This text is a chapter of the book "Successful Joint Ventures" soon to be released on the market. Question: What was your first successful JV, and what were the steps you took to make it successful? Hello. This is Valerie Vauthey speaking. I am the CEO & Founder of the fastest growing coaching company in North America and Europe: MyPrivateCoach.comI would like to share with you a few of my experiences regarding business and more specifically with...more
1. Don't get Hooked !!! When people behave towards you in a manner that makes you feel angry, frustrated or annoyed - this is known as a Hook. We can even become "Hooked" by the way people look, how they talk, how they smell and even by their general demeanour. If we take the bait then we are allowing the other person to control our behaviour. This can then result in an unproductive response. We have a choice whether we decided to get hooked or...more
Who was it that said - "The customer is always right"? Well for those of you who can't get through the day without knowing, it was H Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges's department store in London. The question I want answered is; did he ever work with customers on day-to-day basis and if so, was he some kind of saint? Let's face it; customers can be a real pain in the neck. You move heaven and earth for them, you respond to their every whim, you give them time to pay and they still try to screw your prices down. Just when you've done all that, they leave you and start buying from one of your competitors. Wouldn't running a business be a whole lot better if we didn't have customers? Well, as we know only too well, we do need customers and lots of them. We want them to stay with us and we want them to say nice things about us to other people. We also want them to pay us on time and accept the fact that we might be a bit more expensive than others. So how do we perform this miracle? It's dead easy really; you only have to consider two factors: be reliable and be likeable. First off, let's consider what we mean by being reliable. Reliability is about your product or service...more
Mystery shopping is an excellent way to make extra money. In fact, some people make a full time living doing it. There are many mystery shopping companies that will pay you to shop, eat at restaurants and take part in focus groups. A mystery shop consists of getting paid to go into a business without the employee's knowledge and reporting back to...more
Part 4 of a Four-Part SeriesPart One: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/02-08-05_Process_Improvement.html?src=ART83Part Two: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/02-14-05_Core_Processes.html?src=ART84Part Three: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/02-16-05_Process_Mapping.html?src=ART85Aim for perfection. That's a pretty lofty concept. It's...more
Even the best new concept or existing plan will fail if executed poorly. The Management Team section of the business plan must prove to the investor why the key company personnel are "eminently qualified" to execute on the business model.The Management Team section should include biographies of key team members and detail their responsibilities. It is important that these biographies are not merely resumes that include the educational backgrounds and previous job titles and responsibilities of the team members. Rather, biographies should highlight the most relevant past positions that the individuals have held and specific successes in each. These successes could include launching and growing new businesses or managing divisions of established companies.Team member biographies should be tailored to the company's growth stage. For instance, a start-up company should emphasize its management's success launching and growing companies. A more mature company should emphasize how team members have successfully operated within the framework of larger enterprises.Depending upon the stage of the company, key functional areas may be missing from the team. This is acceptable provided that the...more
Recently I received an email message that went something like this, "I want to do exactly what you are doing in my business." Come to find out what this person wanted to "do" was make lots of money using the Internet without having to work at it. I...more
At one time or another, all of us have experienced the frustration of waiting in a doctor's office. It seems as though every time we go to see the doctor or the dentist we end up having to wait for a ridiculous amount of time, and then when we...more
Ralph Waldo Emerson said that "there is always time enough for courtesy." But if you own your own business or work out of your home, you probably don't have time for much else. Coupling the inherent challenges of owning your own business with the...more
In today's business climate we are experiencing more interest in professionalism. The past five years provided many successes; however, most have been overshadowed by the non-ethical behavior of a few. Some people lost most of their retirement...more
I believe that as solo-entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives we all need a pat on the back. Give yourself commendation. Why? Because we have the courage to step outside of the corporate box and start our own businesses, be our own boss and...more
Hello everyone, today let's touch on the single biggest profit generator you MUST have to earn BIG money online. I call it the MAGIC minicourse. If you don't have your own multi-part, automated minicourse then you are throwing sales and profits away....more