This is an article someone in one of my business groups sent me. It is an excellent article on Effective Goals. I don’t know who wrote the article, but it sure is a good one.
Donna
How can you achieve your goals without a plan? Most people know what they want but have no plan to achieve it except by sheer hard work. Your yearly plan should be reviewed daily and reset as your achievements are met. Successful people make lists constantly. It enables them to stay on top of priorities and remain flexible to changing priorities. This should be done for both personal and business goals.
Problems will sometimes occur. A good plan anticipates potential problems and seeks out solutions. Good time management enables you to measure progress towards your goals because that which you can measure, you can control.
Effective Goals Are:
WRITTEN
a. Increases conscious and subconscious awareness.
b. You'll notice more people, resources, information and opportunities that are available to achieve your goal. (Don't reinvent the wheel, use the help available to you.)
c. Only written goals tend to be met. Keep track of the steps in your plan with To Do lists, vision statements, etc.
Stated in the PRESENT TENSE
a. Enables brain to visualize goal and start seeing it as real.
b. Rather than "I will," state goals in the present tense so they pull you forward.
c. What's more powerful? "I will work toward increasing profits" or "I operate with an X% profit"
STATED POSITIVELY
a. We think in pictures.
b. The mind focuses on what you think about.
Using a sports analogy such as golf, if you think "I'm not going to hit the ball in the water," guess where the ball goes? In the water! It's best to picture that hole in one!
KEY: Focus on where you want to go or what you want to do. (Outcome Based Thinking)
SPECIFIC & QUANTIFIABLE
a. Clarity attracts. Ambiguous goals produce diluted results.
b. There must be a compelling reason for this goal.
c. Don't say, "I want to be happy or have more money." (If you find a dollar on the ground you suddenly have more money – is that what you really want?) d. Get specific… what does more money or happiness look like for you?
TIMEBOUND
a. It's human nature to put things off… we get comfortable or busy or let fear seep in.
b. Most people work best with a deadline.
c. Give yourself a reasonable timeline.
d. Consider tying it to some external even
t (i.e.: launch website by industry conference).
Proper balance of CHALLENGE & REASONABLE
a. Needs to cause you to stretch, grow and get out of your comfort zone.
b. Must also have some degree of believability. (Don't expect to lost 40 lbs in a week.)
WELL PLANNED
Plan your day each morning or the night before and set daily priorities.
Review your progress at the end of the day.
Look ahead in your day/month/year to anticipate what is going to happen so you can better schedule your time.
Source: Unknown
If you are the author of this article please let me know and provide me with the address where you article is listed so I can add it to this page.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Role of a Manager
The primary role of management is to make it possible for teams to work together and to provide guidance and direction to workers. This role is purely a functional one. It is not a role that is more prestigious than other roles in an organization. It is similar to the difference between office personnel and shipping personnel. The main difference in management is likely to be accountability and responsibility. When things don't go well shareholders and company founders are likely to scrutinize management rather than non-management personnel.
Function of Management
It is a manager's responsibility to:
Establish a plan that workers can follow to accomplish company goals
Resolve disputes that arise when workers attempt to work together.
Ensure that work projects are be completed with efficiency
Track resources and report costs to higher levels of management, shareholders, and company founders.
Track progress and make revisions or adjustments where needed.
Handle problem situations so that workers can concentrate on the job at hand.
One important thing to remember when making decisions as a manager is that these decisions affect workers either in a positive or negative way.
Skills of a Good Manager
A good manager is a good communicator. He or she must learn to listen and observe.
A good manager usually has a broad area of experience similar to those he or she is managing.
A good manager must be a good leader. Such a leader is willing to do the same work as other employees and get their hands dirty when required.
A good manager must be willing to delegate certain tasks. This means they must develop trust in their staff.
A good manager must be able to organize teams and projects. This doesn't mean a manager is expected to have a clean desk. (If it did I would be in serious trouble), but it does mean that we are able to organize our teams and projects in a manner that will benefit both our company and our staff.
If you don't have each of these skills that does not necessarily mean you are not manager material. It simply means that these are some areas you may want to work on as you work through the educational aspect of management. Keep in mind that not every manager has every skill in abundance. There are, however, two things that every successful manager must be able to do and that is communicate with others and get along with others.
