Posts Tagged ‘service’
I was having this conversation with a business coach colleague yesterday. She deals with a lot of business owners, especially those starting out and those experiencing rapid growth. She’d been doing some research and one article she read suggested that a major reason that businesses fail is because of a lack of capital. This got me thinking about how people fund their ventures and whether they need a lot of capital to start their own business.
To be honest this really depends. If you are a product based business obviously you will need capital to invest in product but, if you were to start a service based business, you can often times get your business started with little or no investment plus time. You will need some capital though and there are some options available to you:
Friends and Family- Many people look to family and friends to fund their business ventures, especially if the funding required is small. Family and friends will generally offer you generous repayment terms on your business loan but make sure everything is done professionally. You don’t want to ruin relationships with friends and family for the sake of a few dollars. Also, if you get money from family and friends, make sure you allow them to share in your business successes.
Business Credit Cards- Business credit cards are another popular option that people look at when they aim to grow their business. Business credit cards can help with cash flow and, if you pick the right card, you can sign up to a rewards program and get points that can be redeemed for flights, accommodation or a variety of other rewards that may be useful to you. These rewards can be a pleasant little bonus for all of your hard work.
Investors- If your business idea is groundbreaking, or if your business plan is solid, you may be able to pitch to investors and get some investment in your company. If you expect rapid growth or you have a ground breaking product, then this may be the option for you. The problem with investors is that you may lose some of your decision making power as you give away part of your business to an investor.
At the end of the day, the most important factors for business success are clearly defined goals, the dedication to achieve them and then a marketing plan that will get your business in front of people. If you do need business finance there are options available to you. I have outlined three of these above.
CEO Offers Her Expertise With Oel Wingo Management Consulting Services
After 27 years in the fields of management consulting and education, Oel Wingo has decided to take her career to the next level by launching a new company called Oel Wingo Management Consulting Services. She brings extensive experience to the table, having served in both the private and the public sectors and having established herself as an expert management consulting trainer, writer, and speaker. The new business she has begun seeks to provide top-quality management consulting services, primarily to government organizations and agencies who routinely work with the government.
Oel Wingo Management Consulting Services’ Key Offerings
The main areas in which Oel Wingo Management Consulting Services provides service are as follows: 1) training / management for human resources, 2) collaboration and coordination with intergovernmental entities, 3) management of projects and programs, and 4) development and improvement at an organizational level.
For Top-Notch Results, Oel Wingo Management Consulting Services Is The Answer
Under the expert leadership of Oel Wingo, new business Oel Wingo Management Consulting Services is off to a good start. With her expertise and strong work ethic, and with her ability to implement comprehensive management consulting solutions that are optimal yet cost-effective, her company promises to have a bright future in the management consulting field.
If you read the newspaper or watch TV, you can’t help but feel that everyone in the US is in debt up to their ears. With the economy still struggling to recover, we hear of more and more people becoming mired in more and more debt.
I have heard from many people who are just paying the monthly minimum, but keep on using the card. The result is that the debt just keeps growing and growing and every payday a larger part of their salary is being used to service their debt. These people want a path toward financial freedom, a place where they control their finances, instead of their finances controlling them.
The problem so many of these people have is that they want very badly to gain control of their finances, but they lack the motivation to keep on track, to keep taking the steps they need to take to make that dream happen.
For those people I offer in this article, five steps to financial freedom, steps by which you can seize control of your finances. These steps are based upon the model for self motivation. They serve the dual purpose of not only helping you get back on track, but also keeping you motivated to stay on track.
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is to understand why you want to seize control of your finances. The more valuable a goal is, the more likely you are to achieve it. So write down all the positive reasons for why you want to regain control of your finances. What will you gain? reduced stress? the ability to buy things you need? a feeling of pride at how responsible you are? Also write down what will happen if you fail to make this change. Will you have to file bankruptcy? Will you lose your house? Will you be miserable and depressed and disappointed in yourself?
Step 2: Determine exactly what regaining control of your finances means in your situation. Clarity is motivating, so the clearer you are on exactly what you are moving toward, the more likely you are to get there. Here are some issues you need to get clarity on. How will you know when you have regained control of your finances? Does it mean reducing your debt? Does it mean living below your means so you can be paying off your debt? Write down what will be occurring in your life when you have succeeded. Every success you have will motivate you even more to achieve another success.
