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Growth is a key factor for any business, large or small.

There are always areas of your company that can be improved and always new things to learn. If you want to take your business from the small to the big time, follow these steps and you should see your profits and customer base increase.

Set goals

If you have a clear idea of where you want your business to be in five years time, you should set yourself small goals to keep you on track. You should make a list of objectives that you want to have completed by the end of each month and should reassess your progress on a regular basis, say once every three months.

You should also make a list of things you want to complete by the end of the fiscal year and what your goals for the following year will be.

Analyze your progress

It’s all well and good making headway in a number of areas, but unless you evaluate your results you are not going to know which parts of your business are working and which could be improved. If you have a website, analysis is crucial to knowing how many visitors you are getting a day and where they are coming from.

Once you have looked over your results you will be able to make decisions on which business practices are working well for you and which should be left behind.

Streamline your processes

One thing that is going to make your company stand out is the ability to complete transactions and deals quickly and within the deadline. There are many external programs you can use to complete such goals. For example, you may find that the ability to sign documents electronically would be of benefit to your firm, meaning that deals would be completed quicker and with much less paperwork.

Identify potential customers

Customers are the lifeblood of any business and although generating repeat visits from customers is important, you also need to make sure you are attracting new clients to your business. Carrying out market research is a great way to analyze the market and find out where groups of potential customers may be hiding.

You could even ask your existing clients what they like about your company and what they think could be improved, meaning that once you find an additional source of customers, you will be giving them exactly what they want.

Play to your strengths

Above all else, people want honesty from the companies they deal with. Although it can be very tempting for the small business to talk itself up in order to sound like the big players on the market, you should bear in mind that many customers actually prefer buying from small family-based retailers.

There is no point lying to your customers – if you are a small firm, say so on your website and marketing collateral. Your customers will appreciate your transparency and will reward you by providing you with repeat business.

Any business can always improve and there are a number of ways you can make sure your small firm grows.

Which will you try first?

The world has been getting smaller ever since the first people decided to take a horse or a floating object and venture outward to a place they had never been to before.

In time, trade routes developed, and people began to exchange goods that had been produced hundreds or even thousands of miles away from where they were being consumed.

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However, that was thousands of years ago, when the world’s technology was very primitive. The world has evolved to the point where the Internet has erased all boundaries.

The very nature of the Internet, often called the cloud, has reached beyond being merely technological. There is now an almost metaphysical significance to it. The world’s borders are becoming less and less resolute in the face of the changes it is bringing about.

Evolving Business

For one thing, the American business models have undergone some incredibly sweeping changes already. Granted there was a time in which the outsourcing of production to other countries, coupled with our frequent trade deficits, was making it look as if the United States was about to all but sell its power to do anything on its own.

The nature of being highly interdependent, however, is bringing back some of America’s ostensibly lost glory. Consider that American products can often compete with those of other nations on a quality basis and through superior branding, and you will see that the stars and stripes have as much power to create as they ever have.

Outsourcing Increases World Economy

And while a lot of people think that when American businesses outsource job functions (such as research, customer service and IT) to workers from other countries they are weakening our entire nation, this is not the case. While it is true that many information age jobs which are equivalent to the proletariat of old have been outsourced, this will actually have a positive effect over the long term.

Consider that when people have jobs, no matter where they are, they have money. And while American companies tend to pay these foreign workers meager wages by American standards, these wages are often princely sums by local standards. And when the people suddenly find themselves in possession of disposable income, their demand for high end products (which may very well be American made) is bound to increase.

While the process is extremely slow to come about, in time the outsourcing of jobs will benefit both American companies and their workers through increased demand as the worldwide income gap begins to narrow and disposable income begins to grow.

Living in the Clouds

Cloud computing has brought about a lot of positive effects, it has only just begun to do so. There has never been a time in human history in which as much information exchange could be accomplished with such unbelievable ease.

You can have your company be based in America, targeting an American audience, while your accountant works in Poland, your web designer works in Thailand, and your systems administrator in Chile. And who knows where your graphic designer might be working out of; either way, you’re all able to communicate through the cloud.

