Do You Want To Improve The Performance Of Your Business?

A Checklist to Begin the Journey of Improved Business Performance

"Culture isn't just one aspect of the game - it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value." Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?

Reviewing the management process of a large, nationally operating company recently highlighted once again the continual challenge of remaining objective about the business we lead. Our repeated observation is owners and managers of businesses may declare they want to implement new ways to enhance business performance, but rarely understand and accept that as leaders of the enterprise, their own personal change must accompany or precede business change.

Although senior management may name a set of values they assume will create the organizational culture, the real culture will be determined by how all workers perceive daily operations are actually practiced and rewarded. An old maxim states, 'Perception is stronger than reality'. Our work teams will see, feel, sense and then practice the culture of our business long before they adopt any stated values or formally announced strategies and processes.

Behavioural change will not come through talking, written communications, lecturing or demanding a particular process. Effective long term change to increase company value and stability requires carefully thought out modelling of the proposed practices and processes plus showing all team members what needs to be done and how to do it. Rose-coloured glasses will maintain business performance at mediocre levels, based on historical practices in the company.

Bill and Kristine Schneider of the Corporate Development Group (CDG) emphasise how company value and growth is likely to be highest when the cultural practices, leadership style and strategy adopted by a company are aligned.

The following is a detailed checklist allowing any business to begin the journey of improving business performance. It is not intended to be comprehensive but will highlight sufficient key issues for your business to review. Please use the checklist as a positive assessment of how you can kickstart new growth and understanding of your business strategy.

Company Leadership:

Does your business have a clearly defined written strategy as a foundation for all decision-making?

Does your leadership team pro-actively research, discuss and adopt what is required to enhance business certainty and clarity?

Do you conduct frequent regular reviews of operational and strategic planning?

Are you confident about what is required to take the business to the next level?

Have all business owners and senior management team members formally indicated they will learn and adopt all required changes to enhance growth?

Have all business owners and senior management team members formally indicated they will commence the journey of personal change required to enhance their own leadership?

Have you listed 5-6 practices of yourself or other leaders/managers in the business clearly inhibiting growth and clarity for the future?

Do you know how to lead all staff into a program of change and improvement?

Can you succinctly explain the Vision and Mission of the business?

Have you done any specific leadership and management training in the past 10 years?

Do you read about and study businesses, leadership and management frequently?

Do you have certainty and clarity about the business in all areas?

If not, how do you deal with this? (This may include personal skills you struggle with, tasks you are required to do for which you do not feel equipped, team issues, business functions, how suggestions or recommendations are handled... or anything!)

How would you describe your leadership and management style and practice? (be honest!)? How do you think others would describe it?

· Autocratic/Controlling

· Participative/Democratic

· Developer/Trainer

· Visionary/Big Picture

Staff Training:

Many companies limit growth by neglecting staff training. The resultant focus on short term targets delays expansion or stops it completely.

Do you have a specific program of in-depth staff training?

Does formal staff training include learning methods additional to lecture style and written instructions?

Has the business designed and implemented on-the-job training processes to model and demonstrate all systems and processes?

Can staff have some autonomy and be free to make mistakes as they learn?

Does every staff member have a personal training and development plan?

Do all business owners and senior managers have a personal training and development plan?

If each staff member was asked about on-the-job training would they say it is frequent, relevant and equips them well for their role?

Marketing and Customer Service

Do you view marketing as unnecessary?

Do you have a multi-strategy marketing plan?

Is there a procedure and schedule in place to frequently review your marketing?

Do you have a specific written description of your key target market groups?

Can you identify your primary customers (ie customers who create 80% plus of your business)?

If so, is the plan known by all key personnel?

What perception do your primary customers have of your business? How do you know?

What uniqueness are you giving clients to create competitive advantage?

Can you list the performance drivers of the business? i.e the factors that determine success - they must happen or everything heads south.

Are Innovation, Creativity and Research being specifically nurtured, developed, tested and measured?

Do you have a system of testing and measuring all marketing and advertising strategies?

Do you have a clear picture of how many leads are required to obtain 1 customer and what the process of lead generation costs?

Are your staff trained in how to use an effective sales process?

Does the business have a specific program for writing effective advertising copy for all marketing strategies?

Would relevant staff say all marketing and sales processes are frequently reviewed and therefore work well?

Financials, Performance and Business Control:

Is business growth decided and planned? (the alternative is merely hoping it will happen)

Do you have a Gross Revenue & Net Profit target for each Market/Industry segment as relevant to your business?

Do you have other targets for various indicators relevant to your business?

Do you have a written comprehensive strategy with detailed action plans and teams to move toward strategy achievement?

Have you identified key issues and risks hindering achievement of growth plans?

Do you have a risk management plan to protect the business against all reasonably foreseeable scenarios?

Do you have a plan to ensure all systems and processes to keep up with proposed growth are reviewed, installed, updated or changed?