Donna Loudon
College Professor
Management, Business, and Computer Technology
Function of Management
It is a manager's responsibility to:
Establish a plan that workers can follow to accomplish company goals
Resolve disputes that arise when workers attempt to work together.
Ensure that work projects are be completed with efficiency
Track resources and report costs to higher levels of management, shareholders, and company founders.
Track progress and make revisions or adjustments where needed.
Handle problem situations so that workers can concentrate on the job at hand.
One important thing to remember when making decisions as a manager is that these decisions affect workers either in a positive or negative way.
Skills of a Good Manager
A good manager is a good communicator. He or she must learn to listen and observe.
A good manager usually has a broad area of experience similar to those he or she is managing.
A good manager must be a good leader. Such a leader is willing to do the same work as other employees and get their hands dirty when required.
A good manager must be willing to delegate certain tasks. This means they must develop trust in their staff.
A good manager must be able to organize teams and projects. This doesn't mean a manager is expected to have a clean desk. (If it did I would be in serious trouble), but it does mean that we are able to organize our teams and projects in a manner that will benefit both our company and our staff.
If you don't have each of these skills that does not necessarily mean you are not manager material. It simply means that these are some areas you may want to work on as you work through the educational aspect of management. Keep in mind that not every manager has every skill in abundance. There are, however, two things that every successful manager must be able to do and that is communicate with others and get along with others.
Donna Loudon
College Professor
Management, Business, and Computer Technology
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Selecting Keywords for Internet Strategy
Copyright (c) 2009 Ajay Prasad
If you are starting your site from scratch, selecting
keywords at this stage is a time and money saver. If you
are redesigning your website, this is the time to outdo
your previous mistakes.
Zeroing On the Right Keywords
If you are wondering what keyword has to do with website
design think again. It determines whether your website
architecture will have a folder or linear structure. If it
is a folder structure then how many levels?
Let's take a hypothetical example. Suppose you are a
company selling confections. You are designing an
e-commerce website. You may have two or more options for
website architecture.
Option 1: confectionary company displaying products by type
e.g. cakes, candies, cookies, chocolates etc.
Option 2: confectionary company displaying products by
occasions e.g. birthdays, weddings, thanksgiving, baby
showers etc.
Option 3: This option is a tad expensive because it
involves more complex programming at the database level.
You can let the visitor decide how he or she wants to view
the website product wise or occasion wise.
Which structure will be more appropriate?
Before deciding we need to find the online search behavior
of our future customers. Using a keyword tool we find out
that the search phrases customers use to find the - cakes'
are for specific types of cakes like wedding cakes,
birthday cakes, diaper cakes and so on. Same stand true for
candy.
Naturally the second option is a better website
architecture structure. It can grow both laterally and
longitudinally. It's more suitable for search patterns
hence later it will be easier to optimize.
The best way to do a keyword search is to write down the
phrases that describe your website's purpose. Start with:
5 one-word phrases
10 two-word phrases
5 three-word phrases
Run them in a keyword tool. You will be amazed at the
results.
Save them in a spreadsheet.
Selecting the Right Keywords
Your spreadsheet probably has a thousand keywords. It's
best to have a base keyword in mind around which your site
will evolve. Keep these in mind before you start selection.
- One word phrases are the hardest to rank for because they
require a high number of backlinks which is difficult for a
new site.
- Their conversions are also the worst because people are
not searching for that product or information. They realize
it as soon as they type it and see 44 million websites for
'cakes'.
- Two phrase keywords are good to optimize for as they have
more searches and hence more conversions. But they are
difficult to do so especially for a new website.
- Three phrase keywords may be few but are relatively easy
to optimize for. It's best to start with three word
keywords.
Select the 3 word phrases most suitable for your site. Make
them top priority for now...But do not ignore the 2 phrase
or single word keywords. With time you will be able to
drive traffic to your website using these keywords too and
they most probably will have more search traffic.
The other factors that matter are
- The number of competing sites
- The strength of those competing sites
Select a long string for 3 word phrases whose searches rank
more than 5 per day. This is the starting list for keywords
for your site. Repeat the same procedure for two word
phrases.
At this stage it may be suitable for you to leave out 1
word phrases not in the website design but in the
optimization process..
Integrating the Keywords in your Website Design
All efforts at selection are useless if keywords are not
properly integrated in design.
