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How to Create a Mastermind Group
Developing mastermind group requires an alliance of a small number of people who are willing to make regular commitment to each other to achieve a common goal. It may sound simple but in practice it can be quite difficult. Compare mastermind group dynamics with the art of baking bread. The process might be simple and straightforward but mixing all the ingredients in right proportion and proper kneading of dough is something that needs an expert and delicate touch.
Mastermind groups often find it difficult to sustain the passion with which they are started. May be members of the group find they don’t have sufficiently similar interests and goals. Developing element of mutual relationship is important for achieving common goals of the group. Some of the ingredients suggested for developing a mastermind group are:
- Time commitment to meet on fixed schedule ? preferably once a week.
- Right number of members in the group – 5-6 members is “just right”.
- Flexible meeting agenda – allowing more time to a member if it is so required.
- Accountability – members should be accountable to themselves and to the other members of the group for the steps they agree to take for achieving their common business goals.
Sounds interesting? Read Nina Kaufman’s article – visit:
http://legal.entrepreneur.com/2010/11/30/how-to-create-a-mastermind-group/
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
How to Build a Million Dollar Business
Achieving $1 million in sales is a dream of every business firm. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, approximately 80% of all U.S. firms fail to achieve this figure. Getting to $1 million in sales is reaching a level of sustainability. Most businesses fail because they commit three major mistakes when they are starting and developing their business.
- Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time in research and development, building a product without validating the idea with their prospective customers. One should consult as many prospective customers as possible by making cold calls to validate the idea of launching a new product. Discuss what exactly your product is meant to offer and how do you plan to solve their problems with your product.
- Arranging for adequate capital to meet the growth needs of your company is the second priority after your sales start gaining momentum. The most common type of financing comes from friends and relatives. Understanding the structure of investment and inviting equity partner needs serious consideration for the right growth of your company.
- Third major mistake that most entrepreneurs make is Reckless Hiring. Hiring expensive employees should be avoided to prevent drainage of funds. It is advised to seek a working partner for equity who will have the required skill and can offer useful advice when you are wrong. Outsourcing is the best option to find network of workers on as and when needed basis.
- Want to know more about these useful tips from Sramana Mitra, consultant and author of theEntrepreneur Journeysseries of books” Visit http://www.bnet.com/blog/entrepreneurs/how-to-build-a-million-dollar-business/747
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Making Time for Marketing
Most self-employed professionals feel they have no time for marketing. If you are the only one to serve the clients, manage the business, and perform all the sales and marketing functions, you really feel scarcity of time. Some Time Management techniques can guide you to defer tasks or delegate them; you can manage time for making calls, writing letters, or updating marketing materials. Have you already tried all those methods and discovered that time is still scarce”
What is your real challenge – to find more time for marketing or to MAKE time” Every day, you take part in many time-consuming activities which surely arent related to marketing. You could integrate marketing with all those things you are already doing if you could check some examples of how that can work:
- Attending workshops or cultural events with some business contacts can help develop better relationship instead meeting one-to-one.
- If you are planning to meet someone on lunch or coffee, add one or two persons to this get-together. This is great way to make new contacts. New invitees would appreciate the opportunity and you can have a rewarding group discussion.
- It is good to invite someone to join you for a walk in the park or a game of tennis. Such meetings help building business contacts. You can meet some contacts in golf course where you can discuss business while doing exercise.
- While reading an interesting article in a magazine or online, think of three people whom you could send it with a short “thought-you-would-be-interested” note. It will take only a moment, but can make a big impression on the recipient.
Sounds interesting” Get familiar with more ideas to make time for marketing, visit:
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/salesmarketing/a/marketingtime.htm
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Deciding Price Strategy For Your Product or Service
As an entrepreneur, first thing you need to decide is your price strategy. Fixing right price for your product or service is major aspect of a marketing program. Considering some basic factors may help you in taking right decision in this direction.
- How do you plan to position your product in the market” If you are planning to market your products through a discount store, you will try to keep your prices lower than your competitors. On the other hand, if your product is an exclusive luxury item, keeping low price tag might hurt your image. The pricing must be consistent with the positioning. People strongly emphasize to the idea that you get what you pay for.
- Do some market research to find out acceptability of your product at a particular price. Work out demand curve at various prices to assess the best price for your product or service.
