The greatest occupational high that financial services Marketing Directors experience is bringing a vision to market through a financial product or service innovation. Seeking to experience the same euphoria that great inventors like Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Edison must have felt, they follow their dream of implementing a financial product idea that they believe will generate significant incremental sales. Unfortunately, that dream seldom...more
Do you have an idea for a business? Perhaps the only idea you have is that you NEED an idea so you CAN start a business. Before turning any idea into a business, you must first have an idea how to succeed. For most people, the definition of a successful business is one which is profitable, and a profitable business is built upon ideas that have been properly researched. Here are 10 steps you can take to flush out an idea and turn it into a...more
Practical Biz Solutions The business success newsletter for business owners, top executives, and commission sales people from Stan MannPlease forward Practical Biz Solutions to appropriate friends.Dear Reader: High Achievers have great strengths. They also have correspondingly great weaknesses. The very leadership style that worked so wonderfully in one situation may be self-defeating in another. This occurs most often when a gifted entrepreneur starts a business that grows quickly--perhaps too quickly. Let me give you an example. Jim's once high profit margins were declining in spite of revenue well over three million. He owns an information technology consulting and networking integration firm. Three years ago he started small, with three employees. A high achiever, Jim was highly motivated and during their daily contacts his enthusiasm and motivation rubbed off on his workers. Having good intuition about the needs of his business, Jim made all the decisions in the small company. His business grew fast as he built a reputation for producing electronic solutions for his clients. He grew to 25 workers and then his troubles began. Jim became hard to get hold of. He spent most of his...more
Why do some teams perform well while others struggle? How can you assess how effectively your team is working now, and identify methods for improvement?Research shows that 85% of the reasons that teams of people succeed or struggle has more to do with interpersonal issues, than technical competence. But both are needed for effective teamwork. ...more
If you gather 100 experienced leaders together to share with you their most important secrets for success, you probably wouldn't hear a lot of academic theory or jargon. Instead, this is a good idea of what you'd hear:1) Put ethics first. If you make unethical decisions for short-term gain, you will lose in the end. Let your principles guide...more
Before you call your next meeting, the FIRST step is to decide if it is really essential. To determine that, ask yourself the following: Is this meeting essential? Can we do without it? Can we accomplish the task without a meeting? Can it wait another week? Can we get things done with few meetings?Then, if you have decided a meeting is the best way to accomplish your objective, the following tips can help you conduct more effective meetings:1. Start and end meetings on time. Make sure everyone knows what time you are to start and to end. If you have an ending time, you will find your time is more productive in the time allotted.2. Have an open agenda on the chalkboard or flip chart. Participants can add an item before the meeting. However, they must be prepared to lead the discussion if they put an item on the agenda.3. If an item isn't on the open agenda, reschedule it for discussion at a later time. 4. Give each item on the agenda a time limit. If action or discussion cannot be completed during the allotted time, it must be delayed until the end of the meeting.5. After all agenda items have been discussed, address the delayed items and estimate how long it will take to...more
You wouldn't build your home on anything less than a solid foundation. Similarly, you can't build wealth and financial independence without first having sound foundational principles to build upon.I have found that many people are working on wealth...more
If someone offered to loan you $2100 of your own money at interest rates of up to 222% you'd probably laugh at them and walk away; but, this spring, 1 in 10 Americans will do just that: they'll borrow their own money at interest rates as high as...more
A strong tendency towards a sellers market will continue until the baby boomers finish the cycle of buying and selling real estate, estimated to end in 20 years, according to the Senior Real Estate Association. Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964)...more
There are many simple, infallible ways to earn income, and one of the surest ways is through marketing your business on the internet. When you learn basic internet marketing techniques, you'll wonder why you haven't already jumped on the bandwagon....more
If you're like most people, it's hard to make ends meet with just one income. If you are married, both partners must work, spending countless thousands of dollars on childcare and business clothes. To offset their monetary deficit, many people are...more
What is required to be successful in your home business? Before we can answer, you must understand what "success" means and what common characteristics successful people have. If you are reading this article, you probably want to be successful and...more