Added for You - Business

Does AIM Live Up to the Hype?
If you have done any research on AIM in the past you already know that it is growing quite rapidly. Last year it grew by 500 new companies; an increase compared to the 355 new companies that joined in 2003. Along with the growing number of companies flocking to AIM are eager investors, who are willing to take advantage of investment opportunities in smaller and newer companies rather than put their money into the big ones.In particular, companies are eager to list on AIM for several reasons. In the first place, new companies see it as an opportunity to grow without all the restrictions and hindrances put in place by the main markets and many international exchanges. For example, if a company cannot provide the required trading record to float on the main market, the only alternative might be AIM. The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance rules in the U.S. are also a concern for many American companies that want to go public.Softer regulations and lower co

mouth trying desperately not to laugh  One buyer, Danny Divito was moving around like he had ants in his pants—looking in every direction but mine  The second buyer, Arnold, his cheeks were bulging out; his eyes looked like they were going to pop. He even had that big vein running down the middle of his forehead like the real Arnold Swartznager does. I swear – he must have been holding his breath

There I was, sitting in the middle of a mud puddle; I looked more like a wounded duck than a Grizzly Bear.

It was eerie; it was like a deafening silence in the parking lot. The kind of silence you saw in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, just before they attacked.

The Director of Procurement for General Motors Corporation, Mr. Pin Stripes, the one holding his hand over his mouth started bouncing like he had a pogo stick up his behind. You know how you bounce when you hold a laugh inside.

Finally, bless his heart, old Bud, my sales rep reached down to take my hand to help me up – and as I struggled to my feed, he grinned a grin so wide he could have eaten a banana sideways and said, “Nice FALL day, isn’t it?”

Making Your Business Communication Count
Sometimes the only the thing that determines whether or not you make the sale is how well you communicate with your prospects and customers. Communication really is an art that needs to be practiced and refined. You may think you know exactly what to say, but it doesn’t take much to turn a person right off. I’ve never been a big talker, and I never want to say anything stupid, so I mostly just keep my mouth shut! Good thing for me that listening is an effective communication technique, but it would also help if I practiced small talk to break the ice when it comes to gathering new prospects or talking to new people. But listening and small talk are not the only things you need to do when communicating effectively. You must also exude confidence, you need to know your stuff, and you need to communicate it to your customers in such a way that they trust you and what you have to offer.One way that you can establish yourself and your trust with others you wa

It was a cold October morning in Dayton, Ohio and as I left my house at 7am the skies opened up and it began to pour. It wasn’t cold enough to turn the rain into ice but it was still chilly enough that I turned on the heater. “Today was gonna be a great day, I just knew it!” That thought just kept running through my head. I was full of confidence. We were prepared.

Today we were having customers in. Not just any customer – General Motors was visiting our branch and we were going to make a presentation trying to secure all the distribution business for two of their local manufacturing facilities. We had a plan and we had rehearsed our game plan over and over.

This wasn’t small potatoes. It could mean a $4 million increase in our business. We were ready. I was 31 years old, the youngest Branch Manger working for the largest steel distribution company in the world, but I wasn’t nervous. Scared, a little bit, yes, apprehensive, a little bit. But, I was confident.

One of my most cherished mentors always said, “If you’re gonna be a bear, you ought to be a grizzly.” I was gonna be a Grizzly today I told myself. We were hungry!

Three General Motors muckety mucks came that day. The Director of Procurement; he was a tall lanky man with that corporate pin striped look and the division buyers of each of the two manufacturing plants. One buyer was short and thick with huge hairy hands and it looked like he didn’t have a neck. He reminded me of Danny Davito but he was just a little taller. The other one was average height, average looks and average dress but he was built like Arnold Swartznager. Looking at the two division buyers reminded me of the movie Twins where Arnold Swartznager and Danny Divito were twin brothers.