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Many young people dream of changing the world, but they might not be sure which careers can help them achieve that goal, or at least make some inroads into it.

There are three careers that will most likely always be around, and any of these has the propensity of helping someone achieve their goal or world peace, a safer world, or whatever the aspirations may be.

1. Teacher

No one can do anything substantial until the ability to read and comprehend the printed word has been learned. And who is it that nurtures that ability that everyone (with a very few exceptions) possesses? Teachers, of course.

Teachers, whether they teach in regular classrooms or special education classrooms, have taken on the challenge of helping students achieve any goals by teaching them to read, among other things. And since this knowledge begins in the early years of school, the need for experienced elementary school teachers, in both regular and special education settings, is constant.

2. Counselor

A counselor can work in a school setting, as well as in a hospital or other facility setting or even private practice. A school counselor can provide assistance to students who are trying to determine just exactly how they are going to change the world. He or she can make sure that the student is taking or being allowed to take those courses necessary for admission to college.

As the student progresses through middle school and high school, the counselor can make sure the student remains on track and, as the time comes to apply for college admission; can assist the student in doing that. A psychological counselor can support those people who are having mental or emotional difficulties by simply offering a listening ear or a means to overcome an addiction or other problem.

3. Anything in the Medical Profession

Even though health care has come a long way, especially with the advances in technology, there will still always be a need for doctors, nurses, technicians, and those who devote their lives to medical research. If asked those in the medical profession will most likely admit that their dream was, has been, or still is to find a cure for something — the common cold, diabetes, cancer, or another serious illness.

Even though they may not see this accomplishment in their lifetimes, it very well may be that the work they perform, both in patient care and research, may someday contribute to that goal.

CONCLUSION

With all the available ways of receiving a college degree — online, in a traditional college or university setting or both — there is no reason for anyone not to get a college education.

It is this advanced learning that will provide the tools and knowledge needed to work towards a goal, whether it is that of changing the world or simply making a good life for oneself and one’s family. And, who knows, that in itself may be what changes the world, because it may be your child or children who actually accomplish this.

Are you looking to change jobs in the new year? If you are, or if you want to move from having a job to really enjoying a career, you’re not alone. There are plenty of people who feel unfulfilled with what they do, and they’re ready for a change. If you’re one of them, here are the top 12 fastest-growing job industries, so you can narrow down your job options and make the right choice.

1. Consulting

People want and need to be told what they should do, especially in a business environment where they aren’t sure what all of their options are. As a consultant, you can essentially be paid well for telling people what to do. It’s hard to beat that.

2. Home Health Care

People don’t always want to go to nursing homes when they get older. A lot of them can do most of their daily activities, but they just need a little bit of help. By caring for them in their homes, people who would be in a nursing home are able to retain a lot of their independence and dignity.

3. Computer Systems Design

It’s no secret that laptop computers are only going to get better, faster, and more advanced. If you’re good at designing computer systems, you’ll always have a job – and you can often work for yourself as well as set your own hours.

4. Therapy

The pressures of society are causing more people to seek out therapists and receive mental health counseling. There’s less of a stigma on it than there was in the past, too, which helps a great deal.

5. Outpatient Care

To lower medical costs, many people are choosing outpatient options when they can. The need for people in this field is enormous.

6. General Merchandise Retail

There will always be businesses that aren’t online, and they will always need people to work for them.

7. Elderly Services

As the baby boomers age, there are a lot more elderly people who need help. That trend isn’t going to change, so getting involved now can make for a great, long-term career.

8. Chiropractors

Holistic and alternative medicine are big business, and more insurance plans are covering chiropractic treatments.

9. Mental Health Services

Much like therapy, more people are seeking out various types of mental health assistance.

10. Cable and Satellite Programming

The TV industry is still booming all over the country, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

11. Employment Firms

As more people hunt for jobs, they’ll turn to firms that can take their information and match them up with something great, so they can get work more quickly.

12. Internet Hosting and Publishing

As the Internet continues to expand, more and more people are making blogs and websites. Being on the forefront of expanding technology is always a good choice.

Don’t wait another day. If you see a career that you know is right for you, now is the time to go after it. Get the training that you need to move forward, and make sure that you tackle your new career with enthusiasm.

