Career Tips and So Much More

If you ask a hundred people who are in business regarding how they came up with their business name, you will get a hundred different answers. Every business name has a history behind how it was chosen. Even if a business is named after the owner’s nickname, there’s a rationale behind it.

When you start a business, you are, in a way giving birth to something. This new birth came from an idea alone made by you or your group. Later, it will have its own account in a bank, its own government identification number, its own financial accounts, its own revenue and its own bills. In writing, it is another entity! Just like you were selecting a name for your own unborn child, you have to spend fair amount of time in deciding on a business name.

There are various reasons why a good name is critically important to your business. The first obvious reason is its initial identification. Nobody would wish to deal business with a nameless entity or individual. This makes you appear unprofessional and very unreliable. Even if you call your company "John’s Pet Grooming Service," a company name has been set up and you are indeed a company. People will consequently feel more comfortable transacting with you.

Secondly, a business name generally is an indication of the product or service you provide. "Andy’s Editing Service," "Crochet Club for Women," "Johnny-Dandy Handyman," "Lanie and Henry’s Laundry," and "Genie’s Gift Shop" are all examples of simple business names that instantly tell the customer the product being offered.

However, a lot of people will take the simple way of naming their business. They use their own name, their spouse’s or partner’s name, their children’s names or a combination of these names as a business name.

However, research has also shown that "cutesy" names are not the most effective to be used as business names. Experts claim that using such makes the business look a bit too "mom-and-pop-sie." Still, this depends on the type of business. If you think that your type of business would need this theme to reach out to your market, then perhaps this is the best use approach.

Other business owners would use catchy terms to name their business. It would also be good to get the business name easily recalled in people’s memory after the initial encounter. Names like, "Dough Delights," "Fill It Up," "Paper Partner," or "Treasures Trove," are all fine examples of attention-getting names. These types of business names not only relate to your product or service but also serve as a form of catchword for your business. This provides a lot of benefit in marketing.

Think of marketing concepts that will not only get your business to be noticed but also remembered in a pleasant way. For instance, when you choose a name for a child, you do this perhaps because the name is associated with a type of character or personality. When you name a business you need to ensure that you know the product or service you will be selling before you decide on a business name to give some clue to your potential customers as to what your business is all about.

A business named "Gentle Suds" normally wouldn’t be selling pastries and a business named "Nuts and Bolts" would not sell baby clothes.

To help generate ideas - start out by observing business signs wherever you go. Take note of the ones that catch your attention and stick in your memory. Evaluate why you can easily remember them and start creating possible business names of your own then single out the perfect one to suit your business needs.



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Having to deal with complaining customers is a challenging proposition for a lot of professionals, but also remember that a complaint situation may also represent an opportunity; and not always a dilemma.


If you address and deal with a client’s concerns in a respectful and helpful manner, more often than not, your efforts and understanding will be appreciated, and former “complainers” would walk away feeling satisfied and valued. A happy customer will come back; and one of your goals is to have repeat customers.

By recognizing how you will be able to benefit from complaints expressed by client, you create an opportunity for improvement and growth.

Depending upon the severity and nature of the complaint, it would be best to get a good grasp of what the complaint is all about, what went wrong, and what can be done to solve it.

Meet with your staff or crew to review the complaint given; deliberate on approaches and solutions to see to it will not be repeated.

Complaints could be difficult to manage at times, but there is no reason to be afraid of them. Be thankful to the customer for bringing to your attention the problem that caused the complaint. Had they merely ignored their dissatisfaction and went somewhere else; he or she would have been a lost client. By calling your attention to this matter you are given the opportunity to rectify it and to make future efforts on not allowing the situation to happen again.

Complaints + resolution = company growth and customer satisfaction.

© 2/3/2011 Athena Goodlight at Bizcovering
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Are you trying to start a business, but you think you don’t have enough capital yet? Here are some tips to get you started. This may be your first step to wealth.
 