Looking at the the three of them brought to mind the spectrum of emotions we face as salesmen in this business. Pin Stripes intimidated me—Danny D. made me laugh and Arnold scared the heck out of me.

The morning went ok. My top sales rep and I walked through much of the presentation before lunch – back then we didn’t have PowerPoint. We were following our plan. I was young, but Bud Hurst was an old pro, a lone wolf, with over 25 years of experience. During a break he told me we just didn’t seem to be reaching them. Something was missing. We weren’t in a zone. We decided to break for lunch a little early hoping with the help of a couple of Martinis (Martini lunches were ok and common back then) we could break down some of the resistance and make them feel a little more relaxed, hoping to close the deal after lunch.

So, off we go to lunch. We grabbed our suit jackets (back then dark suits with white shirts and ties were mandatory – there was no such thing as casual days --- this was the late 70’s). Little did I know I was about to set a new standard of dress.

Out the door we went----it was beautiful out. The rain had stopped, the sun was shining and it had warmed up a little. The five of us, the Director of Procurement, the twins and Bud Hurst, my top sales rep followed as I led the way to my car.

As I rounded the corner and approached my car I noticed that between me and the car was a huge puddle of water about 6 feet across and at least 3 inches deep. It really didn’t bother me much, I’d seen it before on rainy days and, in fact, I had been meaning to get it fixed. It was just one of those expenses (fixing the parking lot) that always seemed to get pushed to the bottom of the budget priority list. Besides, it was only noticeable when it rained. It was a slight indentation or minor sink hole as we say in Florida in the black top.

No big deal, RIGHT -- no big deal – until that day.

As I turned, a little quick I might add, to go around the puddle, I stepped on a rock, no bigger than ? the size of a golf ball. But it was big enough to turn my ankle, twist it and there I went, face first, doing a belly smacker right into the 6 foot puddle. I even scraped my chin causing blood to trickle down my chin.

	I was in shock
 	I didn’t want to get up
 	My face was as red as a baboons behind
 	I was stunned
 	I laid there for a few seconds—an eternity
 	I was hoping this wasn’t real

Finally, I turned over, propped myself up on one hand and my two feet to keep the seat of my pants dry and I looked up at four suits, the three muckety mucks, Danny Divito, Arnold Swartznager, the Corporate Pin Striped suit and Bud, the old pro who probably thought I was wet behind the ears even before I fell into the puddle.

	They were trying not to look at me
 	Mr. Pin stripes was covering his mouth trying desperately not to laugh
 	One buyer, Danny Divito was moving around like he had ants in his pants—looking in every direction but mine
 	The second buyer, Arnold, his cheeks were bulging out; his eyes looked like they were going to pop. He even had that big vein running down the middle of his forehead like the real Arnold Swartznager does. I swear – he must have been holding his breath

There I was, sitting in the middle of a mud puddle; I looked more like a wounded duck than a Grizzly Bear.

It was eerie; it was like a deafening silence in the parking lot. The kind of silence you saw in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, just before they attacked.

Stop the Embarrassment: How to Remember the Names of Everyone You Meet
Many of us are aware of the importance of identifying the people we meet by their names. Yet, on numberless occasions, we are embarrassed when we come across a face we know we have met recently but just can’t remember the person’s name. The embarrassment grows as we do a quick and frantic memory search with no useful results. Just a few tricks can help you memorize the names of the persons you meet and help you avoid getting into embarrassing encounters. Here are five easy steps to remember names:Pay close attention to the name of a person at the time of introduction, as attention helps you remember. At the same time, study the person, particularly the person’s facial features, the eyes, the nose, the brow etc., so that your memory can store the image of the person along with the name. This will help you establish a bond between the name and face. If you don’t do this, you may remember one but not the other.

otors muckety mucks came that day. The Director of Procurement; he was a tall lanky man with that corporate pin striped look and the division buyers of each of the two manufacturing plants. One buyer was short and thick with huge hairy hands and it looked like he didn’t have a neck. He reminded me of Danny Davito but he was just a little taller. The other one was average height, average looks and average dress but he was built like Arnold Swartznager. Looking at the two division buyers reminded me of the movie Twins where Arnold Swartznager and Danny Divito were twin brothers.