- Calculate the fixed and variable costs of your product or service. Ensure that your gross margin (price minus cost of goods) sufficiently covers your fixed overhead to get you acceptable profit margin. Many entrepreneurs under-estimate this aspect which gets them into trouble.
- There are other areas to be examined before you decide pricing your product or service. To get detailed information on this topic visit:
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/salesmarketing/a/pricingstrategy.htm
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
The New Approach to Business Development
As a smart startup entrepreneur you should minimize your time and efforts by shifting your approach to business development. During the early stages of your business planning, you come across two groups of tasks:
- The busy work: The startup busy work means the task oriented stuff. Starting the busy work doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve started the business.
- The business work: This is the area where business development ideas are constructed and dissected. Actual business planning starts during this period,
Few things might help you plan your business development smartly.
- Finding couple of trial client is important before you spend substantially on marketing materials. Get an impressive presentation folder with one sheet description of your business. You will have to meet 10 persons to get your first two customers. Those ten will help you figure out whether you are moving in the right direction.
- Organizing demonstrations and presentations in your potential client meetings can help you find solutions about enhancing sale appeal of your product or service. Wisely allocate your budged on product or service development.
- Dont avoid meeting a new client. The key to balancing busy work vs. business work is to plan as you go. Most of information that you need for business development will come from actual clients.
To get a clear picture of the direction your new business will take, focus on business development activities and resist procrastination by hiding behind busy work.
To know more on this subject, visit http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2010/11/the-new-approach-to-business-development.html
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Qualities Of a Successful Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur explores his business with great uncertainty about the future. Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not an easy task. It is complicated and a difficult one. There are numerous qualities which a successful entrepreneur must have in order to achieve big.
- Optimistic : A successful entrepreneur must have a strong belief in himself.
- Innovative : He must be creative and resourceful.
- Motivated : A successful entrepreneur must be highly motivated to achieve stable position in the market.
- Goal Oriented : Goal must be set with the determined purpose of the organization.
- Ability to acknowledge and change: He must be able to listen to each and every feedback of customers, acknowledge them and make changes to provide good service.
- Self- Disciplined : Self discipline is an essential feature to achieve success.
- Practical : Being practical is the most important quality which an entrepreneur must be able to master.
- Open minded : He must be open minded and be always prepared to listen and learn from everyone properly.
- Specialized : A successful entrepreneur must have deep knowledge about the business.
- Leadership : An entrepreneur must be able to communicate effectively with his employees.
Any one can be a successful entrepreneur just by following these simple attributes.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Why Small Home Based Business Needs Virtual Office Address
No one denies that there are great benefits of working from home but most professionals today get up early, get ready, barely grab a bite and have to rush through the pollution and traffic to their offices. In bigger city’s some travel for an hour or more to get to work.Virtual office services are an ingenious manner, by which this entire scenario can be reversed; it allows you to do most of your work from home or for that matter from wherever you are.
With today’s growing paperless trend and digitalization of almost all cooperate proceedings more people dont feel the need of buying a separate office space or renting one. Freelancers and independent business professionals all over the world are realizing the potential of Virtual Office services and are making the most of it. They choose to work from home and use a virtual office service to select a prestigious address for their firm, capitalize on all the benefits of such an address and that too at a much lesser cost.
Yes, every business or profession might not need a virtual office but for those companies who rely on making a good impression on their clients a virtual office might be that added edge which would let them outgrow their competitors. It may sound silly but its only human nature, a residential address can never inspire as much trust and confidence as to what a reputed business sector address would.
The concept of virtual office in its full form aims at sufficing all your office needs without ever having a physical office. It allows a group of individuals to work together for a common goal, as a single entity without ever having them under the same roof. In essence, you can work in total collaboration irrespective of wherever your team might be in the world.
How does that work” Availing to a virtual office service is not only limited to having a fancy address but includes a-la-carte mail delivery and forwarding services, a front lobby receptionist at your virtual office and full professional secretarial and administrative support service.
As a part of the package of the services you avail, you can choose to hire a virtual office assistant. Virtual office assistants are just like typical assistants but they work from their own homes. They do the job of a normal secretary, as well as office administrative work. They would coordinate your e-mail, fax, telephone and postal service.
Many a time businesses running from home feel uncomfortable entertaining clients at their residential address. It simply doesn’t seem professional enough and can give a wrong impression. Virtual Office companies provide a perfect solution to this; you can rent an office conference room for a set number of hours. They make a safe place to conduct any kind of business transactions. What is more, you get all the facilities available at a general office and request for more to meet your requirements.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
A Flexible Solution To Own A Business
In this modern era, the cost of living including physical materials and goods is going up higher day by day. There is no one who wishes to invest much on any material thing. Every one wants less investment and more profit. Everybody wish to have their own business but it is an expensive option to explore it swiftly. But there is no need to worry….There is a solution i. e. Virtual Office.
Virtual office is a one stop solution to explore a business without expending much on its physical availability. Why should one invest on a real street address at an esteemed center, mail address for sorting and forwarding it to other location, phone number, and live virtual receptionists to make communication more easier when virtual office is facilitating all these at a very less expense and in no time. Now one can start their business instantly without expending much time on a physical business set up. For small business holders, virtual office is a really wonderful idea to let their business flourish. It also helps in starting a new business as it requires less investment in office hardware. It is a flexible option for smooth telecommunication as it can vary according to client’s requirements and budget.
In this present scenario only, it has become an imperative solution for every business holder to provide virtual office solution with less investment. Virtual office is a long lasting, secure and the easiest alternative. Day by day working from home is increasing. Every body wants to earn more in less time and virtual office is the ultimate solution.
In conclusion we can say that the technology of having virtual office will gain momentum in the future. Having a virtual office is an excellent solution to own a business either it is big or small.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Different Virtual Office Packages For Different Businesses
In todays ever-changing business climate, flexibility is necessary to achieve success. This is exactly what virtual office packages are intended for. Before going on the topic, let us discuss about a virtual office:
What is the meaning of a virtual office?
Virtual office is a remote work environment. It is a work-from-home set-up to continue work flow diligently and full-fledged at an exclusive area through provision of in-built offices with superior Internet technology and facilities like Voice over Internet Protocol and video chat. It is an alternative to renting an actual physical office space in order to provide streamlined communication with clients without expending much on the physical availability of the office.
Globally, there are different virtual office packages available for different businesses. Virtual office solution has filled the gap between leasing a full-blown traditional office and working out of one\’s closet.
Virtual office packages are for those who want to possess a professional office setting appearance, and at the same time not requiring a full- time office. A virtual office is a smart solution to such a dilemma. Anyone can tailor their own virtual office solution from a variety of services. These options are very flexible and cater to the needs of all sizes and types of businesses. Small businesses can benefit from rented virtual offices, especially those entrepreneurs who lack a way to share information among multiple offices. Most modern virtual office companies offer a full menu of choices when it comes to picking the right virtual office space package.
- Most basic space packages start with an address option only; interested clients can take the help of the address as their registered business address for licensing and mailing.
- There is an option of up-gradation available which allows additional mail privileges like sorting and forwarding mail to another location.
- Advanced packages are also available which allow for meeting room privileges, meaning you either get a monthly usage allotment for a shared meeting room or a discounted hourly rate, or both.
- The next upgraded package accommodates a telephone line with voicemail facility.
- VIP packages offer everything mentioned so far, plus a live operator during business hours with the option of a live operator 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Even clients can avail the option of having calls forwarded to any phone number in the world.
- There is a full application of virtual office which provides everything including a prestigious business address with mail forwarding and telephone answering service.
These packages are extremely flexible and perfect for any type of business.
A one-man company with talent and skills can appear as big as an MNC in the same field by availing the option of a virtual office.
Opting for virtual office suits especially to the budding entrepreneurs. They can start their own business with minimal amount of money spent at the developing stage of their business.
The virtual office suits all types of business professionals-whether they have a new home business or are an on-the-go professional.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Patience is a Key Towards Perfection
Patience is not just waiting for some one for short duration or long. It is not for working fast or slow, even it is not about talking more or less.
Patience is the potential and willingness to endure waiting avoiding complaining or being upset when faced with a troublesome or challenging situation. It can be considered as a virtue. It is about waiting for the perfect moment and perfect place in order to take a right decision. Being patient can take an individual or a group towards perfection. It is a discreet way towards the path to individual success in beneficial effort. A calm attitude can bring good fortune and success in life.
A person having patience and calmness can be a winner in their respective field.? All the good things comes to those who waits for the right time. Patience accommodate prerequisite momentum for the explorer to abide the journey on the path of perfection. It is an excellent stepping stone towards perfection.
"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it." – Arnold H. Glasgow
http://www.entrepreneurship.org/
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +