Six Sigma Blogs

Negotiate Are you dying with envy when you see other ad people come up with a better offer? Yeah, you pay full price and think you did OK until they show up with the same thing, only they paid several hundred dollars less. What’s their secret? They’re not afraid to ask for an extra discount.

Next time your advertising rep pops over, do not in any instance sell yourself short or underestimate your capabilities! Even if you’re already getting a discount, ask for a bigger one. Ask, ask, ask, and if we may repeat it again, ASK!

Keep It Simple, Silly! Less is more. In the world of advertising, nothing can be farther from the truth - short and punchy ads are generally more successful than large, elaborate ones. In fact, if you trim down the size of your ads, you are also cutting costs while at the same time having a good chance of good results!

The Best Things In Advertising Are Free What’s the difference between advertising and publicity? It’s a matter of who sells who. Advertising is basically selling yourself. Publicity, on the other hand, is when somebody else is selling you, and if handled properly, can make you a rock star in the world of business if you know how to take advantage of what’s handed to you.

Think about it, my friend - you could be bigger than the Beatles in business terms if you can take advantage of what comes free to you. Got hot news? Go for a press release. Write a “how to” article of 500 words or so with a short byline (VERY important) and submit them to article directories, ezines, blog sites and the like. You can even promote your non-competitor as they promote your product. You help each other out, and again, everybody wins!

That’s right, amigo, if you play your cards right, free advertisement can aid your business in many ways. Naturally you’ll have to rely on other forms of advertising for a price, but come on, if it’s free and can benefit you, why pass it up?

Improve Your Offer Is your deal too good to pass up? If you don’t, then work on it. Don’t get me wrong - I didn’t say knock down the prices even lower, because the bottom line is still important. Sweetening the deal is all about adding value to the product by enhancing what consumers already know and teaching them more about the product without having to pay much.

Add an expiration date. Yeah, an open ended offer encourages procrastination which leads, yep, nowhere. It leads to Nowheresville, USA, but if you take advantage of the expiration date to entice a customer to buy now or pay more the day after, he or she is going to drop everything, pop over at your shop and make that purchase! Good advertising does not necessarily equal expensive and flashy advertising. To recap, it’s all about good negotiating skills, trimming down your high-falluting ads, asking for bigger discounts and making an offer not even Don Vito himself can refuse - take note of these four steps and your profits have nowhere to go but up!

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Every home based business owner can attest to the fact that there are never enough hours in the day. Thus, it is of the utmost importance that you efficiently manage your time throughout the day. We will attempt to show you what every home based business owner should be doing daily in order to make the most out of each hour of each day.

Here are some things which you absolutely must consider.

1) Stop associating with that which consumes your time, and gives you no benefit. I am not only talking about your friend who wants to go for the early bird happy hour at two o’clock in the afternoon, I am also talking about the things which interrupt your work throughout the day. Cutting the following wasters of time out of your day is essential to time management:

a) Social Networking Websites: If you find that you are devoting in excess of a half hour to personal messaging, then you are wasting time.

b) Telephone Interruptions: If you answer the phone live more than five times per day during your productive time (ie. work at home time) you are sacrificing time management and efficiency. When you answer the phone, you interrupt your current productive flow, which destroys your productivity.

c) Television: The boob tube must be limited for you to achieve ultimate control over your time. My recommendation is thirty minutes per day, especially if you are not getting all the things done you need or want to. If you have a DVR, you can record whatever you want to watch, and skip through the commercials in order to save time.

2) Make a list of the most important things which you absolutely need to complete each day. One of the best things that you can do to adequately manage your time, is put a list of tasks together which has been prioritized. You have to know what must be done every day, and then take action to do it. This is the day of new technology. While this new technology has enabled us to work at home, it has also given us many things which compete for our attention. If you allow such distractions to become priorities, you will not have enough time to complete your work. Consider doing the following:

a) Put together a list of the things which you need to get done each day;

b) Generate time frames for the accomplishment of each item;

c) Arrange each item in accordance with its importance;

d) Develop a plan of action which will give you the ability to accomplish your goals within your set time frame.

3) While going through the daily operations of your home based business, begin to focus on time management. Your consistent focus must be on managing your time. Once you have determined what your goals and priorities are, begin focusing on simply completing those goals in their respective order. If something is not on your list of goals for this week, do not spend precious time on it until all of your goals have been completed. If you allow every interruption to become a priority, you will not accomplish your goals. Rather, you will be in debt to interruptions, and probably feel like you never accomplish enough.

Dalliance and Home Based Business do not mix very well. Take full advantage of your Business Opportunitiesby determining which time wasters you can do away with. Make sure that you drop by and visit us at SOSComplete.com

Yes, it is true that operating a home based business can be challenging yet rewarding in the same instance. Even though it can at times be utter chaos running your own business, there are some tools which you can use to make your life easier. For instance, if you operate a home based business in which you need to constantly ship packages to your customers, it makes sense to set yourself up with a digital scale and a method to print off shipping labels from your computer. Such a step can save several hours over the course of a month.

