When was the last time you looked at your business in the mirror? What did you see? Did you see a bargain basement type of consulting service or was the reflection back at your show the cream of the crop consulting business? Over the past few months I have been studying many small business and purchasing services and goods on the cheap against paying top dollar for the best quality goods and services.I purchased a pair of no name shoes from a local discount shoe store; you know the ones at the malls throughout North America a few years back. I believe I paid around $40.00 for a pair of dress shoes that were made from fake leather. Over the next few weeks these shoes wore out at an alarming rate, the heels were down to nothing very rapidly and caused some minor discomforts with my back and feet. Needless to say I needed another set of shoes rapidly, this time I decided to invest in a great pair of shoes from a retailer who only sold the best quality products. Being an IT consultant I do a lot of walking around our downtown meeting with clients during the course of the business day, so I welcomed the higher quality product.The next pair of shoes was an investment of around $250.00. Why do I say investment over purchasing? Three years have now passed and I still have those shoes, and recently I had to re-invest another $40.00 to have them resoled. I invested $290.00 over the course of three years for a highly quality pair of shoes that will continue to last for many years to come. In the long run, investing in the best quality has actually cost me less than going for the cheaper alternative, which would have been $40 x 10 to be on the forgiving side.Do you look at your business services in the same light? Are you the discount store or the higher end shoe store? What would happen to your business if you played in the first class crowd? What type of clients would you attract? What time of customers would stay away from you? These are tough questions for the average computer consultant to answer, however for the health of your business; you must go through this exercise.Many small businesses in today’s global market need a systems consultant who plays with the best, understands what the best solutions can do for a business and understand what deploying the right solutions can do for their own business. Just like my pair of shoes, businesses today must invest in first class technology and also invest in the best solutions partner. The cheaper alternative just doesn’t cut in today’s always connected world.Small Business today can no longer tolerate outages due to not having the right services and solutions, however, it is alarming how many businesses still today rather purchase the cheaper alternative rather than invest in the right solution. Are these the clients you want in your business? The successful and leading IT solution providers have a crystal clear vision of who they want to do business with.Small Business IT Professionals must be very clear on the clients that they want to service, just like offering first class services; you must have first class clients. When you have this crystal clear picture of your ideal client, then you can take the next step forward to invest in the right technology partners to help you start playing with the best. There are a number of technology firms in today’s world that range from the cheaper, low cost alternatives right up to the cream of the crop technology partner. Where do you want to play?There is always room at all levels, however, the leading Microsoft Small Business Specialist and technology professionals who decide to go first class will enjoy a business that is satisfying, fulfilling and provides them with the lifestyle that breeds continued success. Those IT Professionals who elect to play with “bottom feeders” will struggle, work longer hours and have a revolving door of customers as their cheaper solutions fail in the market and their customers graduate to a newer standard.For those partners that wish to graduate to the next level there are a number of places to turn to assist you in moving up to play with the best. Mentoring, business coaching and peer groups exist across the globe to work with you in achieving your business and life goals.Don’t be afraid to let customers know your standards when you elect to play in the first class world. Your message must be very clear across all of your corporate messaging, marketing, sales literature and any other documents that your business sends out. Don’t be afraid to say no to the business out there that do not value the services that your business can offer to them or do not want to play by your rules of engagement. It is critically important that your business has a clear and defined client picture. When you are clear on the clients you want, they will start to appear and when this happens you will create a fulfilling business.
