Setting Smart Management Goals
You can find all kinds of goals in all kinds of organizations. Some goals are short-term and specific (starting next month, we will increase production by two units per employee per hour [more…]
Ten Qualities of an Effective Team Player
If you were choosing team members for a business team in your organization, who would the best team players be? Assuming that people have the right technical skills for the work to be done, what other [more…]
Understanding Accounting Methods
Officially, there are two types of accounting methods,which dictate how the company's transactions are recorded in the company's financial books: cash-basis accounting and accrual accounting. The key difference [more…]
Giving Constructive Feedback
Performance feedback can be given two ways: through constructive feedback or through praise and criticism. Don't fall into the trap of giving praise and criticism on employee performance. [more…]
Choosing a Budget Method
A budget is nothing more than a written estimate of how an organization — or a particular project, department, or business unit — will perform financially. If you can accurately predict your company's [more…]
Deciding between Cash-Basis and Accrual Accounting
Before you can start recording business transactions, you must decide whether to use cash-basis or accrual accounting. The crucial difference between these two accounting processes is in how you record [more…]
Reading Consolidated Financial Statements
Most major corporations comprise numerous companies bought along the way to create their empires. The financial statement reflects the financial results for all the entities it bought as well as the original [more…]
Constructing a Press Kit
A press kit is a collection of written materials designed to introduce an expert or a company to the media. Often these materials are contained in an attractive folder and accompanied by a cover letter [more…]
Staffing Your Restaurant's Kitchen
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You've heard this idea related to business a million times. Like all those other endeavors and enterprises, a restaurant can't run well or long without the [more…]
Six Steps to Handling Sales Objections
Here are six steps for handling objections or addressing concerns that almost always work in your favor. They also work pretty well in diffusing unusually tense situations, so heed them well. [more…]
Acquiring Kitchen Equipment for Your Restaurant
New York has the Bowery. Chicago has Restaurant Row. Most major cities have this kind of restaurant supply street. Whether the products are new or used, you'll likely buy it here. If you're not located [more…]
Closing the Sale
Empathy is an intimate understanding of the feelings, thoughts, and motives of another. That's why empathy is of prime importance in professional selling. Empathy is putting yourself into the prospect's [more…]
Conducting Effective Business Meetings
Every business, whether it has 2 employees or 2,000, has meetings as a regular part of getting things done. Although employees can communicate with one another in an organization in many different ways [more…]
Analyzing Your Market Situation
The first section of a marketing plan provides a snapshot view of your marketing arena. It presents what you know about the size and growth trends of your market, what you face in terms of competition, [more…]
Defining Your Business Model
A business model isn't something you build from the ground up. When management-types ask about a business model — as in, "So what's your business model? [more…]
Making Your Work Space Work
Now is the time to put everything into place. Your goal? Fingertip management of everything you do. The way to get there? Blueprint your workspace. You may not be an architect, but anyone can benefit from [more…]
Finding the Right Mental Attitude for Success
Attitude isn't quite everything when it comes to being successful, but attitude plays a part in virtually every phase of your life. A poor attitude gets more people fired than any other single factor, [more…]
Recognizing (and Avoiding) Common Management Mistakes
Mistakes are nature's way of showing you that you're learning. As a manager, you will make mistakes, but you can avoid common managerial errors by knowing where the common pitfalls are. [more…]
Sole Proprietorships: Flying Solo
The simplest business structure is the sole proprietorship —the IRS's automatic classification for any business started by an individual. Most new businesses with only one owner start out as sole proprietorships [more…]
Improving Your Inflection on the Phone
When you deal with customers over the phone, you have a whole new set of etiquette rules. The minute you pick up the phone, body language disappears, and your tone of voice and the words you use become [more…]
Classifying Types of Federal Grants
Federal grant monies come in two forms: direct grants,meaning that you apply directly to the federal government for a grant, and pass-through grants, meaning that your state applies to the federal government [more…]
Setting Up a Great Home Office
The following are the essentials of the well-equipped home office: [more…]
Building a Brand for Market Success
When people hear your name, they conjure up a set of impressions that influence how they think and buy. Those thoughts define your brand.
Your brand resides in your customer's mind as a result of all the [more…]
Reading an Annual Report
Without a doubt, annual reports are at the pinnacle of corporate communication. The point of the annual report is to provide a summary of exactly how a company has performed in the preceding year, and [more…]
E-Mail Etiquette on the Job
A couple years ago, e-mail surpassed postal mail as the highest-volume carrier of messages. Its popularity has been booming ever since and shows no signs of stopping. Though volumes have been written about [more…]