2 tips before starting:
Do not optimize for more than 3 keywords on one page
Preferably optimize for related keywords
Example:
Virtual Offices in Irvine Orange County (keyword)
-Virtual Offices
-Virtual Offices Irvine
-Virtual Offices Orange County
Get your website designer to use these search phrases in
the page in Title tags, Keyword tags, Header tags and Alt
tags. While writing the content for the page make sure you
use the phrase at least twice in 350 words of content. Use
synonyms of the keywords.
About the Author:
Ajay Prasad is founder of Global Marketing Resources LLC
that runs a number of ecommerce websites under it's
umbrella. Ajay's functional expertise includes website
strategy, marketing management, business development,
consumer research, market analysis and strategic planning.
GMRWebTeam is an company that
aims to develop an overall strategy for your site.
If you are starting your site from scratch, selecting
keywords at this stage is a time and money saver. If you
are redesigning your website, this is the time to outdo
your previous mistakes.
Zeroing On the Right Keywords
If you are wondering what keyword has to do with website
design think again. It determines whether your website
architecture will have a folder or linear structure. If it
is a folder structure then how many levels?
Let's take a hypothetical example. Suppose you are a
company selling confections. You are designing an
e-commerce website. You may have two or more options for
website architecture.
Option 1: confectionary company displaying products by type
e.g. cakes, candies, cookies, chocolates etc.
Option 2: confectionary company displaying products by
occasions e.g. birthdays, weddings, thanksgiving, baby
showers etc.
Option 3: This option is a tad expensive because it
involves more complex programming at the database level.
You can let the visitor decide how he or she wants to view
the website product wise or occasion wise.
Which structure will be more appropriate?
Before deciding we need to find the online search behavior
of our future customers. Using a keyword tool we find out
that the search phrases customers use to find the - cakes'
are for specific types of cakes like wedding cakes,
birthday cakes, diaper cakes and so on. Same stand true for
candy.
Naturally the second option is a better website
architecture structure. It can grow both laterally and
longitudinally. It's more suitable for search patterns
hence later it will be easier to optimize.
The best way to do a keyword search is to write down the
phrases that describe your website's purpose. Start with:
5 one-word phrases
10 two-word phrases
5 three-word phrases
Run them in a keyword tool. You will be amazed at the
results.
Save them in a spreadsheet.
Selecting the Right Keywords
Your spreadsheet probably has a thousand keywords. It's
best to have a base keyword in mind around which your site
will evolve. Keep these in mind before you start selection.
- One word phrases are the hardest to rank for because they
require a high number of backlinks which is difficult for a
new site.
- Their conversions are also the worst because people are
not searching for that product or information. They realize
it as soon as they type it and see 44 million websites for
'cakes'.
- Two phrase keywords are good to optimize for as they have
more searches and hence more conversions. But they are
difficult to do so especially for a new website.
- Three phrase keywords may be few but are relatively easy
to optimize for. It's best to start with three word
keywords.
Select the 3 word phrases most suitable for your site. Make
them top priority for now...But do not ignore the 2 phrase
or single word keywords. With time you will be able to
drive traffic to your website using these keywords too and
they most probably will have more search traffic.
The other factors that matter are
- The number of competing sites
- The strength of those competing sites
Select a long string for 3 word phrases whose searches rank
more than 5 per day. This is the starting list for keywords
for your site. Repeat the same procedure for two word
phrases.
At this stage it may be suitable for you to leave out 1
word phrases not in the website design but in the
optimization process..
Integrating the Keywords in your Website Design
All efforts at selection are useless if keywords are not
properly integrated in design.
2 tips before starting:
Do not optimize for more than 3 keywords on one page
Preferably optimize for related keywords
Example:
Virtual Offices in Irvine Orange County (keyword)
-Virtual Offices
-Virtual Offices Irvine
-Virtual Offices Orange County
Get your website designer to use these search phrases in
the page in Title tags, Keyword tags, Header tags and Alt
tags. While writing the content for the page make sure you
use the phrase at least twice in 350 words of content. Use
synonyms of the keywords.
About the Author:
Ajay Prasad is founder of Global Marketing Resources LLC
that runs a number of ecommerce websites under it's
umbrella. Ajay's functional expertise includes website
strategy, marketing management, business development,
consumer research, market analysis and strategic planning.
GMRWebTeam is an company that
aims to develop an overall strategy for your site.
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