To understand what I am talking about, let us look at two different scenarios. The first scenario is one which requires that you pile your packages into the car, drive to the post office or wherever you ship out of, stand in line, have your packages weighed, purchase labels, get back into your car, and drive back home. The second scenario is one which requires that you turn on your digital scale, weigh the packages that you plan to ship, print off the shipping labels from your computer, and have these packages picked up at your house by your shipping company. Which scenario do you think is more time efficient? Of course, the second scenario. Saving this much time per week is the equivalent to hiring a part-time employee. Except, you do not have the expense.

By now you might be starting to see the importance of optimizing your home based business. A big step in accomplishing this involves keeping what you need to operate your business right underneath your roof. Thus, you should keep track of what you use on a day to day basis, and make sure that it is stocked in your home. This will ensure that you do not have to constantly run to the store to purchase supplies. Better yet, you can purchase your supplies in bulk. This not only ensures that you have what you need on hand, it also provides you with the opportunity to purchase in quantity and receive a discount. Moreover, there are several supply companies which will actually deliver their supplies to your house, so there is no need to even visit their store.

You should also take steps to identify what adds value to your home based business, and what does not. For instance, if you find that you are taking a great deal of time and effort to send a weekly newsletter to your customers, and very few customers are subscribing to this newsletter, it might be a good time to re-evaluate. Perhaps your customers do not want such frequent contact. Maybe it is a good idea to go with a monthly newsletter, rather than weekly. No only will this afford you more time, it may lead to more subscribers.

Above all, make sure that you are offering stellar customer service and solid products to the customers of your home based business. This will lead to their ultimate satisfaction with your company. Keep in mind that your customers are the only reason why you remain in business. By taking the time to make your home based business more efficient, you can spend more time catering to the needs of your customers.

If you are the owner of a Home Based Business, then you are well aware of the value of time. Get the most out of yourBusiness Opportunities by efficiently managing your days. Take the time to visit us at SOSComplete.com

In this lesson of the GTD Thirty Day Challenge we are going to talk about how to set up a tickler file, or specifically, how I set up my tickler file.

David Allen seems to be big on using 43 folders for his tickler file. These folders would be made up of 12 monthly folders and 31 daily folders. Let’s say it is now January and I’d have all my daily folders behind the January folder. When a day ends, that day’s folder goes behind the next month or February’s folder. Looking at the 19th, I’d have the folders 1-18 behind the February folder at this point.

Now, how do you use it? Today, I had a bill I learned I had to pay on February 3. I don’t want to forget it, so I would put it behind my February 3 tab. When that day rolls around, I check my tickler file and it prompts me to pay the bill.

If you asked me, I think using 43 folders for my tickler file is not the best way to set up a tickler file. First, it’s hard to remember to check the tickler each day. You’ll be asking yourself, “how do I remind myself to check the tickler file?” Secondly, it’s very bulky and not very portable. Third, when you move the folders for each day to the next month you have to take items in that months folder and put them in the right day.

If you use GTD though, a tickler file is essential to set up because there are things in the future that you need to remember. The folder type of tickler is perfect if you have a lot of physical type items you use as reminders. For most people, their work doesn’t create the kind of physical items that really justify a folder tickler file and I suggest setting up a tickler file differently to address the problems above.

How To Set Up A Tickler File

Step one is to create a plastic folder that I carry in my briefcase labelled “Waiting For” and all the things I need to remember on future dates go in there.

Next, I created a folder in my email account called “Yahoo Reminders”. You’ll see this folder if you look at the image of my email folder structure in How To Set Up Your GTD Email. I then set up a filter for all Yahoo Reminders to go into this specific folder and not in my inbox for processing.

Finally, I use my Yahoo! calendar, to enter any item I need to remember and make it an “all day event” with an email reminder scheduled to be sent to me 2 days prior to when I need to do it. As a back up, I also have it text to me as well.

So, let’s take the above scenario again. I got a bill today that I need to remember on the 3rd of February. I go to my Yahoo! calendar and enter an all day event “Pay important bill” with a reminder scheduled for two days prior. I then take the bill and put it in my “Waiting For” folder in my briefcase.

On the 1st day of February, I get a Yahoo reminder that reminds me about the bill that needs to be paid on the third and it goes directly into my Yahoo reminder folder in my email account. In addition, a text goes out as well giving me a backup on my blackberry in case I can’t get to my Yahoo reminder’s folder in my email account. I review my blackberry text messages every day and review my reminders folder too as well if I have access to it.

This system works fantastic for me. It’s extremely portable, it reminds me automatically and I don’t have to rethink the items in my tickler when I move the tabs. If you are not using email reminders to help you remember stuff, you have no idea how this can effect your productivity. Even if you use 43 folders, I recommend email reminders 100% to be a part of your GTD system.

Once I learned how to set up a tickler file in this fashion, it improved my effectiveness at remember everything to a complete level.