Monthly Archives: January 2009

Running An Effective Meeting

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Filed under Business Tips

Having an effective meetingWhether you’re high up in management or you own a place, you probably have to conduct a few meetings once in a while.  Sure, there are probably times when you feel you’re getting nothing across but there are also times you feel like you’ve gotten everything across to everyone.  No matter what the situation is when it comes to meeting, your meetings should go 100% all the time.

Is the meeting necessary?

Before you even start the meeting, do you really need to get everyone together?  Let’s think about it for a second.  Are you conducting a meeting because you’re cutting back on coffee expenses?  If so, maybe you want to take the memo route and just hand it out to everyone.

Let people know about the meeting

When you’re about to prepare a meeting, make sure that everyone knows about it and make sure that everyone is there.  Whether you let them know by memo or by word of mouth, you need to strict when it comes to the meeting.  Make sure you give them a clear idea on what the meeting is about and why it effects them and the company.  If employees don’t feel involved, they may not want to show up.

Know what you want to discuss

As the meeting coordinator, never go to the meeting empty handed.  Instead, make sure that you have a PowerPoint presentation or some notes handy so that you’re not sitting up there with a blank stare on your face.  If you keep thinking about what you’re going to say, how serious are your employees going to take you?

Set the atmosphere

Many people feel more comfortable if they can meet outside of the office.  If the meeting is casual, try and think of a new place to have it.  Don’t have it somewhere where there are too many distractions like a park or restaurant because you may find people not focusing on you but rather the surroundings.  Try places like a coffee shop or local library.  Sometimes getting out of the office is a breath of fresh air.

Always set the rules

Before you even start the meeting, let your team know what the meeting is about.  If you’re going to do all the talking, let them know that.  Tell them that there are no interruptions to take place.  If there’s going to be questions, let them know when they can ask them.  The more organized you are, the better the meeting will go.

Always stick with your times

If you say the meeting is going to be from 1 – 3, don’t start late and don’t go over time, people hate this!  If you say the meeting is going to last until 3 and you go to 3:30, everyone will be antsy to get out during that 1/2 hour because they know that they should be out.

An effective meeting isn’t hard it shouldn’t be hard to get your points across.  As long as you follow most of these points, you shouldn’t have any problem getting your message across to your team.

How To Write Better Brochures

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Filed under Advertising

Advertising with brochuresIf you’ve been marketing with your business lately and have been using brochures and not seeing the results you want, there may be some things that you’re doing wrong such as your brochure writing techniques, etc.  I’m going to give you a few tips on how you can write an effective brochure so that you can sell and get business from the customers you want and need.

Know your demographic

The first thing you want to do is sit back and look at your demographic.  Who are you selling to?  Who wants to buy your product?  You may find out that you’re sending your brochures to the wrong audiences.  If you have to, I would recommend that you do more research online on your demographic or hire a company to do a custom survey to find your potential customers.

Make your brochure simple

When you’re writing out your brochure, don’t clutter it with a million words.  Instead, make bold points and make it stick out.  Readers can get bored quick and if they see a million words on a brochure, they probably won’t take the time to read it. 

For example, if you owned a plumbing business, you could write bullet points like this –

  • 24/7 service – we always have our phone on.
  • We beat any prices or estimates!
  • Lowest prices in the metro area – call us to see for yourself.

If you keep your bullet points simple and sweet and you entice your potential customer, you may be finding you’re going to get more calls than you can handle.

Get some advice from others

Before you send out your brochure, try and gather up a few of your friends and relatives to see what they think of your brochure.  Tell them that you want an honest opinion and tell them it’s okay to hurt your feelings because if you have something bad, you want to know about it, trust me!

Have a great format

You need to find a happy medium when you’re creating your brochure.  Make sure that you don’t have a lot of blank space but not a lot of clutter.  Instead, try to get some graphics designed and if you need, try and find a copywriter that can create a great copy for you.  Never be afraid to get professional advice outside of your own business.

If you find after tweaking your brochure a little bit that you’re still not getting the customers you want, you may want to re-write your brochure all over again.  Remember, the advertising game is all about testing.  If you don’t test, you will never know the results!

Becoming a Successful Business Owner

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Filed under Business Tips

1133804_sign_success_and_failureDo you have your own small business right now?  If so, you probably have many idols and goals for when it comes to your business.  We all want to be successful business owners and have things flow smoothly.  So what is the difference between a successful business owner and you right now?  Probably not much but just a few things.  Continue reading below to find out how you can become a successful business owner.

A good market -  First of all you’re going to want to make sure you create a business idea that has a high demand.  What could people use right now?  Can they afford what you’re promoting?  Also, find something that won’t become obsolete in the near future. 

Good employees – Always make sure you have good employees working for you.  You’re not paying people to sit around and do nothing.  Make sure they are hard working and if they are let them know you appreciate it and reward them.  It takes a team to create a successful business. 

Good working habits -  You and all your employees should have good working habits.  This means have a schedule for each week.  Put enough hours into your business and make sure your business is one of your top priorities.  Also, when you’re at work make sure you’re getting things accomplished.  It often helps people to create a to-do list to make sure your list of things gets finished and not set aside or forgotten.

An organized business – You also want to make sure your business is organized.  You won’t be able to get anything accomplished if you can’t find important papers, if you’re working in a messy area or if you’re area isn’t cleaned and tidy.

Simple – Also another important thing to keep in mind is be simple.  You don’t need the latest, most expensive technology to get your work done.  Instead buy what is affordable and if it works keep it.  Alot of people spend way to much money or more than there business is making.

Business plans -  Always make sure you have a business plan. This means how is your business better than your competitors?  What are you willing to do that your competitors aren’t?  Are your prices more affordable?  Also, always make sure you treat your customers like gold!  Do you like bad service and non-helpful employees?  No, and neither does anyone else.  How can you improve your business with this ideas?

There are many things that require help if you want to be a successful business owner.  The economy today is bad so you have to make sure you do everything you can to help out your customers and your business!  By considering these tips above you will have a lot better of a chance to become a successful business owner if you keep them in mind.