Step 3: Write down a clear description of how you are going to make this change happen. Make a plan. Write down all the steps you can think of that will help you make this change. Will you cut up your credit cards? Will you track your spending for a certain period of time? How long? Will you make a budget? Will you set aside a set percent of each pay check to use toward your debt? Will you need to take an additional, part time job for a while to catch up on your debt? Will you contact your creditors to try to work out a payment plan? Step Three provides two very important motivational impacts. Clarity, as we saw in Step Two, is motivating. But also, a big goal, like gaining control of your finances, is less scary when it is broken down into its component tasks. The less scary something is, the more confident you will be that you can succeed. Nothing is more motivating than confidence in your competence. That’s why it’s factor number two in the model for self motivation.
Step 4: Be in charge. Suze Orman says in The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, “True financial freedom is not only having money, but having power over that money as well.” Make a conscious decision that you control your financial life. You are the boss! Power is motivating. Acting intentionally is motivating. Being a helpless victim of the economy is NOT motivating. Take charge and you will stay in charge.
And last, but by no means least:
Step 5: Find resources that will help you make this change. The worse the economy gets, it seems, the more resources there are for those who need help getting back on their feet.
Many small business owners and home based business owners put up a website describing their product or services. In addition to their ground business, this ensures they reach a greater number of consumers plus growing their brand or service. There are, however, many pitfalls and gray areas in owning a website; the legal system is only just beginning to enumerate them and prosecute offenders. It is these legalities of which the small business owner and the home based business owner must be aware in addition to some of the consequences of infringement. The cost to the business owner could be astronomical if he doesn’t take steps at the beginning to safeguard all his hard work.
First and foremost is registering the name and logo of the website. The business owner has done a lot of work designing the logo and site, writing the disclaimer, terms of use and legal statement. Creation of the site constitutes copyright, but the logo and design can be infringed upon and should be trademarked.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, has pages to help the business owner with registration. This is going to cost, but not as much as legal fees, court costs and attorney fees required to sue whomever steals the business owner’s work. It takes between nine and twelve months in addition to some $300 to complete this task, but the rights are the business owner’s thereafter.
There are an unlimited amount of domain names available. Names uncomfortably close to the business owner’s domain name can cause confusion among customers, causing the business owner to lose revenue to a look-alike or cyber-squatter. Court cases can be researched in which the judge fined the person infringing upon the site. Business owner’s should institute a search of like-sounding domain names in order to prevent such cases from happening.
Registering the business owner’s social media pages is also a big step toward remaining free of website legal trouble. This immediately sets up the business owner’s name as unique and further establishes a common law ownership of a domain name. Social media is handy for promoting the business owner’s product or service and should likewise be protected. The business owner would be well advised to hire a trademark attorney to further educate him in addition to protecting him from other pitfalls and gray areas in website ownership.
Monitoring online buzz is like reverse market research. Instead of asking people what they think in a survey or focus group, you read what they’re saying online in blogs, article comments, posts made to forums and places like Twitter and Facebook. It’s eavesdropping on public conversations.
In the old days there were clipping services. Now there are amazing tools that gather and capture the relevant information you want about your company, your brands, your competitors and even individual people. At any given moment there are millions of conversations happening online. They may be brief, but they’re happening nevertheless. Tuning in to this ongoing dialog and focusing on conversations specifically about your business or brand can offer a wealth of insight into your customers’ mindsets.
Why monitoring social media is important
1. Lead generation. More marketers are recognizing that effective lead generation isn’t about firing out the most messages. It’s about getting the right message to the right prospect at the right time, which may be after that person has already engaged in some type of social media encounter with your brand and your customers.
2. Reputation management. Keeping your finger on the pulse of what customers are saying, especially as it relates to issues, frustrations, and complaints, allows you to quickly and authentically resolve their concerns.
3. Identifying brand fans and vocal customer advocates who spread positive word-of-mouth so you can nurture these free “sales reps.”
How to monitor social media marketing
There are a number of companies that offer tools and services to make it easy to monitor what people online are saying about your brand and your competitors. Some of these tools are free, others you pay a nominal fee for. A complete list of social media monitoring tools may be found by performing a search on the keywords “social media monitoring tools.” Tweetdeck and Hubspot are two of the more popular tools available.
These social media monitoring tools are very helpful because they will save you a great deal of time and your email inbox won’t be clogged with all sorts of tweets, updates, and alerts. Instead, you’ll have a dashboard to monitor what people are saying about what matters to you most. That may be your company, your own name, your executives, your competitors, your industry or specific brand names for products or services.
Cautions about Social Media Monitoring
Social media marketing shouldn’t replace market research. Why? Because in general the people who take the time to express an opinion about a business or brand via social media are generally on one extreme or the other: they either love something enough to talk about it, or dislike it enough to complain. It’s helpful to monitor brand popularity (or lack thereof), but social media monitoring tools/services are not very helpful for understanding customer satisfaction, new product acceptance, and test marketing. They should complement, not replace more traditional market research.