Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances

“Cross promoting with other businesses can give you a significant advantage over the competition, with many benefits and cost savings.” -Heidi Richards-More and more competition in the marketplace is making it necessary for companies to find creative ways to connect with customers and prospects, to enhance brand identity and attract top-notch employees. In order to enhance competitiveness in to. . .

The Fine Art of Relationship Marketing

“Quality and service are important, if you want to make a sale. If you want to keep a customer for life, keep your promises.” – Heidi RichardsThe buzzword these days is “relationship” marketing. Just what is it? And why is it important? Relationship marketing is so much more than “networking. It’s gathering support of your friends, peers, and business contacts. It’s developing strong, lasting, . . .

A PR Question For Chinese Managers

As the practice of public relations in China continues to mature, it seems appropriate to ask whether Chinese business managers – tutored as they have been by European, North American and other PR specialists – continue to apply major public relations emphasis to print and broadcast communications tactics. In other words, do they still see PR through the lens of simple publicity, as many . . .

Tips to Energize Your Presentations

“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” – Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)Ask yourself, “What is the audience feeling?” and “How would I like him/her to feel?” You need to be aware of: How frequently you use positive emotional words. How you mo. . .

New Energy Bill: Reducing Our Dependence on Foreign Oil

Growing transportation requirements combined with declining domestic oil production have led to burgeoning oil imports. Rising oil prices are having an adverse impact on the U.S. economy as evident from recent economic data and stock market performance. We need a responsible energy plan which will balance our transportation requirements with the necessity to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. . .

Hurdles to Cross Cultural Business Communication

International businesses are facing new challenges to their internal communication structures due to major reforms brought about through internationalization, downsizing, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Lack of investment in cross cultural training and language tuition often leads to deficient internal cohesion. The loss of clients/customers, poor staff retention, lack of competitive . . .

New Credit Scoring Model Could Help Millions

Mark and Beth, a young married couple in their twenties, established a goal to buy a home within the first three years of their marriage before starting a family. They budgeted and used their money wisely in order to save for the down payment. Whenever they purchased something they always paid cash - no credit cards for them. Why waste money by paying interest to a credit card company ?Withi. . .

Site Design....Site Disaster....What Do Your Visitors See?

So you got your own website now. Exciting isn’t it? You're ready to start putting your website to work for you. What will you do first? So many ideas going through your head...you want to make it the best website on the internet. You want to make it unique and different from anyone else's. So many ideas popping in and out of your head you want to do so much. After all besides things in our home. . .

Classified Ads - What Works & What Doesn’t

Do classified ads really work? Should you include an email address or fax number in them? How about a call to action? Questions like these are often brought to the attention of OhioHelp.net, an Ohio-based company specializing in helping businesses worldwide with their marketing, public relations and freelance writing services. Here are some top tips they offer based on their own client projects. . .

Moving Key Audiences to Take Action?

You know, those really important outside groups of people whose behaviors can help or hinder any business, non-profit or association manager in achieving his or her objectives? Are you persuading those key stakeholders – especially those whose behaviors affect your unit the MOST – to your way of thinking, then moving them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary suc. . .

Keeping Up With Online Business Reading

It can be a major source of frustration trying to keep up with all of the business-related information, newsletters, updates, offers and so on that land in your email box. And although there may be no perfect way to ensure that you can read everything you want to and need to in order to stay current, while at the same time preserving enough time to do the work you need to do to keep your busine. . .

How to Handle 12 Big Issues for Small Businesses

Some day-to-day work issues can turn into big headaches for small businesses. For example, not having enough help during a busy season or new promotion can hurt production, sales and customer relations in the fulfillment of orders and customer service. A quick glance at the following stats reported by the US. Small Business Administration, shows that small businesses are not small potatoes in t. . .

How to Enhance Sales with Ebooks

Are people interested in ebooks? And if so, what are the best ways to sell them? The following statistics reported by the Open eBook Forum, a non-profit organization for the electronic book publishing industry, definitely show an interest in ebooks. Note the Forum boasts members like Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems, McGraw-Hill, Random House, Simon & Schuster and other top companies. GROWT. . .