The world may run on Wintel (Windows and Intel) computers, but what we put on those computers is still up to the individual to decide. There is growing power online in the open source movement. Open source may only mean to some that it’s free to use such programs for most people, but the world changes when you take on some new skills. Consider that lovely group of people known as open source programmers.

For these rare and awesome programmers, there is no dogma about intellectual property. Intellectual property is only useful if you care about getting rich off of what you produce. And the best programmers can grow rich by adding value in major ways – producing an extra feature here and there is just a fun intellectual exercise for people of that ilk. And many don’t even care about being popular. After all, popularity is built on functionality. Great software talks in a loud, clear voice. Here are some programs that will work no matter what operating system you (and your clients) use.

OpenOffice

Who says Microsoft has to make you sign away your rights, just to create a text document or a spreadsheet? OpenOffice allows anyone to open and create Word documents, without having to shell out for Word. With a clean, intuitive design, you can download and be producing like crazy within minutes. It’s also great because having a two year old version of Word often makes your system obsolete. Who wants to pay hundreds of dollars every couple of years, just so they can open one or two “new” file name extensions? With OpenOffice, this idiocy is the only thing that’s obsolete.

Firefox

IE? What’s that? Firefox has taken the world of easy virus infiltration, popup ad bombardment and inaccessibility on anything but a Windows machine … and tossed it in the waste bin. Firefox is quick, stable, free and usable on anything more sophisticated than a toaster oven (and you never know until you try…). When even smart phones can get great features (and even user created add ons), it becomes pretty obvious that Firefox is a feather in the cap of the art and science of programming.

VLC

Have you ever downloaded a video, excitedly wanting to play it… and then spent three hours searching in vain for a codec, before giving up in frustration? With VLC, you never have to do that nonsense again, no matter what kind of machine you may be running. VLC is the Marine Corps of watching video on a computer. It can even adapt to your home network, and stream movies and television to your smart phone. There’s no worrying about compatibility on any front, so the process is pretty easy even for those of us who don’t have any programming knowledge about us.

Many people will never know there’s anything beyond the Windows and Intels of the computer world. But those who do will find a number of fascinating and useful cross-platform applications that may change your mind about the computer world.

There is an entire industry founded around getting customer feedback. However, much of this spending is wasted when the companies either fail to act on their information, or fail to get the right information to act on. In this article, we will discuss what you need to do to make customer feedback work for you.

Know How to Ask

One of the first mistakes companies make in getting information is using improper or outdated methodologies to get their feedback data. Here are a few general guidelines.

• Seek customer data from all your major customer-facing resources, including stores, websites, and phone services.
• Make sure that questions or surveys aren’t intrusive, but nonetheless beckon appropriate attention. For phone calls or email messages, this means an easy opt out. For webpage-embedded surveys, this means not redirecting or otherwise disrupting the browsing experience.
• Get a broad selection. The fewer customers who respond, the more skewed your data will be. Aim for a bare minimum of 100 responses before analyzing data.
• Prepare for long-term feedback. Reward those who take surveys (a simple discount coupon or similar is usually sufficient), ask permission to contact them again, and invest in long-term tools to conduct research (permanent access to preferred online survey software, a long-term contract for phone surveys, a survey email application, etc.).

Once you know how to ask for feedback, you have to be sure to…

Ask the Right Questions

Even when the right techniques are used, many companies don’t make any progress. More commonly than not, this is because they don’t know what questions are best to ask. Rather than focusing on details that you think are important, try to orient your questions around value: how valuable your services are to them currently, what already has value, what could increase the value of your company in their eyes, etc. Here are some suggested questions to cut to the core of the issue effectively.

• What prompted you to visit us originally?
• Why did you choose to buy from us?
• What competitor could we learn from?
• What’s one thing we could have done better that would have improved your experience with us?
• What is one thing we did during your visit that we should never stop doing?

Notice that these questions don’t rank satisfaction. The point here isn’t to see if they are happy with your product or services, but to learn how they could be happier. Once you have this crucial data, all you have to do is…

Implement Effectively

Exactly what will need implementation varies from issue to issue, but there are two keys regardless of the details.

