Business Coaches – Qualities to Look For in a Business Coach

Gone are the days when the field of business is reserved only to those people who have degree in commerce, business management, accounting, and other related fields. Today, you can start your own business even if you don’t have a college degree. How? By simply hiring a business coach who can offer you with relevant information, expert advice, motivation, and guidance.

To make sure that you’ll get your money’s worth, carefully screen the business coach that you are going to hire. Look for these qualities before you sign up:

1. Look for business coaches who are sought after internationally for advice. People who are truly good in the field of business are known worldwide. When looking for your own coach, research for those people who are making contribution in the global market; those who are being invited to speak on issues revolving building and running a business. If people world wide trust this person, you can be assured that you are in good hands.

2. Your business coach must have proven track record. Look for coaches who have managed their own business and who were successful in this field. These people can surely offer you with tips, techniques, and even personal stories as to how they were able to reach the top. These are what you exactly need to jumpstart your business and later on, grow it exponentially.

3. Your business coach must be a sales and marketing professional. The most crucial part in business is marketing and selling. If you can’t properly market your products and if you struggle to make a sale, your business will be doomed. So, hire a coach that can help you in these aspects of running a business. Your coach must know the ins and outs of marketing and selling.

4. Go with coaches who listen. Avoid signing up with business coaches who are doing all the talking. You need someone who is patient enough to listen to all your problems or issues even if they have heard it one hundred times before. This is to make sure that they get a clear picture of what you want to achieve and later on, offer you with the best possible solutions or recommendations.

5. Go with coaches who involve you in the process. I am pretty sure that you would like to know everything that’s going on with your business. So, go with coaches who will not mind working hand-in-hand with you.

Business Accounting Software

Accounting is a system of collecting, summarizing, analyzing and reporting, in monetary terms, information about an organization. The end product of business accounting software is the financial statements consisting of the balance sheet, profit and loss account, and statement of changes in financial position. These statements are, therefore, the source of information on the basis of which conclusions can be drawn regarding the operations of a firm. The analysis and interpretation of financial statements would depend upon the nature and type of information available.

When talking about business accounting software, the balance sheet is a significant financial statement of a firm. In fact, it is called a fundamental accounting report. Other terms to describe this financial statement are statement of financial position or position statement. As the name suggests, the balance sheet provides information about the financial standing/ position of a firm at a particular point of time. It can be visualized as a snapshot of the financial status of a company. The financial position of the company is valid for only one day- the reference day. On a preceding or following day, it is bound to be different.

The financial position of a firm as disclosed by the balance sheet refers to its resources and obligations and the interest of its owners in the business. In operational terms, the balance sheet contains information in respect of assets, liabilities and shareholders equity. It can be presented in either of two forms: account form or report form. It is usually presented in account form. In the report form a step-wise balance sheet is prepared, listings asset at the top followed by liabilities and owners equity. The contents of the balance sheet, in whatever form presented, consist of assets of the firm and the means, by which they have been financed, that is, liabilities and owners equity.

Time Management Techniques For Small Business Owners – 7 Steps to Getting More Done in Less Time

Otherwise known as… how to knock the competition bandy whilst having more free time to have fun and spend with your family and friends. The primary aim for any small business owner is to make more profits. In order to be successful in business, time management techniques are critical.

Follow these seven essential steps:

1. Goals

What do you want? Why do you want it? If what you’re working on isn’t taking you where you want to go… you’re ultimately wasting your time. I consistently see people talking about time management habits without ever mentioning this first important step.

2. Break big projects into smaller tasks

This makes getting things done more manageable. It will reduce the risk of you becoming overwhelmed by your workload. Use project management software such as Mindmanager. This gives you an excellent visual overview of the tasks that need to be successfully completed. You can also see: In what order they logically need to be done. Who has been given responsibility for each of them. When they need to be completed. And how you will measure successful completion.

3. Prioritisation.

Prioritize the importance of the tasks. This depends on not only what will create the most profit for your company. But also what tasks need to be completed before others can even begin.

4. Outsourcing/delegation

Outsource or delegate all non-critical, time-consuming tasks. The only tasks you should be doing are the ones that create the most profit and value for your company. Do the tasks that you are best at and most enjoy… and offload the rest.

5. Systematization.

This applies to any task or activity which needs to be repeated within your business. Document step-by-step, the most efficient way to carry out the task. Make this documentation available to all your employees. As more efficient and effective ways are discovered to complete this task…update your documentation. The ultimate goal is that every task is carried out in the same efficient way every single time.

