Career Success - Embracing Difference is the Key to Team Success

Career Success - Embracing Difference is the Key to Team Success
We are all individuals with unique personalities,
capabilities and quirks. We each bring something different
to the table. Experience, skills, talents, expectations. It
might surprise you to learn that difference among team
members is actually the beginning of synergy.

You can choose to see difference as a reason for not
getting along or as an obstacle to moving toward team
goals. Unsuccessful teams are certainly known to be prone
to doing that. And, when you hold these views you should
expect to spend more time attempting to mediate conflicts
and resolve issues that are impeding communication and
compromising productivity than dealing with tasks on your
critical path.

Or, you can capitalize on difference so that, at the end of
the day, the sum of the parts is greater than that of the
whole. For successful teams cooperative, joint effort
delivers an end result which independent action could not
have achieved. There is little wasted time or energy
required to manage expectations and massage egos.

Critical to working synergistically is ensuring each person
on the team knows and has shared the answer to the
following questions:

1. What she or he REQUIRES from others working on the team.

2. What she or he REQUESTS from others working on the team.

3. What she or he REFUSES TO TOLERATE from others working
on the team.

The first step then is giving the team members the time to
consider their response to these questions and permission
to answer them honestly, without fear of reprisal.

The next step is creating an opportunity for the team
members to share their personal requirements with one
another. As the team leader, you are responsible for making
sure this conversation takes place early on in the team
relationship, preferably before any other requirements are
discussed as a team.

Once this has taken place, you are ready to discharge other
matters critical to the team's business such as defining
your mission, values, objectives, goals, tasks, timelines,
resource requirements, constraints, success criteria,
performance measures and status reporting metrics.

Synergy starts with communicating openly and honestly with
one another, is reinforced by committing to and working
toward common goals, and ends with sharing the glory of
achievement despite adversity. At the start of the day it's
all about possibilities but, at the end of the day it's
only about your results.

Embracing difference is the key to success because the
opposite of success isn’t failure, it’s
conformity. And the choice is always yours.

----------------------------------------------------
Download more free career tips and advice at
http://www.smartstartcoach.com
Career advancement expert and mentor Linda M. Lopeke is a
leading authority on how to succeed in the 21st century
workplace and the creator of SMARTSTART Mentoring Programs:
Success-to-go for people working @ the speed of life!

A New Hire, An Aquarium and Overcoming The Status Quo

A New Hire, An Aquarium and Overcoming The Status Quo
What does an aquarium have to do with the status quo and a
new hire? More than you think. Read on and see how an
experience in ignoring the rules of good aquarium
management resulted in a lesson that has much broader
application.

At 12 years old, I was a partner in an aquarium. Four of us
owned it and the fish and plants that inhabited it. We got
the money to buy new fish by scavenging 5 cent deposit
beverage bottles. We'd gather the bottles, cash them in
and go to the aquarium dealer and buy fish.

We had developed a pretty good collection of Gouramis,
Angelfish. Mollys and Neon Tetras, along with the necessary
catfish and plants to make our freshwater aquarium look
good, provide cover, and yet remain uncrowded.

The one thing we had done was always buy two fish of the
same kind. But one Saturday we went looking for bottles
– pickings were scarce and we only found enough to
get money for one fish. We really wanted to add zebra fish
to our collection, so we bought just one fish - even though
the dealer advised against it - and brought it home.

We introduced our new fish with little fanfare - we simply
dropped it into the tank. All the other pairs had been put
into the aquarium in their plastic bags for a few hours in
order to let the community get to know them. We were tired
from scavenging bottles, it was getting late, and we were
in a hurry to see how our zebra fish looked in the aquarium.

Our zebra fish darted around and showed a lot of energy
– just what we wanted to liven up the aquarium. We
noticed that all the other fish seemed to get a little
tense with this new fish buzzing around the aquarium, but
none attacked him and we felt that everything would settle
down overnight. We put the cover on the aquarium, and went
to bed.

The next day we checked on our aquarium, and the zebra fish
was gone! The cover was still on, and it was heavy glass
that could not be moved by a fish. We had no other pets at
the time, and the house was free of rats and rodents. What
we did notice was that the other fish in the aquarium had
returned to their pre-zebra demeanor - everything was calm
and collected in this little community - no tension, and
all the pairs were in their places.

We came to the conclusion that our hard earned zebra fish -
all alone because we lacked the patience to wait until we
had the money for a pair, and introduced with little
preparation because we had not taken the time to introduce
him properly, had been eaten by the other fish in the
aquarium. That was the only possible explanation for his
disappearance.

See any similarities to what so often happens in business
situations? We spend all our time and energy on the
acquisition of a person, we want them to shake things up,
we're eager to have that happen, so we just drop them in
the tank! And they get eaten – figuratively - by the
status quo.

The purpose of this story is to suggest you spend at least
as much time and effort in the assimilation of people as
you do in the acquistion of people. Spend time with the new
person, and with the people who will be part of the
environment that the new person will have to live, survive
and succeed in. Build the bridges of understanding and
expectations that will allow the workgroup to be successful
in accepting the newcomer. If you just parachute them in
– sink or swim – you do so at your own peril.
Make sure the success of people that are hired is a goal of
the hiring manager, and make sure he or she understands
their own performance will be measured on the basis of how
well their hires succeed

Create a structure for followup that ensures the new person
has regular contact with their manager - a structure that
communicates expectations to the hiring manager for how
they are to develop the new person.

If you accept the attitude that every new selection, be it
a hire, promotion or transfer, represents an opportunity
to improve your organization, and you follow that attitude,
you will see a much higher proportion of successful
selections from both a retention and contribution
standpoint.

I wish we'd used that process with our zebra fish. As it
turned out our aquarium never did get another fish –
our little fish community liked things just the way they
were – and we didn't want to mess with the status
quo. Plus, our unsuccessful experience with the zebra fish
made it difficult to work up any enthusiasm for trying
again.

Sound familiar? .

----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox helps clients align their resources and design and
implement change through the application of goals focused
on the important few elements that have maximum impact in
achieving success - as defined by the client. He can be
reached at http://www.coxconsultgroup.com or
acox@coxconsultgroup.com

Keep Your Feet to the Fire . . . Even If You Have to Start the Fire Yourself

Keep Your Feet to the Fire . . . Even If You Have to Start the Fire Yourself
When you decide to learn about how to create and implement
2,000 percent solutions (ways of accomplishing 20 times as
much with the same time and effort), you'll have opened up
a magical doorway to exponential improvement. In the
process, you'll come to understand how to make rapid
progress by overcoming stalls (bad habits that encourage
complacency) and developing new, more effective habits.
What you probably do not yet appreciate is how rapidly
change can occur, and how large rapid change can be.

Let's look at two examples, one from nature and one from
business, to expand your awareness.

When Is It Time for a Change?

Many learn that evolutionary changes in nature take
millions of years. New research shows that major biological
changes in a species can happen in as little as 14 years,
as reported in Nature ("Natural Selection Out on a Limb,"
Ted J. Case, Volume 387, pp. 1-16, May 1, 1997). Common
lizards native to the Caribbean were transported to small
islands where they were not expected to survive because the
environments were so ill-suited to the lizards. Instead of
dying out, most of the lizard colonies thrived because the
lizards' bodies changed rapidly and dramatically to fit the
new environments. Fourteen years after arrival, the
survivors were as different from their ancestors as a
jockey is from a basketball center.

People should be even more physically adaptable than
lizards when placed in a challenging environment. We should
have the same genetic ability to shift, and we have the
added advantage of being able to shift mentally more than
lizards do. We can use that mental advantage to change our
actions as well as adapt the environment in ways that suit
us using tools we design.

The question before us now is: How can a challenging
environment make a difference for us in achieving a 2,000
percent solution?

Creating the Environment for a 2,000 Percent Solution

Let's turn to the business equivalent of the lizard
colonies being relocated onto the new islands where they
faced potential extinction: a corporate loser facing
shutdown. This organization chose to fight the seemingly
inevitable demise of its operations by focusing on
approaching the ideal best practice (the best way that
anyone could possibly operate).

At the time of the decision, the company had the lowest
profit margin (after-tax earnings divided by sales) in the
industry, the second lowest market share (company sales
divided by industry sales), the most debt compared to its
equity, poor stock price performance, and customers who
wouldn't buy the company's offerings unless they sold below
everyone else's price. The goal was to improve to a
leadership position along all of these dimensions.

Within a year of making the decision to improve, the
company increased its market share by more than 50 percent,
more than doubled its profit margin, improved its balance
sheet to reach normal debt levels, substantially increased
its prices, and saw its stock price grow by more than 50
percent. After seven more years, the company's profit
margin was the highest in the industry. It had almost
tripled its market share, slashed its debt to very low
levels and saw its stock price grow by more than 10 times
the market rate. All of this improvement occurred in a
commodity industry in which the annual unit growth rate was
less than 4 percent.

The potential extinction made the officers eager to
consider any reasonable change that might help. The 2,000
percent solution process gave them the road map for which
changes to make.

