The Rare Gang

Women have made tremendous contributions to society at every level; consider Joan of Arc, Golda Meier, Indira Gandi, Condalezza Rice.

In writing this article my attention is to open the eyes of small business and no way patronise female mangement or give offence. In some domains this is still a sensitive and sometimes taboo topic!

As a father of 3 grown up young women I am proud to see them have the opportunities that were not available to them 25 years ago and be recognised for the talented individuals they are.

Traditionally male dominated bastions have resisted change to include women in male dominated domains. Thankfully there is a changing of the guard with society understanding that in an egalitarian world there is no place for these behaviours and conduct!

It is still true that getting through the glass ceiling is difficult however the glass is much thinner or so I have been told. Forward thinking corporates are showing the business world the way ahead.

In my time in corporate life I had the opprotunity to work with many talented female individuals.

I found them to be excellent managers and unlike their male collegues did not display the territorial behaviours so indicative of male management.

Small business ignores to their detriment overlooking female management and this is blatant discrimination in its ugliest form.

Some reasons why are women overlooked. Women are often overlooked because of ignorance, intolerance, discrimination, fear, negative thinking, insecurity, the old school tie syndrome, myths and legends and on it goes.

What women can bring to your business. Women have the ability to bring a great deal to your business; hard-work, talent, lack of territory insecurity, flexibility, and usually greater understanding and empathy.

Today’s employees are looking for kindness in the workplace. It is true that many employees have as their only support network their work colleagues. How much more important then are these skills.

It is true that some female managers become overbearing but my experience is that this less frequent than men.

Visit www.biz-momentum.com for more information.

Breaking through the glass is not difficult, it simply is a choice. You business may be breaking the law and missing out on a large pool of talent. Put aside your old ways of thinking and get hiring!

Philip Lye is Director of Biz Momentum Pty Ltd (http://www.biz-momentum.com)and provides professional management services for

• Strategic Human Resource Management
• Employee Relations Advice
• Workplace Health & Safety Compliance Strategies
• Management Skills Training

Philip holds qualifications in Accounting, Leadership, Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations and is a qualified accountant.

The importance of planning should never be overlooked. For a business to be successful and profitable the owners and managers must have a clear understanding of its customers, its strengths, its competition, and must have the foresight to plan for future expansion. Whether yours is a new business or an existing business expanding, taking the time to create an extensive business plan provides you with greater insight into your business.

An effective business plan requires you to be objective, critical and focused. The finished project is an operating tool to help manage your business and enable you to achieve greater success. The plan also serves as an effective communication tool for financing proposals.

The are four major reasons for constructing a business plan are:

• The process of putting a business plan together is important; it forces the individual constructing the report to look at the business in an objective, critical and unbiased manner.

• It helps to focus ideas and serves as a feasibility study of the business’s chances for success and growth.

• The finished report serves as an operational tool to define the company’s present status and future possibilities. It can help you manage the business and prepare you for success.

• It is a strong communication tool. It defines your purpose, competition, your management and personnel. The process of constructing the plan can be a strong reality check.

Planning is very important if a business is to survive. An objective look at a business can help identify areas of weakness and strength. You may recognize needs that have been overlooked, spot problems before they escalate, and establish the path that leads to your business goals.

The plan is only useful if you use it. Ninety percent of new businesses fail in the first two years. Failure is often attributed to a lack of planning. To enhance your success, develop and follow a comprehensive, well-constructed business plan.

Finally, your business plan provides the information needed to communicate with others. This is especially true if you are seeking financing. A thorough business plan should have the information to serve as a financial proposal and should be accepted by most lenders.

Who should write the plan?

You, the owner of the business, should write the plan, whether you are using the business plan to seek financial resources or evaluate future growth, to define a mission or give guidance for running the business. You know the most about the business; and you have the most to gain from a well-constructed and insightful plan.

Some use software to assist in the formatting process. Consultants can be hired to assist in formulating the plan, but you must always do a majority of the work. Only you can come up with the financial data, the purpose of your business, the key employees, and management styles to mention a few items. So tackle the plan yourself; if you need further help in one area, then seek the assistance of a consultant.