No big deal, RIGHT -- no big deal – until that day.

	I was in shock
 	I didn’t want to get up
 	My face was as red as a baboons behind
 	I was stunned
 	I laid there for a few seconds—an eternity
 	I was hoping this wasn’t real

	They were trying not to look at me
 	Mr. Pin stripes was covering his mouth trying desperately not to laugh
 	One buyer, Danny Divito was moving around like he had ants in his pants—looking in every direction but mine
 	The second buyer, Arnold, his cheeks were bulging out; his eyes looked like they were going to pop. He even had that big vein running down the middle of his forehead like the real Arnold Swartznager does. I swear – he must have been holding his breath

There I was, sitting in the middle of a mud puddle; I looked more like a wounded duck than a Grizzly Bear.

It was eerie; it was like a deafening silence in the parking lot. The kind of silence you saw in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, just before they attacked.

The One Absolute Thing To Know
I can tell you from experience that the single most important thing to do while running a small upcoming business is save, save, save.This message is more for the guy or girl who is just getting started. It is true that most businesses fail in the first year or two. Trust me, I was almost one of them. In fact I was one of them the first time around.Yes I failed at business. The reason that I failed was the same reason that most fail. We ran out of money. When I first started my company I was very young and I spent every dime that I made. Mostly out of necessity I paid my personal bills, my company bills and what ever was left I spent on the things that I thought I could now afford. Why not? More money more stuff right? Wrong…. Boy was I wrong. After a major equipment failure I had no money saved to repair it so I had to turn down jobs, which meant less money, then no money, then late bills then real disaster. I had to close the doors. Don’t let that be

break for lunch a little early hoping with the help of a couple of Martinis (Martini lunches were ok and common back then) we could break down some of the resistance and make them feel a little more relaxed, hoping to close the deal after lunch.

No big deal, RIGHT -- no big deal – until that day.

	I was in shock
 	I didn’t want to get up
 	My face was as red as a baboons behind
 	I was stunned
 	I laid there for a few seconds—an eternity
 	I was hoping this wasn’t real

	They were trying not to look at me
 	Mr. Pin stripes was covering his mouth trying desperately not to laugh
 	One buyer, Danny Divito was moving around like he had ants in his pants—looking in every direction but mine
 	The second buyer, Arnold, his cheeks were bulging out; his eyes looked like they were going to pop. He even had that big vein running down the middle of his forehead like the real Arnold Swartznager does. I swear – he must have been holding his breath

There I was, sitting in the middle of a mud puddle; I looked more like a wounded duck than a Grizzly Bear.

It was eerie; it was like a deafening silence in the parking lot. The kind of silence you saw in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, just before they attacked.

KPO India
India has been edge for the offshore outsourcing of the IT, financial services, business process outsourcing (BPO), because low cost manpower with higher education, neutral accent English speaking capability. In spite of these the India is emerging as new hub for KPO (knowledge process outsourcing), having large pool of knowledge workers in various sector. The India has been ranked the most preferred KPO destination.KPO deals with executing standardized processes, involves higher-end services which require advanced analytical and technical skills. knowledge process outsourcing involves Legal works carried out at law firms like patent document writing, global filing, search, trademark search, trademark registration, prior art searches, legal advise on infringements, invalidation search, freedom of use search, etc. The prior art search for a patent, drafting and filing of patent in the US is very expensive. According to a recent study by researchers at the Univ

s only noticeable when it rained. It was a slight indentation or minor sink hole as we say in Florida in the black top.

No big deal, RIGHT -- no big deal – until that day.

	I was in shock
 	I didn’t want to get up
 	My face was as red as a baboons behind
 	I was stunned
 	I laid there for a few seconds—an eternity
 	I was hoping this wasn’t real

	They were trying not to look at me
 	Mr. Pin stripes was covering his mouth trying desperately not to laugh
 	One buyer, Danny Divito was moving around like he had ants in his pants—looking in every direction but mine
 	The second buyer, Arnold, his cheeks were bulging out; his eyes looked like they were going to pop. He even had that big vein running down the middle of his forehead like the real Arnold Swartznager does. I swear – he must have been holding his breath

There I was, sitting in the middle of a mud puddle; I looked more like a wounded duck than a Grizzly Bear.

It was eerie; it was like a deafening silence in the parking lot. The kind of silence you saw in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, just before they attacked.

Public Relations and the Internet
Although the field of public relations is quite new, it is seen to be pivotal to many companies when coordinating advertising and marketing campaigns. Public relations, which is often defined as “The art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public” has been increasing in popularity, especially now with the Internet being used as a tool for communication in modern society.Frequent usage of the Internet has allowed consumers to communicate and access products and services from companies more easily. For example, Jerry Fireman states, “Public relations can be cost effective because the media—rather than the marketer—takes on the expense of delivering the information to the intended recipient.” (Fireman 2006, p: 1). Hence, by advertising on the Internet and promoting good relationships with clients, public relation officers are now able to achieve access to a wider market with a lower expenditure rate. Furthermore, the Interne

There I was, sitting in the middle of a mud puddle; I looked more like a wounded duck than a Grizzly Bear.

It was eerie; it was like a deafening silence in the parking lot. The kind of silence you saw in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, just before they attacked.

Well that comment cut it loose and all four of them roared with laughter. They thought it was absolutely hilarious. And, I guarantee you, no matter how embarrassed you get, no matter how stupid you feel, when you’re standing in front of four people that are laughing so hard tears are running down their cheeks, you can’t help but laugh with them.

I dried off with my golf towel that I retrieved from the trunk of my car and even though I was soaked we went to lunch anyway. Of course that’s all we talked about during the entire lunch – I couldn’t eat from being so embarrassed and they barely stopped laughing long enough to put food in their mouths.

Alls well that ends well; we got back from lunch and within an hour closed the deal. That meant a $4 million increase in sales for our branch. I think they felt sorry for me.

 After lunch tide turned—everything we discussed seemed to lead back to my grand belly smacker
 We talked about reducing inventory and someone said that would prevent tripping over it as they all roared with laughter.
 Some of the parts we discussed that were to be made from our steel spurred even more laughter –parts like —ankle pin, splash shield, dry lube on the parts

Our plan worked – and even through my belly smacker wasn’t in our original plan, it seemed to play a role in our success.

Many times even the best plan, the best preparation will encounter a twist in the road. The more prepared, the more confident we are, the better able we are to handle these twists. The belly flop into the parking lot puddle could have been more devastating than embarrassing. But, thanks to Bud, the sales pro, we were able to turn that most embarrassing moment for yours truly into an opportunity.

Ever since that day, I have never ever short changed maintenance and repair on any budget I was ever responsible for.

What are your puddles in the parking lot?

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.added4u.com/article/37069/added4u-Puddles-in-the-Parking-Lot.html">Puddles in the Parking Lot</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.added4u.com/article/37069/added4u-Puddles-in-the-Parking-Lot.html]Puddles in the Parking Lot[/url]

Before any document is finalized, you need to let someone else take a look at it. I cannot stress enough the significance of this step! Letters, memos, reports, brochures, even important e-mails—any writing that will see the light of day—should be read by others before you send it off. Here's why.

Employers are constantly searching for people who have the drive to work hard and the integrity to do the job well. Are you that kind of person?

Do we prosper more from paranoia or can we actually prosper more from altruistic behavior by entering into relationships of reciprocation.

Tags

Links

Added for You - Puddles in the Parking Lot

Related Articles: