Strategic Planning Begins With a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement
A sure-fire way to start the success of your business strategic planning process is to identify the foundation upon which your business was built. Lacking a well defined mission statement and equally communicated vision statement identifying your desired future will make the job a great deal more difficult. Rather like threading a needle and thread without tying a knot at its end, an undefined business floats its intended outcome with little to anchor its goals and strategic activities. “Your mission and vision statements should be used to help focus your business in terms of direction, leadership, and goal-setting ; mission and vision statements are the basis for your organization’s strategic planning”, said Don Midgett, author of Mission and Vision Statements: Your Path to a Successful Business Future.
“Visionary businesses excel because they set goals that relate directly to their mission and vision statements. They communicate their vision statement and vision-based goals to both customers and employees. They come up with strategic activities and daily/weekly/monthly actions to reach their goals and, over some period of time, achieve their vision. It is in this way that a business can control its own destiny, rather than let outside forces determine a business direction.” A periodic review by management of your strategic planning actions will let you know if you have chosen the right strategic activities for your business. Additionally you can also make sure that the strategic planning activities you have chosen to implement are all supportive of your mission and vision statements. Use your mission and vision statements to chart and stay the course.
Need help with this? Go to www.missionvisionstatement.com and obtain Mission and Vision Statements: Your Path to a Successful Business Future – you will get well constructed exercises and examples to help you develop meaningful and useful mission and vision statements for your strategic planning process. Begin your process today!
Generate Extra Income from Profitable Home Businesses
All of us want a better lifestyle, to give the best luxuries to the family and the most important of all to enjoy and be content with the job. But how many of us have the resources to do them?
The solution - the different profitable home based businesses opportunities. There are various options of part time work. The best job is the employment work in home. You can keep yourself employed in home with the help of the best home businesses.
If you are serious about the idea of making money through smart home based businesses then here are some tips for those who want to start a business from home.
Before beginning to work on your profitable home based businesses, do survey the market about the best home businesses and select on which suits you most. Also study your target customers and your comfort level regarding them. In accordance to the range and section of customers you have to market your products. So it is very important to understand the psyche of your target customers.
The next step before you begin your profitable home businesses is to sketch out a detailed plan. The plan should contain a brief assessment of the start-up investment capital. It should give a rough idea of the amount that will be involved in advertising plan, production costs etc You will also have to tactfully divide your time so that you can give equal attention to all the aspects of your best home businesses.
You should jot down all ideas regarding your profitable home businesses. It is often seen that most newbies who start a business from home loose their interest, shut their workplace and move on to a more conventional job.
The New FTC Franchise Rule – Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD)
Since the new FTC Franchise Rule became effective in 2007, many persons wonder what the major differences are between the old Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) and the new FTC Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). Of particular interest to franchise companies is how long it takes to convert an old UFOC to the new FDD format. Franchise buyers wonder if anything has changed about when an FDD must be given to them under the new regulations.
FDD vs. UFOC
In summary, what the FTC's new Franchise Disclosure Document or FDD format does is take the prior Uniform Franchise Offering Circular disclosures, modify them in certain respects and rename the document. It’s now called a Franchise Disclosure Document or FDD. There are still 23 individual Items (chapters) and although the revisions are not that substantive, they are numerous. A franchise attorney familiar with the new FDD format should be able to convert the old UFOC to a new FDD within ten to twenty hours, plus or minus. The Table of Contents for an FDD can be found within the information at the franchise a business page of the Franchise Foundations website.
FDD Phase In Period
The phase in period for the FDD is now over. The new FDD format was permissive starting July 1, 2007. It became mandatory starting July 1, 2008. So franchise companies cannot make any offers or sales using or distributing the old UFOC. The new FDD is the required format in all states as of July 1, 2008.
Some Sales Managers are Idiots!
Yes, I said it, some sales managers are idiots.
I know, I work with field sales professionals all the time and deal with the problems that sales managers cause.
Look at the really smart companies whose sales managers are always successful, they do it right, IBM, P&G, Xerox. We all bought their books and training programs, but few of us actually implemented what they taught us.
I guess the companies simply expected the sales force to improve without good sales management! Sales training does not relieve a company of management responsibility.
Two things that sales management does wrong continually are no goal setting and the wrong skills training.
First, establish goals and then a reward system based on those goals. That sounds simple, but most companies don't do it. They say "we need to increase the number of new customers this year. So go out and get more customers." That's it, no reward system for achievement, no consequences for failure. And, that is not really a goal!!
Remember, a goal is "a detailed objective to be achieved by a specific point in time." More customers this year is not a goal, it is a dream, wish, hope or something, but not a goal.
Second, this one really confuses me. Companies will spend literally thousands of dollars each year or two on sales skills training, but won't spend $100 per sales person on a Prospecting Kit. Yet prospecting is the only skill that will get a sales person into a situation where they can actually use their selling skills!!!
So that tells me and the sales team that the sales manager is not really serious about getting new customers. Also, most sales people are really customer service people, they make very few presentations, so they can save the money on that skills training.
Importance of Online Business Directory for Online Businesses
Often, companies start their operations online, make a website, place an ad and expect that customers will stop by and the business will be pouring in. However, this actually doesn’t happen. Unlike physical business, online business is not so easy to establish itself; attracting potential customers; and converting sales online requires proper planning and the right strategy. Signing up in online business directory sites may help you to get a company started.
Online business directory sites provide the necessary platform for companies to advertise their offerings in effective manner. They also make it possible for online companies to:
Aim and Reach Targeted Visitors:
Nowadays, a company can find many subject related directories over the internet. These directories target specific demographics rather than focusing on generalized online business sites.
Consistent Business Support:
Many online business directories are supported by the actual business organizations. It means when a visitor lands in the webpage, he or she can find useful advice, marketing help and educational opportunities.
Networking Potential:
Online business directories facilitate networking for registered members to explore new opportunities and connect to useful links. Such directories work as a platform to connect users and allow them to share their knowledge.
Catch the Attention of Search Engines:
Listing in online business directories can be really useful if you want to catch the attention of search engines. Search engines often give weightage to directories as they provide information relevant to users.
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