6. Time planners.

Have one for every working day, week, month, and the forthcoming year. Put the tasks that need to be completed into your planers based on your previous prioritisation. Stick rigidly to these planners. Make sure you that you successfully complete each day’s tasks. There will always be times when this is not possible. Update your planners appropriately. Cross off each task is its completed. Move on to the next task straightaway.

7. Set a time limit for each task

Your accuracy of judging the required times will get better with practice. Unfortunately, the human mind as a habit of filling the allocated time you set for any activity. Tell yourself you need an hour to complete it. An hour it will take. Tell yourself you need all morning, and surprise surprise, all morning it takes. Use an egg timer. Find out what the most efficient working period of time for you is. For most people it is between 40-90 minutes. When you complete each time period, get up and walk around for five minutes. Get the blood flowing. Move on to the next allotted time period.

These may sound like relatively simple time management techniques. The fact is they are incredibly powerful. You don’t need to over complicate things.

Sit down next Sunday and plan your working week using these seven steps. The following Saturday review how much you have achieved. I think you’ll be shocked and pleased at how much you’ve achieved in your business.

Paintless Dent Removal Technicians in Demand in a Niche Market

PDR Technician Earnings – Fact or Fiction?

Yes, that’s right – the claim made by some PDR Technicians are that an experienced PDR technician can earn as much as surgeons! The paintless dent removal industry has existed for the past 30 years in Australia and not many know about its existence! I would estimate that very few – perhaps 1 or 2 per cent of Australians have heard of this industry. Knowledge of those that do is often vague – referring to ‘sucking the dents out’. The industry has progressed technologically!

So when claims that there are people who train for up to a year or two and begin earning such money within 5 years, the reaction is often swift and hostile. I am often met with blank looks – friends politely nod and smile knowing that I normally don’t tell lies. Alas few if any accept the claims.

After all how can such an industry exist for so many years and not seem to appear in the media? How can people not know about it by word of mouth! The paintless dent removal industry has been rather secretive for years and deliberately so! Why would anyone want others to know what you are earning let alone how!

It may surprise you that actually the media has reported on this industry. After the controversial claims of bad practice by

“overseas hail chasers” were made after the 2011 Christmas Day Melbourne hailstorm. Check The Age news paper. Actually it was this media hype that consequently put the paintless dent removal industry into the spotlight!

“… One estimate puts chasers’ earnings at $5000 to $10,000 a week. It’s all pocketed, with no insurance costs to cover, no workplace premiums, no tax paid, no responsibility.”

Whatever the article set out to achieve ultimately underestimated the public reaction. Enquiries into PDR training skyrocketed!

Surgeons versus PDR Technicians

Analysing the earnings of the medical profession quoted by Business Insider – $250,000 to $500000 per year. Let’s not forget the investment into education and the years to get there! Just the cost of education can amount to $10,000 per year after HECS! We have not yet accounted for insurance. OK fair enough, PDR Technicians in the infancy of the industry paid between $10,000 to $40,000 for training or a business franchise in paintless dent removal industry. Now however, the cost of training PDR technicians have come down considerably to as low as $2900 for a 5 day PDR Course. Can it get any lower? Perhaps in the future – currently it has stabilised limited by the earnings of the PDR technicians themselves. For the time being, any lower than this and PDR technicians may as well just repair a car rather than train others – they can earn more!

Paintless Dent Removal Earnings can be substantial

Dwelling into what paintless dent removal is and their earnings – simply put, it is the art of removing dents without the requirement of painting the vehicle. The theory is that keeping the original factory paint work is important. PDR technicians complete an average hail damaged car within a day. OK so how can a PDR Technician clear 250K per year?

Consider a quotation on an average vehicle being about $2000-3000 during a hailstorm. Between 60-70 percent of this quotation goes to the PDR Technician. So even averaging $1000 per day to underestimate it during lost time, you are talking $200K to $300K per year!

Still not convinced? OK so not everyone can leave their family and chase hail around the country? There has to be an understanding between spouse and PDR Technician for them to go away for weeks or even months at a time not seeing their family!

