AC Interpreting

Archive for August, 2010

Do you have a networking strategy? Does your strategy involve more than just making contacts? If you answered “No” to one or both of these questions, it’s time for a “Networking Check-Up.”

Just as location, location, location is the key element in real estate, networking is the key ingredient in any business development plan. Whether your business is large or small, a start-up or one with a long-history, for-profit or not-for-profit, networking, networking, networking is the key to business development!

Sounds simple, right? Why then do so many people struggle with networking events? Why do people find it difficult to introduce themselves to strangers and make small talk at social events? Successful networking involves more than just making contacts. Making contacts is more than just attending networking events and collecting business cards. It’s all about the people-to-people connections!

Turning small talk into positive business-talk depends on developing and following a strategic networking plan to fit your career and personal goals. There is no one-size-fits-all process. Your strategic networking plan begins with a positive attitude and an honest look or “check-up” (self-assessment) of your networking skills. It will be as unique as you are.

Your personal networking plan will be designed to maximize your personal and professional strengths – and your own networking style! According to author and networking guru, Nancy Flynn, some key areas to think about include:
- Goals – Your reasons for improving or enhancing your networking skills
- Contacts – Your access to the “right people” at the right time
- Personal style – Your comfort level and listening skills and the impression you make
- Tools and techniques – Your experience and comfort level with publicity, public speaking, e-mail, and other networking tools
- Resources – Your ability to devote time, energy, and financial resources to networking and career development
- Etiquette and netiquette – Your know-how and savvy can make or break the deal
- Challenges – Your personal and professional development areas
- Commitment – Your desire to succeed and willingness to follow through

Most likely you already have some networking skills and will discover other areas that need to be explored or fine-tuned. It’s important to clarify your networking needs and goals and be realistic as you look at your strengths and development areas. Breaking your “check-up” into the following key target areas will help you easily determine what needs to be explored, developed or fine-tuned:

1. Identifying Focus & Setting Goals (Include appropriate networking events and activities in your business/marketing plan)
2. Relationship-Building Skills (Need a professional skills coach?)
3. People Skills (Attend a local workshop)
4. Networking Tools & Techniques (Join a networking group to learn from others)
5. Networking Challenges (Be honest with yourself – there are ways to make it work)

Once you have completed your “check-up” and have determined your personal plan, you are on your way to becoming a successful networker! It’s about taking the time to invest in yourself and your business. You will learn to start and grow relationships with people who can open doors, make introductions, advance your career and help build your business by establishing long-term, reciprocal relationships with the “right” people.

Who are the “right” people? They are not necessarily the wealthiest, most powerful, or most senior executives in town. Surely, these people are good to have as a part of your networking strategy. Just remember to include all types of people who understand how the networking game is played and are willing to help you get into the action.

If you look at networking as a “two-way street” – a giving and receiving tool – your success as a receiver will be as great as your generosity as a giver. Like a smile, give it away, and it will come back to you in ways that you’d never imagine.

Here are a few tips that work for me:
o Be generous with information
o Share your contacts
o Help people help other people
o Do favors
o Ask for help
o And most importantly, thank those who have helped you!

When you do, you will find people will be ready and willing to open doors, offer tips, make the introductions and connections for you in return.

Positive business-talk reinforces the fact that people do business with those they know, like and trust. Networking is positively the best way to reach out and hold on to people who can make things happen – in a fraction of the time it would take you to accomplish the same goals on your own. As noted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 95% of human resource professionals and job seekers claim networking is the most effective tool to locate job candidates or secure a job.

Who’s in your networking circle? Cast a wide net to include family, friends, co-workers, alumni groups, teachers, students, chamber members, civic and professional organizations, just a few of the many possibilities. Becoming a successful networker does not require being the most extroverted person in town – people skills can be learned. It does require focusing clearly on your career and business goals and implementing a networking strategy to take you there. By pursuing only the networking activities, business relationships, and professional skills that will move you closer to personal, career and business success, you will make a Positive Impact on the lives of others and the communities you serve.

Invest in yourself with a networking check-up! Go out of your comfort zone! Connect with people as much as you can! As the phone company used to say, reach out and talk to someone! Turn small talk into positive business-talk!

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Wholesale pet supplies can be purchased at a wholesale pet dealership for a fraction of the cost it would take to purchase something for your pet at a retail pet store. Wholesale pet supply stores offer discounts to those who own pet stores and to regular customers looking for a break when they purchase their beloved pet’s toys, food and other pet necessities.

