Personal Development

Brand Vision Statements Transform Businesses

Brand vision statements are stimulating and encouraging ideas that can be utilised to stir up excitement among your employees and your target market. A vision statement that can be said as really successful is one that was created with the target market in mind. It has to present consistency and should convey what you do as a business and how you accomplish this.

In making your own business vision statement, you have to question yourself on what you want out of it. You have to be clear on what it is about the future that you are excited about. You need to display boldness here and head into unchartered waters. This way, you will be able to really stand out and find that something that will spell success for your business.

What is the reason behind having a brand vision statement?

In business, you need to have a future to look forward to and you won't have this if you do not have a your own statement. There is a tendency for you to get burned out and soon your spirit will feel defeated. If you do not have a vision, you will simply be reactive every time changes come your way. Because you don't have a plan, you will end up losing time and money, becoming distracted and heading for failure.

What should be your principle in making a brand vision statement?

You have to keep in mind that simplicity works best. You will see that they are more beneficial because they could be conveyed easier to others. Aside from this, your statement should also be pleasing and captivating, so that it will have an increased efficiency when it comes to being relatable to your prospects and clients.

Another thing that you have to ensure your brand vision. However, you have to be aware that just because your vision is simple and clear, does not mean that it could not be profound. You can convey a reflective message as long as you use straightforward words that let people see what you want them to see and allow them to envision your future with you.

How to create brand vision statements that could transform your business?

1. Set aside time to craft your statement.

Although your vision may come to you at any time of the day, when you are doing whatever, the most important thing here is that you will jot down every idea as they come to you. Do your best to pay attention to your thoughts and you will be able to come up with your vision message in no time.

2. Fashion your initial brand vision statement.

Your initial statement is just the start. As soon as you are able to begin crafting visions, you will be able to come up with one for your business that will really transform your business.

In doing this, it would be wise to work in a quiet atmosphere where there are no interruptions. This is very critical because this is the kind of ambiance that will give out the clearest visions. This the perfect place for brainstorming within your own thoughts.

3. A brand vision statement could transform your business from failure to success.

It is responsible in showing your target market the impact that your business will have in their lives. This is what will push your business forward. As soon as you have this, you won't need that much effort in working towards your business' goals. With a vision, you will end up being more satisfied with your work and will achieve the prosperity you wanted.

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Do You Need a Captain?

I have been enjoying sports lately - it seems regardless of the sport the players choose a captain. This got me thinking - sports have coaches who direct the team, determine strategy, and are accountable for the outcome so why do they need a captain?

Isn't the coach the leader of the team? Aren't they responsible for the success of failure of the team? So what does the captain do that the coach can't? Why is the necessary?

If you do Google search on "role of team captain" you can get 12 million results. Wow! Basically it comes down to this: motivate the team, represent player concerns to management, represent the team at public events, and will take the lead during play. While these are all interesting and important, what I find the most fascinating is that the captain is picked by the other players.

Team members decide who will lead them, present them and motivate them. Think about this for a moment...how different is your business from a team sport? I would say not much.

Do you have a "captain" in your group? Do you maybe need one?

Let's take a step back and compare business to sport in order to bring this into perspective.

A couple of differences:

• Not everyone is physically wearing the same jersey/sweater
• You probably aren't signing up employees with elaborate contacts for several years
• You are not playing for a trophy

There are more things that make you same:

• Everyone has a role
• The organization is measured on results
• Communication is essential for success
• Coach/owner needs a vision/goal
• Everyone needs to be working towards the vision/goal
• Bonus plans (sports for winning the championship, business for achieving EBITDA)
• You both have fans (in business you call them loyal customers)
• Each has a coach/CEO (or President if you prefer)

Now that we can visualize the similarities between business and sport, let's revisit the captain.

I would say the Owner/President of the company is the coach - they give the vision, direction, and goals for the organization. However can this person also be the Captain? Should this person be the Captain?

Well, it depends. I know the ultimate non-answer. Let me explain. It's based on practicality.

If you are a large company, having a captain (and more than one) is a necessity since as the President you can not possibly be in contact with each and every employee. So by default all the managers need to be Captains.

Most of you are small companies and the truth is - it's not practical to have a Captain but you need one. Why? Look back at to what the Captain is responsible for - motivate the team and take the lead of the field. As the coach you provide the direction and the overall strategy, if you are involved in the day-to-day too much - you will loose focus. Now I am suggesting you go out and hire someone to manage for you, again not practical. Take a look at the employees that you have, if there one person that seems to be fielding all the questions, concerns, and leading naturally. You just found your Captain. The others have naturally "elected" this person to lead them.