The Product or Service

It is important for the reader to thoroughly understand your product offering or the services you currently provide or plan on providing. However, it is important to explain this section in layman’s terms to avoid confusion. Do not overwhelm the reader with technical explanations or industry jargon that he will not be familiar with.

It is important to discuss the competitive advantage of your product or service. If entering a new market, explain why there is a need for your offering. If appropriate discuss any patents, copyrights and trademarks the company currently owns or has recently applied for and discuss any confidential and non-disclosure protection the company has secured.

Discuss any barriers that you face in bringing the product to market such as FDA approval, EPA or government regulations, etc. Other areas that should be covered in this section include:

• Is your product or service already on the market or is it still in research and development?

• If in development, what is the rollout strategy or timeline to bring the product to market?

• What makes your product or service unique? What competitive advantage does the product or service have over its competition?

• Can you price the product or service competitively and still maintain a healthy profit margin?

John B. Vinturella, Ph.D. has almost 40 years experience as a management and strategic consultant, entrepreneur, author, and college professor. For 20 of those years, Dr. Vinturella was owner/president of a distribution company that he founded. He is a principal in business opportunity sites jbv.com and muddledconcept.com, and maintains business and political blogs.

Moving from staff into management for the first time is excitingbut it can also be scarey.

There’s so much you don’t know. Somehow managing looked so easy from the outside, but now you actually have to do it, you realize it’s more complicated than you thought. Before, you had certain tasks to accomplish and you knew you had the skills to do them. You still have responsibility for those tasks, but now you have to see that the work is done effectively by other people. That’s a whole new task in itself, and you’re not sure you’re up to the job.

You also find that it’s hard to concentrate on the planning that is such an important part of managing, because emergencies large and small seem to arise all the time and people keep running to you to resolve them. The expression “When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember you were trying to drain the swamp” might have been written for new managers!

In these early days, you must learn not to be too hard on yourself. Management skills are not built into our human DNAwe have to learn them as we go. Promise yourself you’ll learn at least one management lesson every day. Set aside a few moments at the end of each day to think about that day’s lesson and how you’ll use it to improve your management skills. Sometimes these lessons will be hard, but each one will give you something to build on if you are willing to learn.

Each day will bring you new challenges, new experiencesand new successes. It’s easy to forget the successes and focus on all the things that didn’t go so well, so I recommend you keep a diary of all your new experiences. Then, on those days when you think becoming a manager was all a horrible mistake, you can read over your diary and remind yourself just how far you’ve come.

Becoming a manager is a journey. Like any journey, it offers both good and bad experiences, enjoyable and not-so-enjoyable aspects, positive and negative events. Just take it one stage at a time, learn from each experiencegood or badand you’ll gradually find yourself becoming more and more comfortable in your management role.

Helen Wilkie is a professional speaker, trainer, consultant and author who has worked with hundreds of newly appointed managers and understands their special challenges. Visit www.TheManagersJourney.com and sign up for her series of free management skills teleseminars.

It has been said that great leaders are born and not made. In truth they are both. Let me explain.

Inside of all of us there is the essence of a great leader. Unfortunately many of us, before we are too young to realize it choose to accept beliefs about ourselves from our care takers that buries this essence deep in our unconscious mind.

All we are left with a dark veil that separates a desire of who we would like to be from who we are truly capable of.

As a reminder this is who you truly are:

An individual who at heart has courage, resilience, clarity of purpose, decisiveness, integrity, vision, focus, self confidence, self esteem, intuition, perspective, creativity, and the ability to co-operatively empower others to great heights.

How do I know this?

Well as you were reading that how did it make you feel at your core?

Well if you felt any of the following: buoyed up, happy, content, a feeling of resonance, joyful, empowered, clear, light, expansive, energized, alive and so on then I ask you to reflect on what it means that you felt any of this at all.

With some reflection I think you’ll see that such feelings speak to the truthfulness of what was said.

I know that some of you will have been filled with not so good feelings i.e. self doubt, frustration, sadness, inadequacy, skepticism and so on.

All of that is the result of the veil I mentioned above. It is the veil of unconsciously held dysfunctional beliefs that you hold that keep you from experiencing and living as your true and genuine self.

Such conditioning is only limiting and life detracting. You can see this for yourself by noticing what it does to your life force energy whenever you focus on it.

Many individuals choose to steer clear of ever addressing it because of their fear of doing so. Such fears simply cause it to remain embedded in the unconscious mind where they act to usurp control of your Will and therefore your life away from you.

All of this is not only life detracting it is also killing you at an emotional and physical level.

To take charge of your life and become the leader your were meant to be kindly visit the web link below.

Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called “Spirituality And Science” (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.

http://www.telecoaching4u.com/IntroConsult.htm

Conference calling can save you money. There is no doubt that in
the sales business, every second counts. Whether it be training,
sales meetings, or other needs, pulling your employees away from
the sales opportunities even for these important tasks, cuts down
on the time they can be making you money. If you take the first
step and try using conference calling, you may just find yourself
saving money and making money. Let’s point out some of the
features and benefits of using conference calling here:

Consider the costs of training individuals. You need to fly
them to your location. You need to invest the money in teachers,
a place to teach them, and the products used. Then, you still
need to pay for their lodgings and maybe even their food. This
is costly. Even if it is a simple one day training, you still
have invested quite a bit of money. Now, what if you could get
all of the training in that you need through a conference call?
You still provide the training experience to your potential new
sales team, but allow them to remain at their current location.
With conference calling, you save money by not having to move
people around while still delivering a one on one training
experience.

Secondly, you keep your employees were they need to be- on the
sales floor. You don’t have to invest in much time away from the
business at all. You do the training through the conference call
and they are right back to work after the call. Not much time is
wasted then, and profits can immediately improve.

You can hold many people on the call at the same time. There
is the potential for many people to get on it and therefore, you
can address a large group of people or only a few.

Consider using conference calling for your sales meetings as
well. Again, you provide the information that is needed to reach
your sales team while keeping them on the floor, working those
sales. It just makes sense to use conference calling to save
yourself travel time and money as well. Plus, you can have
associates across the state, country, or even the world plug in
to the call. All of their input can be provided, then to all
other associates.

As you can see, there are many reasons to use conference calling
in the world of sales. Let us face the facts that time is money.
You save both when you incorporate this system into your
training, sales meetings, and staff meetings. Your employees can
take what they have learned and apply it only minutes later when
they get back to work. This effective means of communication is
also quite affordably priced. When you factor in the amount of
money you are saving from travel expenses, it gets even better!
Conference calling is a simple system that can potentially save
you quite a bit of money! See how it can benefit you, right now!

Tom Parker has put together a website to help people who want to
have a conference call and made it affordable for everyone!
http://www.affordableconferencing.com is your place for
reliable, affordable, reservationless teleconference lines for
easy hosting. Go and check out the rates and get your
conference started today! http://www.affordableconferencing.com

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

A number of idea selection methods can be used. For a comprehensive evaluation, it is advisable to use all methods. Considering the costs of Research and Development and the added cost of re-engineering products when flaws are discovered, it pays to conduct in-depth valuation before large investments in that idea are given a GO status.

Some of the idea selection methods include:

a) Comparing the type of idea with those types of ideas that have previously been most successful.

b) Judging whether the idea fits well with the firm.

c) Analysing the likely practical impediments that may prevent successful commercialisation.

d) Knowing how and when the GO or KILL decisions will be made when an idea is in the idea funnel.

e) Knowing how the consumer will benefit.

Additionally, there are benefits to failure. Whilst an idea may be judged as being commercially unsuccessful, the firm, team or individual may learn valuable competencies that will increase the chances of the next product being successful. Ridley Scott had limited commercial success with Blade Runner, but went on to make some of the most lucrative movies ever.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.