Wholesale pet suppliers do not necessarily mean that you have to purchase in bulk, however, if you own your own pet store, a small pet store or a ‘ma and pa’ style pet store, than you definitely want to purchase all of your supplies at a wholesale pet store supplier because the more you buy, the more you save.

People who own snakes or lizards or other large animals that eat smaller animals such as mice and fish, will shop at the wholesale pet suppliers because they will give them a discount on purchasing several mice or fish at a time as ‘feeders’ for their pet instead of these small animals being pets themselves, they become lunch for bigger animals.

It’s no secret that generating publicity via online news release sites is good for business.

Continually educating the public and media about what’s happening with your businesses is, well, just good business.

My challenge to clients I work with is to not only submit news or press releases to both paid and free online sites, but to also follow up with any businesses or people who are also involved in your release.

Let me explain. When you craft an effective news release, it’s important to include relevant and timely topics about your business that tie in with other news. This means incorporating relevant information about businesses and organizations that are already well known or newsworthy.

Here is a very specific example. In November of 2006 I invested in a new program via Glazer – Kennedy Inner Circle. Bill Glazer created a certification program for copywriters called Creating Copy that Sells.

After speedy completion of the program and receipt of certification, I verified that I was the first professional copywriter in Idaho to complete the certification. Then, I drafted my news release. I submitted it online and I also let Glazer- Kennedy know what I was up to keeping in close contact and providing them with a copy of the release just in case they might need it for something in the future.

This communication with Glazer-Kennedy paid off. In July, they contacted me to confirm that it was okay to include my press release in a sales letter for the program that was mailed to the entire Glazer-Kennedy list.

Of course it was OK. In fact, it was better than OK! My name, business name and contact information was included and I have received several referrals from that. It truly is a win win situation for Glazer – Kennedy and me. They received free publicity for their program and in turn were able to include my information in sales material as an example of how to leverage certification.

My point is, don’t view your news releases as a one shot deal. Figure out ways to expand their shelf life and follow up. What are you waiting for? Press on with your news to help increase referral flow.

Oh, and it you want to read the original release and listen to a pod interview, click here.

Insurance is a necessary acquisition for any business, representing an agreement between the company and the customer that the insurance company will provide reimbursement for specific types of financial loss against a specified fee the customer will pay on a regular basis.

Insurance can be regarded as a form of cushion that is used to minimize the financial consequences of unfavorable situations that can take place anytime in the future. Insurance is used to protect assets, finances, employees and assure customer liability defense. Any business owner shouldn’t underestimate the importance of having his business protected through insurance. It is simply the best way to minimize the risks connected to circumstances that you cannot control and that can put you out of business for good, threatening even your personal assets.

There are two major types of insurance for small business that any business owner should think about.

Mandatory insurance

The first type of insurance your business will need is the obligatory type of coverage that is required by state and federal law. This type of insurance includes coverage for unemployment, social security as well as workers’ compensation. Unemployment and social security coverage offer certain benefits to the employees and their families, including coverage for aged and disabled, retirement benefits, Medicare, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income. Worker’s compensation coverage deals with all work-related damage and injuries that a worker sustains at the workplace, and is usually applied for paying for the medical expenses.

Optional insurance

Optional types of small business insurance coverage include protection from different unforeseen circumstances such as natural disaster, catastrophic events, riots, strikes and other types of damage. One of the most popular options in this section is the Business Owner Coverage that is often regarded as an all-in-one insurance solution, protecting from anything starting with flood and fire to wars and technological disasters. Another very popular type of optional coverage is the property insurance, which pays for the damage both the business and personal property of your enterprise has suffered. Liability insurance as you may guess from the name protects you and your business against potential liability by customers and other people harmed by your actions, services or products.

Other types of insurance coverage you may want to purchase depend on the actual type of business you have, local state requirements and other circumstances that you may want to be covered against. These additional types of coverage include product liability insurance, errors and omissions insurance (quite useful for businesses offering services or involved in production of goods), business income insurance (very useful for minimizing the impact of temporary shutdown or limitations on business). There are additional types of small business insurance coverage that will protect you I case of burglary or machinery malfunction.