Is there a plan to adequately fund all proposed areas of growth for the business?

Combined, the answers to these questions will give you a general, overall picture of the strengths and weakness of your business. This will give you clarity as you move towards improved business performance.

The Ways to Deal With Health Risks in Big Cities

Nowadays, with the development of modern society, the human health is greatly affected by the busy activities. People are always busy with their jobs. "24-hour society" has appeared all over the world. At the beginning, 24-hour society meant the rapid development of the modern society. Recently, 24-hour society has been used to mean the busy life of people in big cities.

People in big cities are always puzzled by many health problems caused by the busy life. Because of excessive activities and jobs, people can not get adequate rest in time. The functions of the brain have been hurt seriously. According to the medical research, the flow rate of blood in the brain can be increased when people are sleeping. Thus, the demand of brain cells to blood oxygen can be met and the discharge of wastes in the brain can be accelerated. In addition, adequate sleep can also enhance the memory and improve the intelligence for people. If people always stay up late, chronic dysfunction of brain can be caused. In addition, it is also easy for people to get cardiovascular diseases if people always stay up late. When people stay up late, the normal functions of the human organs and the normal standard of blood-fat can be disturbed. It can hurt the angiocarpy and cause coronary heart disease seriously. In addition, the high pressure of life and jobs can increase the blood pressure to cause high blood pressure and cerebral apoplexy. It has been proved that inadequate rest of the brain is an important reason to cause cardiovascular diseases. 24-hour society can also accelerate the aging of the human body and decrease the human immunity.

In order to keep healthy and avoid serious consequences caused by 24-hour society, it is important for people to form healthy habits in everyday life. For example, people should avoid staying up late and get adequate rest as far as possible. The night activities like staying in a bar should be reduced. It is also important for people to supplement essential nutrients like vitamin C, iron, zinc and calcium in time. In addition, people should take aerobic exercises in a right amount so as to improve the physical conditions. People can choose suitable kinds of sports like jogging and swimming according to their own physical conditions. Bad habits in everyday life can seriously endanger the human health. Therefore, bad habits like drinking coffee before going to bed should be thrown away.

How to Make Money From Home Even If You Have No Idea What You're Doing

Nearly everyone on the planet wonders how to make money from home, and that's understandable; after all, who wants to spend their life time working a 9 to 5 job that will likely never lead to a financially independent future? You spend 40 hours a week (plus commute time) away from your family. Get home in the evenings, eat dinner, go to bed and start all over again the next day - what kind of life is that? In this article, you will find out how you can earn a living from your own home even if you have no idea where to start.

Whether you want to make money online or do something else from your home such as start a catering business or home daycare, there is no reason you cannot pursue your dream. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of guides and e-books online that explain exactly how to do anything, from affiliate marketing, blogging and freelance writing to starting your own craft business. If you can think up a good work from home idea that suits your interests, there are resources online that will lay it all out for you so that you can get started in a business of your own.

If you don't want to purchase a CD course or e-book in order to learn how to make money from home, you can learn a great deal simply by researching online. However, be warned that if you go this route it will likely take you a good deal of time to figure it all out. When you purchase a good guide or e-book (which can usually be found for around $47 or less,) everything is laid out for you in a step-by-step manner, so that you know exactly what you need to do from beginning to end in order to build a successful home business for yourself. This is a small investment in your future, as anyone would agree.

Today, the most popular and profitable methods used to make money online include affiliate marketing, blogging and freelance writing. Does it all sound a bit intimidating? It may sound impossible, but you can put any of these methods to work for you as long as you are motivated and determined to create a stable financial future for yourself.

Affiliate marketing simply means you sell someone else's product or service and earn a commission. Most merchants let you join for free, and give you links or banners to place on your website or blog. If you want to start up a blog about Play Station 3's or skin care for women over 40, you can find products to promote that are related to your interests.

One of the best ways to make money from home today is through writing. If you have used the internet to do searches for information, you know there are literally billions of websites online. The owners of these websites need fresh content on a regular basis in order to keep their businesses listed high in the search engines. You don't have to have a degree in writing or anything more than a high school diploma as long as you have good spelling and grammar skills! Write articles, web content and blog posts for these website owners, and earn yourself a handsome income each and every month - right from your own home!

Information on how to make money from your own home abounds on the internet, so there is no reason you cannot fire your boss! If you're tired of making someone else rich and need ideas to help you figure out what route you want to take, visit the links below.

Big Reasons Why Most Businesses Fail

Many years ago, I tried to start a storefront business. Actually, I tried to start a bunch of businesses through out the years. But this particular business was it! I thought of a clever name, had a coworker design a logo, and then I bought inventory. I'm officially in business, so I thought! I was excited and ready to start my business. I even started looking at offices to run my business.

