessarily current, accurate, or relevant.

Below are 3 action items to start doing today to put this to work for your company:

  1. Identify and join 3 LinkedIn Groups related to your industry– use the LinkedIn Group Directory to find relevant groups. An example if you’re an advertising agency could be the Creative Designers and Writers group. This is a great place to built a network of creative talent that you can draw upon in the future.
  2. Contribute at least 1 meaningful reply per week for each of the 3 groups. Meaningful means that you add value to the conversation rather than just getting through your 1 reply per week quota. This will help group members realize that you’re a real person at an interesting company.
  3. Start a discussion topic once per week in one of the 3 groups you joined. The topic can be anything that would make for a good talk at a coffee shop. For example, ask for the group’s thoughts on whether an article’s prediction about your industry is accurate and why. This will help establish you as a more authoritative member of the group, which is helpful for recognition as you put out the word to your network regarding openings at your company.

Of all the social media tools out there today, the one most HR-friendly has to be LinkedIn. It’s a database of potential employees, a screening mechanism, a referral network, and more, all wrapped into one.

Use LinkedIn to enhance your recruiting and hiring process, get better candidates, and keep your business humming right along with the best people.

About the Author

Dominick Frasso is SEO/SEM Specialist at Vistage International, a membership organization that helps CEOs build successful companies through business coaching groups, executive coaching and executive development opportunities.

Categories
Finance & Capital

Finding Solutions to Business Debt

Lots of businesses fail to be successful and end up going under, usually because of a lack of foresight and planning.  Rarely is it the case that a business thrives on chance alone, it takes lots of hard work, organisation and careful planning.

It is nearly inevitable that a business will take on debt or run the risk of debt, at some point,if it wants to be at the top of its game and ahead of the competition. Debt is not something to fear either it is a normal factor of economic growth. Managing the debt however is the tricky part and this is often where businesses fall down.

The important rule when dealing with debt is not to panic and make rash decisions but look for a way to deal with the debt quickly and correctly. Dealing with the debt quickly and correctly however is hard without a debt rescue plan in place. Remember, having a debt rescue plan is not a sign of failure, after all unforeseen circumstances happen all the time. From the biggest multi-national companies down to the small independent traders everyone is in the same boat.

Some business debts are easily taken care of and it does not have to be the case that a detailed solution is needed. In other cases cash flow may not match the expenditure of the business and an agreement with creditors must be sought. There are many facets to debt solution and knowing which one is the right one can be confusing. Yet debt rescue does not have to be complicated and something to be scared of looking into. This debt rescue solution tool from Cooper Matthews helps analyse the debt situation and give a summary of the next best action to take.

Organising debt quickly and efficiently will help get the business back on track. Business debt does not mean the end of the road, success can still be found.

Business Debt Rescue Solution Analyser Tool


Categories
Sales & Marketing

Is Your Inner Critic on Your Biz’s Board of Directors? 3 Ways to Tell

You know that voice. The one that berates you and criticizes you.

 

“So-and-so has a successful business, what’s wrong with you?”

 

“Your mother (or spouse or friend) was right — you’re not cut out to have a business.”

 

“You only have 6 months left of 2012 and you STILL haven’t accomplished anything on your to-do list.”

 

And on and on. You get the picture.

 

This voice is your Inner Mean Girl or Inner Mean Bully, which I prefer to call Inner Critic (mostly because Inner Critic sounds way too nice for that nasty voice).

 

Now, while your Inner Mean Girl/Bully can show up in all sorts of instances (i.e. in your love life, as a parent) this is about when she/he decides to put herself on your business’s board of directors.

 

We all have one — a board of directors residing in your head. This is the place where you make business decisions such as:

 

* Should I invest in the program or not?

* Should I hire this person or not? (Or should I hire someone period?)

* Is this an opportunity I should take advantage of or not?

* Is this someone I should partner with or not?

* Should I create this product or not?

* Should I complete this marketing task today or not? (Or should I write my ezine or not?)

 

You see where I’m going. Pretty much any decision you make with your business traces back to your business’s board of directors.

 

Now the problem comes in when your Inner Mean Girl/Bully is sitting on the board (or worse, president of the board). Because if this is the case, you’re making decisions from a place of weakness instead of strength. Consider:

 

* You don’t hire someone because you’re afraid you won’t be able to pay for it, even though you’ve reached a point you can’t grow without putting a team in place.

 

* OR you spend WAY too much (on a program or multiple programs, on a big team, etc.) and your business can’t support that yet.

 

* You find yourself choosing partners or opportunities that turn into disasters.

 

* You procrastinate when it comes to completing marketing tasks even though you know it would help stabilize your cash flow.

 

* You always have “one more edit” or “one more thing” to do with your product or book (which means you never actually start selling it.)

 

* You can never relax — you’re constantly “doing” yet you’re still not moving forward in your business the way you think you ought to be.

 

* And so on.

 

To top it off, (as if making poor decisions wasn’t punishment enough) your Inner Mean Girl/Bully will beat you up when things go wrong.

 

There’s just no way to win.

 

So how can you tell if your Inner Mean Girl/Bully is in charge or not? Here are 3 signs:

 

1. How are you feeling? Do you find yourself suffering from burnout, exhaustion, overwhelm? You probably have an Inner Mean Girl/Bully problem.

 

2. Do you find yourself procrastinating or maybe you’re unfocused? Or maybe you have writer’s block or are creativity stuck? This is another Inner Mean Girl/Bully sign.

 

3. Do you have a history of making bad business decisions? Again, tell-tale sign of an Inner Mean Girl/Bully on your board of directors.

 

These are just the tip of the iceberg but I think the key is this: if you are unhappy with any part of your business, then it’s worth it to see if there is an Inner Mean Girl/Bully lurking about and sabotaging you.

 

 

 

Categories
Finance & Capital

Assessing Credit Risk when Investing in a Company

For investors, taking the plunge to invest money in another company can be very risky. Thankfully there are many ways to mitigate against this risk. This includes doing extensive online research into the company, and performing a credit check. This will reveal abundant information about their company structure and payment history. Why not look up free credit report at Duedil.com to begin your search?

The Check List for Risk

There are many readily available and free ways to access company information online. There isn’t anything stopping an investor from ascertaining a company’s financial suitability through their own research, without needing to employ an IFA or third party. Browsing reputable online finance portals will yield important information about prominent FTSE companies as well as enabling you to do homework on smaller enterprises.

The Annual Report 

This can normally be provided by online financial services and databases. Before the eyes glaze over with all of the financial-ese, look specifically for three main financial components:

  • Cash Flow Statement
  • Balance Sheet
  • Income Statement

These allow the potential investor to compare company growth over the past three years and see if the business has progressed at all. Investigate how they have reacted financially to a recent takeover or external economic pressures.

A potential investor can see from these documents, how the company is spending their cash and whether this takes the form of profits, sale of goods or new investment money going into the company. From the balance sheet, one can get a good idea of the current state of the company and where they are going in the future.

Comprehensive Credit Checks

The level of risk should determine how deep one needs to dig into a company’s background. For an investment with a smaller financial risk, less time should be spent on a credit check. Conversely, a company posing a significantly higher risk, deserves a comprehensive credit check.

Credit checks vary in detail and can consist of:

  • Company and director checks: This includes credit risk scores for both directors and the principal shareholders.
  • Investigative reports: This is primarily for large risk investments. A detailed and forensic investigation is conducted. This includes detailed financial information about company structure and operations.

Along with one’s own research, a credit check can be one of the most insightful and comprehensive ways of assessing risk when investing in an unknown company.