Find Transfer of Ownership Opportunities
Find a business whose proprietor, for one reason or another, is in dire need to sell out the business. Possibly because of disinterest or inadequate management factors it isn’t earning revenues. An example of such situation is with an inherited family business wherein the heir is not capable of managing the company operation. When an opportunity arises, offer to pay the book value from a portion of the profits. The owner may consider this proposition instead of seeing the business completely go down the drain. Get a lawyer to write the transfer of ownership documents and the other terms of the agreement.

You should, of course, only consider a business with a good earning potential based on your ability and projected endeavors. Should you need to expand your business later, you may seek the aid of a financing source to help you with your funds.
 

Use Other People’s Money
How often, after learning of a business venture success story, have you told yourself, I wish I got into that. What stopped you? If lack of money was the primary problem, it should not have been. Most financially rich individuals acquired wealth by utilizing others’ money to finance their business venture. Surprisingly, money is not impossible to acquire. For risky endeavors, venture capital companies are open to proposals with a viable revenue potential, even with its risk factor.
 

Make Money From Your Collections
With the online store trends now, it is easier to sell your items that have been lying around untouched for years. There are investors and collectors who are looking for items that they believe may multiply in monetary value in years to come. Some of the items that have risen in value through the years are treasures such as stamps, coins, old magazines and comic books, dolls and toys, baseball trading cards, rare books, art objects, sculptures, paintings, autographs, phonograph records, guns, antique furniture, etc. Be sure to check their current values and trends before finalizing. So, don t throw out everything your spouse, your mother, or grandmother considers trash. Your junk may just be someone else’s treasure.
 
You can be rich–if you really seek for wealth. You should take a positive step towards that goal. The earlier you start, the sooner you’ll be able to gain the financial rewards you desire for.


 © 2011 Athena Goodlight




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Working at home is a major career move. With the decision to work at home, there are many considerations and decisions that must be made. First of all, decide whether or not working at home is the right career for you. Second, you need to know what type of job you will be doing. Opportunities for work at home women, both online and offline, are many. The success of a work at home career largely depends on knowing your own skills, requirements of the job, finding the right match, and making them work to your advantage.
 
Because of the amount of experience and expertise you have developed from your previous job, sometimes the best way to start your work at home career is where your out-of-home career has ended. Using your previous work experience and connections as your launching pad, becoming an independent contractor in the same field could be your best bet. Try finding a company that hires work-at-home people in your field. You may also use your previous experience to qualify you as an “expert” writer or consultant in your field.
Some women, however, take this work-at-home career step as a way break off from the lifestyle of their old job. There are many opportunities for entry level work as an independent contractor, should you decide to try something entirely different. Here are some careers you may choose from:


Customer Service, Data Entry and Virtual Assistant
You can work in the online customer service industry, dealing with customers over the phone. The equipment needed is very minimal when you work as a customer service agent—a reliable internet connection and a working phone. If you are familiar with the medical field, a medical transcription job could work for you. Some companies also hire virtual personal assistants to telecommute.
Sales
Business opportunities in sales are very vast. The simplest one to make money out of is the direct selling business where you are given a credit line as a start up to be able to sell different products from established brands. As a result, you can earn commissions through sales and/ or recruiting other people to sell the merchandise. There are hundreds of companies out there who are willing to take in sales agents.

Service
Everyone has a talent that can be profitable. One option for making money is to offer your service to the community in exchange for a certain amount. The most lucrative ones are day care center operators (works well for mothers with children), event organizers, hairdressers, florists, make-up artists, designers, and tutors. These all have the option of working at home. If you haven’t any experience in these fields, find classes to enroll in to learn a new skill which you can later apply in starting a business.

Internet Business
Many women have found a good source of home income through the interweb. There is a vast ocean of opportunities that can be found online. You can go into web design or writing. You may also set up an online store such as eBay where you can sell your own products or get commissions from selling the products of others such as Amazon and other affiliate-based sites. There are others who make a good business through internet marketing, by recommending certain products and directing web traffic to a site. They earn commissions for every sale made.

