Age difference is one of the barriers of effective communication in an organization. Age difference can occur when members in an organization have a wide range of age gap between the employees that will cause the different perceptions among them. These different perceptions will cause the hardship in communicating among one another. For example, a young employee will remember easily the message convey to them compared to an older employee. The amount of time for both employees to capture the message conveyed to them will be different as well.

The second barrier of effective communication is management and employees are having mistrust. Mistrust between management and an employee happens when either the management or employee or both parties do not have confidence towards each other. One of the barriers that lead to mistrust between management and employees is language barrier. Language barrier exists when a person say things in his or her terms of language which may cause barriers to others who are not familiar with the language. The other person might misunderstand the meaning intended to relay.

Gender difference is the third barrier of effective communication in an organization. It is a common barrier of communication that men and women will communicate for different reasons in different styles. Men and women have their own perception, feelings, beliefs, actions and value, respectively. Both of them are motivated by different things that make them communicate in different ways. For example, women might use softer voice volume to encourage permission and approval while men will use louder voice volume to attract attention and maintain control. There are some men who whenever they communicate with women, they tend to communicate in autocratic manner in order to maintain their pride and egoism.

Another barrier might be the cultural differences. It will be difficult to communicate with the people having a different culture and background. There will be miscommunication when we make the wrong assumption that others people’s attitudes and lives are similar to us. Communicating with colleagues using different native language might be a problem as well.

Therefore, it is important for us to understand that not everyone will behave and communicate in the same way with us. Culture with collaboration and open communication will enhance communication in the organization. Trust and openness to express ideas and perceptions are very important. Barriers of communication that exist will affect the effectiveness of communication in organization. Level of effective communication will actually affect the level of satisfaction of members in organization. Satisfaction of the member will affect the whole operation of the organization.

Customers are often being identified as the best sources to create ideas for new ventures. Some customers might feel that there is something lacking in the product. For example, we can transform a normal umbrella into a unique and usable umbrella because we found out that the normal umbrella was not enough for the hot weather. The customers always complain that the weather is very hot and they hope to have an umbrella that not only can be use during the rain season but also during the hot season-that being able to produce a cooling effect. In order to understand the product needs of the customers, we need to have a close contact with them.

From the statement we know, there is an opportunity to modify our current normal umbrella. We will carefully evaluate and screen the opportunity. This evaluation of opportunity is the most critical in the entrepreneurial process because we need to compare whether the product we created has the return we need compared to the resources required in making this product.

We also need to check the real and perceived value; the risks and the returns, the personal skills required and the ability of the product to differentiate itself from the competitor’s products. The personal skills required include the time and effort needed to put in order to make the venture succeed. The entrepreneur needs to make necessary sacrifices to develop the opportunity. It is important for the entrepreneurs to have confidence in the opportunity in order to gain the result that they desire. The confidence they have will eventually lead them to the right path in pursuing the results that they desire.

The customer is not the only source to identify the business opportunity. We can gain the sources from business associates, members of the distribution system and the technical people. There are some other cases that require the entrepreneur to establish some mechanisms to identify the potential business opportunity. But most of the time, the entrepreneur does not have the formal mechanisms in identifying the opportunity.

This opportunity analysis is just an opportunity assessment plan. This is different from the business plan. This is just one method to evaluate the opportunity. This opportunity plan includes a few elements such as the description of the product, the assessment of the opportunity, the assessment of the entrepreneur and the team, specifications of all the activities and also the resources needed in order to successfully enter this new venture. The most important is we are able to create a product that fulfills the customers’ need.

Every morning, the alarm clock will buzz you at the same time and you pretend not to listen to that sound. But after all, you will still have to accept and face the fact that you need to go to work and get the pay check back home. Deep in your heart, you know that you have a lot of commitments. You are thinking of the house mortgage, car, bills, and credit cards to pay every month. No matter how much you hate your boss, you will be looking and smiling at him or her every day. You scare that you will get fired if you do not do your job well.