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Personal Financial Planning: The Gift That Keeps Giving
The Christmas and New Year’s holiday season offers a great incentive for those who need to make personal financial planning a priority. The months leading up to Christmas are usually the time when people begin identifying items which they are interested in purchasing. After Christmas, we tend to shift into planning mode by making “resolutions” about things that we intend on doing, or certain behaviors that we would like to cease from doing. It is probably safe to say that completing a financial plan -and sticking to it- makes the annual “top ten” list of most important things to accomplish in the new year.Forming and maintaining good financial habits is what makes being prepared financially successful for some people. Eating healthy and exercising are both essential in order to maintain good physical health. Likewise, having a financial game plan and habitually implementing the principles and practices that a financial plan is comprised of, is necessary in order to maintain good financial health.A well written financial plan takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at a persons’ lifestyle, including their values, goals and dreams. This document should provide enough insight into the participants financial life so that the investment advisor who prepares the financial plan is able to provide professional guidance about debt management, savings, getting expenses under control, estate planning, life insurance, portfolio management & investment consulting, college planning and retirement. There are so many facets to writing, implementing and conducting an ongoing review of a comprehensive financial plan that it could take years to see the fruit of one’s labor and diligence.A comprehensively written plan may cost $500 – $1,500. Even though you may cringe at my suggestion of adding a detailed plan to your Christmas shopping list, you should think differently about incurring the expense of financial planning during the Christmas and New Year season. Consider financial planning as a gift to yourself because in a very real sense you would be giving yourself the perpetual “gift”, i.e. peace of mind! Planning financially is a fairly long process therefore it takes discipline, which is a characteristic that many people need during this time of year. Discipline to overspend, discipline to save money by diligently searching for bargains and “holiday discounts”; discipline to finally fill out that long life insurance application, or a College 529 Plan for your children vs. filling out an instant credit application for purchasing an item that will depreciate in value and one which you can truly do without.Once Christmas is past and the New Year has begun, it will take even more discipline to conform your way of living to the many recommendations contained within the pages of your financial plan. This is what makes the discipline of planning a gift.Despite the initial expense of time and money, financial planning is living on purpose and by design. It is identifying a predetermined achievable and worthwhile goal and altering the course of your life in such a way that will significantly increase your chance of obtaining your goals, living out your values and fulfilling your dreams. These qualities (values, dreams and goals) are not one time life events. This is a way of living, a certain quality of life that becomes your new reality! In fact, your former way of living should pale by comparison.Wealth management isn’t for the faint of heart. It isn’t for the person who has no intention of implementing the recommendations. Financial planning is a responsible and intentional act on your behalf to take your life where you want it to go and to paint a portrait of what you want your life to look like tomorrow. This is a gift to yourself and to your heirs. It is a good habit that your children are likely to learn and follow. This Christmas season don’t put off financial planning and in the New Year don’t make a financial planning a mere “resolution.” Cultivate the character of being a good financial steward and incorporate this discipline as your life commitment. Do this and it will prove to be the gift that keeps on giving.
Online Training Courses For Employers and Employees
Online learning or Electronic learning (e-Learning or eLearning) is a type of Technology supported education (TSL). The general idea is that rather than a tutor the student learns by using instruction through computer technology.In some instances, no face- to- face interaction takes place at all. E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of contexts. In companies, it refers to the strategies that use the company network to deliver training courses to employees. In many cases the company might have several required courses and also several voluntary courses. The application which trains and tests the employee might be placed on the companies LAN or it might in fact be supplied by a third party vendor from their website.In the United States, it is defined as a planned teaching/learning experience that uses a wide spectrum of technologies. Again e-learning’s main avenue is via the Internet or more specifically the world wide web.Lately e-learning has been used to very great effect delivering courses or programs of study where the students rarely, if ever, attend face-to-face classes. Many colleges have rolled out extensive online learning applications to widen their appeal to users worldwide.The worldwide e-learning industry is estimated to be worth over thirty-eight (38) billion euro. Although in the European Union only about 20% of e-learning products are produced within the common market. Developments in internet and multimedia technologies are the basic enabler of e-learning, with content. The vast majority of courses are concentrated in the IT, Programming and computer skills areas. E-Learning is a catch-all term that covers a wide range of instructional material that can be delivered on a CD-ROM or DVD, over a local area network (LAN), or on the Internet. However most internet users would probably expect that whatever medium they use the application serving the course would be backed up by online updates and testing.By 2006, nearly 3.5 million students participated in on-line learning. This only counts those in accredited third level education in the United States. This has now been taken up to a very great degree by employers in the first world and developing nations such as India where in many cases there is a statutory obligation for employers to train their staff in several areas. These course might be ‘health and safety training based’ or they could also be ‘rights and responsibilities’ based. Governments tend to increasingly place the burden of training on the employer who must then supply training to employees. In this context e-learning has been a very great time and money saver from an employers perspective. Large employers specifically can see a return on their investment through the employers login to their training center. They can train, set up, schedule and award certification to employees without even leaving their seat.Many higher education institutions, now offer on-line classes. However the ‘for profit’ institutions have been able to adopt the technology more quickly than state universities and public education systems.E-learning is naturally suited to distance learning and flexible learning, So another benefit of e-learning to employers is that the employee might log in at home and continue learning on time which the employers is not paying for. Tests carried out in the UK suggest this to be the case. If incentives are offered almost all employees with internet access at home opted for online as opposed to traditional training.e-Learning can also refer to educational web sites such as those offering learning scenarios, worksheets and interactive exercises for children. The term is also used extensively in the business sector where it generally refers to cost-effective online training. Companies such as Thirdforce which are one of the market leaders in B2B online training can handle many tens of thousands of students. This makes Thirdforce and companies like it one of the largest online training and teaching establishments in the world.