Июль 2010

How-To Define the Scope of a Project Management

How-To Define the Scope of a Project Management

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

By S. Maurer

Defining Needs and Wants is an excellent way to define the scope of a Project Management and to set the parameters for Project Management planning; it can be a catalyst for discussion about what is really needed from the Project Management; and, it can force realistic decisions about what can and can’t be done.

People on Project Management often come together as strangers.

Project Management includes implementing the project plan, along with careful controls to stay on the «critical path», that is, to ensure the plan is being managed according to plan.

When you think of a business/services/manufacturing Director/Manager, typically, you will think of someone who oversees a specific functional business/services/manufacturing area — for instance, a sales team Director/Manager, or the Director/Manager of the accounting department.

Most teams find that the technical portion of the projects is easy.

Project Management are performed for results.

Project Management PM is used by large corporations, governments, and smaller organizations to standardize and reduce the tasks necessary to complete a project in the most effective and efficient manner and covering any field.

Many scheduling applications are tailored to specific manufactures or project types, but all use CPM precedence methodology.

Important Tips for Buying an Area Rug Online

Buying an area rug online can save you a fortune. But without seeing the rug in person, you have to do your homework first in order to insure that you’ll get a rug that truly compliments your décor and fits perfectly in your chosen room.

The following essential tips are designed to help the online area rug shopper find the perfect piece of fabric to brighten up their home, complete a look or just plain look great.

Tips for Buying an Area Rug Online

— Consider the color and how it impacts the room. As a general rule, area rugs that are darker in color will make a room feel smaller and cozier, while lighter, brighter colors make rooms feel more spacious.

— Take good measurements. Before you order any rug, make sure you have taken good measurements of the area you plan to fill beforehand. Note that there are three common sizes of area rug: 4×6, 6×9, and 8×10.

— Keep an open mind about shapes. When it comes to area rugs, square is not the only available shape. Consider unique designs that are round or interesting geometric forms.

— Handmade vs. Machine-made area rugs. If you want the highest quality craftsmanship, and don’t mind paying a little more money, then a handmade rug is the right investment. However, it is worth noting that many machine-made area rugs also offer high levels of craftsmanship, design and quality (and tend to cost less).

— The perfect rug if you have children or pets. Young children and pets are two of the greatest factors that contribute to the wear-and-tear on an area rug. If you have either, you might want to consider a wool rug or a nylon area rug — both are among the most durable types of rugs and stand up against constant abuse. Silk area rugs are beautiful and hold their value well over time — however they are not a good choice for high-traffic areas when the family spends a lot of time.

— Get extra padding. Many area rugs available online come with extra padding to place beneath the rug. If they don’t then you might want to order matching padding as it will help extended the life of the rug.

— The quality vs. price argument. While there are some exceptions, the quality of a rug is generally tied to the price. Therefore, you will need to make some important decisions about what you want to spend on your rug, and how long you plan on having it. If you want to buy an area rug that lasts for many years, you may need to put a little more money into it on the front end. However, if you are the type of person who likes to change their décor from time-to-time, or plans on moving in the near future, you can find a number of beautiful «lower-end» rug styles at a price that won’t bring you down.

When shopping online for an area rug, remember to follow the advice above, and above all else, have fun with your shopping experience!

Keep Street Dirt Outside Your Business With Entrance Mats

Small business owners might be surprised at how much dirt customers and employees can track into their premises on a daily basis. A great way to protect floors from damage, reduce effort spent on cleaning, and increase safety is to install commercial grade entrance mats.

Several pounds of dirt can be dragged into a business each day, depending on the amount of foot traffic the location attracts and the number of people the business employs. This amount of soil can cause considerable damage and staining to carpets, and may even create scratches and tiny indentations on hard flooring. Even small imperfections in a floor’s finish reduce its shine and cause it to appear worn. Deep cleaning and even floor replacement may be necessary much more frequently if most of that dirt can’t be stopped at the door.

Also, during rain or snow, a great deal of moisture can be tracked into a business along with the dirt. This has potential for damaging floors further, but more importantly, it is a serious safety hazard. Someone could slip and fall on the wet flooring, which is a liability that no business can afford to overlook.

Wet, dirty floors are unattractive, and they give a poor first impression to customers as they enter a commercial location. Potential customers might see dirty, unsafe floors as a reason to go somewhere else for what they need. If a business establishment is unable to maintain something simple like basic cleanliness and safety standards, people may well wonder what other, less visible issues could cause problems for them.