Using new measurements, the officers identified which
current and potential customers would provide the most
profit and competitive insulation. From this examination,
the company saw an opportunity to make a key acquisition
that would greatly strengthen performance where the company
was doing best. After the acquisition, sales efforts were
redirected to the more ideal customers. Those steps allowed
the company to reach about the fourth step in the 2,000
percent solution process during the first year. Business
performance boomed as a result.

As well as this company performed, it missed greater
opportunities because as soon as extinction was no longer a
threat, complacency set in. The remaining steps in the
process were never executed. Like the lizards in the
Caribbean, they lazed in the sun in their new form . . .
enjoying the improved match with their environment.

Beware of falling into this trap when threats recede. Stir
up a new threat if you have no other way to avoid
complacency.

Conclusion

What, then, should be your organization's goals? We
encourage you to lift your sights to not only make great
strides now, but to create the foundation for even greater
strides in the future, both for current and future
generations of stakeholders.

Here are the questions you need to answer and consistently
act on to start creating 2,000 percent solutions:

• What habits does your organization have now that
could lead it to be derailed by success from creating a
permanent 2,000 percent solution organizational culture?

• How can you use the 2,000 percent solution process
to overcome those habits?

• For your organization to gain the most from your
learning, who should you begin to teach about stallbusting
(overcoming bad habits) and 2,000 percent solutions?

• Which process in your organization is the right one
to begin focusing on to apply what you’ve learned?

• What are your organizational and personal
objectives for helping others learn these ways of thinking
and acting?

• What are your personal objectives for employing the
benefits you'll gain from overcoming stalled thinking and
using the eight-step process outside of your work?

You can use these questions to help evolve into a
self-actualized person who can guide companies and
organizations to overcome the stalls that keep them from
becoming self-actualized as well. In the process, the
organization will find itself focusing on more profound and
satisfying purposes. When the 2,000 percent solution
process is applied broadly through the world, we'll all
enjoy improved health, happiness, peace, and prosperity.
We, our loved ones, family, friends, neighbors, colleagues,
those we serve, and our descendants will be enormously glad
we did.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

The Unique Women’s Zenith Watch Collection

The Unique Women’s Zenith Watch Collection
Whether you’re looking for glamour or a casual
timepiece with style, there is a wide array of
women’s Zenith watches to select from. There are
four different collections to choose from and each
collection offers a number of variations. There are
diamonds, stainless steel, leather and gold within the
various watches.

The first women’s Zenith collection I’ll go
over is the Baby Doll collection. There is an astounding
18 watches to choose from just within the Baby Doll
collection. One of the unique watches within this
collection is the Baby Star Elite, which offers a casual
and flashy watch for every situation. It has a simple
buckle that allows for an easy access putting it on or
taking it off.

There are four different colors you can choose from with
the Baby Star Elite; pink, baby blue, silver and white.
Whichever color you select, the color of the case
coordinates with the color of the dial and the leather
strap. The dial is then topped off with a plethora of
glistening diamonds.

The next women’s Zenith watch collection is not quite
as big with only six models to choose from, but is equally
unique. One of the models, the El Primero, has a 4021
automatic movement with chronograph, power reserve
indicator, an open dial displaying the movement and a heart
shaped small second-hands at 9 o’clock. You can
choose from rose, yellow gold, and a number of different
colored steel.

The Glam’Rock collection offers women the glamorous
watches from Zenith. There are eight different models
within the collection, each having their own style and
flash. A few of the watches have a shiny stainless steel
silver bracelet and others have a black calfskin strap.
The background of the dial has a number of stars
accentuating the style, which is finished off with a large
star shaped open dial that shows the escapement movement.

The last women’s Zenith collection is the Starissme.
There are eight different models within this collection to
choose from, all being fairly similar to each other. The
unique design on the dial has a star at the 12
o’clock spot, and then numbers one through eight.
Each number on the dial gets bigger as you go from one to
eight, with the eight craftily taking over a majority of
the left side. Lastly, a star on the upper left hand side
of the dial is open to show the escapement movement.

Each collection of the women’s Zenith watches offer
something a little different. You will find diamonds,
leather, stainless steel and a unique design with every
timepiece Zenith offers.

----------------------------------------------------
To obtain information on the beautifully crafted Womens
Zenith Watch visit our Zenith watches section
(http://www.watchesonnet.com/zenith.html). For information
on Patrick Bedford or to browse our large watch section
visit Watches On Net (http://www.watchesonnet.com )

Career Success - The Mystery Key to Mastering Work/Life Balance

Career Success - The Mystery Key to Mastering Work/Life Balance
Is there such a thing to be had as work/life balance? Of
course there is! But it helps to understand what is really
meant by it in order to manage your commitments toward
having any hope of achieving it. Like “family
values”, work/life balance is very easy to talk about
and quite a bit more challenging to actually live. Each
requires substantial personal commitment, particularly if
you want to be successful.

Experiencing work/life balance probably requires an
adjustment to your way of thinking. Most people think in
one dimension following a linear thought pattern. They see
things as absolute and respond only one way, either
positive or negative. We can or we can’t do it.
Let’s call this first wave thinking.

Some people use expanded thought patterns. They see and
compare things from two sides, both positive and negative,
and make choices on the basis of analysis. For them the
issue is one of “maybe we can AND maybe we
can’t”. This is what's called second wave
thinking.

People who achieve work/life balance are third wave
thinkers. They use complete thought patterns, compare
things from multiple angles and see all sides and
perspectives. They look at things from the inside out and
the outside in. Successful people are almost always grand
masters of third-wave thinking. Their approach is always
“how can we make this happen?”

Here’s how this translates to the challenge of
achieving work/life balance. First-wave thinkers believe it
means trading 8 hours of work for the guarantee of an equal
8 hours of time to devote to having a personal life. The
second-wave thinkers see work/life balance as 8 hours of
work buying 8 hours of personal life but they are willing
to invest some or all of their personal time in additional
work when they feel it’s the only way open to the
reward of success. Sadly, neither one of these two groups
experience much work/life balance regardless of the number
of hours logged at the office or spent at home.

Third-wave thinkers, on the other hand, see that work/life
balance is not a matter of equal time for both pursuits.
Rather, it is a matter of accepting that to give more to
your work, you must get more from your life, and to give
more to your life, you must get more from your work. The
values actually added and subtracted are always changing as
they are in constant motion. As long as you remain aware
of where you are at any given time in your work and in your
personal life, you will always be able to maintain a fine,
healthy, and satisfying balance. Welcome to professional
nirvana!

To sum up, the people who achieve work/life balance have
stopped looking at work as simply a means of making a
living and have realized it’s one of the elemental
ingredients of making a life. So, the next time you are
experiencing dissatisfaction at work and unhappiness in
your life and are ready to blame it on a lack of work/life
balance, stop and ask yourself this important question,
“How do I want it to become and what personal actions
will carry me there?” Then, as they say in the Nike
commercial, “Just do it!”

----------------------------------------------------
Get more free career tips and great advice at
http://www.smartstartcoach.com
Career advancement expert and mentor Linda M. Lopeke is a
leading authority on how to succeed in the 21st century
workplace and the creator of SMARTSTART Mentoring Programs:
Success-to-go for people working @ the speed of life!

Product Review DIY Accounting Limited Company Accounting Software

Product Review DIY Accounting Limited Company Accounting Software
Accounting Software Strengths

As the whole small business accounting software for a
limited liability company is written on excel spreadsheets
all bookkeeping transactions are visible. Each excel
workbook being arranged in 12 monthly worksheets. Prime
data entry excel spreadsheets being provided for sales,
purchases, cash, bank, savings account and credit card
account. Financial transactions such as sales or expenses
are then simply listed on the appropriate months' sheet.
And should a change be necessary any item can be easily
changed. This simple listing process is a huge advantage to
non accountants as no previous bookkeeping or accountancy
software knowledge is required.

Bank spreadsheets can be entered by listing the items that
appear on the bank statement and include a box to enter the
statement balance each month. The formulae within the excel
spreadsheet then automatically checks that the entries made
agree with the statement balance producing effective bank
reconciliation. A good feature that ensures entries are
recorded accurately in the companies accounts.

From the lists of sales and purchases plus the bank
statement entries all the information is automatically
transferred to the financial accounts file. In this file is
a trial balance which actually automates all the double
entry accounting transactions. No entries are required
removing the need for users to have accounting experience.
The Trial Balance is purely an accounting solution, visible
and contains an audit check to again ensure the company
accounts are accurate with no entries are required. The
lack of entries in the area of accounting makes the product
an ideal package for companies requiring a small business
accounting software package.

Within the financial accounting software file is an
automated monthly profit and loss account to enable limited
companies to track their financial performance and very
important, the package also produces a balanced profit and
loss account and Balance Sheet in the correct format for
submission of the final accounts. This set of final
accounts automatically gathering the financial information
from the basic entries made and includes the statutory
notes required for a set of company accounts being
published.

Quarterly vat returns are generated for vat registered
business and is also suitable for non vat registered
business. To produce a vat return clients simply go to the
vat file and select the quarter end date from a drop down
menu and the figures for the vat return are automatically
generated. The vat calculations can be disabled by non vat
registered small businesses by simply changing the standard
vat rate from 17.5 to zero making the accounting software
suitable for both vat registered and non vat registered
businesses.

