Saturday, November 24, 2007

5 Reasons Why Your Business Should Start A Joint Venture Today

Is your business struggling in the new economy? Perhaps you are scratching your head for ideas on how to win more sales or wondering how you are going to prevent your business from falling behind those of your competitors? If this sounds like the predicament that you find yourself in at the present time, then about the best thing that you can do is to start a joint venture!

What is a Joint Venture?

Joint ventures are business collaborations made between companies that have a natural synergy and a common desire to succeed. If you want help breaking into a new market or are looking for a compatible product to upsell to your clients in return for a slice of the profits, a joint venture will deliver this and more.

Here are the top 5 reasons why a joint venture could be the tonic your business requires.

1) Joint ventures allow you to acquire more customers: Establishing a joint venture with a suitable company could give you access to a whole new database of potential customers.

2) Joint ventures can help you retain existing customers: Products and services offered by joint venture partners that complement those that you sell through your business will give you the opportunity to make more sales with your existing customers.

3) Joint ventures provide the opportunity to diversify: Business diversity is key to a company's success. By setting up joint ventures you are diversifying the routes taken by your customers to reach you. This means if one route fails to perform you have back ups in place!

4) Joint ventures enhance company credibility: Choose the right joint venture partner and your business could benefit from a heightened profile in your industry.

5) Joint ventures reduce business overheads: A joint venture can help you double your customer database but half the amount you spend on marketing your business to those customers!

About the Author:

So, where do you find a suitable joint venture partner? Joint venture partners can be found at http://www.jvbase.com. Content is provided by Seb Jay on behalf of http://www.jvbase.com

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Team Building

Team building is very important in the corporate world. Therefore, it is very important for each company who employs large numbers of people to plan activities that will help that company improve in all areas of working together.

Some companies plan team building events right on the premises of their business. However, team building operations can also be planned anywhere in the UK or anywhere else in Europe. Some of the most popular locations where team building events take place include outdoor festivals, casinos, restaurants, and sport gaming grounds.

Some team building events take place at conference centers or other large common areas. Some of these team building events will last a half a day and some will last a whole day. Others will take place for even an entire weekend.

A variety of fun work-related team building exercises may take place at these events. For instance, there may be a game which involves a treasure hunt. While participating in this treasure hunt each employee will exercise his or her best work skills (i.e. delegation, time management, and more) in order to help their team be the most productive and win.

Other fun team building games that are played during these important employer-employee events often include the following: Land raft, pyramids, or human sheep herding. All of these have a similar function as to the mystery games-to promote communication, togetherness, and cooperation.

The land raft event is one in which a team is instructed to complete a land raft with a variety of random materials. The pyramids game involves the careful moving of objects from one place to another. The sheep herding activity will usually involve the process of guiding a group of blind-folded “sheep” to a designated area.

Evening entertainment can be planned for team building events, as well as just fun games, such as quad racing, air hockey, blackjack, roulette, or dice. For the fun of it a Wild West or James Bond themed party can be planned, or even a Caribbean cruise.

Team building events can take place in the same area as the employer, or they can be planned in a different location. Team building events can also be combined with motivational and educational seminars or incentive vacations.

It doesn’t take much for an employer to plan one of these team building events with the right resources. All a company needs to do is gain access to a reputable activity day or conference weekend planner.

Usually an employer would need to provide a variety of pieces of information when calling. In order to have a successful employer trip planned is to decide on a location, report how many people will be attending the event, and then to choose what activities will take place at the event.

There are pre-planned activity days that corporations can participate in as well as ones that are tailor made to fit any sized-group and company budget. These activities usually fill up fast so it is best for corporations or other employers to call as soon as possible to make adequate arrangements.

About the Author:

John Tarr is a copywriter for Stag Party Weekend across Europe. Learn more about Team Building - http://www.actiondays.co.uk

Monday, November 19, 2007

How To Apply Motivational Methods For Success

People who are successful apply motivating methods to stay centered on goals and ambitions. They are what set them apart from other people who have no or little motivation to be successful.

If your want is to be successful in life, then motivating know-hows can assist you in increasing your potential. In doing this there are certain steps you must abide by.

You must have a written visual sense or design of the measures you need to take to reach your intended goals. You have to need to be successful in your inner most being in order for your motivating know-hows to work. You will be able to alter these plans as your goals change. All the same, you must work hard at staying on your course of action or you will lose your interest and passion very quickly.

Try different motivating know-hows that will work best for your agenda and program. Try breaking down your plan into sections so that you will be able to realistically accomplish your day by day goals. If you are not an individual who has the ability to manage huge task, it could get overwhelming and the desire to succeed can diminish and you may want to quit. By breaking your plan down into smaller sections it could make them easier to accomplish.