The installation of commercial grade mats can be an attractive and highly effective way of solving these problems. A typical matting system consists of carpet mats and a scraper placed at every exit and entry point of a building. Even less-used entrances have the potential of creating a safety hazard and allowing a lot of dirt to enter a building, so it’s important to make sure each outside door has its own mat.

A high-quality mat will be able to collect nearly all dirt and debris that is tracked onto it, as well as absorbing moisture. Not only will it maintain cleanliness, it will also promote a long-lasting floor with an immaculate appearance, free of ground-in dirt. Furthermore, it will go a long way towards preventing slip-and-fall accidents, an all-too-common occurrence that can result in a costly lawsuit.

Entrance mats need not be merely functional; they can also enhance the beauty of your building. Many different sizes, styles and colors are available, and designs can be customized to feature a business logo. Choosing a color that will not show dirt easily while still coordinating with the building is usually recommended.

Matting is one simple way business owners can protect their investment in their premises; similar to the way an engine filter traps harmful contaminates, a high-quality mat will keep dirt and moisture away from building interiors. The proper matting system is important for any business because it helps prevent safety-related lawsuits, can help make cleaning less costly, and helps flooring last longer.

How Does Your Direct Mail Pull?

Assuming you have a great graphic artist who designs your marketing materials, mailers and collateral (which is a big assumption, I know)…

Where do you go to get them printed and/or mailed? How do you know which messages will be better to use? How often should you send mail out to your list?

Many small business owners I know typically do mailings hap hazzardly, meaning they plan a promotion or sale quickly to get business in the door or plan a workshop to happen in 2 weeks and then they say «I have to get a mailer out to my list».

Does this sound familiar?

I’m suggesting you plan your mailings annually along with your sales, workshops and promotions (even holiday mailings or annual update letters). Then if you can plan the design, messages, who it’s going to, how you’ll get it printed and mailed it will not only go much smoother BUT I’ll bet you get a much higher response too!

You will give yourself time to come up with a strategy rather than throwing together quick mailings which might not:

— flow with your brand
— get a clear message across
— include all pertinent info
— make them take action

Many business owners will also go to Kinko’s or Office Depot (which are great resources for some things or really last minute jobs) for their printing and then fold, stuff, label and stamp their own mailers. NO, NO, NO, depending on the number of mailers you have it could be much less expensive and less time consuming to go through a professional printer, print broker or even online and then to go to a local or online mail house for mailing services.

You don’t have to do it all yourself.

Besides, what is your hourly rate? How much is your time worth? You would most likely be better off outsourcing these types of things rather than spending your valuable time when you could be working with a client or attaining a new client instead.

While I’m on the subject, how many people do you have on your mailing list or current database? Are you including EVERYONE YOU KNOW? If not, WHY THE HECK NOT? Everyone you know will either be a prospect for your business OR a referral source without question. They all need to know what you’ve been up to or what you’re doing now in case they need your services/products or know someone who does.

I could go on and on with suggestions on who to use for printing, mailing, and all the services that go along with doing this but we’d be here forever. So, here are —

5 tips on how to manage your direct mail efficiently:

1. Plan for large mailings.

Your lists must be large, since even good response rates may fall between 2 percent and 4 percent. If you don’t have a very large list — meet more people!

2. Choose the best format.

There are three basic types of direct mail: postcards, letters and packages. Successful direct-mail letters are complex packages and if you want to virtually guarantee your mail gets opened, you can put it in a box or some bulk mailing package.

3. Assemble your campaign.

Direct-mail marketing is rarely a do-it-yourself job. The steps include: designing and printing the creative pieces, choosing the lists, and delivering them both to a mailing house for labeling and distribution. Most mailing houses will be cost effective for a minimum of 500 or more pieces for your addressing and postage handling and some can even do printing as well.

4. Test and measure results.

Direct-mail success is measured one campaign at a time. It’s essential to test various components of the campaign- -the lists, your offers and creative approaches—in order to continually improve your response rates. The key is to test just one component at a time and make incremental adjustments until your campaign produces optimal results.

5. Contact a Marketing Expert.

They can help you put a PLAN together. You don’t need to research it all or figure it all out yourself, they love to do that part. A marketing expert can help you with the campaign itself, what the message or design will be, who to send it to, when and how. They can also find the best printing, mailing and delivering resources available based on your time frame, your budget and your quantity.

