Problem Solving Techniques For Your Business

It is an unavoidable fact that businesses will encounter problems once in a while. It may be a problem in marketing, in sales or in personnel. Whatever it is, you need to solve it fast in order to keep your business on track and avoid losing a lot of money.

Having problems in your business may seem very frustrating, but the fact is, with simple problem solving techniques, you can solve your problems in no time at all.

For example, if your competition is selling more than you, you need to analyze all the factors with the problem with your company, or why your company isn't selling like it used to. Determining the problem is the first step in any kinds of problems that you need to solve.

Of course, with a big problem in your business, you need to face the fact that you will need help in order for you to solve it faster. To know more about how to solve problems more efficiently, here is a guide that you can use in your problem solving techniques:

-The first thing you need to consider is identify what problems you are facing. Whether it is about marketing or about sales, you first need to know what the problem is in a specific department. It may be lack of sales or it may even be problems with inefficient employees. Whatever it is, try to know what is causing it.

-Once you identified the problem, you need to set up a meeting with the people who are responsible. Once you set up a meeting, you can now ask them about their opinions on the problem. Try to ask them what is wrong with their respective departments and try to let them list down the things that they think needs improvement.

-After they wrote all the things they think has a problem, discuss it one by one. Ask them how and why they arrived at that particular problem and ask them what their opinions are to properly solve the problem.

-Now that you have their opinions, you can now decide what to do about that particular problem. Knowing about what is causing the problem will enable you to arrive at the right decision in solving the particular problem.

These are the things you should consider when solving a problem in your company. By doing this, you will really know how you can solve the problem by making the right decision.

If you think that you still need information to arrive at a good decision, then you should look for it. One way to solve the problem is by imagining how you can cause the problem. For example, if you think that you need customers, you will need to imagine how you can scare them away. By doing this, you can determine why you don't have enough customers and solve it.

These are some of the things you should keep in mind in order to solve the problem in your business more effectively.

By getting the right information about a particular problem, you will be able to solve it at a much faster rate. With this, you can really improve how your business is running and also improve the way you deal with problems.

About The Author
Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.ideacenter.com and http://my-updates.info.

How to Find a Fast Growth, High Profitability Business!

Which company would you rather own: one in an niche industry or trade where more than half of business owners fail to make a profit, or one with 100, 1,000, even 10,000 percent growth over a period of three to five years, and stunning profitability?

Ask a group of unsuccessful business owners why their business ventures failed and most will probably cite “undercapitalization.” But there is often a more fundamental reason for business failure: Selecting products, services and a business niche for which there aren’t enough paying customers! Of course such companies find themselves undercapitalized. In fact, one can never find enough capital to keep a company afloat if it has a shortage of customers!

Buggy whips aren’t the only product in low demand. Today, product life cycles are typically short, and getting shorter. Entering a market that has matured (and for which you don’t have a highly innovative plan to substantially increase demand, lower costs or differentiate your offering) likely will lead to financial disaster. So will entering a market that is oversaturated with reasonably competent competitors.

Why do most business start-up books and business assistance specialists focus little, if any, attention on the most important question an entrepreneur will ever ask: What business should I be in?

In part, because most owners, often unwisely, have already made up their minds about the business they should start. Many entrepreneurs incorrectly assume this decision should be based largely on the specific technical skills, interests and experience they bring to the equation. Or they may know someone who claims, often inaccurately, that the business they own is a raving success, and simply decide to follow their lead. But there are far better ways to plan for success.

An entrepreneur with 10 years experience working for someone else in the dog breeding field may enjoy the work, have great technical skills, and love dogs. But before starting up a dog breeding enterprise, wouldn’t it be important to know that more than 65 percent of dog breeding companies are unprofitable. There are many popular small business categories that share a record of high risk and low profitability. Now, for an individual who is financially independent and for whom earning an income and a profit from their new venture is secondary, this may be fine. But few planning a new business enjoy that luxury.