How to Increase Sales with Automation Improvements

How popular is online shopping? And is there room for improvement? Let’s check out some pros and cons of automated shopping and see. Digital carts offer convenience for people around the globe 24 hours a day. Yet an estimated 4 percent of shoppers make purchases, up from 3.5 percent in 2003, reported by DoubleClick, an online marketing company. And approximately 30 percent of shopping carts are. . .

Only the Weak Ones Quit!

Only the weak ones quit. Is that true? There is a story of a CEO of a multi-national company who decided to withdraw a product from the market when it had consistently failed for nine months and eaten up millions of pounds in advertising, promotions etc. Was he weak? He could have maintained the myth of success and stayed in the market and gradually withdrawn, costing him and his company many m. . .

Defining Success Your Way!

In my career advising practice, I often find that my clients are not clear about what success means for them. Our society defines success primarily around three elements: power, money and fame. Many of you reading this may be saying, “wait a minute –those elements are not the most important things to me.” Success is often intangible. It’s certainly unique to each person. Have you consider. . .

BOOK REVIEW: Performance of Financial Institutions: Effic...

BOOK REVIEW: Performance of Financial Institutions: Efficiency, Innovation, RegulationIt is rare for a financial text to be written by a Cypriot author yet one of the authors (Stavros A. Zenios) is a Professor at the University of Cyprus.The aim of the book is to examine whether financial intermediaries operate efficiently on a worldwide basis. Due to the fact that the book is written by two a. . .

What is an Acceptable Response?

Many online marketers work odd hours, with no beginning of the day and no real end. How does this impact support and customer service inquiries? Some small businesses are afraid to reply to customer queries off-hours, fearful that the message time-stamp will betray them as a small business. The Internet however is timeless. The fact is customers appreciate a quick response. With the globalizati. . .

Email Scam Warnings

Most people online are very familiar with the Nigerian Email Letter Scams. They've victimized thousands over the years and continue to do so. I am certain you've received many in your inbox over the course of your online experience. They are easy to recognize to the experienced. But if you are new online check out the following signs. These words are usually included (IN BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS) . . .

Software Companies: Generate new revenue streams and decr...

It’s no secret that software companies operate in a very competitive space where rivalry is increasingly fierce and where profit margins can be razor thin. New, smaller software companies are sprouting up each month and the leading software companies continually make strong advancements forward leveraging massive cash flow reserves. This cycle makes it difficult for the mid-sized software compa. . .

10 tips fro creating wealth from the stock market

1. Do not spread your money too thin. My friend has a little over $200,000 invested in the stock market through 27 different Mutual funds. In my opinion, 27 Mutual funds is 27 too many collecting load fees, management fees, commission fees, operating and advertising fees. Diversity is important, but just as important is over-diversification. Also, in my opinion, $200,000 should not be put into . . .

The Top 10 Strategies for the Positioning of Success

Many businesses of today are often driven to compete striclty on price, quality, and features of their products and services. Companies who prosper over the long term don't simply offer the best deals, the best quality, or the most impressive bells and whistles. If you want to win big in today’s cutting edge world of business, you have to begin by thinking differently and by challenging the s. . .

Home Biz Pop Quiz

Are you serious about starting or managing your own home based business? Consider this: most successful business owners exhibit very similar traits which helped pave the way to their success. Think of any successful business leader you admire. What characteristics do they exhibit? Are they ruthless, focused, self assured, dynamic, real go getters, highly motivated, intelligent, very organized, . . .

A gadfly on a dinosaur's butt , or the hood-winking of th...

A gadfly on a dinosaurs butt, or the hood-winking of the American stock investor.Have you ever noticed how some words in the English language are so perfectly named for what they describe? And how some words seem to be, I guess you could say, backwards? For instance, the word sunflower! How wonderfully aptly named is the sunflower, that beautiful yellow flower that follows the sun from sunrise. . .

Succes And Business Intelligence Hand In Hand

A business without succes in some degree is not good. Succes comes from either growth in the number of customers or in the numbers of sales you do per customer. Business Intelligence can assist a company to gain new customers and keep hold of old ones. And by keeping old customers longer time you earn more money from them because of more sales to them.Business intelligence can be shortened to B. . .

The 10-Step Resume Critique

Your resume will generally receive a 15- to 30-second scan upon first review by an employer. With that in mind, it is critical that your resume -- your "paper handshake" -- makes a positive first impression and compels the reader to put your resume in the "yes" pile and possibly call you in for an interview.Before you circulate your resume, you will want to ensure it incorporates the basic char. . .

What You Must Know When Marketing Your Business

Marketing is both an art and a science. Anyone who says differently probably isn’t doing very well marketing his or her business. On the art side, intuition definitely plays into the equation. On the science side, it is about systems, strategies and plans. Outlined below are some areas of consideration when you decide to market your business. Determine where your business is currently Determi. . .

Right PR Focus A Powerful Advantage

Powerful is a strong word. But it fits here. As a business, non-profit or association manager, you create powerful advantage for yourself when you do something positive about the behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours that MOST affect your department, division or subsidiary. That’s because you are using the fundamental premise of public relations to deliver the kind of . . .

Bread, Milk & Car Insurance

With increased competition between supermarkets to gain market share and improve profitability, the range of products on offer is getting ever diverse. Now, the big three chains, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda have caught on to the fact that their brand name can sell just about anything, including of all things, car insurance. Car insurance is one of those very boring expensive products that you l. . .

How to Market and Protect Your New Ideas

The intellectual property transfer market is now estimated to be worth over $100 billion. If you have a new idea, a patent or an invention, you may be able to license it or sell it for millions of dollars. Many Fortune 500 companies are now making their intellectual property available for sale or licensing at new online intellectual-property exchanges. These companies are trying to maximize th. . .

It's Time For Some Steak

Recently, I was reviewing our website statistics. One of the sites that had a link to mine caught me by surprise. Since this is a family publication, I won’t include the name of the website. But, let’s just say it contains a four-letter word that people do not use in most business circles.The website was basically a bulletin board for people to rant about other companies. The posting about my w. . .

Google IPO and its effect on the Venture Capital Industry

“Will the Google IPO have any impact on the Venture Capital market?” FundingPost (http://www.FundingPost.com) surveyed 32 Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors for their opinions. FundingPost is happy to share these responses from leading venture investors as it should help guide CEOs of emerging companies who plan on raising capital today:1) Google raised $25 million from Sequoia Capital a. . .

"Planning" To Make a Decision?

The longer I've been around companies the more I believe the words "Planning" and "Decision" are seldom used in the same sentence! And the business fallout because of poor planning when making decisions is staggering. The effects of a decision gone bad tend to linger around for months or even years. It is a fact that most businesses fail not because they did not make decisions but becaus. . .

The Home Business Dilemma - Success vs. Failure

Regardless of your career or goals in life, no one wakes up, gets out of bed, and says to themselves “I’m going to fail today!” It’s the same in business whether you’re a brick and mortar store or a home based business owner.I think what makes the Home Business owners unique is their drive and desire. For any of us, there are certain things we need to evaluate prior to undertaking such an ende. . .

The INCOTERMS

EXW - Ex-Works, named place where shipment is available to the buyer, not loaded. The seller will not contract for any transportation. International Carriage NOT Paid by SellerFCA - Free Carrier, unloaded at the seller's dock OR a named place where shipment is available to the international carrier or agent, not loaded. This term can be used for any mode of transport.FAS - Free Alongside Ship, . . .

Cross Cultural Communication Consultants

Cross cultural communication consultants have come a long way in the short period of time such specialists have been in demand. No longer are they expatriates with a few years overseas experience and the capability to impart their knowledge onto others. Cross cultural consultants now bring expertise that is founded upon a number of key factors.Cross cultural consultants generally have a broad k. . .

Fire Your Bank

Corruption In The Banking Industry Drowns American In Debt 91 years ago, way back in 1913 our Federal Government implemented legislation that removed their sovereign rights to increase the amount of money that circulates in this country. At the time, this may have seemed like the right and fair thing to do, but times have changed. Ever since that law was passed, the power to increase this count. . .

Comprehending a Credit Report

Obtaining a credit report is an excellent way to begin taking control of your financial future. It's recommended that you review your credit report once a year, not only to be aware of your standing with creditors but to also keep abreast of errors and fraud. However, once your report arrives you may have trouble making sense of it. How are you to read and understand a credit report? There are . . .

Mark Victor Hansen to Keynote Success Summit

Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul,' will keynote a meeting of entrepreneurs at San Diego’s Bahia Resort Hotel Sept. 10-12 as part of the 'Wake Up Succeed Summit.' Hansen, author of 'The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth,' will speak on finding one’s purpose and vision in life. His remarks will highlight a meeting designed to 'jumpstart' and 'ener. . .

How CEO's Can Use Axiology To Improve The Bottom Line (Pa...

In the first article (first in a three part series) we explained the little known science of Axiology, the Value Profile and how it is helping CEO's obtain the greatest leverage from employee's strengths.We described how a CEO (we called him Richard) can accurately measure and compare candidates for a specific position or work on a specific project.In this article we continue on to discover add. . .

Accountability In Trading

I recently heard from a trader who told me he has been having problems with discipline in his day trading. He knows how to trade, he knows the setups he needs to be looking for in the charts, when to enter, and when to exit. His trouble is in having the discipline to wait for only those setups and not to take half baked trades in the meantime. This is a very common problem for traders, I imagin. . .

Medical Receivables Funding

Medical Receivables Funding: The Rx for Ailing Cash FlowThe current adverse financial structure of the healthcare industry has placed hospitals, medical groups, private practitioners and other providers in a perilous position. Cumbersome and bureaucratic third party billing systems with long time-to-collection waiting periods have resulted in inconsistent cash flows and limited capital for grow. . .

More Business for Sellers, Builders

Many of us thought that by now the real estate market’s favor would have swung from buyers to sellers, but that does not appear to be the case. With summer coming to a close, some would argue that a solid home buyer in today’s flat real estate market is the commodity of choice.Nervous sellers and builders sometimes consider lowering their asking prices in an effort to broaden their market, but. . .

Is Your Home-based Business Properly Insured?

Do you work from home full-time or part-time? Chances are your homeowner's insurance doesn't cover your home business, or at least not to the extent you need it to. For one thing, insuring just the physical assets of your business (computer, home-office furniture, fax machine, etc.) doesn't encompass every aspect of your business. To figure out how much and what kind of coverage you need, consi. . .

We Are the Five People We Associate with Most

Last month I was invited to participate in a charity golf tournament in Las Vegas to celebrate the life of the late dancing legend Gregory Hines. The event was held to raise funds and awareness of the tragic disease that took this entertainer’s life. Although we were focusing on this serious matter, it was a true pleasure to meet all the celebrities and people whom I would not normally have the. . .

How To Create Wealth In The Stock Market

First and foremost, an opportunistic strategy for creating wealth in the stock market is needed. And the opportunistic strategy for creating wealth in the stock market must have two ingredients, a plan and a goal. The plan must be a definite, concrete plan of investing that would profit you and your family for the rest of your lives.This opportunistic investment plan you begin should not prof. . .

Part 4 of 5 On The Home Business Set-Up Guide

Part 4 of 5 On The Home Business Set-Up GuideDear Reader,These articles will provide a step by step guide on how to start and run a home based business based on my experiences and other home business owners. This is part 4 in a series of 5 articles. They are written in a basic format and where possible main points are summarised in an attempt to be understood by all. I have tried to minimise. . .

Online Loans Made easy

What will it take for you to get a low interest, low payment loan? The answer to that question could be an online loan from one of the many companies that specializes in granting online loans, or e-loans.Some analysts forecast that as more and more customers expect better interest rates, and as competition for their business intensifies, loan institutions will focus even more on their efforts t. . .

Create a Magic Connection with Clients, Leads, and Busine...

Part I of this article explored how strategies of Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP) can be used to gain instant rapport with clients, leads, and business associates, and more specifically, how to use physiology, matching and mirroring, to create instant magic communications.Now, how can tonality and words establish rapport? TONALITYWhile physiology accounts for 55% of communication among humans. . .

Creating a Magic Connection with Clients, Leads, and Busi...

A few months ago, arriving at a client’s office to begin a group meeting, I discovered that two women, who had committed to joining us for a series of meetings, had changed their minds. In less than two minutes, I convinced them to join us. Did I use some sort of magic? You bet I did. Would you like to know that magic?Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP), a science that studies the language of the. . .