One of the ideal motivational processes that successful people apply is to make a “to do” goals list daily and assign the five most important things to the top of your list. Then spend the majority of your time on those. As you accomplished one task and quickly move on to the next, it will encourage and help you to remain task.

Keys to Remain Productive

Every time you achieve a goal from your list, reward yourself with something nice. This motivating know-how will get you fired up and keep you moving forward throughout the day. It will help you to be confident about your progress.

A different manner of motivating yourself is to talk to your inner self. Putting it differently, encourage yourself and believe in yourself. Talking to yourself aids to waking up your mind and hearing your own voice arouses your senses. It affords you a means of relying on one's own instinct.

Give yourself time. You may not have known that it takes approximately twenty-one days to establish a habit? So it will take time for you to get accustomed to being disciplined in goal setting and actually accomplishing what you have set out to do.

Be accountable to someone who will assist in keeping you on track. Find a reliable person, a family member or friend, who is willing to be your mentor or a person who you will be able to report to with your progress. This technique isn't to micro-manage you, but to aid you with following your goals.

When you are experiencing a rough day and you are unable to stay centered, give yourself a break. Go out and have some fun. Time away from your daily task can help you to refocus on the job at hand.

There are many motivational coaches that can equip you in the path to your success. These coaches of course are not free, but they are well worth it especially when it is someone reputable. Many top wage earners in varying home business plans attend motivational seminars on a regular basis. They consider the cost a part of doing business and a part of their successful business model. They know that the small upfront price will pay off big in the end.

About the Author:

Stephen Meyer is a successful Home Business entrepreneur who proudly assist others in building their home businesses. You can see his opportunities at: Home Business Ideas and Opportunities


Sunday, November 18, 2007

What does your business card say about you...rate yours now

How many business cards have you collected in your inventory? Hundreds? Maybe more...?

If you haven't discarded them (after scanning them into business card software), try this exercise.

Take out 10 random business cards from your collection and for each one, score two points for each of the criteria below. If a card meets only part of a criterion, give it one point.


  • The weight of the card stock feels substantial and isn't flimsy.

  • The company name or logo is clear and easy to read and is the largest item on the card.

  • The logo is unique and doesn't look like it came from the clip art of a desktop publishing program.

  • The font size and style make the information easy to read.

  • The person's name is the second most prominent item on the card.

  • There's a telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and Web site - all clearly marked.

  • If the card is in color, there isn't an overuse of colors and there's a sense of a company color scheme.

  • The back of the card is used for additional information.

  • The card is well designed and professional in appearance.

  • There isn't an overload of copy and there's some white (empty) space.

How many cards scored between 16/20 and 20/20?

Now take out YOUR business card and do the same exercise. How does it rate?

Your business card is a mini presentation of you and your company. It's a leave-behind that can either be kept or tossed by your prospects. Your business card, along with your company logo, letterhead and materials need to reflect credibility, professionalism and trustworthiness. They're part of your brand identity.

By Elaine Fogel (MarketingProfs)

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4381

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Blogging And The Business Owner

There’s a booming business in freelance writing and it’s in the realm of business blogging (b-blogging).

Why is this the case?

As businesses begin to see the marketing benefits of blogging they are reaching out to skilled freelance writers to develop material on a variety of topics that can be plugged into a business blog.

This can be a benefit to three separate parties. 1) The blog owner. This individual gains the benefit of quality professionally written material that can work to instill trust in the business represented by the blog. 2) The freelance writer. This individual gains the benefit of meaningful writing assignments and gains the satisfaction of seeing the ultimate success of the blog. 3) Most importantly, the blog readers. These individuals are often content consumers and having consistently updated material on the blog is an enormous benefit to these individuals.

Perhaps you have considered developing a business blog, but feel that you may not be able to withstand the pressures of developing new material or you may not feel as if you are gifted in writing. This is where a freelance writer can assist you. A freelance writer can take your ideas and bring them to life. Depending on your needs they can work to locate links for online articles you want to include and they can write to a specific word count.

Business blogs have also benefited from the use of free-to-use articles found in many locations throughout the web. These articles must be listed with the original author, may not be altered and must include a linked bio at the end of the article. These articles can be a great supplemental source for topic specific blog articles in addition to any original or freelance blogging you may make available to your content consumers.

Freelance writers have become very adept at learning the skills needed to develop content for websites, content for press releases and the more conversational business blogs. In many respects these professionals act as content chameleons.

The end result is business owners who can harness the power of written words as a marketing tool in a manner that satisfies the consumer, is cost effective and allows the business owner to focus attention on other necessary aspects of marketing.

The good news is a business owner can still provide as much or little content as they like for their business blog. Business owners can even develop a panel of experts that can rotate on blog content development. No matter what direction you select the prevailing thrust is improved marketing capabilities – just what every online business owner wants.

About the Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com