Another reason most small business authors and specialists focus so little on business selection is that they know little about the subject. Though vitally important, market research and analysis are topics most business authors, counselors, brokers and advisors have failed to study. Even some business planning consultants gloss over this key aspect of entrepreneurial success.

Our entrepreneur with the dog breeding background can use research to discover that there are many companies in the dog products and services arena that are experiencing dramatic growth. One sells dog biscuits containing only organically grown ingredients via category killer pet stores. A franchise operation teaches dog owners to manage their pets’ behavior, anxiety and frustration using behavioral science methods. A third company offers health insurance for dogs. Dogs bred and trained for explosives detection are also in high demand. Many of our dog breeder’s skills may readily transfer to an enterprise in such a niche area, where with thoughtful research and planning, opportunities for success should prove far better than those for a risk-plagued breeding business.

Does this mean no one ever succeeds in dog breeding? No, but entrepreneurs seeking high income and growth know which odds to defy and which to respect.

How do successful entrepreneurs brainstorm and research high demand, low competition, highly profitable business ideas?

Many start by listing and analyzing their skills, interests and competencies. But they don’t hesitate to apply these broadly to business ideas they consider. For example, management experience is often transferable to many industries and niches.

Smart entrepreneurs also search for screaming success stories. More than a dozen business publications, including Inc. Magazine, Business Week, and Fortune, rank the fastest growing large and small companies in the U.S. Some target hot growth businesses in Canada, Europe, South America, Asia or other countries and regions. Deloitte Touche Tomatsu ranks companies with growth as high as 20,000 percent across the globe. Links to these high growth companies websites are typically listed, too. There are similar ranking sources for top selling products.

When an entrepreneur identifies a company growing as fast as 5,000 to 20,000 percent every three to five years, he or she considers how a new company might partner or piggyback on that white-hot growth. They may slice off a niche, or become a supplier, dealer, representative, distributor or reseller. They brainstorm ways in which their own new company can tap into this hypergrowth. When I-Pods exploded on the scene a few years ago, smart entrepreneurs recognized the concurrent demand for accessories, and moved quickly to respond with highly profitable new products.

Wise business owners also study broad, societal trends, as well as trends within narrow industry and customer segments. They learn from futurists (management science consultants, about diverse global trends, risk management and emerging market) opportunities. Some of the best known futurists are Faith Popcorn, who wrote Clicking, Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, and Patricia Dixon, whose website, globalchange.com, is read by thousands daily. Books, magazines (especially industry and trade publications) and websites offer a myriad of free and low cost on trends and the future.

After homing in on a handful of rapid growth industry niches, the entrepreneur’s market research efforts continue with searches for market analysis reports targeted to those niches (many are free and available from your public and university libraries). Successful owners also gather statistics on the product or service and its potential target customers. Much of this data is available from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the IRS, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Commerce Department and other federal agencies. Private sources offer data, too, usually more targeted, but at a price.

Available information includes national, state, county, city and other geographical area statistics on income, total wealth, gender, age, ethnicity, employment, number of companies in the same product or service category, number of stores per company, square footage and square footage costs per store, profitability of companies in the trade or industry, risk of failure, and benchmarking data (typical income and itemized expenses for companies with revenue comparable to your firm’s anticipated revenue), and more.

This information is recorded, logged, sifted and analyzed to determine the prospective niche’s and your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats before being incorporated into the owner’s business plan.

You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can build a wealth of information around one or two of your own favorite, highly profitable business ideas.

So, before you race down to register your business name, complete a IRS form requesting an Employer Identification Number, or run to the store for office supplies, ask yourself this question: Am I satisfied that I’ve found a high demand, high profitability business, with costs I can control (or even cut below the industry benchmark), in a low competition niche that is suitable given a broad application of my skills, interests and experience?

Once you have a well-researched, positive answer to that question, you’ll be ready to realize your own screaming small business success story.

About The Author
Jim Hudson began his research and writing career in 1969 as a Green Beret Magazine report-photographer in Vietnam. His firm, Blue Ocean Company, helps small business owners identify and exploit blue ocean markets (high demand, low cost, low competition, high profitability business opportunities), and develop their business and marketing plans. The Blue Ocean website, http://www.blueoceanstore.com lists over 50 links to sites that rank fastest growing companies, fastest growing new franchises, and top selling products. It also lists and links you to brainstorming tools, risk and profitbility data, trends and futurist resources, free market research reports, and keyword niche-finding software. Most resources are free.

Jim Hudson
SDVOSB Blue Ocean Company
(Your trusted research and planning experts)
1437 S. Lewiston St.
Aurora, CO 80017
720-690-8442
http://www.blueoceanstore.com

Seven Lessons to Learn from Great Salespeople

Chances are this article’s title gives you a strong opinion about whether or not to continue reading. You are either in sales and want to understand your work better and therefore very interested, or you are being kind and giving me until the end of this paragraph to convince you to continue, because you aren’t in sales, you don’t want to be in sales, and you don’t see a connection between your work and sales.

If you are in the second group, please give me just one more paragraph before you decide, ok?

If you think of the stereotypical high pressure used car salesperson when you think about sales, rest assured that isn’t what I’m referring to. Think about this. Do you ever need to persuade others to see your position or take a particular action? Do you ever need people to follow your recommendations? Do you ever benefit in a tangible way when you are able to be more successful in persuading others? If your answer is yes to any of these questions (and I’m sure it is for everyone), then you are in sales – regardless of your job title or how you feel about “salespeople.”

So regardless of your experience in or feelings about sales, there are likely things you can learn from the best in the sales field – because we are all in sales.

The Model in your Mind

With all due respect to the many truly outstanding used car salespeople, the “high-pressure, used-car-salesperson” stereotype is one held by many people. And while we may have experience with this type of salesperson, most of us also have experience with someone who was extremely helpful. Someone who helped us select the best possible product or service for our situation and really cared about the results we would receive from the products we were buying. In other words, when we stop to think about it we all have some very positive experiences with salespeople.

It is those positive experiences that I want you to reflect on as you read the seven lessons below. Chances are some – or all – will be consistent with your experiences, and by reflecting on your experiences as you read you will make these lessons even more valuable for you.

The Seven Lessons

Listen more talk less. How can a salesperson know what you need unless they listen? If they don’t listen they are making assumptions as to your needs, wants and desires. The same is true for us. We will get much further much faster when trying to persuade or influence others when we talk less and listen more.

Ask more and better questions. One of the ways to talk less is by asking more questions. Great salespeople are masters at asking questions. They collect and use questions intelligently to learn more about our needs. They use questions to understand us better and to strengthen their relationship with us. Questions are one of our greatest learning tools and one of the best ways to further relationships. Whatever your work, being more skilled at asking questions will make you more successful.

Focus on the longer-term, big picture. The best salespeople aren’t trying to sell one car today. They are trying to sell you your next 5 (or 10) cars. They know Rome wasn’t built in a day and that they won’t reach their goals – or best serve you – by pressuring you to buy now. So it is for you in your interactions. When we think about the longer term we will make better decisions and behave more appropriately.

Build relationships. Business success is about relationships, and great salespeople know that. One of the fastest ways to become more successful is by building more and stronger relationships. One of the fastest ways to lose your job is by neglecting relationships. Take it from the best salespeople – business is based on relationships.

Follow-up and follow through. One of the ways to build relationships is to follow-up and follow through. Ever had a service provider call you and check on your satisfaction? How did you feel about that provider and his/her organization after that? How do you feel about people who send you handwritten thank you notes? How do feel when people go above and beyond to stay in touch with you and make sure you are satisfied? You feel good about them and their services, right? Apply those approaches to your work. Send a note. Remember a birthday. Mention the article you read that they would be interested in. Do what you said you were going to do. Follow-up and follow through.

Lose the techniques – focus on the other person. There are many helpful techniques that we can learn from training, from watching others and reading. We look for a magical formula or approach. While it is important to learn the techniques, they will only help us if we integrate them into who we are and what we stand for. For example, there is a difference between practicing active listening techniques and actively listening. When the focus is on the result, we relax and use the techniques in support of the end goal. Great salespeople learn the skills, but focus on their Customer. In an almost paradoxical way, by focusing on the Customer (remember your colleagues and your boss are your Customers too) and being sincere and genuine, you will gain the advantage of the techniques you were trying to use to begin with.

Help them buy. People don’t want to be sold, but they do want to buy. Just like a master salesperson, help people be persuaded to your position. Help them see the value. Help them own the decision. Help them remove the roadblocks – real or perceived.

Some Final Thoughts

There are likely many areas of your life where you can apply the lessons above. Consider your work, but also your role as a neighbor, in a community group and as a parent as places where you can benefit from these lessons.

You may have never sold magazine subscriptions door to door for a school project. You may have never had a job selling furniture or other products. You may never want to be in “sales.” Even if this is true, I urge you to think about what you can learn from the true masters of sales – because they are lessons that can make you better at whatever you do. Because it is really true – we are all in sales.

About The Author
Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To receive your free special report on Unleashing Your Potential go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

Year-end Health Savings Account Tax Strategies

Year-end Health Savings Account Tax Strategies

2007 is just around the corner, and there are several issues to consider if you currently have a Health Savings Account (HSA), or are planning on getting one in the near future.

100% of the deposit you place in your HSA is deductible on your federal income taxes. All but four states also make HSA contributions tax-deductible on state income taxes. If you are looking to reduce your 2006 tax burden and put away more money for retirement, your HSA is the first place you should put your money if you have not yet maximized your contribution.

The maximum you can contribute to your HSA in 2006 is the lesser amount of your deductible, or $2,700 for singles and $5,450 for families. Individuals who are 55 or older may contribute an additional $700. Note that contribution limits are pro-rated, based on the number of complete months during the year in which you have a qualifying HSA health insurance plan.

You have until April 15 (or later if you file for an extension) to make your 2006 contribution. If you do not fully fund your account for the current year, you cannot make a catch-up contribution for 2006 after this deadline. However, you can reimburse yourself in later years for qualified expenses incurred in 2006, even if you do not have the funds in your account to reimburse yourself at this time.

In 2007, the maximum annual HSA contribution will go up to $2,850 for individuals and $5,650 for families. Individuals 55 or older will be allowed to contribute an additional $800.

To maximize your tax benefit for 2007, it is important to have your HSA-qualified health coverage in place no later than January 1.

In order to pay for a medical expense from your HSA, it must be a qualified expense. Some of these qualified expenses include dental expenses, eyeglasses, chiropractic visits, over-the-counter medications, and sometimes even nutritional supplements.

Now is a good time to make sure you have an accurate record of your medical expenses for the year. Make sure you separate the expenses for which you have reimbursed yourself from your HSA from those that you paid for out-of-pocket. You'll want to keep receipts for all medical expenditures paid from your HSA with your 2006 tax records. Place the "non-reimbursed medical expenses" in a separate file, keeping them with the concurrent year's tax records in whatever year you decide to reimburse yourself.

The penalty for over-funding your HSA is a whopping 6%. You have until April 15, 2007 to withdraw excess funds for the 2006 tax year to avoid the penalty. Your HSA administrator may notify you of any over-funding, but they are under no obligation to do so. It is your responsibility, so make sure you check into this if you think your may have over-funded you account.

The minimum deductible for HSA-compatible health insurance plans in 2006 was $1,050 for individuals and $2,100 for families. In 2007 this will increase to $1,100 for individuals and $2,200 for families. If you currently have an HSA-qualified plan with the lowest eligible 2006 deductible, that deductible will automatically go up on January 1 to the new minimum.

Strategies to Maximize Your Tax Benefits

There are basically three different strategies you can take when deciding how to fund your health savings account.

1. Put no money in the account, except when you incur a medical expense. This strategy allows you to legally "launder" any money used to pay medical expenses. In other words, by depositing money into your HSA, then immediately withdrawing it to reimburse yourself for medical expenses, you are making your medical expenses all tax-deductible. You may want to use this strategy if you are on a tight budget and want to keep your cash outlay as low as possible.

2. Fully fund the account, or at least put in as much as possible based on your budget. Take money out of the account any time medical expenses are incurred, and let the rest grow tax-deferred. This strategy will maximize your tax deduction, while making your HSA funds available to pay any non-covered medical expenses before your deductible is met.

3. Fully fund the account, but pay all medical expenses from a non-HSA account. Reimburse yourself for medical expenses at a later date. This strategy will allow you to maximize your tax deduction, and will also allow you to maximize the tax-deferred growth of your HSA. You can then reimburse yourself, tax-free, at any time in the future for medical expenses incurred over the ensuing years.

To maximize the potential growth of your funds, you may want to make your 2007 deposits as early in the year as possible. Any growth in your account is tax-deferred, like an IRA. If possible, you should plan to make your deposit the first week in January.

About The Author
The Article is written by Wiley Long - President, HSA for America (http://www.health--savings--accounts.com) - The nation's leading independent health insurance firm specializing in Health Savings Plans that works with Health Savings Accounts.

Copyright information.... This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links & this copyright statement must be included. Visit http://www.health--savings--accounts.comfor Health Savings Plans and Health Savings Accounts.

Money Management 101

Managing your money is a big task. But if you want to get by in this world, it’s something you have to do. It can be too painful for some, so it gets avoided. But for the people who realize it, the pain/reward relationship is well worth the trouble to spend a few minutes managing your money.

After all, money makes the world go ‘round, so make sure you get your share! And the good news is: it’s as easy as controlling what you’ve got!

Here’s what you need to make sure that you have control over your financial situation. Here are some valuable budgeting techniques to guide you in your expenses and income.

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you pay for your utilities on time and in full every month. Don’t wait until it’s too late to pay them. The second thing you need to do is make sure that you don’t have too many credit cards. Only a few credit cards are necessary to get by in life. You should consider cutting up the rest of them. And the third thing you should do you, if your bills have gotten the best of you, is to consolidate them into a single loan. This will enable you to pay them off over time without getting slammed with high interest rates.

Finally, establish a budget for yourself. This seems difficult and that’s why most people don’t do it. And because people don’t have a budget they find themselves in financial straits.

The easiest way to establish a budget is to take a draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On the left, write down your after tax household income. Be sure to write down the after tax amount as you want to measure available income only. After all, you don’t get to spend the before tax amount, right?

In the right column, list an average of each monthly bill. But you should also include your typical spending habits as well, like eating out, or impulse shopping. Don’t forget to include paying off your credit card as part of the bills!

Now that you have a list of income and expenses, see if there’s a way to increase your income, or reduce your expenses. Usually you’ll find a way to do a little to both.

While it seems so simplistic, so few people do it. And yet, creating a budget and sticking to it often separates the successful people from everyone else. What’s stopping you from doing it right now?

About The Author

Jeff Lakie is the owner of http://loan-secured-share.co.uk providing Uk homeowners with a free loan quote service. Visit us today for a free no obligation quote.

contact@loan-source.co.uk

Cash Management Account

The foundation of our system is strategic spending. Most of us know how much we earn each year, but have no idea what we spend the money on. Like every successful business, we need to constantly monitor income and expenditure while also ensuring that we are making a profit, in other words, saving some money.

The idea of a strategic spending is to divide your hard earned income up into small, easily controlled bundles. The first bundle taken out should be savings, a minimum 10% of your gross pay, which is transferred monthly into your cash management account. If you leave savings to what is left over, you will always find that there is nothing left over.

The second bundle is your cash management account. This is your daily living expenses for which you normally pay cash, a bit like your pocket money. These are for all non-deductible items. This account is simply accessed by a 24 hour access keycard.

The third bundle is your operations account. This is for those larger amounts which are usually paid monthly, quarterly or yearly by cheque. This account should not be linked to the cash management account (so you cannot access it with your cash management account keycard). We keep the bundles separate. It is wise to use this account in conjunction with a credit card for those occasions when your monthly expenses are higher than the budgeted amount. The card acts as a smoother as next month will be a surplus that can be paid back into the credit card.

