One of the most practical communication skills you should develop is also one of the least commonly used — the power of negotiating. The difference between being a good negotiator and a poor negotiator could mean the difference in thousands of dollars throughout your life, pay raises and promotions, and the opportunity to have everything you’ve always wanted.

When envisioning negotiating, what comes top to mind is buying a new or used car. Perhaps you’ve even had experiences where you were spent a couple of hours playing tug of war with the salesperson, going back in forth on a price. You state a price, he gracefully bows out to speak to his sales manager, they come back with a price considerably higher than the price you offered, and so on.

That’s hardly negotiating. When that happens, the salesmen are simply letting you think you have a say in the final price, when they know precisely what they are willing to get for the car.

Read More

Do you know what WIIFM stands for? Sure you do! You ask yourself this question every time you think about making an investment or purchase—“What’s In It For Me?” Am I right? We purchase everything based on the “benefits” that we will receive when we use the service or product.

I have the good fortune to spend time with women entrepreneurs who are either starting a business for the first time or they are ready to take their existing business to the next level of success. It’s fun and energizing to see what happens when these women get together and map out their new products and services. The key to attract more clients is understanding the “benefits” your client will receive after they have experienced your product or service.

When you are passionate and energetic about an idea, you can come up with all kinds of names and catchy phrases for your products and services. The ideas seem to flow naturally once you put yourself in that creative space. The excitement about all of the possibilities in your future can sometimes overshadow the most important part of your business: The client or customer. We become so wrapped up in the idea of being a successful woman in business, we neglect to create a clear message about what we have to offer. Your ideal client becomes confused or uncertain on how you can help them (remember—WIIFM?) The most important thing that you can do is to put yourself in your ideal clients position.

Read More Here 

Leigh was a single mother with a stressful job and two young children who decided that self-employment was the answer for her. She quit her job, purchased a vending machine route and tripled its sales within two months. Once that was in order, she started her next profit center, buying and renovating houses. Not only did she find that she was spending more time with her kids, she also got them involved in her business as much as possible.

One day Leigh and her children went to visit a friend who had moved into a large new house. The friend took them on a room-by-room tour of the house proudly showing off her new home. When the tour ended, Leigh’s 5-year-old daughter looked at her quizzically and said, “Mom, where’s the office?”

Leigh’s daughter is not the only one who assumes that a home should have an office. Glossy magazines now feature layouts of slick home offices. Builders of upscale homes are including an office in their plans. Trendspotters tell us that this work-at-home lifestyle is not a passing fad.

Whether your work space is a studio, a rented office or a card table set up in a corner of your bedroom, efficiency is only one of the requirements. Your working space needs to be inviting, a place where you function easily surrounded by things you love and find inspiring.

[read more here]

.

“Without the strength to endure the crisis, one will not see the opportunity within. It is within the process of endurance that opportunity reveals itself.” Chin-Ning Chu

Crisis is often an entry point; an opportunity to get real, tell the truth about our selves and our business. Definition of Crisis -The moment in which we know without a doubt that if we don’t make changes with ourselves and in our business we will lose. Unfortunately, at this point we usually have already lost quite a bit, which is what makes it a crisis!

Understandably no one hopes for a crisis. Certainly this applies to our business or organization. Most of us as leaders would probably say one of our primary responsibilities is to prevent a crisis from ever occurring.

However, I have found that powerful lessons for all of us can be found in the middle of a business crisis. It isn’t uncommon for a leader to say, “Our staff has never pulled together more than when we were facing a crisis.” Possibly it’s the very real prospect of going out of business, facing a public relations catastrophe or even a natural disaster that causes people to unite.

[read more here]

Businesses fail, and often. If you think you want to run your own business, but are not sure you can be a successful Entrepreneur, I am glad you are thinking about it… keep reading. How does an Entrepreneur think, act, and respond? Is your personality a fit for being a successful Entrepreneur? Do you have what it takes?

Until recently, Entrepreneurs were not well thought of. As recent as the 80’s we looked on them as un-educated business men involved in shady dealings. There was a general lack of knowledge and information about what makes them successful.

Big business was the place to be, now that’s all changed. Our generation and the ones after us expect so much more from our career / work than our parents did. We want money, satisfaction, self expression and flexible hours such as a 4 day work week and tele-commuting. We have more small businesses than ever before in our U.S. history. In addition, smaller businesses are now attracting great employees and competing with the corporate world by offering those employees exactly what they want.

[read more here]

When John Amatt led the 1982 Canadian team on a successful Mount Everest Expedition, only three people reached the summit. Many climbers who were part of the team, whose lifetime ambition was to stand on top of Everest, made the conscious choice to stay in the base camp. Why? Because they knew the effort was likely to fail if everyone tried to make it. They chose to forego their individual dreams in favor of helping the team succeed.

This wasn’t John Amatt’s first time to plan an Everest expedition. Ten years earlier, with one of him friends from Norway, he had gathered a team of world- class climbers from many different countries, for the challenge. But at the last minute, he backed out. Officially, it was to get married. “But that was just an excuse,” he said later. “I knew that, despite having the best climbers in the world, this expedition would not succeed. Everyone wanted to reach the top for their own glory or that of their country. No one seemed willing to make decisions for the good of the team.”

His fears proved founded. Not only did the team not cooperate to make it to the top, at one point these sophisticated expert climbers even indulged in a rock-throwing fight.

[read more here]

Goals, I know that word can be very scary, but it doesn’t have to be, especially if you know what to do. What is a goal? A goal is something specific, something you want or need to accomplish in a specific period of time. To establish a clear, central purpose or goal in life is the starting point of all success.

There was a study several years ago at a business school and the results of the graduates who had been out of school for at least ten years illustrates the power of goals. Upon graduation the graduates were surveyed and the following was found:

83% did not have goals
4% had vague goals
3% had clearly articulated written goals

When their levels of accomplishments were compared ten years later, those with some sense of their goal earned three times more than those with no goals. The 3% with clearly articulated written goals earned ten times more than those without goals.

[read more here]