Most important of all, is for you to decide what type of job you would like to do. If you love to be around people, perhaps direct selling and consultancy is good for you. If you are the type who is comfortable working in front of the computer and practically lives online, try starting your own website or a business on the web. If you want the comfort of getting a weekly paycheck, perhaps telecommuting positions can work for you.
When you have decided on a job you like, do a good amount of research about it, so you will know what it takes to become successful in that business. Also be wary of scammers. That is part of the risk of having an online business.
Make a realistic computation of the hours and effort you will be spending on your new business, then sit on that decision for a week and see how it feels. Visualize how your life will be like when you make this career change. When you have thoroughly considered your options, finding the right match isn’t that hard to do.

 
 Copyright © 2011 Athena Goodlight

 
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Many people –even skilled speakers—often fail to get their points across when intensive issues come up during meetings or on-the-site encounters. The main reason behind this is that they have never been taught to get their message across under difficult situations.

Suppose you’ve just been severely criticized, here are ways to help you handle critics and criticisms in a meeting:
1. Compliment
Compliment the critic if he has made an important observation. Often just a little praise and recognition disarms critics and changes their attitude toward you.
2. Pause
If the criticism is unjustified, one good way to handle this is to pause, remain silent and say absolutely nothing. Someone in the audience realizing that the question is unfair will often answer for you. Don’t dwell on the point; get on with your presentation.
3. The survey
If an accusation is made in which you feel there is absolutely no way you could answer and win, here’s the best way to handle it. In a calm voice, ask the critic to repeat the statement so you can write it correctly on a chalkboard or whiteboard in front of the room. Then you may hand out small pieces of paper and ask each person in the group to write either “agree” or “disagree.”
Have someone other than your self or your critic collect and tabulate the votes and announce the results. If your points were valid, you’ll find the group will normally agree with you. If the group doesn’t agree, be sure to acknowledge their position and quickly get on your next point.

How to neutralize objections
Never forget—it’s always a critical moment when objections come up. The way you handle them is directly related to your chances of getting your message across. Here are four suggestions:
1. Keep calm.
Always keep calm. Show empathy. Never be resentful. Never raise your voice or attempt to gloss over the objection. None of these things work!
2. Request more information.
Ask your challenger to expand on the objection. If it’s a valid objection, it’s your responsibility to respond. More frequently your challenger, not being as familiar with your point as you are, quickly exhausts his or her position and is unable to push you further.
3. Restate the objection as a question.
Most objections are presented as statements. Regardless of how they are presented, the secret is (1) to restate the objection as a question and (2) to verify whether this is or is not your opponent’s objection. An example follows:
“Your question, Mr. Jones is: ‘How will the newly proposed database system affect the business productivity?’”
The next step is to verify whether this is or not the objection. Simply say “Mr. Jones, is that the question?” If Jones says “yes,” you know exactly what his question is and you can answer it precisely.
Just suppose Jones said “no.” Then say, “Mr. Jones, if that’s not the question…then what is the question?”
4. Comparison
Another way to neutralize objections is to draw a large “T” on the board in front of the room. On one side list the advantages of your idea or proposal and on the others side, with the group’s assistance, list the disadvantages. If the points you were presenting had merit, this will be self-evident from the material on the board and you can continue with your presentation immediately.


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If you are supervising or managing employees and you want to know if they are sure about how to complete their latest assignment. How do you go about finding out? When we want to get our message through, how do we talk to our employees? Are we doing a good job at communicating with each other? Here are some suggestions on effective employee communication:

1. Have an open door.
Be available when employees have a problem or question to discuss. Let your employees know you want to talk to them and are interested in what’s on their minds. This will not only be helpful to your employees, but also will help you stay up-to-date on issues and activities.
2. Be frank.
Let your employees know when there is a problem with their performance. If you’re not up-front when a problem occurs, the same mistake could be repeated. Employees would prefer to know if you are displeased, rather than to guess about it or hear about it through the grapevine.
3. Be trustworthy.
Earn your employees’ complete trust and confidence. Employees expect you to be confidential with personal discussions. They also expect you to stick to your word. If you don’t earn your employees’ trust, don’t be surprised if you don’t gain their respect either.
4. Discipline in private.
Never talk to am employee about a problem in front of his or her peers. It shows a lack of courtesy and tact.
5. Give your employees your complete attention.
When you answer the phone or otherwise interrupt a conversation with an employee, the message you are sending is that your telephone call is more important than your employee. Remember, your primary job is to supervise your staff. That means your employees are your priority.
6. Have an open mind.
Acknowledge the fact that your employees may know something that you don’t know. Be open to their suggestions. The key is to hear your employees out before you make a decision on their suggestion or opinion. Don’t make assumptions without knowing the facts.
7. Don’t show favoritism.
Treat all your employees equally. Of course, it is natural to have preference for one person or another. However, the point is to avoid biased actions. No employee should know who your “favorite” is.
8. Communicate frequently.
Talk to your employees as often as possible, particularly regarding their work performance. Bi-annual performance review is not a substitute for daily or weekly feedback. Also, keep employees informed on a regular basis on how the business as a whole is doing.
9. Show respect.
Never talk down to your employees. The days of the highly authoritative management style are over. Today’s employees demand to be treated as intelligent, competent participants in the business function.
10. Give praise.
If your employee has done an exceptionally good job, let him or her know. Be specific about it, too. “Nice job,” is okay, but it is better if you tell employees exactly what it was you appreciated about their work. That way they know which strengths they can build on.

 Copyright © 2011 Athena Goodlight


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The first five minutes of your day is very important. How you begin your work day often determines if you’re satisfied when it’s through.

You can improve the quality of your workday by deciding what it is you want to accomplish. You’ve got to specifically identify the self-defeating behavior in your early morning routine and set about to change it. Let us take a look at the common scenarios and identify some problems.

The distractions

• Small talks and social conversations in the lobby, in the elevator, at the coffee pot, in the ladies’ or men’s room, etc.

Although socializing is an undeniable part of work life, if it automatically and regularly occurs at the beginning of the day, chances are the socializing will get in the way of work that needs to be done.

• The mail

Even though you spam filter has done its job, it’s not likely to contain the most urgent and the most pressing items of the day, more so with snail mail letters. The habit of checking your mails first more often than not comes from a combination of childish curiosity and a desire to slide into the work routine in the least demanding way possible.

• Interrupting phone calls and text messages

Even more so than mail, unnecessary phone calls and text messaging distracts and steals time away from work.

• Chitchat with colleagues

This, most common interruption combines all of the problems of the above items with a double dose effect done by two or more people resulting to detriment of the task ahead. They come in the form of “important” dissemination of facts (office gossip) or “brightening up” someone else’s day (flirting).

• Coffee breaks

Coffee breaks are intended as a break from working productively. This is the appropriate time for socializing. However, if the worker hasn’t really begun working yet, it’s a different story.

Generally, the worker who is most productive can take full charge of his or her day. This is true because active, decisive responsibility is likely to be more productive than passive habitual response. Because of the nature and variety of work situations, every worker’s appropriation of these truths will be particular and personal. But general guidelines can be applied.

What do you have to do?

• Save the socializing for later.

Keep your greetings at the lobby, elevator, or washroom short and courteous. Your mind should be on your work and not to become involved in extended conversations at the beginning of the day.

• Start the day with a plan.

Before going at the end of the day’s work, the last task you should do is to arrange the next day’s schedule. Of course, there will be occasional emergency interruptions, but they will only be occasional, not daily.

• Spend the first hour on the most important task.

Devote the first hour of the workday to the accomplishment of an important task that needs to be done. Have your secretary or an assistant take all phone calls and handle other interruptions.

• Establish a phone policy.

We could work more efficiently if we devise and adhere to a “phone philosophy.” It would probably increase the productivity of workers in some specific company set-ups if this would even be a company-wide policy. You may also apply this as a single employee or in your own business set up. For example, you may inform your secretary or specify to your clients that you only accept calls at a specific time period, say 10 am – 5pm only. You may also use a different cell phone number for business and another one for family to separate the available calling hours.

One of the benefits that might result from this practice is that your business associates will respect you more. If they discover that you value your time enough to protect it, chances are they’ll begin to value it more highly, too.

Remember, also that answering the phone is a passive reaction, and not as productive as an intentional action.

• Make your coffee break an actual break.

This is your time for socializing. Even the most dedicated and disciplined worker’s attention span has limits. In the long run, it is just as counterproductive to attempt to conduct business nonstop for eight hours as it is to mix your professional and social life.

• Finish your day with a plan.

A productive worker always knows how to plan the next morning’s activity. At bare minimum, the next day’s most important item should be isolated and prepared.

Of course, no recipe, not even a general one, is suitable for each specific situation. Different individuals have different warm-up rates, and different jobs require different strategies.

For all of us, how we begin the day gives a significant impact on how we feel when the day is through.

Copyright © 2011 Athena Goodlight




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Are you afraid to try something new because you might fail? A lot of people seem frozen by the fear of failure
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Try these guidelines the next time you attempt a new undertaking – and see yourself enjoying a measure of success.

Are you afraid to try something new because you might fail?  A lot of people seem frozen by the fear of failure.  They never participate in activities that might bring themselves embarrassment, ridicule, or humiliation.  They always take the safe route—the route that offers the least chance of mishap or disappointment, the path of caution and inactivity.

The fear of failure becomes for them an emotional paralysis.  It not only robs them of the excitement of achievement in a new field, the joy of mastering a new art of activity, but it also cripples their personality and spirit as physical paralysis cripples the body.  Because of this fear, they sentence themselves to a lifetime confinement in a mental wheelchair, which drastically limits their horizon of discovery and happiness.





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Out of a thousand ideas and changes, only one may be good. However, you may never know which one it is until you try it.

The idea of perfection can be conjured in the minds of men, but it is an illusive “something” which we never quite capture. Perhaps this is good, for it offers a challenge which few can resist accepting. So, the search for perfection never ends, and from this search comes an infinite stream of improvement and amendments. Such is progress.

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It’s common knowledge that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, imagine how much more material you can incorporate into a 30-minute training presentation if visuals are added.

Equally important, the studies show that a trainer who is just an average presenter can become a much better presenter by using strong visual support. In fact, speakers who use visuals are perceived as better prepared, more persuasive, more credible, and more interesting.

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PR or Public relations is about shaping and projecting an image as a key element in the drive for success. Top executives now consider a good image as a basic resource in the same way that they view finance or people. As the interaction between the government, industry, the environment, and the public becomes extremely complex, Public Relations has become an inevitable component of corporate affairs.

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Leadership is an art, and like other arts, requires discipline, good techniques and self-expression.
There are some basic rules or formulas connected with an art, but these are primarily guides to self-expressions. Techniques used successfully by some, are perhaps usable by others. However, an individual learning the art must first convert knowledge to techniques, and then perhaps blend them with personal characteristics that lead to self-expression.

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Even if your budget cannot accommodate an outside consultant you can still launch your own promotion. Remember, too, that what you can save in money, you’ll spend in time. Here are some tips…

1. Conduct your own market research.

State and federal governments collect lots of useful data – so do trade associations and local chambers of commerce. Know your target market and potential costumers. Find out what they want. Study the product you intend to offer, and test if it would work out for your target consumers.

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Why do some office executives – especially overworked businessmen—look prematurely old and die young? How can they avoid worry, hypertension, and an eventual stroke or heart attack?Here are a few practical tips taken straight from the firing line of day-to-day office experience:

Full Article: Four Ways to Live Longer as an Office Executive
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