1) Less Overhead
How much is all this office space, furniture, computer equipment along with your IT department to maintain them, utility bills etc. costing you? Telecommuters do not require any of the above, which will cut your overhead cost tremendously. Telecommuters use their own office, their own equipment from computers to paperclips; use their own power, phone and Internet connection. If their computer acts up, its up to them to get it up and running again.

2) Less Benefits To Pay
Most telecommuters are independent contractors. You do not have to provide for health care, workmans compensation or paid vacation. Consider the tax benefits as well; there is no employer portion of federal and state tax to pay.

3) Hire Experts When Needed
Do you need someone to write the occasional press release and maybe come up with a revision to your brochure every once in a while? Instead of hiring someone fulltime as your marketing person, consider outsourcing the tasks to a freelance telecommuter. You will pay per project, or hire your freelancer for a few hours per month, instead of creating a marketing position. Freelancers give even small businesses the opportunity to hire an expert for almost any task.

4) On Demand Work
Do you expect a temporary increase in your workload, be it seasonal, or because you just landed a large project? Why not pick up a few telecommuters for the task instead of working with inexperienced temps, or hiring in-office personnel that you may not need three months down the road. Telecommuters combine the flexibility of temps with the on-the-job experience of permanent employees. You get the best of both worlds.

5) More Motivated Workers
Telecommuters have a very good reason why they want to work from home. Whether that reason is being able to stay home with the kids, a disability, or avoiding a long commute, being able to work from home makes them happy. As you well know, happy employees are more motivated, dont count the minutes until they can leave the office and overall get more work done.

If you havent already done so, I encourage you to give telecommuter a try the next time you need a highly motivated, experienced worker, but arent in a position to create a permanent onsite position. Once you have experienced all the benefits a telecommuter brings to your organization, you may even consider converting even more positions to telecommuting.

5 Great Reasons To Hire A Telecommuter is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

2. Warm the open end of the cigar (aka ‘the foot’ of the cigar) slowly over the flame, without touching it to the fire. Let a black ring form around the end.

3. Place the cigar in your mouth and draw in slowly. Hold the cigar over the flame, about half an inch above it, again without touching. Continue to draw in until the cigar draws the flame. Turn the cigar slowly, spinning it to establish an even burn.

4. Once your cigar is lit, take it out of your mouth and observe the burn you have established. If the burn appears to be uneven, simply blow on the unlit sections to draw the burn, and then take one or two draws from the cigar to reestablish an even burn.

4 Tips for Lighting a Cigar is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

Giveaways are not just for kids; adults have long participated in incentive giveaways ranging from a free tote with the purchase of makeup or perfume at a department store, to $500 gift cards with a new account at the local bank. All of these giveaways are designed to entice the consumer to try particular brands and services.

Recognizing the power of free offers to drive consumer purchases, NetFree Direct LLC, a leading Internet marketing company, has taken the concept to the next level. Through the company’s Web site, consumers can obtain a variety of rewards including mobile phones, flat-screen TVs, laptops, PlayStations and other game consoles, digital cameras, gift cards and more, simply by completing advertisers’ surveys and signing up for subscriptions and free trial offers.

The Web site is sponsored by well-known advertisers such as BMG, Blockbuster, Netflix, Discover Card, USA Today, Disney and hundreds of others. Upon registration, consumers are directed to a special area of the site where they can complete advertisers’ surveys and sign up for subscriptions or free trials and redeem their rewards. Trials or subscriptions can be canceled without obligation.

Giveaways by Web Site Draw in Consumers is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

If you are pitching investors to give you money for a new venture, you should subscribe to the following rules:

1. Explain exactly what your business is within the first thirty seconds. Many entrepreneurs waste valuable time giving loads of data, background and other infoall the while investors are left scratching their heads thinking What does this business actually DO?

2. Tell your audience who your customers will be. Paint a vivid, specific picture of these people.

3. Explain why your customers going to give you there hard-earned money.

4. Explain who your competitors are. (And if you say you have no competitors, that is a certain sign you are unsophisticated and deserve no investment money!)

5. Explain why you are the ONE to make this happen.

6. Give your presentation with confidence and enthusiasm. Investors want a founder/CEO to be a chief salesperson; they want to see that you can convince the world of your dreamnot just them.

7. Explain what star you can hitch a ride to. Has Best Buy or Radio Shack agreed to distribute your new product? Investors feel much more comfortable knowing you have an established player willing to distribute your wares.

8. Ask for a specific amount of money. If all you do is ask for money, then you cant complain if an investor gives you $3.25 for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

9. Tell prospects exactly what you are going to spend the money on (hint:a trip to Maui for you and your friends will not impress)

10. Dress well, act confident, and put on the air that you dont really need their money, but would be willing to accept it if they bring enough to the table to be a strategic partner for you. Sad but true regarding human nature, but people are much more likely to give you money if they feel you dont really need it.

Finally, make each pitch presentation serve as a focus group for your next presentation. When one group of investors asks you a series of questions after you pitch, write down all of those questions and make sure most of them are answered in your next pitch so that the next group doesnt have to ask them. Keep pitching and keep improving your pitch and eventually you may get funded.

10 Tips for a Successful Entrepreneurial Pitch is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

24-7 & 9-5 Live Chat and Email management Solution for your website No Infrastructure expenses and NO employee to recruit. Outsource your Customer support & order taking service to PLACE Support.

Place Support is a comprehensive voice-chat-email support service provider. We take care of your customers, providing 24-7 and 9-5 customers support; freeing up your time to focus on other parts of your business. Our unique method allows us to bring these services to you at a very affordable price.

We offer: Live Chat Management, Ticket Management, E-Mail Management, Inbound Call Center Service and Order Taking Service

We look forward to helping your business grow and helping you create more time for the important things!

How unique is PLACE Support?

Place support always emphasizes on resolving the issue during the course of live support in real time.

We deliver high quality support services through our state of the art software application.

Affordable Price structure for all range of business

Our support agents are hired and trained according to your specifications.

Place support highly dedicated to security and strict policies.

Benefits & Advantages:

Less expensive labor and infrastructure facilities reduces cost about 70%

The resources would be recruited as per the clients specification

Client can involve in the recruitment process and conduct the interview through video conference.

A dedicated project leader will be deployed to lead your team

You can be in touch with your team any time using IM & Video Conference

Detailed QA (Quality Audit/Assurance) and Production reports from our senior staff for each of your team members each month

Client can have the advantage of integrating any CRM application for their process.

For more visit : http://www.placesupport.com

24-7 & 9-5 Live Chat & E-mail management Solution is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

1. Take a long, hard look at your monthly bills. Are in up to your neck in debt? Now is the time to tighten your belt and try to get a handle on the interest rates you are currently paying. Can you pay down some of your debt right away? Transfer to another, lower rate credit card? Should you refinance your mortgage or home equity loan? Now would be the time to take care of this, not after youve received your pink slip.

2. What can you trim in your monthly budget? Stop buying those lattes every morning and save about $80 in one month. Rent a DVD instead of going to the movies. You are the only one who can decide what you can and cannot live without, but these are two good examples of the latter. Cut back on your dining out and youll see more green in your wallet right now, when you need it the most.

3. Be more aware as you pull out your wallet for every day expenses and decide if you really need to buy that item. Now is not the time for a shopping spree to cheer you up. Instead, make an effort to be more aware of where your money goes every day, every week.

4. With gas prices sky-rocketing, should you consider buying a hybrid car, or at least one that gets better mileage? Do it now, while youre still employed. See if the dealership offers any customer incentives such as a rebate or lowered interest rate on the loan.

5. Do you know what benefits at work you are entitled to? Take the time now to ask the Human Resources department what benefits youre currently enrolled in. If you have health insurance, be sure to get any physicals or medical tests now to make use of this benefit. Take advantage of any dental or vision coverage you may have- get those eyeglasses or contact lenses updated now or schedule a visit for a check-up at the dentist. Those co-pays are a whole lot cheaper than paying full-price later.

Being aware of the situation, planning and taking action makes you feel more in control of your life. Sure, you cant do anything about being laid-off and in most cases, (unless you committed gross misconduct on the job) its not your fault. Its a management decision that will probably wind up changing your life for the better. See this as a new opportunity, not as a loss, and your positive attitude will help you find a new job soon. Good luck!

5 Ways You Can be Prepared When Facing a Job Loss is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

2. Forgetting about or not allowing enough bleed.
A very common error is to send to print a document or flattened image that has no bleed at all. Generally speaking you should allow at least 3mm around every cut off edge. Failing to do so will give the printers no leeway and will either crop off the side of the page or give you a white border. It is always a good idea when supplying image files to save layered psd files then if things need extending or cropping you can do this on the background layer and hopefully cut down your work

3. Using obscure fonts and not embedding or outlining them for output.
We’ve all been guilty of this at some point and things are generally fine if you are going to be the only person accessing your artwork or documents. However if someone else needs to amend the files or use your vector logo on one of there publications. Unless you package up the used fonts, they are not going to be able to open the files correctly and some software programs may replace any unknown fonts with a default. This is a particular problem when you need to dig out stuff that was created several years previously and you no longer have your old fonts installed.

4. Supplying print ready artwork using spot colours or rgb
There are valid reasons for using spot colours in artwork, logos that need to reference particular pantone colours for example. In general design work however most print is sent through on 4 colour presses CMYK with occasional 5th colour for luminoius or metallic colour or for spot UV varnish. It is very common for lazy designers to just place rgb images into files and expect the vibrant colours seen on screen to reproduce in print.

5. Allowing design illiterate clients to lead you round the houses
The customer is always right, goes the old adage. However it is often said with gritted teeth and a sense of patience that recognizes that these morons will at some stage be handing over a fat cheque for your troubles. It is often a good idea when first submitting visuals to throw in a couple of stinkers to hopefully get them to appreciate the design you would like them to accept. There is the very real danger of course of them loving the piece of absolute arsewipe that you knocked up in five minutes to make them think you’ve been earning your money. Still it’s a living.

5 ultimate graphic design mistakes – Things that graphic designers should avoid at all costs is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

Have Goals

This is where it all starts the foundation for success. Know exactly where you are heading. What will the business look like in the future? How will you know when your business is a success? When you wake up in the morning, do you know what actions you have to take to get you on the road to success?

Take Action

The difference between success and failure is down to the actions you take. The failures in life are the people who know what they have to do but never do it. The successful small business owners are people who take action on their ideas, ones who never say, I wish I had done

Seek Feedback

There is a saying that feedback is the breakfast of champions. During the early days of your business you must continually seek feedback about all aspects of your business. What works? What doesnt work? What needs changing slightly? Speak to customers, suppliers, your bank manager, your accountant – anyone who can provide you with a fresh perspective.

Find Out What Do You Dont Know

You cant expect to know everything about running a business. Undertake your own skills analysis and find out your areas for development. Once you know your knowledge gaps seek out courses, books and advice, which will get you on track.

Be Focused

Let no one distract you from achievement of your goals. At the start of every day get yourself into the frame of mind that you will only do tasks which will get you closer to your goal nothing else matters.

Take Risks!

You will never achieve anything if youre not prepared to jump off the cliff a few times! Were not talking about risks which will put the business in jeopardy; just risks which are planned and thought out, yet at the same time test the edge!

Think Positive

Yes, the oldest clich in the book, but totally true. See the positive in everything. If something has not gone right train yourself to ask, What good has come out of this? Understand that in every problem there is potential for good.

7 Tips to Starting a Successful Small Business is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

If I asked you to list all the essential competencies that YOU are in control of – the ones that are absolutely critical for you to be successful in your sales positioncould you do it?

For example

Essential Competency or not?

” Converting conversations to appointments? (yes it is)
” What about filling out paperwork? No! (That’s a related task)
” What about closing ratio? (Sure it is.)
” Degree of success in turning a first appointment into an opportunity? (absolutely)

Get the picture?

Now, if you truly want to adopt a self-management system that will work FOR you – not against you, you first have to “access” what is an essential competency and what’s merely a related competency.

To do this, sit down and list any sales metrics and performance numbers inter-related to your competency numbers and your desired revenue results. (Hint: “Sales Cycle” and “Average Revenue” per sale are two.)

2) Diagnose Your Business on a Single Sheet of Paper

If I ran into you on a train or in an elevator, would you be prepared to tell me what you do (and how it benefits me or those I know) – in under 1 minute

That’s called your 30-second commercial. Most people don’t have one, yet everybody needs one.

One way to understand more of the obvious benefits your products and services bring to the table is to start to view and diagnose your business more scientifically. You will also see how the numbers work and which areas are most important to your short and long-term success.

Ask yourselfWhat happens if your closing ratio reduces by 30% and your average revenue per sale increases by $2500? How does that affect your desired results?

Write your competency measurements and sales metrics on a sheet of paper. Calculate ratios in line with competencies and average numbers in line with your sales metrics. Assign your revenue object or quota. Play with the numbers and ratios to see how they are inter-related and how they affect each other.

3) Calculate your ‘Magic Number’

“Not setting enough new appointments on a routine basis” is like a malignant cancerous growth slowly eating away at the heart of most sales organizations – - Jeff Hardesty.

The reason for this is because most of us do not identify how many new appointments are needed on a weekly basis based on individual competency numbers and performance metrics.

That’s like diagnosing with blindfolds on.

Every one is different; we all have a ‘Magic Number’. And it’s personal to only you. If you routinely achieve it, you will routinely meet your desired results. Since it is a dynamic number that changes from week to week, it’s important to understand how it is inter-related with other competency ratios, performance metrics and desired revenue results.

It’s important to include your ‘Magic Number’ in your self-management system.

4) Train to the ‘Napkin Rule’

The ‘Napkin Rule’ simple means, putting aside all those sales automation systems for 30 days and keep track of your essential competency and performance metrics on a single napkin.

Compute updates daily. Store the napkin in your pocket. When the napkin fills up, transfer it to a legal pad to show month to date. Have nothing else on the legal pad except your essential competency ratios and sales performance metrics. After 30 business days, transpose the legal pad metrics to your favorite computer software spreadsheet, and track it for 90 days.

This simple but powerful “Napkin Rule” will help you become the CEO of your business.

5) Run Your Numbers, Don’t Run after Quota

Concentrate on your numbers NOT your quota so you can diagnose performance trends before a revenue crisis. Then you have the power to institute strategies and tactics for immediate recovery.

Here’s why.

Reaching and exceeding sales quotas consistently has very little to do with product, pricing and competition. But it has everything to do with ‘Process’.

Identify the core competencies that are necessary to be successful in your sales routine. Then train to Powerful Routines to increase your ratios of effectiveness. Document these meaningful business metrics and review them weekly. Build a simple but dynamic self-management system and outperform your peers and competition while assuring your revenue success.

5 Keys to Building a Dynamic Self-Management Sales System is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips

These changes now drive the development of new tools from content providers, and new software programs to help better manage and analyze media coverage. The automation occurring at the database level and through the real-time delivery of organizational news, to internal and external stakeholders, is now almost taken for granted. And the holy grail of PR — to automate media analysis and measurement — is already under way; but where should software stop to make way for human analysis?.

Media analysis programs can save countless hours quantifying and sorting media coverage in an unlimited number of ways, including by circulation, region, ad equivalency, company programs and services, and competitive brands. However, do you really want a computer program qualifying how each story affects your organization? It’s a gamble with little upside.

Just Say No

The automation of tone and sentiment has already been incorporated into some software programs, but how accurate can it be? Every story, across every medium, will have a dramatically different meaning or impact for various organizations and their stakeholders. Behind the news emerge both winner and losers.

For instance, if a negative story breaks about a strike at one bottling plant it will be a boon for its competitors. The ability to determine which companies are negatively affected by the news is very limited. Furthermore, understanding the actual tone or possible ongoing bias of the reporter on an issue is impossible to automate. News is as much about delivering the facts, as it is provoking a reaction or emotion from the reader. Media analysis solutions can certainly help decipher the facts, but the rest should be left to a team of communications professionals.

Too Subjective?

The argument against toning media coverage has often been it is too subjective — if the news can be interpreted differently by each individual, won’t this skew the results in the end? True enough — but this can easily be solved with the introduction of a tone standardized ‘scorecard’ that is consistently applied to each story.

These scorecards can really vary, depending on the type of analysis you want to deliver in the end. Many organizations will chose to tone stories by ranking them as positive, neutral or negative.

The use of these 3 words alone is where subjectivity problems can creep in. Along with team brainstorming and training sessions on how tone can be applied, one quick fix is to use the C.B.S. Scorecard instead:

1. Use Critical (in place of Negative.)
2. Use Balanced (in place of Neutral)
3. Use Supportive (in place Positive)

After reading an article, it is much easier to answer the question “Was that story critical, balanced, or supportive of our organization?” Instead of: “Was that story negative, neutral or positive?”

When it comes to tone it won’t always be black or white, but I’d rather leave the grey zones to a trained communications professional rather than to the guesswork of a software application.

When it comes to tone it won’t always be black or white, but I’d rather leave the grey zones to a trained communications professional rather than to the guesswork of a software application.

Beyond the ranking of articles by tone using the C.B.S. Scorecard, other metrics and meanings can be used in tandem to create and even stronger analysis. The following scorecard uses a scorecard range, from- 5 to + 5, to provide a more in depth analysis.

Rating Criteria
+5 Supportive Mention + four of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+4 Supportive Mention + three of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+3 Supportive Mention + two of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+2 Supportive Mention + one of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+1 Supportive
0 Balanced
-1 Critical
-2 Critical Mention + one of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-3 Critical Mention + two of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-4 Critical Mention + three of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-5 Critical Mention + four of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue

Once each story is toned, the rest of analysis can be automated by your software solution. The tone can be used independently to determine the success of the campaign by percentage of C.B.S. stories, but the tone can also be used alongside the rest of the analysis to identify possible media bias or problem areas by region or publication. The media is always analyzing your organizationwhy not return the favour?

New media monitoring and analysis technologies are certainly changing the face of media relations activities and provide immense return on investment, but determining the impact of a news story on your organization should be kept in human hands for the time being.

Change Your Tone – Media Coverage Shouldn’t Be Toned By Software is a post from: Elca Power International Business Tips