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Archive for November, 2008

Dealing With A Company Presentation

Nov 28

Posted by admin in Presentation | No Comments

Many of us may have been there and have done it several times but still the pressure remains when we are asked or volunteered by colleagues to make a presentation before a boss or before a very important client. It is but natural to be nervous and feel butterflies in your stomach knowing the information that you not only have to memorize and know to be able to answer queries as well as the nervousness that come with speaking in public.

To make a good presentation nothing beats preparation. You cannot just rely on your familiarity with the topic for a presentation. A presentation needs to highly organized with the use of visual aids (if necessary) with a well-composed speech that needs to be practiced and rehearsed.

But not all presentations always end with a well deserved applause. There are times when no matter how much preparation we have made, mistakes happen and our presentations turn out to be a complete flop when we either experience a mental block or we fail to answer questions that we never expected or thought of to be asked.

It is a bit difficult to stand back up from such a situation but instead of running away thinking that it will put your career to an end stay calm and don’t try to be frantic. Take responsibility for your mistake/s for you did your best preparation and you are not perfect. It is very much appropriate to apologize to your boss for giving a disappointing presentation. Apologize to your colleagues if you were making the presentation on behalf of them as well. Apologize and move on.

Don’t try to make excuses thinking that you could squirm your way out of it. Don’t also try to pass the blame on to other people. Admit to your mistake for after all it was an honest mistake at that.

After you learned your lesson from a previous mistake, don’t commit a similar mistake again in the future. Try to determine your weaknesses from the prior presentation and address them. If you had poor public speaking skills, try to improve by practicing or taking up public speaking seminars. If you had poor visual aids make them more interesting this time. If you failed to answer several questions try to brainstorm with your colleagues or your team to determine the possible questions that may be asked.

A single mistake will not ruin your career. Move on and think of this as a valuable experience from which you can draw learnings.

James Brown writes about ResumeRabbit.com deals, GoFreelance.com coupon code and Monster.com deals

Developing the Winning Mindset

Nov 26

Posted by admin in Sales | No Comments

One of the key characteristics that successful people have is a winning mindset. They have learned over time to program their mind for success. That’s what gives them the edge in competitive situations. This mindset allows them to hit the winning shot at the buzzer,sink the crucial putt on the 18th hole to win the tournament, or even purchase or sell their home! The question is why do some people have it and others don’t? How can you ensure that you acquire the winning mindset? Let me take you through the development of a winning mindset.

1. Record and replay the tape: Now, I don’t mean that you have to record yourself on a recorder. You do need to write down on paper (and track) your victories. We all have a lot of victories daily, weekly, and monthly. We just have a hard time remembering them. If we record them, we can review them during the challenges we are facing. When we lose our self-confidence, we can build it through reviewing our past victories. A lot of our victories, we will find, come out of a very challenging problem or struggle we are having. This review will also show us the direct correlation between the challenges we face and the victories we have. The key is to review them regularly. Review them, so you can invest them to pay dividends today, and tomorrow.

2. Understand the game you are playing: The highest peak performers understand the game they are playing- how to score and win. When I was younger, I played racquetball professionally. I always had a philosophy that if I finished second, it was the same as losing. I could have won all the other matches to the final, but losing the final was as bad as losing in the first round. For me, there was no second place. Business is the same way. Have you ever gotten paid for coming in second? Second place does not make the mortgage payment. Make sure you are playing to win. Understand the reality of the business that you are in. Develop the focus that you need to compete at the highest level.

3. The secret edge: Believe in yourself. The best of the best in life believe in themselves. Michael Jordan believed to his core that he was the best. His belief, and his sheer will to win, created the best basketball player ever. I read an article about a survey in which professional golfers were asked, “If you had one putt to win a major championship, who would you pick to putt it?” Almost all of them chose Jack Nickalaus. Why, because he knew he was the best and had the ability to will the ball into the hole. When I sold real estate, I truly believed I was the best Agent for the job. That belief extended beyond just my market place. The question is what do you believe? When your confidence goes up, your competence goes up at the same time. Program your mind, through affirmations, that you are the best. Say aloud daily: “I am a great business person”, “I am the best that someone can hire to do the job”, “I provide exceptional service to my clients.” You must drive your belief deep. It truly is the secret weapon for all peak performers.

We must invest time daily to develop the winning mindset. Take the time to record your victories. Review them daily, weekly, and monthly. Work to improve your belief in yourself. We all came from the same creator. He didn’t create any junk. You have it inside you to be exceptional. The secret edge is belief.

Norman Vincent Peale said, “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy. Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind . . . a mental picture of yourself succeeding. Hold the picture tenaciously; never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.”

Dirk Zeller is the President & CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 250,000 Agents worldwide each year.

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Time Management Takes Self Discipline

Nov 24

Posted by admin in Growth Topics | No Comments

Aside from creating to do lists and using them as guidelines for your business day, you need to become better at time management on the whole. That means that you will have to learn what schedule works best for you and your business, how to set goals and follow through making them, and how to prioritize those goals. You will want to stay away from time drainers, especially if you work at home.

It appears when you work at home that friends, neighbors, even family can sometimes get the idea that you are free to run errands, make calls, take visits, or just plain chat because you are at home. You need to quickly dispel the idea that your time is available and open for other’s to schedule for you.

YOUR WORK SCHEDULE

This is probably one of the most overlooked and most beneficial aspects of having your own business. If your customers are not setting the hours for you based on their schedules, you can reasonably create a schedule that maximizes your productivity because it suits your personality and your lifestyle. There are many entrepreneurs who use the flexibility of home businesses to manage their time in a fashion that doesn’t exactly fit the straight 9 to 5 pm standard workweek.

There are plenty of entrepreneurs who prefer the standard workweek. It all depends on how used you are to this routine and whether you think you can get more mileage out of a different work schedule.

A STANDARD SCHEDULE

If you are on the conservative side or trying to do business with others who are on this schedule, then you will probably schedule your day so that you commence working at 8 am or 9 am and quit after 8 hours or more. You can do this for five days a week and keep your weekend this way.

The key here is to have some separate area in your home set up as an office that marks when you are at work and when you are on your own time. If you don’t have this boundary, you will be consistently hit upon by people trying to take advantage of the fact that you are not under anyone’s supervision but your own. Be clear, when you are in your office – you are working and should not be disturbed. Have two phone lines and don’t answer the home phone when you are at work. All this is common sense, but many people waste time by not making it clear to their spouses, their children, or even their pets that work time is not play time or come bother mommy time.

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES

One of the key benefits that people who work at home and have online businesses realize quickly is their ability to take advantage of flexible schedules. If you hate waking up early in the morning and are not a morning person, you can begin working later – as long as you make your full day of work.

If you prefer working weekends and doing your grocery shopping on the week days (when the stores are empty), you can soon figure out that you are saving yourself time on your home duties as well as smartly scheduling your time for work. If you have to make runs to particular businesses in the course of your workday, like the post office or the bank, then you will begin to find out when the best time is to show up. The less time you spend in line, the more time you have to work and make money.

Don’t forget that the hours you save commuting can also be used quite well, if you are an early riser. You can schedule your alarm as if you were going to a regular office and instead go to your home office, which should be a much closer commute. You save money on gas too.

There are people who do freelancing who work in the middle of the night and during hours that are more comfortable for them. In the middle of the night, there are no distractions and the possibility of being completely free of the noise of the outside world is something very attractive to programmers, writers, and other professionals.

If you have a full day during the day caring for children, you can schedule to sleep when a spouse comes home and wake up early in the morning (2 am to 3 am) to begin your workday in complete solitude. You save money on day care but can still schedule some time to work from home on an online business. This may sound totally unpleasant to some people, but there are a number of business owners who relish the idea of having a very quiet and beautifully cool night to work through.

Finally, if you’ve hired contract workers who are working in India or some other place because they are cheaper, you may need to modify your schedule to be able to contact them during their working hours. While the cost of labor may smaller, the price you pay is that your schedule has to work to be able to telephone them directly at a time when they are available. Otherwise, you can work through emails and expect a time lag difference, which is not very effective.

Time Management involves numerous disciplines, but if you are keeping your time line goals in mind, you will get better at managing the time required to make your business a success.

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
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