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Added for You - Bad Meetings - Who Invited the Vampires?
The Cash Flow statement is complete. You know how much you have to invest. Where is the rest of the money coming from? A very tough question indeed. But the options are many.There are only three sources of cash, equity, debt or income from operations, which is not available for start-ups.After your own personal funds, many new ventures rely on family and friends. You may use second mortgages on your home, even refinancing your home. Cash values from insurance policies, borrowing from pension funds, using severance payments or bonus payments, where available, may provide additional equity. Some even use credit card limits. This is strongly discouraged and is expensive.Of course you can win the lottery but win it first.Beyond these personal funds, there are the banks, commercial lenders, credit unions and other financial institutions. Banks are not very interested in lending money to new companies with out solid collateral.There are federally guaranteed loans where the Small Business Administ
IDENTIFICATION
Before we can drive them away, we have to identify what kind of vampire has afflicted your meeting. Research into the appearances of Meeting Vampires in the workplace has led to the discovery and subsequent identification of three specific species.
• Vampyrus irrelevancium: This vampire causes the group to stray off-topic or get caught in a repetitive conversation.
• Vampyrus confusio: This species of M
Millions of people make the switch to CEO of their own home based business. Believe me if I can do it, anyone can!By starting your own home business you have made the first step of taking control of your financial and emotional future. I say emotional because I know that when I worked a 9-5 job my stress levels were astronomical!Most new home business entrepreneurs start off by keeping their 9-5 by day and by night they are getting their business to take off. You may be walking around your 9-5 with a smile on your face – knowing that soon enough you are going to walk right up to your boss and say I quit because you can’t pay me enough, nor is my time for sale anymore!When that glorious day comes, and boy will you have a big grin on your confident face! You are now a full time CEO. No more requests for vacations, no more scheduled lunch breaks, no more senseless office chit chat, no more boss hovering over your shoulder, no more wondering if you are going to be included in the lay off this quarter. YOU AR
Your third meeting of the day is progressing as expected when you become distantly aware the energy of the meeting is fading – as if the actual life-force is being drained.
As your own energy wanes, along with your interest, you belatedly realize you’re the victim of the dreaded-
Meeting Vampire (vampyrus occursus)
SO WHO INVITED THE VAMPIRES?
According to legend, it is impossible for a vampire to enter your house unless you have invited it in, and yet they have invaded the sanctity of your work place. At some point in the distant past, your company invited a vampire to enter its house, and the question that now looms before you -- and the rest of Corporate America as well -- is how to effectively deal with them.
Start with your own meetings. Maybe you meet with a team or a project group. Typically, energy is high when the meeting starts. Then something happens and boredom or tension sets in. That something could very well be one or more Meeting Vampires who have come to feed on your energy, and do so by taking the discussion off-topic, confusing people on why they are there and what work they will take away at meeting's end. And, of course, they drain your energy by prompting one person to talk…and talk…and talk.
Also according to legend, there are a few special tools used to deal with the usual vampire threat. While decapitation and exposure to direct sunlight will do, the preferred method of most vampire slayers through the ages has always been a good old-fashioned wooden stake through the heart. Of course, any sharp and pointy wooden object can be used - a pencil, a table leg, a pool cue - but there's just no substitute for a well-whittled stake to rid yourself of that undead pest.
Of course, those are for the regular vampires of legend. In the Corporate world, we’re limited to less lethal forms of intervention. However, Corporate Vampires (no, I’m not referring to the lawyers) come in a variety of types, which differ from the norm and require a completely separate set of tools and tactics to drive them away. Heading them off before their bite is fatal is key. How you do this depends upon the type of vampire.
IDENTIFICATION
Before we can drive them away, we have to identify what kind of vampire has afflicted your meeting. Research into the appearances of Meeting Vampires in the workplace has led to the discovery and subsequent identification of three specific species.
• Vampyrus irrelevancium: This vampire causes the group to stray off-topic or get caught in a repetitive conversation.