What does this mean to you? This is the person you need to focus on, have discussions and get their buy in with what you are doing. For example, you are introducing a new product/service. Go to you Captain and explain your vision, goals, concerns, and get their feedback. Ask them - what do you see working and not working with this? Not only will this get their buy-in but it will also help you identify any possible hiccups in the execution that you may not have thought of. Double bonus. Now when you do the introduction to the rest of the team you already have an advocate on your side!

Go find you Captain, talk to them and watch the game!

Andrea Herran is the principal of Focus HR Consulting http://www.FocusHR.biz, which provides full human resources support to small business, provides a membership service through My HR Helpline for those who want expertise just a phone call away, and provides webinars and public speaking on HR topics. Subscribe to her bi-weekly newsletter http://conta.cc/a98j1n

© 2010 Andrea Herran All Rights Reserved

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How To Set Achievable Goals

You have to ask yourself a few simple questions to determine if the goal you have is worth achieving. If it is worth it, then determine what your odds are in achieving it. If you answer any of these questions with an emphatic 'yes', and you are honest with yourself, then your goal is really something worth pursuing.

Here are 5 simple questions to ask yourself before you begin setting goals that are worth achieving.

1. Is this goal really yours?
2. Are you passionate about this goal?
3. Are you willing to pay the price for your goal?
4. Will this goal bring you satisfaction?

5. Is there a plan to achieve your goal?

These questions will determine whether you have a goal worth pursuing - and if you do, take the action in order to achieve them.

1. Is this goal really yours?

The first step in setting a goal that you can achieve is to make sure you take ownership of it. If these are goals of someone else - someone who sees you achieving the specific goal: like your parents, your family, your boss, or some friends, then it is not your dream but someone else's. If you answer 'no' to this first question, you will not be able to answer any of the next 4 questions with a 'yes' and this goal or dream is not worth pursuing.

If you take ownership of your goals you will not be embarrassed to share it with the world. People close to you know what your goals are and even if they put you down or bring negativity and try to distract you from your goals, you will still pursue it.

2. Are you passionate about this goal?

If this goal is really yours, how bad do you want it? How compelled are you to go out and achieve it. Are you going to stop at nothing to fulfill it do you stay awake at night thinking about it? Has it been important to you for a long time or just now? An intelligent long term goal is not something that comes your way and you immediately do what it takes to achieve it, without understanding if it is achievable.

Passion goes a long way. Passion for the right goals and dreams will lead to the desire to accomplish it. If it is the wrong goal - something you don't own, something you aren't passionate about for a long time, it will only lead to failure.

3. Are you willing to pay the price for your goal?

Have you considered what you are willing to sacrifice in order to achieve your goals? This sacrifice can't ruin your life by getting in the way of a career, family, personal values, etc. But there will be sacrifice along the way. If sacrifice is time: are you willing to quit your time-consuming activities, 10hours of television, and weekend nights with friends? If you need to save money, are you willing to cut restaurant bills, your clothing bill, or even mobile air time usage?

Without a change in your life, how can you commit to your goals? You need to be able to pay the price whether its money, time, luxuries, or other things that may get in the way of the pursuit of your goals. The key question is are you ready to give whatever it takes?

4. Will this goal bring you satisfaction?

The only thing you can control are your actions. The results may not always be what you expect. But as you pursue your goals and see the 'end', will it really make you happy? You may pursue a goal that takes several years. Can you foresee, no matter how long it takes or no matter what you sacrificed, that it will bring you satisfaction?

If it's financial freedom and you commit to 5 years to achieve it, and along the way you had to forego several vacations to Dubai or Europe, for years you had to say 'no' to that luxury vehicle or a new home, for years you had to put off what you want for only things you need, will you still feel satisfied at the end?

If this is a goal worth pursing, the end result better bring you satisfaction no matter what!

5. Do you have a plan to achieve your goal?

If you don't have a plan, you will never achieve your goals. Has someone else done what you want to do? Is there a specific map to follow? (use Google, it'll help a lot). If there is, this is your plan. Your plan can't just be an idea in your head. Your plan must be shared with other people you respect and who can give you honest objective feedback and help you along the journey.

If you have a plan, it's time to start making those changes in your life to create the right habits to put this plan to work.

By taking ownership, and having a plan, you have better odds of achieving the goal you set out to pursue. If you answer any of these questions without an emphatic 'yes', then you need to examine if you are being honest with yourself and if this goal is really something worth pursuing. If it is worth pursing, you will achieve it.

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Microsoft Excel - How to Quickly Find Repeated Values in a Column

Imagine you have an Excel spreadsheet that contains a list of values that appear in a single column, and lets say this column contains id numbers. It happens that the spreadsheet data was obtained from an invoices list of the previous month, and you are asked to obtain the number of unique customers from that list. If the list contains less than 20 or 30 rows that could be something you can easily do manually just by looking and counting them, but what happens when the list contains 200 or even 3000 rows?

That's when you have to find a method to let Microsoft Excel do the hard work, and you can achieve that by following the steps in this example:

1. Lets say you have these simple values in column A, starting from row 1 to row 10:

BB

DD

GG

EE

GG

SS

BB

AA

KK

SS

2. First we have to get our data sorted, so we click on the first value (that would be cell A1 in the example), and then go up to the menu item called "Data" and select the option "Sort".

3. The Sort window should appear, and by default it will show the option "Sort by" and the value "Column A". Press the OK button. That should have changed our list into this:

AA

BB

BB

DD

EE

GG

GG

KK

SS

SS

4. Go to cell B1 and type the following formula (including the left "=" sign) and press Enter:

=IF(A1=A2, 1, 0)

5. The value in B1 should be "1", because what the formula is doing is that when the value in cell A1 is equal to value in cell A2 then it should write a "1", else it should show a "0". Copy cell B1 (Ctrl+C), and paste it in cells B2 to B10, right next to every value on the list we are using.

6. This is the result we should get:

AA 0

BB 1

BB 0

DD 0

EE 0

GG 1

GG 0

KK 0

SS 1

SS 0

Notice it? Using the IF formula we have found how many repeated values exist in the list, which in this case would be the three cells that have a "1" value next to them.

This method will save you a lot of time and effort, so practice it as much as you can!

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3 Simple and Effective Time Management Techniques

Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little, because they're not concentrating their effort on the things that matter the most. Especially when you have a family and/or are working a JOB while you're trying to build a business so you can finally get out of that Rat Trap, you need to utilize simple techniques to get done what you need to get done in the shortest period of time.

Personal time management skills are essential skills for effective people. When you put into action simple time management, you'll find that you take control of your workload and say goodbye to the often intense stress of work overload.

These are 3 simple and practical techniques that can help you reach the pinnacles of success in your home business or just in general.

1 - Before ending your day, write down 3-5 tasks to be completed the next day. Now these are NOT "goals" but rather "tasks". If you just focus on accomplishing the income producing activities, your goals will be accomplished automatically. Don't stop until you complete these tasks so make sure they're obtainable. Over time this accumulative effort with explode your results!!! Small actions done consistently.....

2 - Oftentimes when we're pulled in so many directions and have so much to do, we feel overwhelmed resulting is our "shutting down" and doing nothing. Especially if time is tight and the last thing you want to do after a long day at your job and getting the kids to bed, is do even more work, this technique works real well. Set a timer for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes - whatever is "manageable" and doesn't seem like a long time. Then focus on doing the income producing activities and once the time is up, you're done. This is good too because you know it's just a short period of time instead of thinking about all the things you have to do. You can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes a day and it's better than nothing plus you'll feel a sense of accomplishment. Small actions done consistently....

HINT: This is also a very good technique if you build your business utilizing the various social networking sites. The social sites are a great way to build up your warm market and build relationships; however, they are also a HUGE time waster. So, set a timer and when it goes off, you're done!!!! This will help you focus on tasks that produce results too because you know you only have so much time.

3 - One of the most important activities who can do while building your business is "prospecting and recruiting". However, 90% of people fail because they don't and especially when many people have that "phone fear", it's easy to get side-tracked and instead do what's "comfortable" which usually means "non-productive busy work". So, make it a habit to set hourly prospecting and recruiting goals in 30 minute segments. For 30 minutes, unless your house is burning down or some other emergency, all you do is get on the phone and talk to as many prospects as you can for 30 minutes. For one, if you can't set hourly goals, how can you expect to set weekly, monthly, etc. goals and also by making all your calls at once, instead of here and there, this will make that phone feel less heavy to pick up because after the first couple calls, you'll be on a roll. Small actions done consistently.....

At the heart of time management is an important shift in focus: Concentrate on results, not on being busy

Laura Paulson is a Marketing and Home Business Success Coach who escaped the "corporate America" rat race. Her passion is helping individuals create time and financial freedom for themselves and their families. She is looking to partner with self-motivated individuals who are looking to make a positive change in their life and ready to put in the effort to make it happen. To request an interview, go to http://www.CorporateAmericaEscapee.com

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How to Stay Focussed on a Goal

Would you please step aside, you are in my way. I am staying focused and I cannot have you block my focus to my goal. This would be a poor attitude to start the beginning of your challenge to yourself to reach your goal.

My case, after being successful in retail most of my life, I have changed my focus to Internet marketing and have a web selling site, as yet this web site has not been successful. I have a great web site but if you do not have visitors to your web for sales it is not successful even though you have the best prices on the web.

I have been of course getting lots of e-mails from good people to help me and of course for a price which I have decided that I am not going to spend anymore money until I have money coming in. Actually I have suggested to a couple of these people if the program that they want to sell me in lieu of paying that they can be my partner for a year at 5% of net sales and if I did the $14,000.00 they say that I would doing they could come out with a 65% earnings on their money, well, no one has taken me up on the offer and of course I do not blame them.

If I stick to my goal that I set out to do I will probably be working it somewhat the same as they wanted to teach me to do it. In conclusion, stay focused. do not give up, reach for your goal without any side roads.

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Keeping Track of Your Goals

What is the best way to keep track of your goals are specially if you have lots of different things you're trying to achieve more or less at the same time?

Some people would say it's best to only do one thing at a time. On the other hand when you have several things that you want to achieve which may not be directly related to each other, it can be really effective to work towards each of your goals are a short amount of time during each day.

However doing that may make you feel rather confused about which goal you're actually working on and how far along the road to achieving it you've managed to be.

One way to keep track is to use mind mapping. This also helps in planning how you're going to achieve your goals. You have to start with what you want to achieve in the centre of a piece of paper or in the centre of a computer-generated programme, and from your central goal draw connections which may be the different steps you need to achieve on the way to getting to your major goal.

This gives you a pictorial representation of the track you need to follow to reach your goals. As a complete each part of the mind map you could make it into a different colour for example all mark the different stages in some way so that you know that they're completed.

You could develop a mind map each of your goals and pin them on the wall new way you do the work. Then you could combine the major parts of your different mind maps into one document which is another mind map which illustrates how your various projects are related to each other.

On the other hand if you prefer a more linear way of working then the well-established to-do list which has all the jobs that you need to do in order to achieve your various goals on it, then you can just cross these out as you get them done.

Another way would be to write to the various stages that you'll need to go through on post-it notes and stick these somewhere near to where you are working. Then you can remove the post-it note as you achieve what's written on it.

Whichever method you choose a to keep track of your goals will be away to move forward step by step until you achieve all of them.

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Best Customer Service

Best customer service implies practices that bring in and keep clients. The fact that customers are the live wire of businesses cannot be overemphasized. And so also the term customer-service. The mega firms know this and always get out of their ways to offer their clients the best of customer service.

Customer service training is the norm these days for companies that intend to make their sales hit the roof. These trainings focus on both attitudinal and intellectual approaches to service. Personnel are taught the need to follow critical paths to service and also have the attitude to serve at the same time. Dell Computers' staff imbibe good customer service skills and always make sure the customer always get what they want through a laid down system.

Critical paths are laid down procedures for attending to customers. The customer is king, thus the need to apply etiquette in dealing with them. Firms even go as far as fronting these etiquette in their words and actions. You have them in most slogans these days. Departments are also set aside for this purpose. And the result do, indeed speak for themselves.

Customer service training also allows the personnel a chance to be themselves as they serve their customer. The Promus Hotel, spread all over the world, allows its staff use their personal discretion as they attend to clients. Any customer that is not satisfied with his/her stay is not billed. And any staff can make good this guarantee, at any time.

Successful firms combine both this attitudinal and intellectual approaches. The idea is to offer world class service, like the client wouldn't get someplace else. The clients relate with the firm on personal terms and feel much appreciated. This certainly brings them back, and naturally brings in more business.

Anietie Okon is a Business Strategist that helps small businesses and entrepreneurs maximize marketing and sales skills. For entrepreneurship, marketing and sales ideas visit his blog Businesses and Customers.

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The Visio 2007 Screen Elements and Menus

Microsoft Visio is popular diagramming software used by millions of people worldwide. Although it is so popular many people are not aware of just how versatile it can be, and how many uses it can be put to. In this brief overview I will try to explain what the main features of the interface are and how to familiarise yourself with Visio 2007 which introduced some new and very clever features when it was launched.

To get started with Visio, select a template for the type of diagram or drawing you want from the Getting started page and click "Create". When the drawing opens, the first screen you see is the default for the type of drawing you are creating. Across the top of the screen is the title bar underneath which are the menu bar and two toolbars.

These should be familiar to anyone who is used to using other Microsoft Office products. To the left of the screen a vertical task pane is shown - this is called the Shapes window and contains Stencils that hold all the shapes necessary in order to create a drawing type you have chosen.

Menu Bar

Visio's main menu bar features the familiar File, Edit, View and Insert items, but also has Tools, Data, Shape, Window and Help items some of which may not be familiar to new users. The Standard toolbar immediately beneath the menu contains some buttons that may also be new to some people. They are situated to the right of the Undo and Redo buttons and are shown below:

Main Drawing area

The main body of the Visio window contains the drawing page itself which is probably overlaid with a grid pattern, and is surrounded by a grey pasteboard area. Vertical and horizontal scrollbars appear to the right and underneath this window.

Page Tabs and Page Navigation

To the left of the horizontal scrollbar is a page tab which by default only shows Page-1, and to the left of this are buttons to navigate through additional pages if these are present.

Status Bar

Just above the Windows task pane, at the very bottom of the Visio window is a Status bar which is probably blank but which will contain the page number and the number of pages on the right.

Rulers

To the left of the main drawing window and across the top are two rulers. The units of measurement used to calibrate these rulers can be changed by going to file page setup and clicking on the page properties tab. The third window in this dialogue box allows the units to be changed any of the defaults, and the settings are reflected in the rulers units of measurement.

The rulers can be turned off and on again from the View menu, as can many other graphical properties including the other Toolbars, the Size & Position window, the Shape Data window and the Pan & Zoom window.

About the author
David Millard is a Microsoft Certified Trainer based in the UK. He holds a degree in Education and is a college tutor in the south of England. He is also a web developer and publisher, and the proprietor of Visio Tutorial http://www.visio-tutorial.com

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Self Improvement - What Are SMART Goals and How to Set Them

If you want to achieve something meaningful in your life you are unlikely to achieve it if you do not set goals for yourself. However, just setting goals is not enough. If they are too vague or unattainable then they reduce your chances of achieving them.

The reason you are setting goals is to be able to achieve them. There is no point in spending considerable time and effort setting goals that you have no hope or real desire of achieving.

Much research has been carried out in relation to the subject of goal setting. However, the most effective goals are SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for the following:

Specific: By setting goals that are specific you are removing the problem of confusion and vagueness. Nothing stops a goal in its track more than vagueness. Specific goals provide clarity in terms of what exactly needs to be done and how. Goals that state "I want to be rich" will not be effective because they are too vague. A specific goal is "I want to earn $100,000 a year by 2012."

Measurable: Goals need to be measured or else there is no way to tell if you are making progress or not. This is especially the case with long term goals and motivation. If you can clearly see that you are making progress along the way this provides the motivation to keep going.

Attainable: An important aim of goal setting is to give you the opportunity to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. However, if the goals are set too high, if they are unattainable then, you will soon give up because you have not the personal resources to achieve them. Therefore, you should set goals that move you out of your comfort zone but within your capabilities of achieving them.

Relevant: The goals that you set for yourself must be relevant to you. This means that they must be based on what you truly want to achieve. If the goals you set are not relevant you will give in at the first sign of a challenge or obstacle. Relevant goals should be based on your true desires. Therefore, to set relevant goals you must have a reason why you want to achieve them. To find reasons identify what your values are and base your goals around them.

Time: There has to be a deadline. If there is no deadline a goal is rarely achieved. By setting a time limit you set yourself a target to aim for. Setting a time and making a commitment focuses the mind which increases your chances of achieving your goals.

As an article writer Patricia Muldoon writes about subjects she has a deep interest in. You can visit her new website which provides details on the latest baby cot bed mattress range including sprung cot bed mattress products and accessories.

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