I hope for your sakes you’re doing direct mailings pretty regularly in your business for part of your follow up and ongoing marketing to your list. Email is great but it certainly doesn’t reach everyone all the time so it’s not that reliable for your ONLY source of follow up marketing.

How to Working of Joint Venture?

It’s extremely difficult for businesses to find customers and generate new leads.

So, its vital to explore some under-used options that can provide access to large lists of new prospective customers. A well thought out joint venture can do just that — for almost zero cost.

Almost any marketer already knows how a joint venture basically works. However, very few people apply it properly to their business. If you do it creatively, you will build a strong list of new leads.

Isnt that the goal?

As soon as you have used your joint venture to generate your warm list of prospective clients, you can market to them every way you know how.

Specifically speaking, my office works in the mortgage industry. For those of us in this industry, the term joint venture immediately conjures images of working with real estat agents.

But, remember, the joint venture must be applied creatively. Although marketing to and with agents can be an excellent source of income, for more details visit to www.joint-ventures-secret.com the creative JV ideas go way beyond that.

My office learned this principle out of necessity. We sell owner builder construction loans nationwide. When you work in the owner builder niche (owner builder loans are simply mortgages for people who want to build without hiring a licensed general contractor), it becomes tougher to joint venture with any one real estate office.

Therefore, we decided to sell our owner builder product through joint ventures with businesses that have nothing to do with real estate or mortgages.

It doesnt matter what industry you work in. The concept will be the same for you. We sell owner builder financing. You might sell leather shoes. The concepts wont change.

The first step is to take a look around your town and see who has customers. At first, just compile a list of any businesses with a potentially large customer list.

Step two will be to narrow that list and apply your niche to it. Our niche is owner builder construction loans — your niche can be anything you like. Just make sure you work within a niche in whatever industry you are in. Ill explain.

Lets say you work in the mortgage industry, and you decide your niche is the Move Up buyer market. Your customers are those people who own their first home and are now looking to upgrade to a larger home to accommodate their needs for a larger family or their desires for a bit more luxury.

Now, you have made a list of as many local businesses as possible. Hopefully, that list includes restaurants, carpet cleaners, pet stores, for more details visit to www.jointwebventures.com and virtually any other retail business you can think of.

Approach the owners of these businesses with your proposition, remembering that you should offer something of value to the business owner, as well as get something of value in return.

My favorite idea is working with smart restaurant owners. They must be smart enough to maintain a mailing list of their customers. And, the really smart ones keep information, such as birthdays and anniversaries — just like you should be doing.

When you narrow your list down to the businesses that you want to approach, you must present your idea to the owner. The concept is pretty simple. You will ask the business owner to include an endorsement of your business (along with a coupon or offer) in his next mailing. And, you will return the favor for him in your next mail piece.

Using the restaurant example, the restaurant owner may send a monthly newsletter to his patrons. In that newsletter is a separately inserted letter from the owner saying how wonderful you are and what a great offer is enclosed. This letter will need to vary depending on how well you know the owner, but in any case, you should write it for him.

Dont be shy. Pump yourself up as a reputable, reliable expert at helping families move into a new, larger home (or whatever your proposition is for your specific niche). For example, in my offices case, we make a point to offer owner builder construction financing that requires no general contractor, no site supervisor, and no down payment. In your case, simply make sure you have a niche product and a unique selling proposition that makes you stand out from your competitors.

The included offer should be something that gets the recipient to respond to you, thereby adding their name to your pool of leads.

On the flip side, when a restaurant gives a free meal gift certificate to someone for their birthday, they can count on the fact that they will bring other, paying, customers with them. In fact, many people celebrate their birthday with a group. In the end, the restaurant makes plenty of money on that free meal, plus they earn the chance to win over a new regular customer.

For this reason, you should be able to get a free certificate to give to your customers on their birthday. At the very least, you should be able to negotiate a very steep discount for a certificate (pay about 35-45 cents on the dollar, which is about the cost of the actual food sold in the restaurant, if it is a fairly nice place — which it should be if you are doing this campaign!!). If the restaurant owner is not willing to give you the certificate or a steep discount, you are likely not dealing with a smart restaurant owner. Remember, you want to find smart business owners with whom to JV.

If you dont have a birthday list (which you need to get), enclose a certificate or coupon with your monthly newsletter.

You should be able to find one or more restaurants in your town that serve good food, have a nice atmosphere, and have an owner who understands the power of this type of joint venture concept.