The Benefits of Business Improvement Programs

By attending to an effective, well-structured Business Improvement Program (BIP), business owners are able to learn elaborate, reliable marketing and business management techniques with minimal time and effort. A solid, coherent Business Improvement Program can easily make the difference between a poorly managed, low-rewarding, average business and a prosperous, lucrative, well-run business with long-term prospects and well-established goals and objectives. Business Improvement Programs are appropriate for both small and extended business owners, providing program attendants with a set of comprehensive materials that account for all the relevant aspects of a prosperous, successful business.


There are various reliable training websites and online services that offer business owners the opportunity to enroll in professional Business Improvement Programs for free or in exchange for a reasonable sum of money. You can either choose to participate actively, by attending to specific business seminaries and courses, or, if your time doesn’t allow it, you can simply purchase self-study oriented materials that allow you to assimilate valuable information in the comfort of your home. However, it is best to personally attend to Business Improvement Programs, as active participation allows you to exchange opinions and interact with well-trained professionals.

In addition, business seminaries and courses encourage attendants to confront their opinions with other people, allowing participants to express their ideas and beliefs regarding business management solutions and marketing strategies. Considering the fact that most Business Improvement Programs are focused not only on theory, but also on the development of practical skills and logical abilities, attendants are able to view their business from a different perspective, approaching and solving problems in a more objective manner.

Business Improvement Programs are appropriate for all business owners, regardless of the nature of their managed business. Such programs account for very important features such as innovative sales and marketing strategies, effective solutions for consolidating the relations with clients, reliable strategies for attracting new potential clients to a certain business, strategies for neutralizing competition, strategies for establishing priorities and long-term objectives, and various other business-related aspects. Business Improvement Programs are presented and taught by the best professionals in the branch, providing you with support and encouragement over the entire period of the training program. By the end of the training program, you will have developed an extended package of valuable information regarding proper business planning and management, corroborated with a set of practical skills and abilities that will improve your relations with your employees and potential customers.

A solid, well-structured Business Improvement Program can help you boost the profitability of your business in a short amount of time. Whether you own a struggling, oscillating business or, by contrast, a successful, properly managed business, BIP can teach you how to get the most out of it with minimal effort. Business Improvement Programs can also help you better evaluate the overall efficiency of your business, teaching you how to quickly identify and correct emerging problems. Business Improvement Programs are the best mbeans to rapidly enhance the efficiency and the prosperity of your business.

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Top Performers Have These Critical Sales Skills

Do want to be known as “The Expert” or “The Guru”? Do you want to advance your career and income? If you answered yes to both of these questions then you need to become a “Top Performer” in your profession. Whether you are now a Manager, Executive, Consultant, Sales or Service Specialist, then Sales skills will be one of the keys to your success. Experience and knowledge in your area of specialty may make you an above average performer, but to be a “Top Performer” start implementing the following 16 Sales skills and action items today.


Top performers are successful by being honest, respecting a clients intelligence and focusing all their energies on how to make a difference in a clients life. After reviewing the following “Top Performer” Sales skills and action items, you will know how to be more effective, efficient, and successful.

Proven strategies that increase revenue per sale.

1. Bigger revenue comes from bigger offerings. Offer super sizes, volume discounts, extended contracts, offering bundles, etc.

2. Try small “Early Buy” incentives to increase volume, but keep them small with a time limit. You want to attract customers quickly without diluting the offering pricing structure.

3. Stand strong on the value your offering provides and stick with the original price. Do not discount pricing on your offerings if they truly provide the value described.

4. Increase sales revenues by providing three options or price points. Customers are more likely not to choice the lowest price. Use a set of three options to move customers from the lowest to the middle price range. Make sure each range is well defined and the differences stand out.

5. Successful selling to an “Dynamic, Entrepreneurial” company. The buyer in this organization is inclined to make independent decisions. Focus on building trust with the customer, your offering, and your company. Make the information and process simple and straightforward.

6. Successful selling to a “Long Term Visionary” company. Concentrate on the technical features and benefits of your offering. Leverage team selling by matching up your management and technical experts with theirs. Focus on the complete solution that matches or exceeds their long term business needs.

7. Successful selling to a “Bureaucratic” company. Decisions are usually based on past preferences, policies, and regulations. These are the toughest organizations to get your foot in the door. Make them aware of your offerings, be competitive on pricing, and stay in touch by providing customer success stories. These companies love to follow others.

8. After a customer has made a purchase, offer a special deal on the higher grade model.

Proving tangible benefits help customers make the right decisions.

1. It is best to have one focused benefit that describes “what you stand for”. Put this benefit on all your correspondence, business cards, memos, letters, and everything else you can think of.

2. Always explain how and why you can achieve the benefits described.

3. Show the offering benefits as measurable and tangible proof that the offering works.

4. Benefits should include “Loss Prevention” items. Describe the loss the customer will suffer if they do not have your offering.