Have you ever think of how long this situation will continue to happen? You wanted to change the whole situation yet you do not know how and what to do. Here is some guidance for you to help you get out from this situation. It might not provide direct solution to your problem but after reading this, it might change your whole perspective.

First of all, you have to be mentally prepared. You have to know that no matter how hard you work, how many jobs that you do, there will not be enough. This is because human desire is one of our biggest enemies. We never feel satisfied. We hope to get a house of our own. After we got the house, we hope to get a bigger house. Trust me, this kind of attitude that is actually leading us to get more and more debts.

Secondly, we always blame others and we will find every single reason to make our judgment rational. For example, we hate our job because we are getting too much of responsibilities. We blaming our boss and saying that they actually exploit us for giving us such low pay. But have you ever thought that the job and your boss might not be the real problem? It is obvious that life is pushing you around and you are accepting it without fighting.

Many people is playing safe when they deal with money. They will go out to find more and more jobs because they believe that by doing so, they able to get out from the debts. But the fact is, this is not going to solve the existing problem. We should try to think how to let the money work for us instead of us being the slave for them. The most important here is, we must understand that the problems exist and getting more money will not be the solution for this. If we continue to ignore it by accepting more and more jobs without deep thinking, then we will continue with this rat race until our retirement age and we might end up working whole life without purpose.

Making the first move might be the most difficult step to do but you must tell yourself that if you are able to make changes to your life, then this will lead you not only to financial freedom but also having time freedom.

A business plan is important because it provides a framework for informing employees and others about the company’s future direction. It also helps ensure that management decisions are based on the objective analysis of the company’s strength and weaknesses. It also makes management aware if they are maximizing the financial return on their scarce resources or not. It also ensures that the team considers the future strategy of the firm. It also means that we can determine how much money is needed for the existing sources or new sources to achieve the plan.

The entrepreneurs should write the business plan, themselves. They can get consultation from other sources such as the lawyers, accountants, marketing consultants and engineers. Another source might be the Internet which can provide wide information or the examples of the outline for business planning. The employees of the company, bankers, investors, suppliers or the shareholder and others may read the business plan. Different people read the business plan for different needs. For example, the investor wanted to see the Return on Investment (ROI) and the profit of the company.

Basically the business plan is divided into eleven components. The first is the introductory page, which provides a brief summary of the business plan’s contents. This is followed by the executive summary, which summarizes the complete business plan. This section is very important because the investor will refer to the summary in deciding whether they want to invest in the plan or not. Then will continue with industry analysis, which focuses on reviews the industry trends and competitive strategies.     

Next is the description of venture. This describes the overall overview of the products, services and the operations of the new venture. This is followed by the production plan, which describes in detail how the product will be manufactured. Then, it is followed by the operational plan. The operational plan describes the flow of goods and services from the production to the customer.

This is followed by the marketing plan. The marketing plan describes how the products or services will be distributed, priced, and promoted. After we do the marketing plan, we need to do the organizational plan that describes the venture’s form of ownership whether it is sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. Then, it leads to the assessment of risks. The potential risks and also the alternative strategies to meet business plan goals and objectives will be identified here. Next is the financial plan, which projects the financial data that determine economic feasibility and necessary financial investment commitment. Lastly, all the backup material or reference to any of the documents should be put under the appendix of the business plan.

Before Operating Your Business

Planning is the most important step before you start your business. Good planning will lead your business moving forward while making a bad decision will not only leave the company without profit but might even suffer from losses. Planning includes the short- term and long-term plans. A short-term plan is usually around one year and long-term plan is more than that. Short time plan includes the budget for one-year business, the cash flow for each month, goals to achieve within the time frame and many more. Long-term planning is more towards how to sustain the business, expanding the business and how to get more capital from the existing business.

