So if you’re like the rest of us, January (and the New Year) brings a whole host of “good intent” into our personal and professional lives.

The New Year is a time to “wipe the slate clean” and “do things differently” this year. But come the end of January, unless the changes have already been put in play, a lot of that New Year Vigor has seemingly “left the building” – very much like Elvis after a Vegas concert.

And making matters even worse, a lot of entrepreneurs that I get the chance to meet are “Do-ers” rather than “Planers”. And in a lot of cases, being a Do-er, is a requisite for running your own business – after all, if you don’t do it, nobody will, right?

The trouble with simply “doing” without a plan in place though, is that you can get stuck moving forward without a plan – and subsequently, without direction. And that’s just not advisable under ANY circumstance!

The power of a plan is crucial. And I’m not just talking about that business plan that you wrote a while back – I’m talking about your day-to-day, month-to-month strategic plan. The one that outlines a goal (or set of goals) and puts a well-thought-out set of strategies in place to achieve that goal(s).

Think of a plan as a rudder on a boat – without a rudder, well – you’re just going to go wherever the wind takes you. Maybe its into a lush port full of riches, but more often than not, its to the rocky shores. And lets face it – wouldn’t you rather steer towards the port of riches?

So its with that in mind that I outlined these 7-Setps To Thrive for the upcoming year.

Step 1: Understand Your Market And Your Competition
I know this seems like a real no-brainer. But you’d be amazed at how many people simply gloss over this crucial step. Remember, this step is a tool for you to gain a share of the marketplace. Knowing your competition and what they’re doing, can allow you to fill in the gaps of what they’re NOT doing. Also, knowing your market will set you up to be able to sell them what it is they want to buy.

Step 2: Understand Your Ideal Client
Now that you understand the market that you want to sell into, what specific clients are you looking for? Simply put, you want to know who your ideal clients are, what they want, and what motivates them to buy. Often times, this is a demographic decision based on estimated income, age groups, where they live, etc. The good news is, to get this done it only involves a little research.

Step 3: Pick a Niche
This is probably one of the most important steps you can do. And the more focused you make your niche, the better. When you specialize in a niche, you become a lot more attractive to the members of that niche. Why? Because you’re servicing them directly – looking after their needs. When you’re a generalist, you end up servicing no one in particular. So choose a niche for your business so you can own that share of the market.

Step 4: Develop and Use A Lead Generation Marketing Message
This one is simple and a lot of people already have it done. What I’m really talking about here is the simple “elevator pitch” or initial teaser that you use when meeting people for the first time when they ask you “so what do you do?” And it’s also the message you use in all your marketing. It needs to talk to a specific client problem, and indicate how you can solve it.

Step 5: Determine Your Marketing Medium / Media
Remember back in Step 2, I said it was important to understand your ideal customer? Well this is one of the main reasons why. When you understand your customer, you also know where they look for information. Then when you know that, you can target those media for your marketing efforts.

Step 6: Set Sales + Marketing Goals
Let’s face it, you had to know this one was coming. And I can’t stress the importance of this enough. As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, goals will provide you with direction in your business. Goals need to be clear and unambiguous. They need to have a timeline associated with them, and they need to be measurable. Finally, a goal needs to be attainable.

Step 7: Develop a Marketing Budget
The fact of the matter is this: you need a budget. It’s rare that an entrepreneur has an unlimited budget to work with, so that being the case, make sure you have a budget worked out for all your marketing efforts.

So there you have it – a simple 7-Step-Marketing-Plan to thriving in the New Year! It really can be this simple. For the most part it should generally take a day to make all this happen. And if you don’t know where to start, there are a number of online bootcamps and courses that can help you out. Or, you can just put pen to paper and give it a try yourself. Either way, the important thing is to create a plan for yourself that will get you ready to tackle the upcoming year!

Here’s to your success in 2008!

Mark Winder, the Sales Made Simple Coach, helps entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals aim higher and achieve more. Winder is the author of “Mark Winder’s Sales & Marketing Bootcamp“, and the free audio seminar, “The 20 Sales Secrets of Top Entrepreneurs“.

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
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

A vote is the voice of an individual making a choice. A vote can be given by ballot or voice. They can be delivered personally by the voter or by proxy. A decision on a submitted question is made by the majority of the votes delivered.

An agreement is an understanding reached by two or parties about their rights and obligations relating to a certain subject or thing. In reaching consent between two or more people regarding the transmission of a property, right or benefit it is necessary to consider the requisites and kind or agreement as well as how the agreement may be annulled.

There are some things that must happen for a legal agreement to be completed. First, there must be a person able to contract and a person able to be contracted with. Next, there must be a thing that is able to be contracted for. There must also be lawful
consideration or quid pro quo. Finally, there need to be assent from the contracting parties.

The actual agreement can either by in writing or under seal. The agreement is executed once two or more persons have made over their rights to a certain thing to one another thereby changing the property therein. An agreement may be conditional or unconditional.

There are a number of ways to nullify an agreement. It is important to note that the agreement is formed from the moment when the parties give their consent, whether it can be proved or not. A simple want of proof does not nullify the agreement.

A voting agreement is usually between an acquiring company and the company being acquired. It is important to develop a voting agreement for all shareholders who are involved in a merger. This is a legal requirement.

It is necessary to identify all involved parties, the shares before the merger and after the merger, as well as granting of the proxy, share transfer, and representations. A voting agreement generally takes approximately thirteen hours to prepare. There are prepared forms available that will significantly reduce that amount of time.

Often confused with a voting agreement, a voting trust is the collection of proxy votes in order to form a group with a unified opinion that can move a specific resolution. It is a trust of actual voting rights that have been entrusted to someone.

Many groups that promote a certain cause or approach will form a voting trust in order to uphold their control and interests. There are forms available for a Voting Trust Agreement that will provide for the issuance of certificates for common stock to be placed in the care of a depositary in the voting trustees name.

Creating a Voting Agreement

Depending on the circumstances, if you are involved in creating or signing a voting agreement, you can follow one of two paths. It is possible to order and download a form from the internet for a Voting Agreement or have a lawyer draw up the form. If the voter agreement is complicated or it deals with major decision.

John Siegler is a co-founder and CFO of Practice Technologies, Inc., creator of RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs.com gives you insider access to legal documents drafted by top Lawyers in the US. Click here to see an actual voting agreementhttp://www.RealDealDocs.com.