Remember that you should purchase insurance coverage according to your actual business needs. Do not purchase coverage against risk you are very unlikely to face in your activities. If you don’t know where to start, ask your insurance agent or broker about specific types of insurance coverage that your business may find particularly useful. And don’t forget to shop around when purchasing a policy. There are many insurance companies offering small business insurance, so don’t rush off to get the first policy offered. Consider all your options and choose the most competitive one.

The easiest way to start your own business without investing cash is by reselling website development services.

Computer industry experts foresee the worldwide Internet population to reach 2 billion in 2011. With more people getting online, you can expect an increasing demand in website development services as well. Your potential clients will include offline businesses and establishments as well as professionals who can grow their offline incomes using their own websites. Individuals like politicians, celebrities, artists and almost everyone would like to have a personal website as it has become as ubiquitous as the email address and mobile phone number.

Advanced Solutions

Creating a website these days is not as difficult as back when computer geeks and technowizards were the only ones who could whip up a decent web page. When speaking to clients you may still have to use basic webspeak as part of your sales talk, your website development wholesaler takes care of the hard part—building your client’s website. Your website wholesaler should be able to create anything from simple and clean web pages to optimized and e-commerce ready websites.

Profit Margins

Wholesalers of website development services generally offer good rates to resellers because their strategy is to reduce their margins in order to increase their volume of work. This arrangement enables the reseller to earn a good profit by passing on the service to the end user at a price higher than the wholesaler’s.

Repeat Sales

Every business needs its own website and most end users have more than one business. By offering competitive prices and excellent website development services, it is easy to sell more than one website to each client. The more websites you sell the more profits you make.

Super Fast Websites

To succeed in reselling website development services, price, quality of service and prompt delivery are crucial. Most businesses do not mind spending for a top-notch website for as long as it is built fast and is easy to use. The key to reselling is in choosing the right wholesaler. Look for a highly competent team of web developers who use state of the art software and technology to build websites that really work for their owners. They should offer flexible website development packages at prices that allow you to resell them at double or triple the price to end users. They should offer a fast turnaround as well— Building a website in two weeks is possible once you provide them with all the materials and information that they need.

This type of policy provides coverage for a specific number of years in return for a predetermined premium. Temporary policy is considered to be ‘pure’ insurance and the amount of premium only provides coverage in the event of death, not any other events.

Three main factors should be considered for term insurance:

Face value – the benefit at death, also called the coverage;
Premium due – the insured cost;
Duration of coverage – the term.

Depending on the insurance company you will be offered a various combination of these three factors. The face value may or may not remain constant and the duration (term) can be for any number of years while the premium can also fluctuate in value. Further, there are three types of term insurance – level insurance, annual renewable as well as mortgage insurance.

Level term life insurance is a long-term policy, usually issued for a round number of years, like 10, 15, 25, etc. The specifics of this type are in the fact that its premiums remain constant thus you can plan and budget long-term. In the end it might be renewable or can be converted into another type of policy.

The annual renewable term is a 12 months insurance but with a guarantee from the insurance company that it will reissue a policy of equal or lesser value at the expiry of 12 months, regardless of the insurability of the policy holder and will determine the premium according to the age of the insured at the time of renewal.

Mortgage life insurance is similar to the level term in that it also has a constant premium but declining face amount. The face value in this type of insurance is equal to the amount of mortgage on the insured’s residence, so that in the event of the insured’s death the company pays the mortgage off.

Permanent life insurance

This type of life insurance stays in force permanently, until the policy matures, except if the policyholder breaches its terms, for instance if he does not pay the premium at due date. This policy cannot be cancelled except if there was a fraud in the application. In contrast to the term insurance, permanent policy accumulates cash value, which means that a policy of one million dollars will be cheaper for a young person than to someone in his/her 60s. The built up cash can be accessed by the insured at any time. Further, permanent insurance can be split into four groups – whole life insurance, universal life insurance, limited-pay and endowments.

Whole life policy has a constant premium and a schedule of cash value. It guarantees death benefits, cash accumulation, fixed annual premiums, and the expenses in the event of death will not be deducted from the cash value.

Universal life policy is similar to the whole life but provides more flexible premiums and a potential to achieve a higher internal rate of return.

Limited pay policy provides for the premiums to be paid in specified periods of time, like 10 or 20 years.
Endowments are policies in which the built up cash value equals the benefits in the event of death (the face value). This type of life insurance is considered to be a more expensive one.