Better Brand Building
This article is about the benefits, pitfalls and thinking that were involved in a building a new brand. While it’s my story of involving my speaking business, you should think about your own story, your passion, and what fits into your life. CAUTION: Realize this, it’s taken a LONG time, it was hard work, and it was painful at times. If you’re not willing to experience those things then keep doing what you’re doing.Have you asked yourself these questions? Are you happy with the answers?1. Are you working harder to secure fewer and fewer customers?2. Are you finding price to be a MAJOR concern for your buyer?3. Are you generating interest from clients but not having a good ratio of inquiries to closings?IF you said yes to these questions, you may be ready for the journey of reinvention.Two things drove me to reinvent my speaking business:1) I longed for a unique message, a brand to differentiate me in a crowded market. It is not new news that there are hundreds or maybe thousands of people who can fill an hour on a conference agenda and who present similar things as you and I.

Over 50 and Job Searching - Cultivating Your Upper Hand
No one really knows when youth ends officially. But if you are over 50 and looking for a job, you probably feel that the rules have all changed. These are the times of downsizing, ‘right-sizing’ (whatever that means) and cost-cutting. If you have ever lost a potential job to a much younger, lower-paid candidate, you might have asked yourself if you’ve reached your expiration date.Yes, age bias still exists – let’s not be in denial about that. But there are all kinds of biases that exist in the workplace and the matter of age is now less of an issue. Today, many companies are realizing the fact that younger employees are more liable to shift from company to company in an effort to strengthen their careers. But older employees are more likely to stick with their present jobs and have more loyalty. Companies (finally!) have begun to realize that stocking their workforces with younger candidates may not be the wisest thing to do with respect to their retention strategies.Now, this doesn’t mean that you can shimmy right up to that 20-something Human Resources Director and expect them to just give you the job

What To Do After The Job Interview
So you have the interview and you think it went well.But what do you do next?Do you wait, like 90%+ of people... or do you write a letter/email to your interviewer thanking him or her?I would suggest sending/emailing the interviewer a note.This will accomplish the following:1. The interviewer will notice that you took some time to thank him or her for interviewing you. This is usually appreciated as so few people take the time to say "thank you".2. You will stand out from most or all of the other interviewees who will typically not bother to send a thank you note.3. You can let the interviewer know that you are interested in the position and also remind him or her as to how your skills fit the position.The structure for your thank you note could be as follows:1. Thank the interviewer for their time.2. Let the interviewer know that you are interested in the position/ company.3. Remind the interviewer of how your skills/achievements fit with the job.4. Let the interviewer know that you are looking forward to hearing from him or her.5. I

Mistake 3 - Neglecting Your Current Clients
This is part 3 of the 7 Biggest Business Mistakes Health Practitioners Make.----------------------------------------------------------------------Mistake 3: Neglecting Your Current ClientsDo you know the feeling of always being the one to contact a friend and never being contacted in return? It will not take long until you stop calling her a friend and then stop making contact.Now ask yourself how often you have made contact with your current clients? If you have ever done it, you are far ahead of other health practitioners. Most just wait for clients to call for the next appointment.Follow-up Make follow-ups a part of looking after your clients. Focus on their wellbeing, rather than on trying to sell them another appointment and you will see how much more they will come to you.The time-frame for follow-ups really depends on your modality and you have to choose what is appropriate. However, the maximum time to leave between contacts is 3 months.Referrals If you provide a great service and your clients are happy with you, you are actually doi

The Employment Interview - How Hard Can It Be
bInterviewing Requires SkillInterviewing a new job candidate sounds easy. After all, you are in control. You have something to offer. You can select anyone you choose to select. Right? That sounds good but in reality interviewing a person to fill a job opening is one of the more difficult tasks you may face as a manager. It does require specific skills to do it right and increase your chance of hiring the ideal person for the job; the person that will stay and fit in with the culture of your company. That being said, I personally don’t know of one company that has a formal program to train their managers on how to conduct an interview. Interview training is much the same as training managers how to conduct a performance review. It is a rarity to find a company that actually does it. Recruitment, retention, interviewing and performance reviews are not just a “Human Resource” (HR) thing. They are a basic responsibility of all managers.You can interview candidates for hours, do profile testing and have multiple team interviews and still not know for sure if they are the right person for the job and the right fit

A Small Business Loan
A small business loan is one of the most treasured commodities in the business world. It is still very hard to get despite the claims and promises of banks, credit unions, and other lending institutions that they want to help American small business to survive and grow. In fact it sometimes seems that banks and other lenders want to see small businesses fail and only support those that survive the battle for customers, revenues, and finances during their first two years.Getting a small business loan is most difficult during these first two years, when most businesses face a myriad of challenges involved with not only opening their doors, but hiring and training staff and meeting the demands of customers, clients, suppliers and vendors. The main reason that the banks use for not granting many loans during this period is like the same reason that a student can’t get a job coming out of school. They don’t have the experience.The other major reason behind that first reason is that the banks think that many small businesses are simply too great a risk to offer them a small business loan. On that front they do have