Start Operating Your Business

You must always remember that planning is not just a plan. You must also foresee some unexpected circumstances that may happen beyond what you expected for your business. For example, if you plan to have your products in May, but somehow the processing department is having problem with the workers and not able to produce it on time. You already agreed to provide your customer with the product within the specified date. Therefore, you must always be aware that this kind of situation happens unexpectedly. Having a backup is one of the suggestions. In this case, you can employ more part-time workers as a supplement to help speed up your processing process. You might even have to move certain workers from other departments to help this department. Therefore, you must be prepared to face obstacles that are beyond your expectations.

Having a good financial advisor for your business is also one of the ways to help your business to grow. You can employ external advisor to help see your company’s financial situation. They can provide you with some suggestions and solutions on how to handle your business. It would be much better to employ the external advisor because this external advisor does not have any relationship with your business. If you are using the existing employee as your advisor, they might be reluctant to provide you information of the real situation of your company. The internal advisor is afraid because by letting you know the situation, this might affect their jobs in the company as well. But the disadvantage of using an external advisor is they might not be very familiar with the operation of the company unlike the internal advisor. They might need more time to conduct research on the company before they are able to analyze it. Some internal advisors might not even cooperate with them.

Therefore, as the boss of a company, you must be smart when handling different kinds of situations. Making a good decision might be the most difficult task for you because this will affect the whole operation of your company.

Linda McGuire (WA) asked:

"Is print dead?" I’m interested in hearing from various areas of publishing about that. So much of information-dispersal is now online, and it would be interesting to know what real effect that’s had on print sales and production. Newspapers & magazines are hit pretty hard, but I haven’t heard what effect th

Debra’s answer…

Linda… print isn’t dead but it is changing and for some newspapers and magazines there is a shift in the marketplace to go online. Many
publications have already made the move PC Magazine is a great example of moving to the online method of delivery

From my research and personal predictions because of the age of Information and the new communication channels through Web 2.0 methods (facebook, twitter, linked-in, etc.) we will see more publications move to online delivery methods and those that don’t will be publications representing specialized niches that may have to decrease their frequency to survive.  Survival is key here and the answer is ingenuity and creativity combined with an online method of delivery. 

Books, however are still sought after in their physical form but their shelf-life has been shortened considerable, again perhaps because of the Information Age and the fact that there are more people publishing their information than there ever has been, causing a saturation in the marketplace, combined with the fact that the information becomes out-dated more quickly is again some of the primary causes for this. 

While books are still desired, more people are becoming comfortable with ebook and tools like Kindle and online stores representing ebook libraries are becoming more well known.  eBook sales continue to rise and are a fast lead generator for many experts to build a list or bring people into their marketing funnel.

Ansif Ashraf (Cochin, India) Commented:  "If your books have soul, people will search for it."

Debra’s Reply:
Ansif… you are right to some extend, but as I teach… just because you build it, unlike the movie the "Field of Dreams" they will not come.  The first rule of marketing and being successful in business is to determine if there is a need and then provide the solution. This is an important first step that you must take. So if you can determine the validity of the market and that people have a need and are looking for your subject, you almost have a perfect message to market match, even if your book has "soul" (love that by the way), the final piece to the formula is that the must be willing to spend the money to get the solution… your book.  Or Ansif… in your case SOUL-ution   (this is a word I made up because I do agree with you about "soul"…love your passion and mindset.)

Sue Okell (UK) Asked :  I know authors who are fed up of publishers doing next to nothing to promote their new titles… and hence they’re taking their teaching online to get it out there… So if I were you Debs, I’d be very interested to know what your publisher’s base line promotional package is for you.. what will they actually commit to in order to help get sales for you…??

Debra’s answer…

Actually the key here is marketing.  It doesn’t matter if you go with a full publishing house (main stream publisher) or self-published… you the author, will need to be responsible for your own marketing.  One of the biggest myth’s in publishing a book is that you can make a lot of money.  This in fact is rare and the real purpose of your book is three-fold…

1) to fulfill a dream to become published/or share your message to make a difference,

2) to generate leads and create a list – thereby allowing you to make money from your list through other revenue generating streams

3) to establish yourself as an Expert

Next Steps… Deb’s Webinar On Publishing Your Book & Becoming An Expert

Great discussion guys… love how you think and I’ll look at presenting a webinar on this and publishing your book perhaps this week or next.  It will be a free webinar… no sales, just information and value to help you all out.  I’ve already mapped this out and have gone through this process for the past several years. I have much to share with you.

With respect to my findings today… it is possible that I may be creating a publishing  division to our corporation to meet this need in the market place for authors… which Sue directly answers your question of marketing.  More on that later.

Thanks everyone…. catch you later on this… I’ve got my head down to get ready for my presentation at Matt’s… good night!

Cheers from Atlanta!

Debra

Information marketing is also commonly called business marketing because it is a cottage industry designed to promote the creation of items that seek to deliver informational items in the context of a marketing campaign. This has allowed those talented in the skills of such promotions to develop business marketing strategies that many in the public will find helpful and appealing. This, in turn, creates a popular business model seek to employ.

Much is said about information marketing these days and for good reason – information marketing remains possibly one of the very best ways to promote a product or service. Unfortunately, there is some confusion as to what information marketing is or what it entails. The following will provide a clearer look at the purpose – and benefits – of employing an information marketing strategy. Those looking to promote a product or service will certainly find this insight to be helpful.

So, what is information marketing? On the most basic of definitions, information marketing entails creating a promotional product that employs the presentation of news, ideas, or informational concepts to create credibility in a product or service. In a way, you could consider it a documentary of sorts designed to make people take a certain product or service more serious. The end result of this would be people becoming more likely to purchase the product or service.

Generally, for information marketing to be successful, it needs to be a quality mix of directly helpful information and an entertaining product. In a way, you could looks towards The History Channel as an example of this approach. Many programs on the channel are designed to be informative about history and they are presented in a manner that is highly engaging and entertaining. This keeps their audience’s attention to the point that the audience is willing to wait through and watch the commercials on the channel in order to see more of the program. Yes, you could call the programming on The History Channel information marketing that keeps your attention of the products and services of the commercials. This really is not all that removed from the approach you should try with your own information marketing venture.               

While the average person understands that the internet remains an excellent resource for selling products and services, it may not be within the scope of the individual to be able to craft an information marketing or business marketing campaign. That is there the talented professionals come in and craft the promotional materials needed to be successful with this type of marketing.

This business of information marketing has certainly grown over the past several years. Many excellent businesses have sprung up offering such professional services. As such, anyone looking to promote their own business ventures are highly advised to explore what these professional services have to offer.

And, this may come as a surprise to many, but information marketing is often inexpensive when you find the right provider. Seeking out such quality professionals is advised to anyone seeking such skills.

The definition of a ‘good job’ has changed tremendously compared to the years before. Nowadays, a good job does not only equal to tangible expectations like a good pay in a big corporation and job security that lasts.

A good job is one that, aside from the tangible expectations mentioned, also provides more quantity in terms of the amount of time to spend alongside the performance of the job. Whether they want more time to spend with family or to do things they love to do at their own comfort zone, it’s essential that they feel free and obliged to perform their task at work, to the best of their ability.

And what better way to start than to venture into your own consulting business? Consulting is considered as one of the best profession around due to its versatility. First of all, consulting jobs is available all year around, unmoved by factors such as the current growth of economy, the statistics of unemployment in the country, stock market and such.

One of the reasons why consulting jobs are popular is the increasing number of companies looking for outsource on their projects and consulting jobs. Hence, the remuneration to gain from a successful consulting business can be tempting.

To get started, one question you may need to ask yourself is whether you want to hang on to your full-time day job or venture out on your own. The latter option might sound a bit risky, but then again, so does every start-ups and businesses. Whatever the decision you’ve made, it should be one that is thoroughly considered and not done in haste.

You can start sending out your resumes in search for consulting positions around. There can be many strategies to look for the job, the same as when you first started on your job hunt such as writing in by formal letter or cover letter emails to companies that may be interested in your application for the job.

To better your chances in seeking for the job, it also helps to network around. You may discuss it with your friends who are in the consulting field, friends of friends, or even former employers that may give you an idea or two on their opinion about the industry. You will learn more about the industry, and at the same time, they will be informed as well of your intentions to seek for a consulting position.

Take note however, that the period of job searching can take months so you have to be very patient and keep trying. Eventually, this would be test to your determination and the level of your soft skills to obtain your very first consulting job.

The first path to having a successful business is based on one fundamental principle: businesses are set up to make money. Every action and decision that you as a business owner take must be informed by the return you will receive from the action. You might have heard the phrase ‘If you enjoy what you do, you will never have to work a day in your life’. It is true that enjoying what you do is always a plus in any business you do. But there must be a clear distinction that the end goal in setting up the business is to make a profit; having fun as you do so is an added benefit.

Another key component of a success mindset is collaborative but independent thinking. There is nothing wrong with asking for advice on certain aspects whether it is strategic advice from someone who has experience operating your kind of business or at an operational level from one of your employees. However, the key decisions that will determine the direction the business will take must ultimately be owned and rest with you. Even in the absence of such input from knowledgeable persons, you must understand your business well enough to be able to make key strategic decisions on your own.

A business mindset also means being open to ideas for generating income from multiple sources. Focusing on your core business is not a bad idea. However, and more so for small businesses, diversification might be the path to generating adequate income to shore up your core product during leaner times. In addition, you could land on a particular angle of business that might have such strong growth potential that you end up setting an entirely new company just for it.

Finally, a business mindset demands that one must be intimately familiar with the vital numbers that define their business. Trends in expenses, revenue, new products, overall employee headcount, individual strengths and weaknesses of key staff, market share and business forecasts. In addition, you must keep tabs of changes in the regulatory environment to ensure that you not only avoid falling foul of the law, but that you can also take advantage of opportunities that the new laws may present. Understanding the key parameters around your business does not require you to be an expert in accounting or law; having a success mindset only requires that you have a working knowledge of the information.

Number one, charge your seminar at a moderate level according to the market to get the best of both worlds. It is essential that you test your market wisely; charge too high and you’d drive away people or charge too low and expect a huge chunk of less interested participants and those who most probably won’t buy your product simply because they can’t afford it. Also take note that the more specific your seminar, the higher you can charge.

Number two; rake in the VIPs to your seminar. These people boost your seminar’s profile two-fold. Invite these people to your seminar for free and watch them do their PR. By informing the public of the VIPs that are expected to attend prospects will have even more reason to attend your seminar.

Number three; offer bonuses to participants. Free goodie-bags are a common trend, so why not follow it but ensure you don’t spend too much on one bag. Reward those who register for your seminar early with for example coupons for all sorts of things and free reports.

Number four; offer one-on-one consultation, preferably before the seminar. Though it may sound tiring, prospects will have their questions answered, thus drastically increasing enrollment.

Number five; have a website. A website is a powerful communications tool which you can take advantage of. Having a website enables prospects to find all the info they need in only one location. Make your website interactive and user-friendly. Include free tips about your seminar as well.

Number six; reward volunteers. An unorthodox way of filling up those empty seats is by giving discounts to those who have volunteered in the setting-up of the seminar. Avoid doing this early on though, in case you turn out to have limited seats. Use this strategy as a last resort.

Number seven; take part in free information seminars. Information seminars are seminars where you promote your seminar for free via a presentation for about an hour. This is common among the higher-priced, lengthier, general interest seminars.

Number eight; make your seminar look like a hit. It’s all about advertising. For example, make a note on the ad saying that only the first x people who have registered will be allowed to attend the seminar.

Number nine; wake the public up. This is common where people regard seminars as a waste of time, and it’s your job to prove them wrong. Use aggressive advertising methods which may include questioning and captions on the ads.

Number ten; put early bird registrants on hot seats. Hot seats are an activity where a designated number of attendants are brought up to face the group and share their business problems. The speaker and occasionally the audience then suggest solutions for the problems. Ask participants who have registered early to fill the hot seats.