• Vampyrus confusio: This species of M
From the moment a business is launched, a phenomenon begins to take over. The anti-entrepreneurial inertia begins to set in.Every business starts out entrepreneurial. Hungry and eager, innovative, open-minded and resourceful, all of its attention focused on finding and keeping customers.Things start to happen and the business begins to grow.Meanwhile, something sinister begins to occur. Slowly, subtly and insidiously, the anti-entrepreneurial inertia begins to creep in.As the business continues to grow, we take on more and more responsibility. We hire other people, who now need to be managed. We establish policies and procedures, routines, and rituals as part of our success strategy.Our focus has begun to shift. Without realizing it, we’ve grown a little less curious, a little less open-minded and a little less attentive to the needs of our customers.Soon we become “experts” in our field. We’ve achieved success. We know all there is to know about our particular field of endeavor. We’
Start with your own meetings. Maybe you meet with a team or a project group. Typically, energy is high when the meeting starts. Then something happens and boredom or tension sets in. That something could very well be one or more Meeting Vampires who have come to feed on your energy, and do so by taking the discussion off-topic, confusing people on why they are there and what work they will take away at meeting's end. And, of course, they drain your energy by prompting one person to talk…and talk…and talk.
Also according to legend, there are a few special tools used to deal with the usual vampire threat. While decapitation and exposure to direct sunlight will do, the preferred method of most vampire slayers through the ages has always been a good old-fashioned wooden stake through the heart. Of course, any sharp and pointy wooden object can be used - a pencil, a table leg, a pool cue - but there's just no substitute for a well-whittled stake to rid yourself of that undead pest.
Of course, those are for the regular vampires of legend. In the Corporate world, we’re limited to less lethal forms of intervention. However, Corporate Vampires (no, I’m not referring to the lawyers) come in a variety of types, which differ from the norm and require a completely separate set of tools and tactics to drive them away. Heading them off before their bite is fatal is key. How you do this depends upon the type of vampire.
IDENTIFICATION
Before we can drive them away, we have to identify what kind of vampire has afflicted your meeting. Research into the appearances of Meeting Vampires in the workplace has led to the discovery and subsequent identification of three specific species.
• Vampyrus irrelevancium: This vampire causes the group to stray off-topic or get caught in a repetitive conversation.
• Vampyrus confusio: This species of M
When looking for a press brake, or brake press, you need to know what type of press you are looking for. Press brakes come in all sizes and with many different options. You can buy a brake press that is hydraulic, mechanical, air clutch, air trip, and of course CNC or computer numerical controled.You need to first know your Capacity, which is rated by tonnage. Then you need to know the legnth and distance between housings. The distance between housings is usually smaller than the capacity of the machine. If you are looking to bend 10' and need to go past the gap, you will need a 12' brake.As for the clutch, Hydraulic clutch is the safest, and most expensive. They are generally slower and have more of a precise bend.Air clutch machine work in the same way except they use air to activeat the clutch. The difference is that you have to complete the rotation once activated. This makes it more dangerous, but faster.Air Trip, is a cheaper, sometimes aftermarket clutch system that can be added to
Also according to legend, there are a few special tools used to deal with the usual vampire threat. While decapitation and exposure to direct sunlight will do, the preferred method of most vampire slayers through the ages has always been a good old-fashioned wooden stake through the heart. Of course, any sharp and pointy wooden object can be used - a pencil, a table leg, a pool cue - but there's just no substitute for a well-whittled stake to rid yourself of that undead pest.
Of course, those are for the regular vampires of legend. In the Corporate world, we’re limited to less lethal forms of intervention. However, Corporate Vampires (no, I’m not referring to the lawyers) come in a variety of types, which differ from the norm and require a completely separate set of tools and tactics to drive them away. Heading them off before their bite is fatal is key. How you do this depends upon the type of vampire.
IDENTIFICATION
Before we can drive them away, we have to identify what kind of vampire has afflicted your meeting. Research into the appearances of Meeting Vampires in the workplace has led to the discovery and subsequent identification of three specific species.
• Vampyrus irrelevancium: This vampire causes the group to stray off-topic or get caught in a repetitive conversation.
• Vampyrus confusio: This species of M
Getting into the labour market after school or college is a daunting prospect and that’s without the minefield of jargon, overnight advances in technology and discriminatory attitudes.OK - Let’s bust a bit of that jargon! What exactly are transferable skills? Quite simply, they are things you can do in one area of your life which can be used somewhere else.Let’s take an example. As a student, did you get all your assignments in on time? Were you able to set up extensions if your work was late? Did you learn how to type quickly and use a number of computer programmes effectively? Did you hold down a part-time job and manage to juggle work with study and your social life?If you answered yes to all, or at least some of the above, you have demonstrated an extensive range of skills, such as effective time management, negotiating and good communication skills. Now, you may not give them such grand titles, but if you were filling in a job application form, that’s exactly what you’d call them.You’ve been
Of course, those are for the regular vampires of legend. In the Corporate world, we’re limited to less lethal forms of intervention. However, Corporate Vampires (no, I’m not referring to the lawyers) come in a variety of types, which differ from the norm and require a completely separate set of tools and tactics to drive them away. Heading them off before their bite is fatal is key. How you do this depends upon the type of vampire.
IDENTIFICATION
Before we can drive them away, we have to identify what kind of vampire has afflicted your meeting. Research into the appearances of Meeting Vampires in the workplace has led to the discovery and subsequent identification of three specific species.
• Vampyrus irrelevancium: This vampire causes the group to stray off-topic or get caught in a repetitive conversation.
• Vampyrus confusio: This species of M
"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." Jack WelchVision is the first critical element in business success. Vision gives a clear picture of what you intend your business to accomplish. Without vision, you simply don't know where you're going. Hard work and perseverance cannot replace a clear vision.It is something like the experience I had at a wilderness camp in the Canadian Rockies. About twenty of us were blindfolded and led to a maze in the woods. The maze was laid out with ropes strung together, from tree to tree. The terrain was uneven, with bumps and hollows in the ground. The ropes ranged from a foot to three or four feet off the ground. Our objective was to ring a bell somewhere in the course.I know that I retraced my steps more than once, coming to a place where the ropes met at a forty-five degree angle, or where a rope ended at a tree. I knew I had come to that same corner before, touched
IDENTIFICATION
Before we can drive them away, we have to identify what kind of vampire has afflicted your meeting. Research into the appearances of Meeting Vampires in the workplace has led to the discovery and subsequent identification of three specific species.
• Vampyrus irrelevancium: This vampire causes the group to stray off-topic or get caught in a repetitive conversation.
• Vampyrus confusio: This species of Meeting Vampires is actually a hive or nesting that creates an atmosphere of confusion where participants don’t know what topic is being worked on, if a decision was made, what the decision was, or what the next steps are. The hapless victims are easy prey for these predators who then suck the life out of them and their meetings.
• Vampyrus talkus maximus: This vampire forces one person (or sneakily - one topic) to dominate the meeting, momentum is lost and other participants drop out verbally and mentally. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to get the group re-engaged. Often, the other truly important agenda items are left to wait for another meeting.
INTERVENTION
Now that you have identified these three pests, the next step is Intervention. Here are some helpful tools and tactics to deal with the Vampires roaming your halls.
• Irrelevance
As with the Vampires of legend, this corporate species has an extreme aversion for mirrors. Distribute the agenda prior to the meeting, and make sure to bring extra copies to the meeting. This is your “mirror” and reflects the purpose of the meeting.
The quickest way to stop or deflect the vampire’s attack is by showing the “mirror”. Ask politely how the subject under discussion relates to the purpose of the meeting. If there is no reflection, then ask the group to stay focused on the task.
If that doesn’t stop the attack, then simply misdirect the vampire by writing the side issue on a separate piece of paper (many people refer to this as the “Parking Lot”). If there is time, return to it at the end of the agenda, or bring it to the next meeting.
• Confusion
This type of Corporate Vampire is as susceptible to the light of day as any vampire of legend. They may not actually combust with exposure to direct sunlight, but they will certainly dissipate. Your agenda can be used to shed light on the topics under discussion.
If confusion begins to cloud the meeting, use a decision board (write it up on a flipchart) to drive the hive away. After each item is completed, re-state that item and the decision made. People will see the progress being made and the light of day will return.
Before the meeting ends, and
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