| 791 | How To Realistically Set Your Fees - Part 1 Preview: Calculating Billable Hours Myth Vs. Reality We all know there are 52 weeks in a year and 40 working hours in a week. Therefore, we can bill 2080 hours per year, right. Wrong. Too often this is the trap that many new service businesses fall into. The first step in calculating your billable hours is to define a realistic working year. If you were ... (more) Published By: Chuck & Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 792 | How To Better Handle Your Mail Preview: Letters, magazines, bills, flyers, what to do with them all. There should be only two responses to every piece of mail or e-mail, do something with it, or toss it! The best way, as always, to deal with it all is in an organized fashion. One of the quickest ways to do this is to have the following folders: A red one for things that must be de... (more) Published By: Susan and Chuck DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 793 | Help! There's an Intruder in my Computer Preview: Do you have passwords, love letters, naughty pictures or sensitive business information stored on your computer's hard drive? If you have a continuous Internet connection such as cable, xDSL, ISDN or other, you should know that it's almost embarrassingly easy for a hacker to break into a networked computer. Once in, they can use your private in... (more) Published By: June Campbell Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 794 | Taking Charge Of Your Files Preview: One of the first steps is to box up last years files. However, before you do that be sure to go through your files and clean them out. The files that can take up a lot of space during the year, can be easily tossed. For example, your correspondence file, newsletter files, chron files. You can also combine your completed client files for the year, ... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 795 | What's In A Name? Preview: Once you decide to start your own business you need to give it a name. Your business name should describe what you do. If this is not possible, for example, the one you come up with is already taken; you can use your own name with a tag line. For example, DeFiore Enterprises, Lease Purchase Consultants. Our best advise is to come up with several... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 796 | Time, Knowledge And Energy; What They Should Mean To You Preview: Our time, knowledge and energy are our most valuable resources. We do not let anyone waste them. Time. You only have so much time in a day to earn money. Learn to put a dollar value on that time. Don't let anyone squander your valuable time. We all meet people who love to talk, we're guilty of this ourselves upon occasion. However, our time, and... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 797 | Summertime Scheduling Preview: It's the end of Summer. The kids have been home for awhile and you realize that you've lost a good amount of time this Summer from your business. How do you avoid this happening next year or during the various school year breaks? Read on! Let's say it's the middle of June and depending upon the area of the country you are in, the kids are now ou... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 798 | Are You A Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda? Preview: The impetus for this article came from one of the 40 to 50 e-mails we get each week that go like this: "Dear Chuck & Sue, Can you recommend a business that will help me earn $10,000 to $20,000 each month. I need to start earning this type of money as quickly as possible. Sincerely, I want To Be A Millionaire By Next Tuesday" We kid you not. W... (more) Published By: Chuck & Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 799 | How To Improve Your Sales Skills Preview: One of the biggest problems for many business owners is the ability to overcome objections. In fact, for many, this skill could be the difference between succeeding and going back to being an employee. Since none of us want to do that, we need to hone our sales writing skills and our in person skills. This article will discuss the in person skills... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 800 | How Do You Want To Spend The Rest Of Your Life? Preview: Those who have the desire to work for themselves, or in effect run their own business, go through numerous stages. There's the "Do I want to lose the security of my job" stage. So many people still think that their job is secure. Well -- newsflash -- no job is secure. You can be terminated at any time. So working for someone else only gives you a... (more) Published By: Chuck & Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 801 | It's Not My Fault....Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway? Preview: It amazes me, how often during a week, I hear "It's not my fault, it's not my responsibility". It seems that in today's society no one wants to take responsibility for anything. Parents don't or won't take the responsibility of how their children turn out. It's the daycare's fault, the school's fault, the college's fault, the cop's fault, ... yo... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 802 | Resolutions....How To Keep Them Preview: It's now February, have your resolutions already fallen by the wayside. Research shows that most resolutions don't last past the second week of January. Why? That's what this article is going to concentrate on, and how you can keep your resolutions on track. The most popular resolutions are to lose weight, stop smoking, eat better, get a better j... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 803 | How To Get Repeat Business Preview: A concern for many of the participants in the survey results was repeat business. One of the best ways to get repeat business is to outline what makes YOU want to do business with someone else again, and apply these same questions to your own business. Ask yourself the following: Were you clear as to what you wanted or needed? Were all your needs ... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 804 | Realistic Goals...How To Set Them And Why Preview: So many people want to start a business today and be rich tomorrow. Sorry, people it doesn't happen that way. If it did, everyone would do it. There is no free lunch...it takes hard work, determination and realistic goal setting. Think about the businesses you have worked at, look at the businesses in your community. I mean really look. When you... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 805 | Realization of Dreams Preview: We all have dreams. Some of us dream about winning the lottery and never having to work again (also the most unrealistic dream). Others dream of going to college, retirement, travel. Still others dream of working from their home. Some even want to run their own business. Whatever your dreams are, the realization of them is extremely important. We ... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 806 | Parenting and Running a Home-Based Business Preview: A recent Ann Landers column "Parenthood is not a job for the weak at heart" caught my interest. Job Description for a Parent Position: Parent Job Description: Long-term player needed for challenging, permanent work in chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work evenings a... (more) Published By: Sue and Chuck DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 807 | Organizing Your Day Preview: One of the hardest things for most individuals working from home is to stay focused. One of the best ways to stay focused is organization. In addition, being organized will help your time management skills. The two are very much intertwined. Planning out your day is very important. What you will do in the morning, afternoon/and or evening, depen... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 808 | Getting Organized For The New Year - Part 2 Preview: In part 1, we discussed a system you could use to organize your office. In this article we will discuss what material is needed to implement that system. You will need the following items for your office system. Calendar/Daily Planner; Accordion File (1-31); Manila Files with the Months of the Year (Or you can make them up yourself - a lot less e... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 809 | Getting Organized For The New Year - Part 1 Preview: The following procedures will insure an organized and well run office. 1. Have a daily To Do sheet. This is made up at the end of the day. You might have items left over from the previous day, put those items first and work from there. If you make deposits on a daily basis, add them to the list. Plan to file at the end of the day or before/after ... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |
| 810 | Office Set Up Preview: OK, you say, I've decided to start my business. I have my idea, my identity package, my licensing and zoning done. Now I need to set up my office. Your first step is to decide whether to convert a room into an office or a space/area in your home to office space. If your space is limited you might want to get the type of desk that looks like an... (more) Published By: Chuck and Sue DeFiore Submitted: 23 April,2002 |