1) Be sure that you actually do listen to feedback, and prioritize improvements to your company.

2) Once your solutions are in place, get feedback again to see if the discovered issues are now resolved.

Every business is inextricably reliant on its customers. That means that, like it or not, their opinions are the only ones that matter. As such, getting to know those opinions and addressing them appropriately can increase overall customer satisfaction, company reputation, and buyer loyalty.

The long awaited economic recovery is finally under way. However it’s a slow, gradual and hardly noticeable process that tolls high on consumers’ confidence and leaves them in depressing situation. Unemployment rate is still hovering around 9 percent and consumers are still lacking job security. However, they have somehow started spending again- not as much as they used to do, but still the change in their spending pattern has been noticed.
However things are not that rough and tough for the big American corporations as they are for the consumers. The Fortune 500 companies have cut their costs so fast and so perfectly that their earnings rocketed even in a small economic recovery. The companies listed on Fortune 500 list exhibited an unprecedented comeback mainly due to cost cutting-especially labor costs. Millions of layoffs got good fortune to the big giants of business. In 2009, the Fortune 500 companies earnings soared from $90 billion to 391 billion, a 355% billion increase that’s the second highest in the last 56 years. For 2009, return on sales of the Fortune 500 companies increased from less than 1 percent to 4 percent which is quite close to the 4.7 percent historical average. Wall Marts is ranked first among the Fortune 500 companies, whereas the former No.1 Exxon Mobil holds the second position this year.

Where To Place Classified Ads To Build Your Business
 by: Robert Boduch

I happen to love classified ads as a way of generating new business. But simply “placing tiny classifieds ads in newspapers” does not work for most business-type applications – despite what you may have heard on those infamous infomercials.

If you’re buying and selling items of personal property like vehicles, furniture, antiques, or sports equipment — newspapers may be the natural choice for your “one-of” product. You’re bound to find someone who is interested in your offer. But as a business owner, you’re looking for numerous sales of your product to a narrowly defined group of prospects.

Would it be profitable for you to advertise locally and/or expand “nationwide” through hundreds of newspapers as some profess? My guess: No! Here’s the reason:

Think of your typical newspaper. Now… why do people read it? Everyone has their own preferences, but in general, readers pick up the newspaper to peruse one or more of the following sections:

* national news

* international news

* weather

* sports

* local news

* business news

* special feature information

* comics

* travel information

* obituaries

Heck… some readers might even look forward to scanning the classified ads to see what’s new. But how many of these readers are actual candidates for your product, business opportunity, wonder gadget, or your amazing new health elixir?

Very few.

You see, newspapers attract a large cross-section of the general population as a whole. So right off the bat, the percentage of readers who are good potential candidates for your product, is relatively low. These people are simply not good prospects for your product.

Look… if you were in the market for a solution to a specific problem, would you be scouting newspaper classified ads for that special product that could change your life, business, finances, or health forever?

Highly unlikely.

You’d probably start by choosing business magazines, trade journals and carefully targeted newsletters. You might consult with other business owners, or access online discussion groups to solicit suggestions. But it’s not very likely that you’d go directly to the newspapers for this kind of thing.

Newspapers tend to reach everyone and “everyone” cannot possibly be prime, grade-A prospects for whatever product you happen to be offering.

The real value of magazine-type classified ads is that you’re able to specifically pinpoint your target prospect, based on the subject matter and focus of each particular publication.

When someone responds to your ad in Entrepreneur for business information, you can be fairly certain that they fit your prospect profile. With this kind of a match, (product to audience) your chances at success are far superior.

More Resources at www.makeyoursalessoar.com

About The Author

Robert Boduch is an author of dozens of best-selling books, reports and articles on the art and science of selling. A free newsletter targeted at anyone interested in selling more of anything is available at www.makeyoursalessoar.com

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Housing crisis in the country could not affect suburban growth. Urban cities have also been growing in term of population for the last ten years but suburbs still have a higher growth rate than that. Recession in economy even further boosted the population growth in suburbs, as people flocked out of the expensive cities to nearby suburban colonies that offered affordable housing.
According to a research carried out by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Gadberry Group of Little Rock, Ark, the list of fastest growing areas of the country includes suburban places. Only the areas with 10,000 or more occupied households were considered in the study. All rented and owned (situated in the city and adjacent areas) households were taken into account. 50 fastest growing areas were identified, one in every state. The factors deciding these fastest growing areas per state are household income, increase in number of household in the area, and net worth of each household.
The research found that Buckeye, Arizona; Lincoln, California; and Spring Hill, Tenn were the fastest growing cities showing an annual growth rate of 10 percent in 2009. These areas experienced phenomenal economic development during the past decade due to establishment of commercial districts, industrial parks, and chambers of commerce. However, they were not completely aloof to the downturn in the economy. Buckeye saw a steep drop of more than 10 percent in home value in the past two years. Spring Hill too suffered a lot worse when 1700 workers lost their jobs as General Motor closed its plant in November 2009.

Most of us are too busy worrying about what we are writing to think much about how we are writing it. However, in business communication, having command of a clear, readable style is essential to getting your point across.

Here are ten types of sentence blunders to avoid if you want your reader to get what you mean and not have to stumble through what you write.

1. Run-On Sentences. You know the ones: they drag on and on, packing a paragraph’s worth of details into a single sentence. Short sentences are easier to understand than long ones; they provide information in bits and pieces instead of a flood. In most business writing, aim for an average sentence length of 20 or fewer words. Note that this is an average, not a ceiling-the best writing contains both long and short sentences to keep it interesting.

2. Pompous Sentences. Many business writers use a phrase or a whole clause when a well-chosen verb would be much clearer. They do so to try to make themselves appear more knowledgeable or articulate than they actually are. Do not fall prey to this error by using big words or trite expressions-keep your writing at the level of your reader.

3. Overloaded Sentences. Such sentences are bloated with excess words. The passive voice is a common culprit, adding unnecessarily to the word count. Redundancies are also to blame-verbose phrases can usually be replaced with one or two words, making your sentences concise and meaningful.

4. Undue Enthusiasm. An occasional intensifier lends emphasis, but using too many can ruin your writing and give the impression that you are not being genuine. Otherwise, you come across like the literary version of a game-show host-wear that grin too bright for too long, and it will lose its meaning.

5. Crowded-Together Sentences. Many writers tend to try to connect a series of related sentences with conjunctions such as “and” instead of ending each with a period. In many cases, these sentences can be improved and shortened by using only one subject.

6. Hedging Sentences. It is tempting to insert “it seems that” or “there appears to be” in your sentences in order to avoid stating a judgment as a fact. However, when you have too many such hedges, particularly in the same sentence, you are not really saying anything. More often than not, your reader will know what is fact and what is inference.

7. Slow Starters. Starting a sentence with “it is” or “there are” simply delays getting to your point. Compare: “It would be appreciated if you could send the files immediately,” versus “Please send the files immediately.”

8. Nonparallel Sentences. Two or more similar (parallel) ideas should be presented in the same pattern, whether within sentences or between sentences. Lack of parallelism creates an awkward style. For example, the clauses in this sentence are not parallel: “Mr. Reynolds dictated the letter and next he signed it, and left the office.” Compare that to this: “Mr. Reynolds dictated the letter, signed it, and left the office.”

9. Awkward Pointers. To save words, business writers will often point readers’ attention backward with expressions like “as mentioned above,” “the aforementioned,” “the former,” “the latter,” and so on. Doing so is a distraction to the reader and is usually unnecessary. If a reference does need to be made, it is better to name or restate the specific thing to which you are referring.

10. Misassembled Sentences. A misassembled sentence is one in which an element is in the wrong place. The most common misplacement is at the beginning of the sentence, creating a “dangling modifier.” Take this awkward example: “Walking to the office, a red sports car passed him.” Moving the modifier is an easy solution here: “A red sports car passed him while he was walking to the office.”

About The Author

Courtland L. Bovee, one of America’s leading instructors in clear and effective communication, co-authors several leading college-level texts with John V. Thill, a prominent communications consultant and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Communication Strategies. Their website, Business Communication Headline News, the #1 business communication site on the web, is at http://www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com