The system is linked by the use of the transfer account, into which your pay is banked. From there, periodic payments are set up to transfer funds to all the accounts on the 15th of each month. You should maintain a small float in the cash management account and operations account. The main aim is to accumulate as much as possible in the cash management account and use these funds wisely to create wealth.

About The Author
Author: Greg Dempsey – Investor/Marketer
http://www.OpulentWealth.com

Reprinting this article is allowed with this footer attached.

Management Features of Sales Force Automation

Sales force automation, or SFA, is a term that refers at its most basic to automating critical sales functions like lead and account management. Sales force automation uses software to automate sales tasks like order processing, lead generation, information sharing, contact management, customer management, and employee evaluation.

It also keeps track of customer preferences, buying habits, demographics, and performance management. Sales force automation tools improve field sales productivity and open whole new realms of possibility for companies. With an on-demand architecture that allows effective sales force management and CRM, managing sales information is easy on even the largest scales. Essentially, customers and sales employees can manage and share any type of information.

There are a number of benefits and features that come with sales force automation technology, and these features comprise the backbone of the SFA system. They include:

Lead management

Lead management allows companies to keep better track of leads by ensuring they don't get cold. This can reduce or eliminate the need for manual routing and lead assignment duplication, clearly defines opportunity assignments, and is able to automatically assign leads to the correct individual based on territory, product expertise or user-defined rules. Thus SFA allows for automatic load leveling across sales territories, and better relationships between team members.

For example, with automatic lead management, you can set security controls that ensure teams or partners can access only their own leads, increase lead conversion rates and improve sales response times.

Opportunity management

Opportunity management allows sales teams to work better as units by standardizing sales methods and systems, identifying bottlenecks, and tracking deal closures. It also allows employees to focus their resources on strengthening key partnerships and dominating key competitors instead of competing with each other. More organized sales teams allow managers to delegate tasks and set up automatic reminder emails for themselves and their team.

Most importantly, the opportunity management feature allows companies to centrally track custom information like partner and customer communications and milestones while simultaneously monitoring myriad sales processes like sales channels, service effectiveness or product lines.

Account management

An account management system ensures that your company is able to attain full knowledge of your customer accounts. Accurate knowledge of customer account equals better collaboration amongst your sales teams and retains lasting customer relationships. Additionally, account management allows a company to defines and evaluate all those involved with the account, from the project manager to the executive sponsor.

With account management, you can set up online access to all customer account information, like organization charts and current partners-across the entire company. No one is left in the dark and everyone knows the account status and history.

Territory Management

On-demand, advanced territory management capabilities allow you to adjust to rapid changes within your company. An easy point-and-click interface ensures your company can automatically route accounts and opportunities to the correct territories.

A solid territory management system also decreases lag time in lead assignments by ensuring a lead never gets cold; lead assignments are easily queued and automatically sent to the correct territory. In essence, territory management allows companies to easily monitor, set up, gather, transfer, assign, re-assign, and change accounts across territories.

Contract Management

Contract management is another integral feature in sales force automation. Essentially, it allows companies to manage a contract's lifespan by shortening approval cycles for contracts, renewing contracts sooner, and reducing administrative costs.

This SFA feature improves tracking and management of contract information, such as value, conditions, terms, evaluations, and more.

Traditionally, most companies have had to build, buy and sustain an IT software system all on their own; however, this leads to extremely high maintenance fees and myriad other costs. Today, the advent of automated sales force technology allows businesses to subscribe to already built, on-demand, customizable services that provide everything a traditional IT software does and more.

The architecture of sales force automation allows for a decrease in the total cost of ownership, reduction of risk factors, a decrease in wasted time, and a new focus on business and management rather than technology.

About The Author
Diane Newsom writes for http://salesforce.com – A pioneer in SFAsoftware. Visit their site for more information on sales force automation.