Category Archives: Blog

Business Metrics

Finding Good Metrics for Business Success

metrics Large organizations, with sophisticated management systems track performance measurements with a religious fervor. What about small businesses and individuals? Do they need and have these measurements of business success? Good metrics go beyond the traditional sales and profit figures from the financial statements. These are measurements of history or time passed. Good metrics measure the present and future trends. They indicate issues that can be addressed in the present, not issues that must recalled from the past.… Read the rest

Keys to Success

The Great M’s of Success

success marketing Those who have studied successful leaders over the last 300 years or more have found certain traits successful leaders had in common that accounted to their achievements.

These success techniques not only helped them forward but also sustained them even in times of depression, recession, or other personal disasters.

The Great M’s of Success in business and life are Mentoring, Masterminding, Marketing, and Motivation.

… Read the rest

Leadership Power

Authority vs. Power

Successful leaders are individuals with high levels of personal power. Understanding the difference between personal power and granted authority is a significant distinction. Many people have the tendency to use the words authority and power interchangeably; however, these terms refer to two very different aspects of leadership.

Authority is the right granted from a person or organization to another to represent or to act in a specified way. For example, a CEO of a company is given the authority by the Board of Directors to run the company. In turn, the CEO places managers in positions of authority over the various divisions, business units, or departments of the organization.… Read the rest

Sales Position

A well-established audio-video firm in Fayetteville, NC has a sales opportunity for someone who has a successful background in the sale of customer designed products or services. The firms local market includes; government/military, church, schools and residential. Examples of the types of projects include:

Conference rooms and command centers at Fort Bragg
Video and sound systems for church sanctuaries and fellowship halls
Classroom automation for local colleges
Public address systems for schools and military
Home theater systems
Home automation systems which can include remotely control security lighting and temperature

Anyone to be considered for the position should have the analytical abilities to assess customer requirements for one of these systems. Knowing how to probe for the customer’s true needs and their priority helps in designing a system which effectively and economically serves the client.… Read the rest

Non-Profit Organizational Success

Business Success in a Non-Profit Organization

non-profit Strategic Planning has always been a key leadership tool in the development of successful for-profit organizations. Its format and time scope may vary, but it serves as an important function in business success. It has helped many businesses focus their priorities on future growth and profitability.

… Read the rest

Leadership. Why and How

Leadership, Back to Basics

It is often the case that a Board of Directors, whether it is for a Fortune 500 company or a local non-profit, has to recruit and evaluate candidates for the position of CEO or President. When asked what they are looking for during this selection process, the most common answer is leadership. But why do they look for a candidate with leadership skills and how do they determine if that candidate will be an effective leader. Most importantly, they are looking for a person who can accomplish tasks and achieve results. Let’s consider that way first and then two models for determining an individual’s leadership ability.… Read the rest

Building Trust

How Leaders Create Trust

trust Surveys of employees often ask what is the one attribute they look for in an effective leader. Trust always near the top of the list. Whether you are a manager, supervisor, salesman or team lead it is important to be trusted by those you deal with on a regular basis. Once that trust is lost, it is difficult to impossible to regained.Here are some suggestions on building and maintaining trust.… Read the rest

Growth Strategies

Strategies for Positive Growth

success-strategies There continues to be a great deal of focus on organizational culture and environment. Whether you are focusing on that issue for the first time or whether you are looking at changing or improving an existing culture, it may be wise to remember that, like the long journey which begins with one step, an organizational culture is the cumulative effect of individual attitudes, values, and standards. Changing or improving the culture begins with a focus on the individual.
How you genuinely feel about yourself, your worth, and the worth of others greatly influences everything you do and the results you achieve. How the people in your organization feel about themselves, their worth, and the worth of others will affect their achievements and the culture of the organization.… Read the rest

Your Next Conference

How to Get the Most out of Your Next Conference

Success in your career depends upon how well you manage your professional development. A prime source of this development comes from being a member of a professional association that relates to your career. As a member, you can attend conferences where you advance your skills and meet people who can help you.

Some people, however, treat conferences as a paid vacation. They party, they skip sessions, and they return home with little more than a stack of receipts. That costs them (or their business) money and contributes nothing to professional growth.

Here’s how to get the most out of your next conference.… Read the rest

Possible Workshops

Pep Up Your Next Meeting with a Workshop

workshop

What goals do you have for your next conference or business meeting? Why go through the time and expense of bring a group of employees together? Why do association members want to spend their time and money coming to your annual meeting? It just can’t be because we always do it.

Here are some possible goals you should consider:

… Read the rest

Human Relations

Empathy 101: Ten Commandments Of Human Relations

These ten commandments of human relations aren’t original to me, and I don’t know the source. At the same time, they don’t go out of style or out of date if you are in business. Everyone in your business must imbue their efforts with these commandments. They are required in every type of relationship be it marketing or selling to clients, providing customer support before or after the sale, working with and negotiating with vendors, or your support team and of course internal to your organization.… Read the rest

Customer Loyalty

Developing a Customer Loyalty Plan

RLS Focused Salutation has done a number of workshops for companies, non-profits and associations. One of those workshops is based on a process we use to develop loyal customers, donors or members. The link below will take you to a short YouTube video which provides the basics for one of those workshops.

http://youtu.be/AQD8nHp_0bc?hd=1

… Read the rest

Developing Sustainable Profitabilty

Developing a Customer Loyalty Business Plan

Peter Drucker was quoted as saying, “The function of business is to attract and maintain customers.”One should add in order to make a profit or to be financially viable. Let’s suggest that within these combined statements there are three concepts to be explored:

There is a distinct difference between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Customer loyalty depends on providing the customer with perceived value and a positive emotional experience at every point of connection.
Within any profitable marketing plan there are more than the four P’s (price, promotion, product/services, and place) to be considered. Customers need to get what they want and come back for more for a business to achieve long term success.

… Read the rest

A Marketing Plan

Business Success Starts with a Marketing Plan

Here you are with a strong desire to start a business on your own. You have some ideas and some financial resources, but what’s the next step to business success? Of course, there is the legal requirement for licensing and registration of the business, but that is only a formality.

Should you write a strategic plan?
Should you buy or rent a building?
Should you buy a sign and business cards?

Let’s consider developing a marketing business success plan first

… Read the rest

Use of Time Video

Uncluttering Your Use of Time

The video below show the content of a one-hour workshop to be used for business or organizational meetings. The video is 15 minutes in length and indicates some of the subjects covered in the workshop. Our workshop are not lecture but are facilitated sessions where the participants don’t just sit and listen but become actively involved. Consider for comany meetings, amnnual associatioon meetings and lunchand learn sessions. Contact us for more information.

bob@plangoals.com

Click on the link below

Uncluttering Your Use of Time

… Read the rest

Better Use of Time

Decluttering Your Use of Time

goals Nine out of ten managers and leaders tell us that they wish they could make better use of their time. They look for programs in what is called Time Management. We have found that what is really needed is not a management program, but an overall strategy in determining the goals to be achieved and how they can be integrated into our daily workday habit… Read the rest

The Investment of Time

Investing Your Time

One of the greatest lessons in time management is to realize the difference between spending time and investing time. The dictionary defines spend as “to use up, exhaust, consume.” If you spend, you have no return. On the other hand, when we invest we “spend with expectation of some satisfaction, of obtaining an income or profit.”

… Read the rest

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe

The Games of Time Management

success

Have you ever sat at your desk and literally played this mental game. Have you ever heard these types of questions or statements rolling through your mind?

… Read the rest

A Life of Habits

Habits Can Create Business Success

business success Every morning I have a routine to start my day. I get up, brush my teeth, floss, rinse with mouthwash, shower and put in my contact lens. If for some reason that routine is disturbed, I might find myself later in the day wondering why I can’t see well. Have you ever found yourself leaving home and going in the wrong direction in your car because you are not going to work that day, but to a different destination. These are two examples of the habits that develop over time into routines.

… Read the rest

Rewards vs Recognition

Rewards vs Recognition as an Employee Motivator

As a business or organizational leader, we often need to consider ways to motivate people. One business owner was lamenting about the lack of motivation in his sales staff and remarked that if they were all on straight commission there would be a much greater level of performance. Let’s consider two of the most common approaches to motivation; rewards and recognition.

Rewards

Webster defines rewards as, the giving of either money or another kind of payment for something good which has been done. Reward practices we have seen include piecework incentives, sales commissions, and prizes for performance. Piecework was very common in the manufacturing of goods where an employee was paid by the number of products they produced.… Read the rest