The fixed asset schedule is preset with the capital
allowance tax rates to automatically calculate capital
allowances when fixed assets are entered. Depreciation is
also automatically calculated with preset percentages that
can be changed as required.

The limited company corporation tax liability is also
calculated automatically in such a way that all the
calculations; additions and deductions are both automated
and visible. Capital allowances on both existing and new
assets being shown on the corporation tax calculation.

Accountancy Knowledge Required

The limited liability company accounting software is based
upon single entry of transactions requiring no accounting
or bookkeeping knowledge. All the accounting knowledge
required to perform the double entry of transactions which
is a required feature to produce a balance sheet has been
automated. The company accounts package has a feature so
that the previous years' figures may be entered and lists
of opening debtors and creditors recorded. A minimal level
of accounting knowledge is required to correctly list the
closing debtors and creditors and check the totals of those
lists agrees with the automated balances shown on the
company accounts balance sheet

Very Low Priced

At £15 the accounting software can save many businesses
exempt from a full audit the need to employ an accountant
potentially saving hundreds of pounds in professional fees.
Hundreds of small limited companies with up to 20 employees
also purchase the DIY Accounting Payroll Software which is
sold separately from £14.99 and fully integrates into the
Financial Accounting Software.

Other Features

The product has a stock control feature to monitor any
stock losses. The limited company accounting software
contains a wages interface that fully integrates the DIY
Accounting Payroll Software when those files are saved into
the same folder as the accounting software files. Being
written on excel spreadsheets all transactions are visible
and capable of being changed by for example overwriting any
errors as opposed to a database system that requires new
transactions to be entered to reverse previous entries. The
sales and purchase spreadsheets include columns for
entering CIS tax deductions and payments and the
certificate numbers. The CIS tax being then automatically
entered on the self assessment tax return. As the small
business accounting software is written on excel
spreadsheets then it is essential that users have a version
of excel from 1998 onwards installed to use the program.
The accounting software also works fine with an Open Source
spreadsheet package.

Conclusion: to Buy or not to Buy

Exceptionally good value, very easy to use and produces
exactly what every small limited company requires in a
small business accounting software package, automated
accounts requiring no bookkeeping skills and no previous
financial accountancy software experience with the valuable
end product of a fully automated final set of accounts for
the limited liability company.

----------------------------------------------------
Terry Cartwright is a qualified accountant in the UK
designs Financial Accounting Software
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/index.htm
on excel spreadsheets providing complete Business
Accounting Software
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/companyaccounts.htm
for every small limited liability company.

Philadelphia Real Estate - The Tortoise or the Hare?

Philadelphia Real Estate - The Tortoise or the Hare?
Philadelphia, situated between New York and Washington, DC,
is often overlooked by many as the thriving, vivacious city
that it truly has become.

We don't attract the number of investors that some of our
big city rivals such as Miami, Las Vegas, or some hot spots
in California might. You won't find our streets littered
with movie stars, paparazzi or neon lights. Very few folks
here in Center City Philadelphia have swimming pools or
driveways.

Poor, poor Philadelphia....

Oh, and soaring, monthly double digit appreciation in home
values? No, we don't get much of that either. This sorry
backwoods of an urban area suffers from such neglect.
Bummer, eh?

Uh, no. Not in the least. Very few Philadelphia real
estate owners are upset with such dismal happenings here in
town. In fact, many of us are delighted.

Keep your Brittany Spears, your tofu cafes, and your oxygen
bars. We have little use for such effects. You see, we
are your slow, stupid cousins. Those of us who buy a piece
of Center City Philadelphia real estate, such as a
Rittenhouse Square Condominium or Old City loft, see those
investments appreciate at an awfully slow, five to fifteen
percent per year, or so....that latter figure being in a
good year, running down hill, with the wind to our backs.

But you see, the difference is that Philadelphia real
estate has sustained this kind of growth in value for
almost twelve years in a row. And according to various
newspapers and publications, such as The Philadelphia
Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News, there doesn't
seem to be an end in sight.

Philadelphia, forever the tortoise, has been able to keep
the pace going and going. We don't seem to have a gross
oversupply of unsold inventory, our owner-occupancy ratios
are very high (not a lot of out-of-town money bulking up
the ownership ranks amongst the Philadelphia condo set),
and the subprime debacle has played little into our
appreciation forecasts.

Although some Philadelphia real estate novices are put off
by the fact that you generally have to wait a few years to
see some value growth on your new construction purchase,
Old City lofts and Rittenhouse Square condominiums, for
example, do eventually appreciate in value.

So, it boils down to the fact that Center City Philadelphia
condominiums and other Center City real estate may not be
as fast out of the starting gate as other cities, and we
may always be the real estate stepchild to the home values
of our peers, but it does appear that slow and steady wins
the race.

And personally, as a REALTOR as well as a home owner here
in town, I would like to thank all the Philadelphia real
estate buyers and sellers who have made this win possible.

----------------------------------------------------
Mark Wade is a Philadelphia REALTOR who is "the" Center
City Philadelphia condominium specialist. Mark's vast
knowledge of what's trendy and which finishes buyers look
for when selecting a home hope both buyers and sellers of
Philadelphia real estate make the most of their investments.
View Center City condos for sale at
http://www.CenterCityCondos.com

Marketing to women – bigger buyers than all of Japan

Marketing to women – bigger buyers than all of Japan
Ok – I am the first to admit – I can get very
confused on how women think, make decisions and end up
purchasing one offer over another.

But, I realize how important it is that I learn (especially
considering I live with 3 of them! My wife Kari, and my
twin daughters Katrina and Hailey). It is become of utmost
importance to me to figure out how they think, or resign
myself permanently to living and working out of the garage.

And you should too – man or woman – you should
start researching the how-to aspect of marketing to women.

Why?

According to the book I am reading right now entitled
"Marketing to Women – How to understand, reach and
increase your share of the worlds largest market segment"
by Martha Barletta.

Women make 85% of all buying decisions Women account for 70
percent of all new business startups

Specifics... Homes furnishings purchases – 94%
decided by women Vacations – 92% Houses – 91%
Electronics – 51% Cars – purchase 60% and
influence 90% Banking decisions 84% Health car – 80%

I think you see the point here – by far this is the
world’s largest untapped market. And if you take the
initiate to learn about this market – you will be
happily growing your business while others stand by and
look confused on how you are doing it.

The American Women’s market by themselves has more
purchasing power than the entire Japanese market!

Do I have your attention yet?

Think about it. Most advertising, web sites, sales copy,
sales trainers etc are focused on techniques that sell to
men.

Very few... name some... train others on effective
marketing and sales techniques to the women’s market.

This is new to me too!

Living with 3 women, you would think I understand this
market – nope, I don't... but I want to learn.

Women have an entirely different way of making their
purchasing decisions... how they read sales copy and
advertising... and how they perceive companies and their
positioning.

It is imperative that you learn this. Me as well.

I am not going to get into the details here... for that...
go buy a book written by an expert in this field.... but
here is a few examples

Women – like to see lots of information (long copy
sells... but most do it wrong to the women’s market),
want to build rapport first, make internal connections and
hear stories that they can relate to

Men – are interested in the key points (bullets...
not nearly as effective with women), like headlines, status
is very important and appreciate facts and features (most
high tech gadget freaks I know are men

Women seek the perfect answer; men just want a quick
answer. Think about shopping habits of both. Men go to a
mall with a specific purpose in mind (an answer), walk
quickly through the mall straight to where they are going,
buy... then leave.

Women on the other hand can spend hours at the mall –
seeking that perfect answer.

And women will do anything to get exactly what they are
looking for.

You want raving fans? Learn how to market to women
properly... they will treat you like gold in return. If
you offer what they are looking for (the perfect answer),
they are absolutely your perfect client – they will
send endless referrals your way if you treat them right.

So, do yourself, your relationships and your business a
favor – pick up a copy of this book... start to
understand where 98% of the businesses you see out there
are doing it wrong... and reap the benefits for years to
come.

Gotta run – some serious reading and studying to do
here!

----------------------------------------------------
Troy White, The Marketing Results Mentor and Expert
Copywriter helps clients achieve HUGE growth surges in
their business in very short periods of time. If you're an
entrepreneur in need of quick cash flow surges – here
is the quick-hit solution to put money in your bank….
The Wild West Wealth Summit! Make sure you visit
http://www.WildWestWealth.com or sign up for the Free Cash
Flow Surge Newsletter at http://www.CashFlowSurges.com

The "REAL" World of Network Marketing and Prospecting

The "REAL" World of Network Marketing and Prospecting
Let me introduce myself. I am Dr Robin Rushlo and I have
been in MLMs or Network marketing programs for over 37
years. Today I am adding facts, with a little ranting,
about the current state of Network Marketing and
prospecting.

First, the prospect, if you are a responsible network
marketer, your emails will have a place for the "prospect"
to OPT OUT and/or unsubscribe. That is the right way to do
this business. So, prospects, please read the whole email
and look for the opt-out or unsubscribe line. The last 1000
emails I sent out I had 127 prospects that either could not
read or refused to read the entire email to look for this
line but instead sent an email that says "Stop sending me
these emails". This statement is paraphrased as some of the
emails are truly unprintable. I hope you do not eat with
the same fingers your type with. WOW.

Further, all the prospects that I approach either went to a
splash or capture page to get something free from me or to
subscribe to a newsletter. These are all double opt-in.
Which means twice I asked and made sure that you really
wanted the freebie and the info I would supply. So when I
do call or send follow-up emails why are there a few that
say "I never did that or asked for that info." Remember
prospects, when you get the freebie or ask for the
newsletter your exact IP address is given and when you say
you never asked for it, well it is hard to understand. Now,
I do understand that maybe a son. Or daughter entered your
info or a dear "FRIEND" but that is less than .023% of the
time.

Second, for the prospect, surveys you take to start your
home based business. They get your info too and then sell
it to Network Marketers that will email and call you. Just
confess that on that night long ago, you know that day
after you boss chewed you out, you went on line to see how
fast you could fire your boss and took that survey. Well,
a home based business is just that, a business, not a
hobby. It will take money to start. The following items
will be needed for the average business:

1. Start up costs ( from $10.00 to $5,000.00 one time fee)

2. A monthly fee (autoship or membership from $10 to $300
monthly)

3. Advertising costs ( from $25 to the sky is the limit
monthly)

4. Business cards ( from $25 print at home to $396 or more)

5. A domain name that is trackable ($6 to $25 one time fee )

6. A hosting plan for outside capture pages ($10 to $400 a
monthly)

7. Unlimited long Distance for your Phone ( $25 to $65 a
month)

8. One hour a day or 7 to 10 hours a week Just for your
Business without any interference.

9. 3 hours a week just for your personal time to increase
your talents in Network Marketing.

10. A spouse or companion that will support you in this
business.

11. At least 90 to 180 days to have checks from you
business that have at least two or more zeros in them.
Again that is up to you and whether you want to work.

These are the bare minimums for a business. With #10 being
the biggest or the first unless you are 100% single and
have no relationships with anyone other than you. So if
you are looking for that pot of gold to show up the day
after you start guess again.

Realize that all of this is basically up to you and what is
between your ears.

You have the power to be one of the 3% that make it big or
the 97% that never break even. Look around and look to the
people in the industry that are making money. What I did
was to learn from them was to sit at their feet and see
what they were doing and do it. The good leaders in this
industry are the servant leaders that will give of their
time and talent to make sure you are profitable. They will
always be the one with the hand out to help pull you up not
ask for you to buy more from them. Just remember as they
pull, you must push up. They can not pull dead weight and
make it move. A team effort is needed and team is spelled
"T E A M" without a "I" in it.

----------------------------------------------------
=====================================================
If you'd like to learn more about a brand new prospecting
system that builds YOUR primary business
and get a free E-Book authored by Robert G. Allen go here:
http://www.bookwisepro.net/blindguy55
Learn More http://yourbookpros.com
Remember you can also learn more of the 37years in Network
Marketing from Dr Robin Rushlo
=====================================================

Discipline Yourself to Enjoy the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

Discipline Yourself to Enjoy the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow
Athletes know they must repeat their conditioning and
training to achieve top performance. Musicians know that
without practice their sound won't appeal to very many
people.

Business people often do just the opposite: Running off in
all directions to deal with short-term problems of little
long-term consequence.

But discipline yourself to create and improve upon 2,000
percent solutions (ways of accomplishing 20 times more with
the same time, effort, and resources), and you'll soon be
enjoying world-class rewards.

The steps for creating a 2,000 percent solution are listed
here:

1. Understand the importance of measuring performance.

2. Decide what to measure.

3. Identify the future best practice and measure it.

4. Implement beyond the future best practice.

5. Identify the ideal best practice.

6. Pursue the ideal best practice.

7. Select the right people and provide the right motivation.

8. Repeat the first seven steps.

This article looks at step eight, repeat the first seven
steps.

Practice Reaching Toward Perfection

"Practice makes perfect." We learned to walk by taking more
and more tottering steps before we fell. We learned to
write by copying each letter many, many times. Doing is the
best way to learn. Imagine trying to read a book to learn
how to ride a two-wheeled bicycle.

Achieving 20 times progress also requires repetition. When
you reexamine the same process and improvement opportunity,
you will uncover new and better ideas with each repetition
of the first seven steps of the eight-step 2,000 percent
solution process.

The gains from such repetitions can be staggering because
they usually multiply onto a higher performance base.
Here's an example. Imagine that you just created a way to
expand revenues by 20 times from the current level. On the
next reexamination of that opportunity, you might find a
way to increase revenues by an additional 200 percent from
the 20 times improved base. That seemingly more modest
increase would be equal to double the entire gain from the
first 2,000 percent solution!

Many times, reexamination leads to larger absolute gains
during the repetition than during the initial examination.
Naturally, when a 2,000 percent solution is reached on top
of the first 2,000 percent solution, you've turned a 20
times gain into a 400 times gain. Think of the opportunity
to reexamine such an area for a third time.

If you have wisely chosen to work on your highest potential
opportunity, this upside potential shouldn't surprise you.
It's also unlikely that any other opportunity will be as
large as reexamining what you just finished.

When people first create and implement a 2,000 percent
solution, most will opt not to reexamine the same area for
at least five years. That's a big mistake! In most cases,
you can start reexamining the opportunities right away and
come up with big gains. By looking for more opportunities
sooner, you'll build on the momentum of what you learned in
the first iteration as well as deepen your understanding of
the opportunity.

There are valuable, related benefits from such repetition.
Each success will increase commitment to creating 2,000
percent solutions while geometrically expanding the
resources available to pursue new solutions. With practice,
the 2,000 percent solution process becomes easier, more
productive, and faster. At some point, creating 2,000
percent solutions will become part of your corporate
culture. As a result, you'll have even more good habits to
help performance when you're not working on 2,000 percent
solutions. You'll also notice and start working on large
opportunities sooner.

When the 2,000 percent solution process has been accepted
into your organization's culture, you will benefit from
having a powerful common language, thought process, and
capability for improvement. To accomplish this
desirable result, your organization's leader must create an
expectation that creating 2,000 percent solutions is the
new standard of what must be accomplished. With that focus,
the leader's words become thoughts throughout the
organization. The thoughts become ideas. The ideas become
actions. The actions become new habits. The new habits are
reinforced and improved by experience and success. The new
habits upgrade the culture. Repetition strengthens,
deepens, and widens the impacts of each of these
reinforcing mechanisms.

STALLBUSTERS

The main issue for you is reinforcing repetition of the
eight-step process. Skip this step, and you will lose
almost all of the potential benefit of using what you have
learned about creating 2,000 percent solutions.

Here is your assignment:

• Make everyone aware that the eight-step process
will be repeated in the same area, again and again.

•When the process is begun, set early dates to start
repeating the process.

• Set dates to begin the eight steps in other
important management processes.

• Set dates to begin repeating the eight steps in
those other important management processes.

• Add to your organizational ability to use the
eight-step process through improved capabilities such as:

— More measurement capabilities to spot unperceived
ways to improve

— Better ability to identify cause and effect

— Increased access to organizations with best
practices you can use

— Faster learning from other organizations

— Improved forecasting of future process improvements

— Enhanced conceptualization of the ideal best
practice

— Effective planning for more quickly approaching the
ideal best practice with contained costs, while moving
rapidly into new opportunities opened up by nearing the
ideal best practice

Make a copy of this assignment and put it near your work
telephone so that you will see the assignment every time
you make or receive a call and be reminded to take these
critical actions.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Office Furniture - A buyer's mini guide.

Office Furniture - A buyer's mini guide.
Getting the right furniture for your office at the right
price is an important challenge for you and your office
manager.

Furnishings for your office contribute significantly to the
workplace atmosphere generated for your employees and
visiting clients - vital if you want to create a good
impression and foster good working practices.

The right office furnishings are also essential to meet
health and safety standards and for creating a workspace
that has a good sense of flow and order to it.

The essential piece of office furniture - and often the
hardest to get right - is the office chair. Ergonomic
chairs are ideal for your employees' workstations,
providing lumbar support to varying degrees, depending on
the design of the chair, and coming with a range of
physical requirements in mind. When you are sitting at your
desk all day, it is essential to have good posture support
from your chair.

Good storage is essential for a well-maintained and
organised workplace. Traditional filing cabinets are still
an important part of the office space and help us to keep a
range of documents securely filed and organised while
remaining easily accessible.

If you have a large amount of sensitive or important
material that requires mass, on-site storage then something
like the InnerSpace high-density storage system, available
from ABT makes the best possible use of your storage floor
space.

It comes made to your specification and has been designed
to be easy to order and install. Options are available on
the height, bay width and shelf depth of your InnerSpace
system and you can even move the system if you need to, as
it has been designed to require no fixing to floors or
walls, despite the amount of material it is capable of
holding.

Creating a dedicated area for your employees to meet
informally, eat lunch or take a relaxing break will
encourage them to feel valued by their employer and make
their downtime more relaxing, which will, in turn, lead to
greater productivity in the workplace.

Your reception furniture serves an essential function -
creating the first impression of your workplace to
potential and current clients. So too does the right
conference furniture, which can create a great impression
of your business among your workforce, as well as
impressing all-important current and future clients.

You need to remember that the design of a workplace,
including how office furniture is utilised and positioned,
can make a huge difference to staff motivation and morale.
A workplace which is cluttered with old office furniture
and outdated office equipment can have a negative effect on
employee productivity.

That is why it is so important that you choose the right
furniture for your office.

----------------------------------------------------
Vincent Woodall is the sales and marketing manager of AB
Technology (London) Ltd (ABT) an award-winning office
equipment and office furniture supplier and has been
employed in the industry since 1985. ABT's office furniture
website can be found at
http://www.abt-office-furniture.co.uk

10 Online Marketing Sales Techniques To Explode Your Income

10 Online Marketing Sales Techniques To Explode Your Income
Are you struggling to make consistent online sales with
your online business? Practice some of these online
marketing sales techniques to increase your income today.

1. Do not make the assumption your audience already
understands the terminology in your ad copy. If you use
vocabulary, the general public does not understand, make
sure you define those words.

2. Join online business clubs that are similar to your
online store. The more clubs you become a member of and
that are similar to your market, the more exposure you give
your online store.

3. Build quality business relationships with other online
marketers and businesses. You could trade banners, links,
ads, and cross promote each others products.

4. Use viral marketing as a automated marketing strategy.
This can be done by writing an e-book or special report or
creating a valuable marketing newsletter. As long as the
information you provide is valuable, then encourage your
users to pass it along to others and essentially this will
create a hands free method of marketing that will continue
to spread like a disease.

5. Dominate your competition and hold your own against the
major national and worldwide corporations by providing
quality customer service and fast and reliable shipping and
communication.

6. Register to participate in web site awards. When you win
other sites will display your online business with a link
leading back to your business.

7. Improve your sales and credibility by providing a
section for customers to give feedback. This will help to
build relationships and ultimately improve your online
sales practices once you are able to gather a large enough
sample of your customers’ opinions.

8. Design your packaging so it appeals to your customers.
Utilize strong graphics and text. Also use colors when
appropriate to highlight the most important benefits of
your products and company.

9. Make comparisons between the benefits of your products
and service to the benefits of your competitors. If you
have some noticeable advantages, your competitors will
begin to lose sales to you.

10. Provide valuable content on your web site that will
appeal to your audience and help to provide solutions to
their circumstances. This can be done by having original
textual content separate from your competitors and also by
having links that lead to related websites within your
niche.

Putting just a few of these online marketing sales
techniques into place will increase your online sales and
provide a more consistent and stable automated income
stream.

----------------------------------------------------
About the author: Go to
http://www.WealthyMarketerDirect.blogspot.com to subscribe
to Tim McGaffin's free newsletter where he reveals in the
first issue the secret he discovered that turned him from a
struggling marketer on the internet to a 5-figure monthly
income earner practically overnight. Also see:
http://www.WealthyMarketerDirect.com to receive two free
marketing gifts valued at $114.

Product Review DIY Accounting Small Business Accounting Software UK

Product Review DIY Accounting Small Business Accounting Software UK
Accounting Software Strengths

Easy to use by non accountants requiring no previous
accounting knowledge and is basically a list of sales and a
list of purchases on preset excel spreadsheets. Each
workbook is arranged as 12 monthly spreadsheets with preset
columns and uses an entry code letter to analyse both sales
and expenditure.

Cash and bank spreadsheets are included as optional extras
for those businesses that require them with a built in
automated bank reconciliation. The sheet is designed to be
completed by copying the figures from the bank statement
into the bank spreadsheet and the bank reconciliation is
achieved by also entering the statement total which is
automatically checked against the entries made.

Monthly profit and loss account also includes a financial
health check based upon an automated tax forecast to enable
businesses to monitor their financial performance. By
entering drawings the package then compares the net profit
made with the likely tax liability plus the drawings.

Quarterly vat returns are generated for vat registered
business and is also suitable for non vat registered
business. To produce a vat return clients simply go to the
vat file and select the quarter end date from a drop down
menu and the figures for the vat return are automatically
generated.

The vat calculations can be disabled by non vat registered
small businesses by simply changing the standard vat rate
from 17.5 to zero making the accounting software suitable
for both vat registered and non vat registered businesses.

The accounting package includes a stand alone sales invoice
generator which requires invoices generated to be manually
input into the sales sheet.

The fixed asset schedule is preset with the capital
allowance tax rates to automatically calculate capital
allowances when fixed assets are entered. Depreciation is
also automatically calculated with preset percentages that
can be changed as required.

A major benefit of using this small business bookkeeping
software is the templates are arranged in such a way to
automatically generate an excel copy of the self assessment
tax return. The excel self assessment tax return is
arranged in the same layout as the official inland revenue
form with the same box numbers making it easy to copy the
figures from one to the other for submission.

Accounting Software Weaknesses

The Self-employed accounting software UK is based upon
single entry of transactions and does not produce a balance
sheet which is an optional requirement for self employed
and therefore not a problem for the vast majority of
businesses. DIY Accounting actually recommend clients who
are self employed and wish to produce a balance sheet to
use their Limited Company accounts package which does
produce a balance sheet being based not on single entry but
on double entry principles. The small business accounting
software is suitable for a single tax year, the latest
being 2007-08 and does not cater for accounting periods
other than April to April. There are benefits in anyone
self employed adopting the standard April to April
financial year as this avoids tax allowances from two
separate years being a feature of the accounts. When used
by small businesses using the cash accounting system the
bookkeeping entries to the sales and purchase sheets must
be entered according to the dates money is paid or received
rather than the dates invoices were issued. At the end of
the financial year any invoices not yet entered require to
be listed to adjust the final profit and loss account
figures. This a major disadvantage if using the vat cash
accounting scheme rather than the Accounting Software being
reviewed.

Very Low Priced

At £12.99 the accounting software is basically
available for loose change and will save many businesses
the need to employ an accountant potentially saving
hundreds of pounds in professional fees. For the financial
year 2006-07 the basic package for non vat registered
business is available at just £9.99 and the standard
accounting software for vat registered small business is
£12.99.

Other Features

The product has a stock control feature to monitor any
stock losses. The small business accounting software
contains a wages interface that fully integrates the DIY
Accounting Payroll Software when those files are saved into
the same folder as the accounting software files. Being
written on excel spreadsheets all transactions are visible
and capable of being changed by for example overwriting any
errors as opposed to a database system that requires new
transactions to be entered to reverse previous entries. The
sales and purchase spreadsheets include columns for
entering CIS tax deductions and payments and the
certificate numbers. The CIS tax being then automatically
entered on the self assessment tax return. As the small
business accounting software is written on excel
spreadsheets then it is essential that users have a version
of excel from 1998 onwards installed to use the program.
The accounting software also works fine with an Open Source
spreadsheet package.

Conclusion: to Buy or not to Buy

Exceptionally good value, very easy to use and produces
exactly what every small business requires, automated
accounts requiring no bookkeeping skills and no previous
accounting experience with the valuable end product of a
fully automated self assessment tax return.

----------------------------------------------------
Terry Cartwright is a qualified accountant in the UK
designs Accounting Software at
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/index.htm providing complete
accounting solutions

http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/smallbusinessaccounting.htm
for small to medium sized business with payroll software
at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm

for 1 to 20
employees that automates the revenue payroll tax returns.

Pick a Topic, Pick a Date

Pick a Topic, Pick a Date
Have you been thinking about offering a teleseminar,
webinar, or live workshop, because you know that it will
increase your list numbers, showcase you as an expert,
bring you new clients and customers, and be just plain fun,
but you haven't actually moved forward with the idea?

Maybe you have too many topics to choose from and you don't
know which one to do first. Maybe you have a general idea
of what you want to do, but you haven't actually spent time
giving some structure to it. And maybe you're a little
afraid of putting yourself out there in such a public way.

So even though you know what a boost holding an event like
this would give to your business, still you hestitate
actually implementing it.

That's exactly how I felt about leading a teleseminar about
Google Adwords. Here was a topic that I only knew a little
about, and which can be pretty complex. But I also knew how
powerful Adwords could be for my own business growth, and I
decided that I really wanted to learn it inside and out -
someday.

Then I was presented with the opportunity to teach a class
for someone else's membership list. I could choose my
topic, so I took the leap and offered to teach a class
about Adwords. I knew that "someday" would eventually come,
but here was a chance to do what I said I wanted to NOW. So
I committed to teaching the class, which meant that I was
committed to learning what I needed to by the date of the
class!

If I had waited until I had time to learn Adwords, or until
I decided that I was ready to teach what I knew, I'd still
be thinking about it as an idea of something I wanted to do
- someday. But because I picked a topic and then picked a
date, it actually happened.

And because it did, I ended up gaining two new clients and
developing a series of classes on this topic. And as a
bonus, my conversion rates for my own campaign are at 27%
(which is really good!) because of what I learned in order
to teach.

What ideas are populating your mind but not your product
funnel at the moment? Pick one, take out your calendar,
pick a deadline for having it completed, and then make a
public commitment to having it ready by then to your coach
and your colleagues.

Then write and post your sales page, and start registering
people for your event. Once you do that, I guarantee you'll
have it done and ready by your deadline!

----------------------------------------------------
Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & CoachT,
founder of ClientAbundance.com and creator of 21 Easy &
Essential Steps to Online Success SystemT, teaches
professionals how to attract more clients, create
profit-making products and services, make more sales, and
ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE
tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit
http://www.ClientAbundance.com .

The logo is dead - long live the logo!

The logo is dead - long live the logo!
A logo's job is to represent the essence of its
brand’s character – to introduce it if we
don’t know it, or to remind us of it if we do. As a
photograph is to a person, a logo is to a brand. Visual
logos are proven, effective and ubiquitous – which is
where they have started to run into rapidly diminishing
returns.

I call the problem ‘overmessaging’. Each of us
now encounters a staggering 30,000 commercial messages
every single day, and the vast majority of them are visual.
This means that for the next few years at least, sonic
logos – by which I mean short sonic mnemonics that
are the exact audio counterparts of the visual logo –
are going to be worth considering simply because they are
relatively rare and can thus act as powerful
differentiators. However there’s more to sonic logos
than curiosity value alone: used wisely, they work
exceptionally well. They also have a surprisingly long
pedigree.

Sonic logos have actually been around for hundreds of
years: street calling used to be the main way tradesmen
advertised their services, as wonderfully romanticised in
the film Oliver. It’s not so long since that practice
died: I can remember the ‘rag-and-bone’
man’s mournful shout of “anyoldiron?”
from my childhood in London. The modern-day equivalent is
the ice cream van: just watch the cathartic effect of its
chimes on surrounding buildings on a hot summer’s day
to see the potency of sonic logos deployed in the right
place at the right time. Most ice cream chimes are generic,
but in Sweden the Hemglass ice cream tune is a universally
known and loved sonic brand.

As soon as the advertising industry got sound to play with,
it saw the potential of memorable music/voice combinations
and the jingle and tagline were born. The dividing line
between jingle or a tagline an a sonic logo is blurred. In
general, jingles and taglines come and go with campaigns
and rarely live for more than a few years. Even the most
memorable usually get retired. “For hands that do
dishes…”; “It’s the real
thing”; these and many more once-mighty jingles or
taglines are now languishing in retirement homes, though
the brands are still very much with us today.

Some taglines are so strong that they have become sonic
logos. One in particular has outlasted entire generations
of customers: Tony the tiger has been saying
“they’re gr-r-r-r-reat!” since 1951. This
is probably the longest-running sonic logo in the world,
and it has now outlived its voice-over artist. Thurl
Ravenscroft was famous for many Disney voices but Tony was
his greatest legacy. He voiced the tiger for 54 years until
his death in 2005, when Lee Marshall was appointed to carry
the tradition forward.

Over the years, some sonic logos have even been registered
as trademarks or service marks: the roar of the MGM lion
and the old NBC three-tone chime are two examples.

These examples notwithstanding, it wasn’t until the
1990s that sonic logos started to be taken really seriously
and their use considered by many major brands. The sea
change came with Intel. Its four-note sonic logo, composed
by Austrian musician Walter Werzowa, has become one of the
best-known sounds in the world, and has spearheaded
Intel’s extraordinary success as a brand –
given that this is a product nobody ever sees and nobody
ever buys.

Today, sonic logos are more in play then ever before. UK
insurance giant Direct Line has a sprightly bugle call,
which speaks volumes about urgency, assistance and
playfulness in just three seconds. Apple has its
comforting, uplifting start-up sound, engineered in 1991 by
Jim Reekes and still shipping 16 years later. (It is
inexplicable that the mighty Microsoft has never seen the
value of a single start-up sound; the sound of Windows has
changed with every successive version of the software, so
that now there is no sound of Windows. They may be learning
through: huge amounts of time and money were invested in
‘a language of sounds’ for the Xbox 360.)
Lufthansa has invested in a corporate sound, comprising
four rising tones that are aimed to convey feelings of
taking off and wellbeing. Siemens has recently added a
seventh element to its branding: sound has now joined logo,
claim, typeface, colours, layout and style as one of the
basic building blocks of the Siemens brand. The company has
created both an ‘audio signature’ (aka a sonic
logo) and also some mood sound as part of its new palette.
Even political parties are joining in: Wales’s Plaid
Cymru has a short sonic logo to welcome you in peace and
harmony to its website.

The evidence is that more and more major brands are
creating a sonic logo as a matter of course. With the
continuing rise of mobile devices (along with custom ring
tones and downloaded digital sound) I believe we have not
yet scratched the surface of the sonic logo.

Is it time your brand found its voice – before your
competitors find theirs?

----------------------------------------------------
Julian Treasure is author of the groundbreaking book Sound
Business (http://www.soundbusiness.biz ) and Chairman of
The Sound Agency (http://www.thesoundagency.com), an
applied sound consultancy with clients such as BP, Honda,
Tesco and Unilever. He lives in London with his Italian
wife, children's book author Swan Treasure.

Getting Paid for Online Surveys - Are They a Scam?

Getting Paid for Online Surveys - Are They a Scam?
When it comes to paid online surveys for cash, it becomes
quickly obvious that some claims may be a little
exaggerated. You may see claims of over $150 per survey.

Like the claims of many sellers or retailers, some
stretching of the truth happens in order to get the
attention of the buyer. This requires some detective work
on your part.

While those $150+ paid online surveys are true and really
do occur, they are few and far between. You would only be
able to land a survey with that high of a payout if you had
special knowledge or expertise on a particular subject
matter and the company that wrote the survey needed an
expert's opinion.

What is the normal payment for filling out an online
survey? Well, the surveys you would realistically be able
to participate in would pay in the area of $4 - $50. This
would of course vary with the length of the survey.
Although lower than the hyped up high paying surveys, this
is nothing to sneeze at. You could work your way up to a
nice monthly income by working in 15 to 30 minute
increments at your convenience. The flexibility in your
work schedule may be a very attractive benefit for you.
And as you work at filling out surveys for money you will
find yourself working more efficiently, getting more done
in less time.

Generally no company would pay $100 to fill out a 10 minute
survey. But the longer the survey takes to fill out the
more they would pay. When doing paid online surveys for
cash you may choose to do many 10 minute surveys which pay
less, or alternatively, you may choose the longer surveys
which pay more.

Who can participate in these paid online surveys? Since
many companies sell their items and services to average
everyday consumers, an average everyday consumer would fit
the bill quite nicely. There are of course age requirements
and the issue of country of residence where the survey
taker resides, but the requirements to participate are
quite easily met.

Stay at home moms with busy and sporadic schedules have
participated in paid online surveys to supplement their
family income. Retired persons, who are limited in their
choices for work are also taking part. College students are
always in need of extra money and this suits many of them
as well.

Whatever your situation, getting paid for online surveys
could be an option you may not want to pass up!

----------------------------------------------------
For Full Info and Recommendations Visit Us at:
http://paidsurveys.com-afl.com

Jefferson City Missouri

Jefferson City Missouri
Jefferson City was chosen as Missouri’s state capital
in 1821 and was named after Thomas Jefferson, the third
president of the United States of America. Jefferson City
is nestled in the Ozarks on the banks of the Missouri River
and is near the geographical center of the state. The city
is located along Hwy 54, Hwy 50 and Hwy 63, is 30 miles
south of Columbia, Missouri and almost centered between
Missouri’s major cities of St. Louis and Kansas City.
The City of Jefferson had a total of 39,636 residents, as
of 2000 and the median age was 36 years.

Jefferson City has a deep historical background and
illustrates a romantic atmosphere with many buildings
dating back to the 1800’s. The Lohman building was
built in the late 1830’s and is believed to be the
oldest structure in the city. This three-story limestone
treasure now exhibits transportation of the nineteenth
century. Other historical attractions include the Missouri
State Governor’s Mansion, the Carnahan Memorial
Garden which was renamed in 2001 after the death of
Governor Mel Carnahan, the Cole County Historical Museum
and the Missouri Supreme Court Building. The city also
embraces a long list of historical homes such as the
Schmidt Apartments, Ivy Terrace, Towles-Buckner House,
Oscar Birch House, Villa Panorama, Cole County Historical
Society, Wendielin Buehrle House, Dix House, Upshulte
House, Hugh Stevens House, Orchard Acres, Jefferson Female
Seminary, Schroeder House, Oberman House, Parson’s
House and Sinclair-Hagner House that each add to the
richness and ambiance found there.

Perhaps the most sought after attraction in Missouri is the
Missouri State Capitol Building. The Capitol’s dome
rises 238 feet about ground level and is perched on the
bluffs of the Missouri River. The building creates a
picturesque view of the city for travelers arriving from
the north. Completed in 1918, the Capitol offers exhibits
and tours that give a superb historical education of the
State of Missouri as well as the building itself. Other
museums and attractions in the city include the Missouri
Veterans Memorial, Cole County Historical Museum, Missouri
Law Enforcement Memorial, Missouri Veterinary Museum,
Museum of Missouri Military History and Missouri River
Regional Library.

Jefferson City sits on some of Missouri’s most
beautiful terrain and offers an outdoor retreat with
various parks and golf courses. Eagle Knoll golf course is
ranked as the third best value in the nation and challenges
all levels of play. Oak Hills Golf Center, Railwood Golf
Course, Turkey Creek Golf Center and Redfield Golf Course
are favorite places for visitors and residents alike. The
City of Jefferson has numerous parks including Binder Park,
Joseph C. Miller Park, Ellis Porter/ Riverside Park,
McClung Park, McKay Park, Memorial Park and Family Aquatic
Center, Miller Street Park, Washington Park and Cole County
Park. Most notable is the city’s portion of the
famous Katy Trail.

Classic entertainment for the whole family can be found at
the Marvic Skate Center, The Washington Park Skate Park,
Washington Park Ice Arena, West Gate Lanes, Capital 4
Theatres and Capital 8 Theatres. The city also has a
shooting range at the United Sportsman Club. City night
life can be enjoyed at several night clubs such as
Mike’s Corner Pocket, Bones, Pitchers, College Club,
Spectators and the Budweiser Inn Bar & Lounge.

The City of Jefferson appreciates fine art and is home to
the Miller Performing Arts Center, Jefferson City Community
Concert Association, Jefferson City Symphony, Little
Theatre, Capital City Players and Stained Glass Theatre.

The Jefferson City Public School District operates
Jefferson City High School. There is also a private school,
Helias. Lincoln University is also a landmark institution
and in 2004 was ranked fifth in diversity for graduates and
seventh for having the most international students.

The shopping experience in Jefferson City ranges from
quaint “Mom and Pop” specialty shops to chain
stores as well as the Capital Mall. Downtown Jefferson
City, on High Street, has been a focal point of the city
for over 150 years and yet the city is continuously
expanding to offer more to its residents and visitors.

Wildwood Crossing offers familiar stores such as Pier 1
Imports, Old Navy, MC Sports, Goody’s, Petco, TJ
Maxx, Shoe Carnival, Barnes and Noble, Cingular Wireless
and more. Chain stores such as Best Buy , Lowes and
Wal-Mart are also along Missouri Boulevard. The Capital
Mall holds major department stores such as JCPenney, Sears
and Dillard’s as well as stores like Victoria’s
Secret, Bath & Body Works, Buckle, Tuesday Morning, Payless
Shoe Source, American Eagle Outfitters, Christopher &
Banks, Claire’s Boutique, Deb, Dollar Tree, EB Games,
Foot Locker, Hot Topic, JoAnn Fabrics, Kay Jewelers, KB
Toys, Maurice’s, Radio Shack, Rex TV & Appliance
Center, Shoe Department, Things Remembered, Trade Secret,
Zales and more.

Dining in Jefferson City ranges from fast food to fine
dining and caters to every occasion. With restaurants like
Madison’s Café, Arri’s Pizza Palace,
Michael’s Unforgetable BBQ, McDonald’s, Roly
Poly, Paddy Malone’s Pub, Capital City Steak House,
Pizza Hut, Sonic, Subway, O’Donoghue’s,
Colton’s Steakhouse, Applebee’s, Ruby
Tuesday’s, Dairy Queen, Fazoli’s, Taco Bell, El
Jimador, China Garden, High Street Pub, Zesto Drive-In,
Kate & Ally’s, Old Brick House Deli, Lee’s
Famous Recipe Chicken, Alexandro’s and more, choosing
just one place at a time will be the hardest part.

The City of Jefferson is a gracious host to travelers
looking for the charm of a small town with the amenities of
a city. It honors a rich past and embraces a prosperous
future.

----------------------------------------------------
Learn about Jefferson City Missouri
http://www.royaltyuniverse.com/Home_Page.html

Pave an Unstoppable Path to Breakthrough Success

Pave an Unstoppable Path to Breakthrough Success
Most people don't try to create breakthroughs because they
don't believe such important improvements are possible.
With the right preparations you'll be more likely to
succeed and your confidence in your future success will
soar.

How can we use the right preparations to replace our
skepticism about breakthroughs with success?

Let me put this subject in context: It's an important
lesson for those who want to make lots of 2,000 percent
solutions (ways of accomplishing 20 times more with the
same time, effort, and resources).

The steps for creating a 2,000 percent solution are listed
here:

1. Understand the importance of measuring performance.

2. Decide what to measure.

3. Identify the future best practice and measure it.

4. Implement beyond the future best practice.

5. Identify the ideal best practice.

6. Pursue the ideal best practice.

7. Select the right people and provide the right motivation.

8. Repeat the first seven steps.

This article looks at preparations for accomplishing step
seven, select the right people and provide the right
motivation.

Don't Ask Permission, Ask Forgiveness Later (If Necessary)

Sometimes the need for change is so daunting that the
organization's leaders won’t be able to cope. When
that circumstance occurs, consider saving the organization
by using what I call "stealth" change. Rather than
beginning by selling the people at the top and making great
promises and proclamations, keep it all hush-hush. Recruit
a few highly admired people who have the talent to lead the
change by creating models of the new ways on the quiet.
After setting the standard, loan talented teams who can
install the better ways to a few more highly admired people
who are in trouble with making their budgets. Ask your
bailed-out leaders to visit the rest of the organization to
explain the successful change and to welcome visitors who
want to learn more. Within six months, such stealthy
projects can often run circles around formally authorized
teams with tons of resources.

Launch Your Team into Escape Orbit

Before finalizing your choice of team members and leader,
let those you are considering know that there's risk
involved. Team members will be betting their careers with
this assignment. Team members and leaders who perform well
will likely be asked to solve another problem or pursue a
different opportunity — that's their career reward.
If they don't execute the changes, they won't have jobs to
go back to … but you will help them locate a new
position in another organization.

As you can imagine, knowing that you cannot retreat to your
old job is unsettling, even demoralizing, information.
People who have routinely exceeded the future best
practices to approach the ideal best practice report that
this up-or-out approach is necessary. Team members who like
a challenge will thrive in this environment. But it's not
for everyone. You are creating personal burning platforms
that will make team members realize that the project's
success is essential. Take on only those who are willing to
accept the personal danger from this risk.

What about financial rewards? Incentives for a special
project should in no way mirror the organization's existing
financial incentives. Success should result in far larger
than normal bonuses for team members at their given levels.
Pick incentive levels that will excite exceptional and
appropriate excellence. Many organizations choose
incentives that are too high. Larger financial incentives
quickly fail to add greater excitement. Instead, financial
incentives that are too large encourage people to play it
safe to be sure to get a minimum reward of the overwhelming
largesse.

STALLBUSTERS

You need to change some of the ways you manage your
organization now, locate your change leaders, prepare
leaders for the change tasks, and encourage change leaders
to be effective and enthusiastic.

What to Stop Doing

You have some ineffective methods. Those have to stop. You
also need to stop doing things that take up time you need
for the change projects. Consider your answers to the
following questions:

• What are the habits that will push your
organization in the wrong direction as you pursue the
desired changes?

• How can you encourage people to abandon those
habits?

• What incentives do you provide now for those habits
that need to be removed?

• What messages need to stop being sent?

Find the Best Change Leaders

The following questions will help you identify change
leaders:

• Who has the best track record in your organization
for leading the types of changes you desire?

• Who else could be an effective contributor to the
change process through new ideas, communicating the change,
or organizing the change effort?

• Who are the people in your organization who are
most excited about the potential to make these changes?

• How well do the candidates' values match the
organization's values?

Prepare the Change Leaders

Use these questions to enhance the effectiveness of your
change leaders:

• What information do the change leaders lack that
can be readily provided?

• How can that information be shared quickly and
accurately?

• What skills or training will they need to be
effective?

• How can this training be timed to help them when it
will be most relevant to the tasks at hand?

• What resources will they need?

• How can those resources be provided in a timely way?

Activate the Change Leaders

It's not enough to have the talent and desire. You also
need to be properly focused. Each of us responds
differently to rewards and recognition. For each of your
team members and leaders consider the answers to this
question:

• What combination of fulfilling desires for
recognition, reward, and feedback is right for each person
to help him or her reach the highest level of performance?

In answering this question, remember that creativity
researchers have found that rewards for being creative
often backfire, while rewards for accomplishing a
predefined implementation task usually work well. The best
way to begin is by talking with each person about what
motivates her or him for the tasks that need doing.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Getting Out There In a Bigger Way Means Overcoming Your Fear of Criticism

Getting Out There In a Bigger Way Means Overcoming Your Fear of Criticism
QUOTE: "Your playing small does not serve the world. There
is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people
won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to
shine... And as we let our own light shine, we
unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates others." —Marianne Williamson

During a Mastermind session last week, I got clear on the
ONE obstacle standing between me and doubling my business
next year. Contrary to what I originally thought, it's not
a lack of knowledge, of what to do next or a marketing
challenge. I actually know exactly what to do to double my
business. For me, it's a question of leveraging my time, my
marketing and my resources so that I can help many, many
more solo-preneurs get more clients, create systems for
marketing, clean up their mindset and give them the tools
and the permission to succeed. That's my purpose and it's
fun for me.

What's actually been holding me back is something much more
internal. It's the deeply ingrained fear that the bigger I
get, meaning the bigger my business gets, the more I will
make myself a target for criticism and "pot shots". Here's
why:

For years, I've witnessed women entrepreneurs truly succeed
and watched as others began to pick them apart, to
criticize them and sometimes trash them, even when they
didn't know them. Have you noticed that too? Ironically
enough, it's usually other women doing the criticizing
(instead of the supporting), and I'm sad to say, I've
partaken in that sometimes too, even when I didn't know the
person. I regret it, especially as I'm poised to be in the
very same position sometime soon.

Somehow, it seems that the bigger in business you get, the
more people feel entitled to take you down. My friend
Valerie Hayes (PageantInterviewCoach.com) coaches her
pageant contestant clients that as they become more of a
‘celebrity', they must recognize that they're now a
target for gossip and to just "deal with it". As she says,
it's just a part of human conditioning and that you can't
do anything about it. It almost means you've "arrived", a
signal of success.

What she also shared with me is that if people are
criticizing you, it's almost never about you, but about
them. When you put yourself out there in a BIG way, realize
there WILL be a backlash. I believe it threatens or
intimidates people when you have the courage to stand out a
little bit more. It's that Tall Poppy syndrome that
Australians talk about, meaning, tall poppies need to be
cut down when they grow higher than other flowers in the
field. Funny enough, poppies are one of my very favorite
flowers and I have paintings of them in my office. Perhaps
I was born to be a tall poppy. What about you?

The solution for getting over the fear of criticism from
getting bigger is to come from a place of Compassion and
Purpose. Compassion because I believe that deep down,
people don't mean to be malicious, it's just their own
"stuff" that comes up, feelings of inadequacy or jealousy,
that they haven't arrived yet.

Their personal issues are not your problem, so ignore them,
with compassion, especially if you've been there too at one
point. And Purpose because, when you stay focused on the
purpose for your business (helping OTHERS), then anything
else becomes secondary, even if it hurts sometimes. Focus
on your leadership and power as being something that SERVES
others, not hurts others and you'll shine and then give
others permission to shine.

In a battle between Fear of Criticism and Helping Others,
courage will take you through the fear and into doing the
right thing, despite what snippy people will say. The
bottom line is, the ‘yummy' people will stay and
that's all that matters: "Those Who Mind Don't Matter and
Those Who Matter Don't Mind." – Dr. Seuss.

Your Assignment:

Have you been holding yourself back in marketing because of
fear of growing too big and being criticized? You've heard
me say this a thousand times: "It's your DUTY to get out
there and market your services in a big way because it's
your DUTY to help others." Your fear of criticism is simply
your ego wanting to protect itself from the unknown,
wanting you to stay small and stay safe. Fact is, it
doesn't serve you or anyone else to stay small.

Look at fear in the face and start thinking about the
worst-case-scenario. What's the worst that can happen if
you get criticized a little? Would you die? Probably not.
Would you survive? Probably yes. THEN, look at all the
upsides to moving through your fear of growing your
business bigger. List all the wonderful things that would
come from it and live from THAT place. Remember, Successful
People feel the fear, and they do it anyway. And now it's
your turn (and mine). :)

If you're not sure what you need to do to get out there in
a BIGGER way with your marketing, in the first place, then
it's time to take action and invest in a step-by-step
marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you.

----------------------------------------------------
The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all
the unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most
important things to do to get out there in a big way, set
up simple, solid systems, so you consistently fill your
pipeline and continually get new clients. It's all
step-by-step, So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates,
and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can
get it at http://www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com .

Foreign Background Checks, What You Need to Know

Foreign Background Checks, What You Need to Know
I’ve been doing international background checks along
with all of our domestic business since 1995 when we were
asked to background check 5500 aircraft engineers for the
Boeing buyout of McDonnell Douglass. I vividly remember
calling a large international security company and asking
about what kinds of criminal history info was available
from Italy. After much dodging and hesitating by the
salesman on the other end of the phone (this was before I
was on the internet) told me that their criminal history
checks consisted of a MEDIA check in the area where the
person is from. I was flabbergasted to say the least. I
remember saying, “Are you trying to tell me that if a
person’s crime made it into the newspaper that that
is the only source of your info?” He was ashamed to
admit it, but it was true.

SURPRISING FACT # 1. Many companies sell media look-ups as
a criminal history report. I know this sounds insane, but
I’m not kidding. The crime has to make it into the
newspaper or they have nothing to report. And what about a
person’s trial results? That has to make it into the
newspaper too for you to get a disposition. Unfortunately
that exact kind of thing is still very common today. These
companies that sell these reports always have a made up
name for that kind of service to make it sound like you are
really buying something useful. They usually package it
with a check of the International Terrorist Watch List and
the OFAC watch list, both of which you can do for free in
minutes.

Despite what you may have heard, or thought you knew,
international criminal checks are still very much a crap
shoot. In some countries they are inexpensive, contain what
we Americans know as both misdemeanor and felony crimes
– arrests and convictions, are timely and accurate,
such as Australia. Other countries just don’t
consider criminal records to be public information,
therefore accessible by the public, like France.

SURPRISING FACT # 2. Many countries don’t make their
criminal records available to anyone. France doesn’t
think that anyone has the right to know if their proud
citizens are criminals. Don’t believe me? Call the
French Embassy in Washington. That’s what I did.

The internet is full of companies that say that they can
get criminal history records from many countries that I
know for a fact don’t provide criminal records to
anyone. In Great Britain you can get what is called a
Clearance Certificate from Scotland Yard. It tells you
that the person has, or doesn’t have a criminal
record, but it doesn’t tell you what the criminal
record is!

SURPRISING FACT # 3. Many countries criminal history
reports are not worth the paper they are written on. One
good example of this is Mexico. As in many third world
countries their record keeping system is like it was here
before computers. They couldn’t find the records if
they wanted to. India has antiquated records keeping, but
they at least make an effort to help.

Another example is China, but for a different reason. With
everything controlled by the state it make sense that you
will get what the state wants you to get. If you were
hiring a software engineer from China for example, and you
want to assure yourself that he/she is not a commie spy,
good luck. You are going to get just what they want you to
see.

I once called the Egyptian Embassy in Washington and asked
how to get official criminal records. The man on the other
end of the phone told me to send him $200 and he would send
me the records. I said that I wanted to know the normal
procedure for obtaining records so that I could do it now
and in the future. He said, “OK, send me $150 and I
get you the records.” I quickly realized that
dealing with him was like dealing with a middle eastern rug
merchant. Since talking to him didn’t work I called
the US Embassy in Cairo and asked them how to get the
records.

SURPRISING FACT # 4. In many countries the only way to get
a REAL criminal history report is to have the
“applicant” get it himself or herself. The
Philippines is a good example of this. But beware there
are vendors in Manila that make fake documents for
employment purposes. Always get the original document, not
a copy, and verify it with the person who signed it.

In some countries an “applicant” can only get
the criminal history report if he/she is applying for a
visa to work in the US. Since most countries want their
workers to work in the US they supply them with the
documentation. Singapore and the Republic of China (Taiwan)
are two examples.

CANADA: We can get records from Canada. In fact we can get
what is the equivalent of our FBI records, but it requires
fingerprints and can take 90+ days. I always ask my
clients, “If you would like me to order the records,
your “applicant” has to get fingerprinted, send
the fingerprint card to me in California whereupon I mail
it to the RCMP in Ottawa, wait 90 days get it back and I
charge you $100, or would you rather have it today for
free?” How, you may ask? Answer: Have the applicant
go get the record himself. Every police station, be it
city, provincial or RCMP can process your records request
while they wait. Again, ask to see the original document
and you can reimburse the applicant for the report if you
like.

NOTE: If a Canadian has a criminal record, one of two
things will happen. Either he/she will make an excuse as
to why they can’t get the record from the police, or
you will never see them again. They are not going to
bother getting a record if they know that you thus will not
hire them. Oh, and if you want me to order the records for
you from Ottawa, the applicant still has to go to the
police station to get fingerprinted, so he might as well
get the record while he is there.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is: READ THE FINE
PRINT. Do not buy from a service that will not tell you
the source of the records. Ask how current the info is and
ask if it contains what we in the US consider misdemeanor
and felony arrests and convictions or dispositions.

If you have any doubts about the accuracy of the info in
this article or what you’ve been told by another
international background check company, call the Embassy
in Washington for the respective country you are concerned
about. Ask to speak to the legal attaché. Ask them
how one obtains REAL criminal history records from that
country. That’s what I did, and that’s how I
started doing REAL international background checks.
That’s why I am an expert that other people call.

----------------------------------------------------
Kit Fremin is the owner and founder of Background Check
International. Since 1994 BCI has served clients a varied
as: the LA Times, Department of Defense, Mars, Inc., the
UN, the NTSB and Calvary Chapels nationwide. His website
is: http://www.bcint.com and he can be e-mailed at
kit@bcint.com.