5. Describe value and benefits in a story, making it as personal as possible.

6. Communicate benefit, uniqueness, and value in an easy to understand presentation.

7. Find meaningful differences in your offering by continuously quantifying your customer needs.

8. Describe offering benefits in a story involving personal gains, feelings, etc.

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Top Tips For Starting Your New Business

Prices are going up, up, up and just about everybody is needing a little extra cash these days. This is probably the best time ever for you to own your own small business.


Now before you start thinking you’ll have to get a bank loan, remember that you can own a small home-based business for just a few dollars–or even FREE.

You can easily run your home business from your kitchen table and, frankly, you can finance your business from a few bucks you save out of the grocery money.

How much time will it take to run your home business? That depends on several things, but mostly it depends on how hard you want to work your business. If you’ve got lots of time through the day you can work your business, then you can go after it full force. If you’ve already got a job or two, you can work your business in the evening, in the morning before work, or on the weekends.

The amount of money you earn will largely depend on how hard you work your business. If you’re full-time, your business can start out earning hundreds each month and move up to several thousand dollars a month in earnings.

Work your business part-time and you can earn anywhere from an extra $100 to $1,000 per month. And that might be just what you need to supplement your income from your regular job.

What kind of business should you own? Try to find one that matches your talents and needs. If you like to talk to people and sell them on your ideas, you would do very well in a business that requires a little selling. You’ll enjoy it and make a lot of money at it.

If the idea of having to sell something makes you want to run the other way, don’t worry. There are businesses that require almost no selling. About all you have to do is use the products you sell and talk to people about the products when they ask.

Of course, new customers rarely fall into your lap. You have to make an effort to find new prospects. Here are several simple and cheap ways to get new customers.

1. Talk to everyone you know about your business. More than a few will take an interest and want to buy from you.

2. Send out letters or postcards. Send 10 per week. You can get names and addresses from clubs, associations, the chamber of commerce, and “list brokers” who are in the business of selling addresses. Check your Yellow Pages under “Direct Mail”.

3. Put up a web site. Include all your experiences, products, and ideas on it, then register the site with Google. It’s free to do and pretty soon all the search engines will include your site’s listing.

4. Put ads in email newsletters. It’s a very cheap way to reach thousands of people who are probably very interested in a home business. Search Google for “e-zine directory” to find sites that list thousands of email newsletters.

5. Sell your products or service as a fund-raiser for a local non-profit. They can sell the product you supply. It’s a win for them and a BIG win for you, as you’ll make money from those sales and often grab new customers in the process.

6. Sell at flea markets in your area. Get a low-cost booth and tell your story to anyone who will listen. That’s what flea markets are for, and you won’t feel one bit out of place.

7. If you already have a web site, promote your business on your site and convert your audience into customers.

These are a few time-tested ideas to help you get started. If you’re getting the itch to start your own business, go for it. It’ll be the smartest thing you’ll ever do.

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Touchless Technology Helps Keep Your Restrooms Clean and Healthy

Did you know one of the major sources of cleaning complaints concerns restroom cleanliness? It can be an endless chore for your cleaning staff to get grimy fingerprints off of restroom faucets and soap dispensers. Trying to find a better way to get your restrooms clean? Installing touchless dispensers can keep your restrooms cleaner and save your cleaning crew time.


Are you tired of cleaning grimy fingerprints off restroom faucets and soap dispensers? Indeed. One of the major sources of customer complaints is restroom cleanliness. The reasons for this go beyond the abilities of your cleaning staff. The more traffic a building gets the harder it is to keep high cleaning standards, especially if you are cleaning the building only once or twice a week. Restrooms can have problems with odors, general appearance, empty dispensers, leaky soap dispensers and wads of paper towels stacked up on the floor. Besides not looking clean, this leads to a perception that the restroom is not sanitary. Installing touchless dispensers can help to control these problems.

Touch-free technology not only helps keep restrooms clean, but also helps to reduce the spread of germs and cuts down on your staff’s cleaning time. Using touchfree soap dispensers, water faucets, toilet paper, and paper towel dispensers, restroom visitors do not have to touch handles, buttons or levers. The fewer the objects visitors’ hands touch, the less dirt and grime your staff will have to clean off fixtures.

You may think of a touchless system as expensive because it’s controlled by a sensor. But touchless systems do not have to be complicated or expensive. There are toilet paper systems that hold individual interleaved sheets of paper. The user easily takes the sheets they need and do no have to “fish around” the inside of a potentially dirty dispenser looking for the end of the toilet paper roll. This provides a much cleaner and more sanitary system than the traditional toilet paper roll dispensers. Another low-cost hygienic choice is a folded towel dispensing system. Towels are dispensed one-at-a-time and restroom visitors only touch the towel they need.

The more high tech type systems are sensor activated. These are devices that flush toilets, turn on water faucets, dispense hand soap, and dispense paper towels. No touch technology is extremely important with paper towel dispensers as towels are used after hands are clean.

When deciding on a touchless paper towel dispenser, keep the following in mind:

Power Source

Most paper towel dispensers work off battery power. Look for dispensers that run off normal D-cell batteries as opposed to ones that need a special and expensive battery packs. Those special battery packs may not be available locally and have to be ordered - which will be a problem if the batteries die unexpectedly.

There are several different types of dispensing components. Several studies have shown that users prefer a system where the dispenser is triggered when hands are placed directly under the dispenser.

Refilling

As with any dispenser, the easier it is to refill, the quicker your cleaning crew can get the job done and move on to other tasks. Avoid using dispensers that need threading the towels through a series of rollers.

To minimize the items a visitor has to touch, many buildings are now installing automatic toilet flushing mechanisms. These allow toilets and urinals to flush automatically after use. Some systems are even designed to flush periodically when not in use to keep fresh water in the bowl at all times. To help minimize bacteria and reduce odors, consider adding an automatic disinfectant dispensing system.

Installing touchless soap dispensers and automatic water faucets cuts down on what visitors’ touch and saves on soap and water use. If the restroom is heavily used, be sure to order soap dispensers that are large enough so frequent refills are not necessary.

Restroom cleaning in itself can be very labor-intensive - from wiping down counters to scrubbing toilets, it requires a big time commitment. There now touchless cleaning products that can save you time and money. These systems are designed to allow your staff to clean without having to touch any surface in the restroom with their hands.

One type of system includes a cleaning cart, bucket and series of extension handles with specialized mop heads and attachments. The cart itself includes storage space for cleaning supplies and paper products.

Steam and vapor cleaning is also growing in popularity. The steam cleaning system uses a tank that super-heats water as opposed to using chemicals. The steam is applied to dirty areas through a special wand and an applicator, which includes an attachment for cleaning towels. To use the equipment the operator “wipes” all surfaces with the superheated water and changes the cleaning towel as it becomes soiled.

Another alternative to use in restroom cleaning is the microfiber mopping system. This is a self-contained system. It cleans faster and more efficiently than a traditional bucket and mop. For restroom cleaning, the microfiber is a more hygienic as the mop water is not reused.

Public restroom users are concerned about how clean and sanitary restrooms are. Using touchless dispensers not only helps to control the spread of germs, they help to conserve water, soap and paper towels, and provide the convenience of requiring less action from the user to get the job done. Touchless dispensers also help to keep cleaning costs down as your staff will spend less time cleaning the restroom and refilling dispensers. Less time spent cleaning restrooms means more profit for your cleaning business!

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Track Your Ads for Success

In order to create the most effective ad for your business, you will need to test different versions of your copy and track the effectiveness of where you advertise. Experiment by changing the copy, tweaking the looks, rearranging the layout and testing where you place your ad.

Changing The Copy

Try several different headings for your ad. Just a one word change may have a significant effect on the response rate. Test different versions of your copy to find the most effective wording.

Tweaking The Looks

Change the font style, font sizes, and font colors. Emphasize important words and phrases by placing them in italics, making them bold, changing their color, and highlighting them. Add a border, a different border color and/ or a different border style. Try different combinations of these and find out which combination works best.

Rearranging The Layout

Rearrange the components of your ad to see if it affects the response rate. Add a short testimonial or two to see if that has any effect. Try adding more than one call to action link.

Testing The Placement

Track and test the response rate for your ad. An ad in one
e-zine may result in 100 clicks while an ad in another may only result in 50. You will want to know where you get the best response for your advertising dollars.

You will want to track your ads for these four reasons:

1. To save money.

If you know where you get the best response from, you won’t waste money by advertising on places where you get a poor return.

2. To maximize your profit.

While advertising on one place may bring you a better response than advertising on another, you need to take into account the cost of each ad. If you get 200 responses from one advertising source but each response costs you $4.00, it may be better to advertise on a place where you get 100 responses that only cost $1.00 each.

3. To improve your ads.

By testing different versions of your ad, you will find the most effective one. To obtain a true test of a particular ad, you will need to know how may people were shown your ad, how many people acted on your ad, and the result of that action. (For example, your ad was shown to 1000 people of which 100 clicked on your ad link and 2 bought your product.)

4. To find out what works and what doesn’t.

You will want to know what components of your ad work and which don’t. You can only find this out by tracking different versions of your ad.

While knowing how many people click on your ad and how many sales you make is important, you will want to know how much each click and sale actually costs you. In order to maximize your Return On Investment (ROI) you should monitor the following:

1. How many unique visitors each ad or promotion generates.

2. The number of sales each ad or promotion generates.

3. Which ad or promotion generates the most traffic to your website.

4. The Cost Per Click and Cost Per Sale of each ad or promotion.

5. The Click to Sales Ratio which will show you the quality of the traffic you’re getting.

6. The ROI for each ad or promotion.

You will also want to track where your traffic is coming from. You may get traffic from an e-zine ad, from a forum post and from a banner ad. One of these sources may bring you a significant amount of traffic while another brings you little or no traffic at all. By tracking every ad and promotion you place, you will find out where to direct your advertising efforts, thereby saving you both time and money.

Only about 1 of your competitors. At the same time, you will boost your bottom line as you will no longer be wasting money on useless advertising.

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