I had everything: Enthusiasm, confidence, desire and most of all, a great idea that was a sure sure path to success and riches. This time.

I started an E-bay drop ship business. I was selling sports paraphernalia. Everything was going great. I was buying products dirt cheap from a warehouse and selling them on e-bay at a pretty nice profit. However, I did not have a plan. All I know is that I wanted to make a lot of money - fast.

I did not account for the cost of shipping. I did not account for shipping costs for different areas of the country and for the size of the boxes in which I mailed the products. This ultimately ended by drop ship business along with other unexpected costs,

But those weren't the main reasons I went of business. The three main reason my business and most other businesses shut down is - lack of vision, plans and goals.

Vision

Vision is a clear picture of where you want your business to go. For example, your vision could be that you want your business to grow from one store to four stores in 10 years if you're running an offline business. If you're running an online business, your vision is to make enough money to be able to start an online marketing academy to help other struggling marketers.

Vision helps you and your business have something to strive toward. Your vision is a map to guide you on your business journey. When you have a vision, you have a clearer a since why you do what you do and anything that does not help you reach your vision, you should not pursue.

Goal

Goals are specific milestones that helps you get closer to your vision. Goals are specific, attainable and they have a deadline attached to them. I should have one more ingredient for a goal. It should have action!

Your goals should also be measurable, challenging but realistic. Setting a goal that says I want to make 1 millions dollars in three months is a goal but unrealistic. A better goal is I want to make 1 million dollars in my business in one year by using online and offline marketing strategies such as giving out business cards, running solo ads and posting articles on my website and e-zines.

It is important to write your goals down. keep them in front of you at all times. This will keep you focused and will help you not lose sight of your goal(s). As time goes by, you may have to reevaluate your goals depending on how situations change. It's OK to set new goals. Businesses do it all the time. But you must keep your goals.

Because starting a business requires so much commitment, time and focus, it's good to celebrate after achieving a goal. Celebrating renews your spirit and gives you the energy to keep going,

In the bible, even God celebrated his achievements. He created the sky and he said that was good, He created the water and the fowl of the air he said that was good. And on the six day he created man and he said that was good. On the seventh day, he rested.

We should have the same philosophy when building our businesses.

Plans

Plans are a foundation for helping you achieve your goals. As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. Although failure is not necessarily a bad thing, you should strive to fail as fast as possible so you can move on to success. What this means is that you're going to make mistakes. Make the small mistakes early so you can learn from them. And use what you learned from those past mistakes to succeed.

Just like you need a blue print to build your house, you need a blue print for your business. The blue print for your business. The blue print for your business is your business plan. Here is what you need to include in your business plan:

Who is your target market?

What will we sell (Be specific)?

What makes us different from the competition?

You don't have to write a two page business plans to include taxes, credit, inventory, receivables, etc. like your traditional offline business but you need a short term and long term plan, plan of action to achieve your goals and your marketing strategies.

Adding Security With Identity Theft Shield

Prepaid Legal has recently added to the security of it's customers with a service named Identity Theft Shield. Identity Theft Shield is actually provided by a company named Kroll International, and PPL has partnered with the company to bolster their reputation of protecting individuals and families from unnecessary legal costs. What exactly does this new service offered by PPL provide to the companies already existing and potential customers?

Identity Theft Shield Benefits

1. An Experian credit report including your credit score.

2. The ID theft providers will continuously monitor your credit file and send an email alert whenever it is accessed.

3. In the event your good name is compromised, a team of licensed investigators will work to with all affected agencies such as the Social Security Administration and law agencies to correct the damage.

4. The protection not only covers you, but your spouse in the event he or she is affected.

According to statistics, one in twenty households is effected by ID theft. The average time that an effected individual has to spend fixing the problems caused by criminals can average 2000 hours and up.

Instances in which you will not be covered:

1. If for some reason you are not willing to prosecute.

2. The service will not replace any stolen property.

3. A preexisting ID theft occurrence.

4. Any issues involving the use of a business name.

The plans run form between $10 if purchased with a Prepaid Legal plan, to $13 if purchased separately. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not it is worth the investment. So what does this mean for anyone who is interested in building a business with PPL. There are different insurance plans offered by the company to suit a particular individuals situation, and ID theft definitely adds to the protection of it's customers. But the truth is that most individuals that enter MLM with high hopes never achieve any real and lasting success, no matter which company they join.

In the end it is up to each network marketer to make a serious effort to develop the sales and marketing skills that are desperately needed to succeed with PPL. In other words, it's not about the company, it's about you and your willingness to apply a good work ethic and learn the marketing skills that will make you a leader in the industry.

This business is about "leveraging" other peoples' time and efforts. And more people in this industry are turning to technology and "leveraging" the awesome power that it provides to intelligent business owners. The old school methods of MLM are becoming outdated, and a new era of "Attraction Marketing" is being ushered in. Don't be the last to jump on this train to success.