The PDR Technician and Retail Sector Earnings

Well there is the retail market too. In the retail sector, paintless dent removal technicians contract to car sales yards, auctions, car rental fleet cars and the private clients to remove accidental vehicle damage such as car park and door dents. Although this usually requires more effort to come close to the larger earnings by hail repair standards, it still can be achieved! Here’s why…

The average rate for repair of one dent being $80 to $130 per dent depending on size or difficulty (not over-inflated when considering call out fees for plumbers and electricians). Repair one dent and charge even $80. Repairing 5 dents a day nets you $400! One dent can take a few minutes to 20 minutes to repair depending on experience. So hypothetically, even a single client can net $146000 per year! It is not uncommon to get several clients in a day but not every day. However, considering repeat clients and the odd customers who want their cars ‘clean’ of dents (cars are the second most important commodity in Australia), and further referrals for a good PDR technician, the numbers start adding up to that figure of $250k per year. And let’s face it, and you check yourself the next time you are stuck in a traffic jam, check the side of the cars for dents – you will be stunned to know how many dents there are around you! One in three readers of this article should have a dent on their vehicle…

So who qualified for paintless dent removal?

The next most common question I get asked is if I am not a panel beater, does it matter? The answer is no. Well, yes, a panel beater has knowledge of vehicles – models, panels, parts – they spend four years minimum learning the trade at TAFE and through apprenticeships. But so do spray painters. How about mechanics and their knowledge of cars. Throw in auto-scratch repairers, car detailers, window tinters and paint protection technicians. Yes, panel beaters are the most frequent clients for paintless dent removal training courses. But PDR courses can adopt other related trades.

What if I am not in a trade?

A course run in 2012 attracted a person who worked in administration within a bank. Yes a banker. It was our first non-industry person to train. We took on the challenge of training him but so did he! After a few hours on the first day of training, not only did he flourish, he actually excelled! Among his colleagues, it became apparent he was consistently producing the best dents amongst his group which included a panel beater! How can this be? He never touched a car in his life! He had to be taught how to remove and replace parts. Well, it is often said that attitude has a lot to do with success in PDR courses. He had everything to gain.

“Sometimes panel beaters are harder to teach if they come in with the wrong attitude, lack of patience or being two heavy handed.”

Are there women PDR technicians?

There is no secret that the paintless dent repair industry like the auto vehicle repair industry would be male dominated. Talking to a PDR trainer in 2015 who had trained mostly men but a few women. Those women however overall seemed to produce better work perhaps because they are not so “heavy handed” and perhaps some added “determination”. There are no conceivable reasons or barriers not to have women in the paintless dent repair industry.

A Career Changer?

The first phone call from clients tells me a lot about the person applying, their plans and underlying reasons. Some are subtle, others attempt to dominate the phone call – others simply know what they have researched and go for it! One of the myths however I immediately dispel is that this is not a “job” career change. Paintless dent removal is a business, a contractual business. Whether you work for yourself or contract to others it still is a business operation – no wages or salaries. So a sense of security is lost as well as challenges in finding the working clients. But there is a sense of freedom to work your own hours and choose your own clients once established. Despite the pros and cons, those that flourish are usually well known for their quality.

Can anyone do paintless dent removal?

In the extensive research across the internet and reading the many minds of PDR technicians themselves, there is a unique set of circumstances and conditions that has led PDR technicians to approach the industry and succeed. PDR technicians have the following qualities:

  • determination
  • perseverance
  • self belief to succeed at all odds
  • hard working
  • good eyesight
  • business minded
  • innovative
  • ability to work alone or in a team
  • ability to work in a variety of conditions
  • flexible

Most of the older generation of PDR technicians were fortunate enough to know or come across another PDR technician and get trained. Increasingly though more are getting into the industry through PDR training companies. The qualities listed above though are still important.

Success is hard earned

Becoming a PDR technician requires complete determination and perseverance because it is not easy to begun with. The first few hours of a paintless dent removal training course quickly sets the record straight: metal tool on metal panel is not a good mix. Paintless dent removal requires ultimate skill, determination and perseverance. It is too easy to get wrong, too easy to quit! Hundreds of hours of practice to make it through and become comfortable. In fact, two different sources of “training on a bonnet stand in the lounge room next to their wife watching TV” says it all. Just like intense determined training gets some to the Olympians to a gold medal – it takes such practice and determination to succeed in PDR.

Supply and demand

The old rule of “supply and demand” has a lot to do with the earnings of PDR Technicians. There are conflicting reports on there being too many PDR technicians out there. Are they simply trying to protect the industry for themselves? Because every time there is a major hailstorm, vehicle repairs often take up to 12 to 18 months to complete! Why? Supply and demand – there simply is a lack of quality PDR technicians in this country to do an ample amount of work. Furthermore, should we allow overseas PDR technicians to the work Australians can do? Heaven forbid when Sydney with a population of 5 million gets another April 1999 hailstorm! Why we still get car loving repairers into spray painting and panel beating when there are opportunities to get into the paintless dent removal industry defies belief!

Conclusion: Who will ride the lucrative rollercoaster?

Convincing anyone to enter this industry is like drawing blood from a stone! Making the change is difficult, requires planning and commitment. Do the risks outweigh the odds of success? You never know if you have what it takes to get into this industry. From the writing on the wall if you get through, whoever does ride the rollercoaster may be set for a lucrative and rewarding career! You never know if you have what it takes to get into this industry.To this day, I have yet to see an unsatisfied PDR Technician!

Social Media SEO As a Form of Internet Marketing

Social media is quickly growing and becoming one of the most used ways to communicate on the Internet. Different sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, have become extremely popular and are used daily by millions of people. Many businesses are beginning to see the popularity of this medium and have realized that it is a great place to try and market their product or service. This is where SEO combined with other social sites came in. When businesses optimize these type of sites, they are working towards getting more recognition for their brand and product or service. By doing this social media SEO strategy, businesses will ultimately increase sales.

Social Media SEO – What is it?

This form of SEO is the process of using social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to promote a company, brand, product, or service. These types of sites are typically used as a way for people to communicate and keep in touch with others. As these social sites have continued to grow, businesses have started to create their own accounts as a way to reach out to their existing customers and to try and reach out to create new customers.

Benefits of using this SEO strategy – What are the they?

Here are some helpful social media SEO tips to learn how to gain the massive benefits these social sites can bring in through using it as a way to advertise.

1. Social sites helps to give your business and product or service more credibility. It allows your customers to see that there is an actual person behind the company. Many people prefer to work with a company or buy products from a company that they know more about and are able to be in contact with.

2. Millions of people use these mediums on a daily basis. This gives a business the opportunity to reach out to their existing customers as well as expand their customer base within the millions of other people using social media sites. It is also a great way to allow your current customers to promote your business for you. Once one of your customers “likes” or is a “fan” of your page, all of the people they are in contact with will be able to see. If any of those friends check out your page and “like” it as well, it will continue to spread.

3. Using these social sites allows for you to keep your customers and potential customers current on what is going on with your business. You can easily inform them of any deals you have going on, new products coming out, or any other changes or information you have.

If you Google social media SEO, you will see many more ideas and benefits to start to incorporate these social sites with your SEO efforts. It’s the wave of how advertising is more effective and you can be as interactive with your customer base as you want.

The Juniorization of the American Workforce

A friend of mine, Tom recently commented on this obvious trend. At 51 years of age, Tom works as an IT (1099 form) consultant for a medical tech start-up. Tom shared recently that he had just come back from a reunion with his friends from high school. Many of those Tom referenced had been in leadership positions in large companies, and had followed long and distinguished career paths to attain their career objectives. So, Tom saw it as more than a coincidence that the only individuals currently employed among his friends were those who were self employed / owned their own businesses. All of the individuals in Tom’s group who had risen through the ranks of corporate America were currently “displaced due to circumstances.” It doesn’t take a lot of looking around to see this phenomena infiltrating the lives of an entire generation.

The contemporary application of the noun “juniorization” references the “elephant in the room.” It’s the now common practice of “displacing” senior employees who “don’t have as much runway left.” This is HR speak for an illegal practice engaging in age discrimination through a strategic deployment of rationalized hirings, forced retirements, displacements, and firings.

The fact that there haven’t (yet) been a rash of age discrimination suits, doesn’t mean that the problem hasn’t reached a crisis state. It only means that these illegal practices are difficult to prove. Exiting employees are extorted with severance packages that have been significantly vetted in terms of fiscal financial savings for the company. Either you sign, agree to keep your mouth shut, and accept what you’re being offered, or you take the boot, and face a long and expensive litigation process.

Even as you read this article; HR teams are working feverishly to provide proof that they aren’t employing juniorization practices. They will publish lists of displaced employees that illustrate the age diversity of the individuals who are about to join the ranks of the unemployed. Although, there’s a pretty good chance that the company will turn around and rehire younger staffers in newly defined positions, or replace the displaced senior staff with “more economically favorable” options including outside “1099 form consultants,” and less experienced, and cheaper employees.

Hiring Managers are strongly discouraged against hiring teams of older individuals – even when the senior employee candidate has a particularly advantageous history as a leader, or as an innovator.

There is no denying that senior employees may not be as technically up-to-date as their rising-young-star counterparts. But, that’s not an acceptable (or legal) reason to put them out to pasture. They still have a lot to offer in terms of historical knowledge*, and leadership** (more on that in a minute).

An interesting analogy can be drawn from the definition of juniorization provided on the web site ‘BrickWiki which is a wiki intended to cover all aspects of what is coming to be known as the LEGO hobby. ‘BrickWiki defines juniorization as:

“A term used by Adult Fans of LEGO [AFOLs) to both describe and criticize the inclusion of a few highly specialized elements in sets instead of already existing elements that could be assembled into the same configuration. A BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) might be considered a juniorized element but it is more common to refer to pieces such as which is simply an element that reproduces five of stacked together.”

The ‘BrickWiki continues: “The major complaint is that the use of juniorized pieces reduces the possibilities to build alternate models, a cornerstone of AFOL activity.”

So, as the Lego analogy portrays: companies are dismissing senior employees who have finely honed, specialty skill sets, and replacing them with cheaper, younger employees who have less evolved, but more diverse skills. As analogized in the Lego world, the employment of the less specialized, less senior employees will eventually result in long term organizational shortfalls in flexibility, and adaptability.

*Historical knowledge is something in which those employing juniorization processes are placing no value. They are willing to forfeit years of experience for short term savings.

“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

• Edmund Burke

**Leadership isn’t a talent that can be taught in grad school. It is an acquired skill set. And, guess what. Not everyone has the propensity for leadership, That’s why it takes years and years to vet good leaders. So, throwing less experienced employees into the management pool to see who sinks, isn’t the best leadership development process. It will result in the loss of valuable talent through burn out and frustration.

The term juniorization is not a new one. In an October 2004 article in the Columbia Journalism Review (“Letter From Johannesburg: The Trouble with Transformation” by Douglas Foster in Cape Town, S. Africa) the term was credited to the online source: Double-Tongued Dictionary as:

“n.- The survey spawned a terrible new word: juniorization. It covers a multitude of sins. When more experienced reporters left the profession because they were traumatized by covering the political violence that swept the country in the 1980s, or crime or AIDS in the 1990s; when talented reporters get snatched up at double their salaries by government or corporations as spinmeisters; when someone gets promoted beyond his abilities, and even when a reporter gets a story wrong, “juniorization” is the one-size-fits-all label used to shame newsroom denizens without mentioning explicitly that most of the “juniors” are black.”

So, the term juniorization has long held a negative connotation. But, the contemporary issue at hand is threatening an aging populace that is already struggling to set retirement plans with no promise of social security subsidies.

A recent blog entry on theSkimm defined the term Juniorization as: “The term for why your office happy hours keep getting rowdier. It’s when a company fires older employees to replace them with younger ones. Because 40 is the new 30 is the new 25. Is the new not so legal.”

In theSkimm ‘s coverage, they referenced an article from Business Insider entitled Wall Street is gripped by something called ‘juniorization,’ and it is freaking some people out in which the practice of firing senior traders and salespeople and replacing them with younger talent was cited as a major cause for concern. But, this trend which has been recognized in the financial services world, is not confined to that sector.

None of this is meant to put the full blame for these juniorization practices on the Human Relations professionals. Obviously, these directives are coming from a higher level. But, the level of complicity being exercised by the HR folks is amazing. They are smiling in the employees’ faces and kicking them in the ass on the way out the door.

The days of working for one corporation for your entire career are at the endangered level on the extinction scale. But, don’t show me a rat and call it a puppy. You might be “just following orders,” (think war crime trials) but don’t tell us that you’re making fair and non-discriminatory business decisions. Because we’re just not that stupid.

Obama’s GE Advisor – Business Management Dialogue

Most would agree that Jeff Immelt is one of the great CEOs of our time, and he’d better be because GE is one of the greatest corporations in human history. And it is good to see that Mr. Immelt has volunteered to assist President Obama in bringing jobs to America and helping us into the Clean Energy Future, but still, this is very risky for GE’s reputation and Jeff’s as well. After all, with approval ratings dipping drastically it’s could become a dangerous demise for Immelts longevity as a top executive in American Business.

Before Immelt’s appointment to Obama’s insider team to revive our economic prospects, I was having a conversation with a business management and small business consulting guru about General Electric, and we both agreed it is a great company. When talking about why, he believed that GE had great leadership, mentors, and coaches and he stated;

“Think Jack Welch and GE, especially in their prime. No one was better at generating top notch business leaders who knew how to execute. Why, because of the culture and the psychology of GE. Because of the leadership and mentoring (coaching) that continuously happened there. This didn’t happen accidentally.”

Okay I told him, that’s one way to look at it, and it is true, but I suggested he read the book; “The Secret to GE’s Success” by Rothschild. (Amazon sells the book online still I believe). So, whereas, GE did do a good job with their executive training center, thanks to smart leadership. I’d say a good part of their success has more to do with their close ties to the US government.

Even today we see that, namely a law to make all citizens change light-bulbs, funding for night-vision goggles for the troops, and don’t forget banking laws helping GE Capital, healthcare insurance laws for that division, jet aircraft engines for military aircraft, Medicare funding for their high-tech medical division – plastics, nuclear powered submarines, hydro-plants, energy-efficient appliance rebate stimulus, etc, etc, and seriously I could go on for 10-minutes on this stuff.

So, whereas, Jack Welch did well, and yes, I’d say he was a General Patton type motivator, but, make no mistake GE did recover from a number of rather huge mistakes over the last 6-decades. And I’d submit to you that GE had to set up that executive training center for their employees because the business schools were not producing or teaching their MBAs correctly, or good enough.

So, one can swear up and down that Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton are the best thing going, but I read all of their stuff, and quite frankly most of it is like either “dah” or so laden in politically correct horse manure, that’s not worth my time to read. Plus, their students and faculties explanation of industry, case study, or future predictions is more often than not FLAT WRONG. And it blows me away no one can see it, when it’s all right there in front of them, but they don’t see it.

And I am happy that GE is being used for case-study after case-study in these schools, but in hindsight, it’s obvious that due to their closeness and coziness to government, they’ve been able to do what few companies ever had. And I’d say that close relationship has done wonders for their success as much or more than their ability to coach, educate, and motivate their team to greatness. In fact, I’d say they had no choice, because they had so much business, they had to rise to the occasion.

Further, this latest relationship with GE and the Obama Administration, well, it will be great for GE profits, and it does uplift Obama’s credibility to work with such corporate superstars of business. But GE’s reputation could take a hit for the privilege of that same relationship. Time will prove me right, have a nice day.

Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry – The Old Violin

When you get to the Nashville city limits sign coming from any direction it says “Music City Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County, Home of the Grand Ole Opry”. See Nashville is proud of its country music heritage these days but that hasn’t always been the case. Back in 1925 when Edwin Craig first started WSM radio, Nashville’s “old money” didn’t want anything here that portrayed the city as back ward or hickish. The early years brought endless battles with Nashville’s conservative establishment who were very protective of Nashville’s image as the “Athens of the South”. They told Craig “you should be educating those hillbillys, not pandering to them”.

At its very beginning WSM had it studios on the top floor of the National Life and Causality building. They chose the moniker “Air Castle of the South” because they were on the top floor of the building, all 5 stories of it. They built a large one room studio with a grand piano and very elaborate red curtains making it seem a fairly formal place and intended mainly for the big dance bands and operatic artist of the day.

The fate of WSM changed in early November, 1925 when they hired a young announcer, George D. Hay, away from powerful WLS in Chicago as its manager. George Hay had built a name for himself and was known on the air as the “Solemn Ole Judge” even though he was a mere 30 years old at the time. He had gained the nick name in his child hood when relatives would say about the serious natured Hay, “He’s as solemn as a judge”. Hay had heard and liked an array of local folk music earlier in life and felt it would be a good draw to the “masses” for the new medium of radio. He hired a 78 year old fiddler, Uncle Jimmy Thompson to play one night when a regular act failed to show. The listener reaction was so strong that Hay announced the following month WSM would broadcast a and hour or two of old time music every Saturday night and call the show the WSM Barn Dance. Hay, as the “Solemn Ole Judge” would be the original announcer.

In December of 1927 following a Saturday night performance of the ‘Music Appreciation Hour”, which featured the classics, the “WSM Barn Dance” opened with Deford Bailey, whom Hay referred to as “The Harmonica Wizard”. Following Bailey’s rendition of “The Pan American Blues” Hay announced “for the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from the Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.

Seventy years later in 1997 I stepped back stage at the now infamous Grand Ole Opry for the 1st time. Over the next several years I would become a regular back stage attending the Saturday night Grand Ole Opry performance countless times. My children grew up in felling a Saturday night back stage at the Opry was normal but it was not. Every single attendance was an opportunity to view history in the making.

One such event happened in 1998 to the best of my recollection. It was a typical night at the Opry except for one thing. Johnny Paycheck had been sick for a while and in Ohio. This night would mark his return to the Opry. Now typically back stage at the opry is very lively with folks visiting and doing what the old timers referred to as “shake and howdy”, greeting each other and everyone else back stage. Sometimes it’s hard to even hear what is happening out front. But this night when Paycheck walked to the microphone and his fiddler played that signature lick you could have heard a pin drop. Paycheck leaned into that famous mic with the triangular stand cover marked WSM Grand Ole Opry and sang. “I can’t recall, one time in my life, I felt as lonely as I do tonight, I feel like I could lay down and get up no more, It’s the damndest feeling, I never felt it before. Tonight I feel, like and Old Violin, soon to be put away and never played again.

I wonder if the reverence was a kind of proxy feeling of the older generation of Country Music acknowledging that their time had passed. But had it really? Won’t it live forever? I think it will. I think the very fact that the Grand Ole Opry continues to this day to be considered the Mother Church of country music is evidence that the foundation of county music will never be lost. Time and sounds will change of course. The artists of the 70’s were very different from their predecessors of the previous 50 years but they held their own kind of reverence for those great artists of the past. With every new generation of country singers they bring their own style but if you listen closely enough you’ll hear the influences that go all the way back to Deford Bailey. Every now and then each new generation pulls out the old Violin and reminds us that the sweetest sounds come from the oldest instruments, tried and tested by time.

3 Easy Ways To Increase Sales For Your Small Business

Having started my business career using the more traditional bricks and mortar business route I know only too well how difficult it can be to increase sales for a small business. Sadly, nowadays it is even harder for local businesses to survive as more and more of us opt for the more convenient route of ordering our goods online… But are there any “tactics” that small businesses can employ to lure more of us to buy their goods or services?

Mobile Marketing-Promoting To The Converted

Many local businesses miss out “big time” as they waste too much valuable time and resources chasing new customers when the real money (and consistent income) comes from marketing to existing customers. After all, people who have already bought from you will already be aware of the quality of your product or service and providing that the buying experience that they had with you was good, then chances are that they will buy from you again and even encourage others to buy from you as well… They just need a little prompt or reminder that you are still open for business.

One of the easiest and most instant ways to promote to existing customers is to use mobile marketing. Let’s be honest most of us now carry our mobiles with us 24 hours a day and more texts are opened straight away than any other form of communication.

Indeed, most of us now provide a mobile phone number as our first point of contact as opposed to the more traditional landline contact number. Therefore all you small business owners out there need to make a point of storing these valuable mobile numbers and start using them to promote your business via a cheap text messages. Don’t worry of you don’t know how to get started as there are affordable training packages out there that will show you step by step how to set a mobile marketing campaign.

The best way to achieve instant results for your business by using this method is to promote an offer or a promotion. Let’s be honest we all like a bargain so simply offering, for example, a free glass of wine to customers who book a table at your restaurant on a quiet evening will help to attract more business. Even though it will cost you a glass of wine, you will more than make up for it by filling empty tables with paying customers.

Mobile marketing can benefit other small businesses too including texting appointment reminders for businesses like dentists or doctors, luring people into car showrooms via Bluetooth messages, promoting special offer up sells for businesses like beauticians or health spas. There are endless benefits that using mobile marketing as part of your local business marketing can offer, not least of all that it’s cheap, quick and offers instant results.

What Is A Business Without A Good Website?

I am amazed by how many local businesses are still not online. Given the ever growing popularity of the internet, small business that are not promoting their business online are losing out on massive income potential and are passing that business onto other business savvy owners instead.

Creating a website for your business does not have to cost a fortune… In fact some websites even offer free templates that you can use. You then simply need to purchase a domain name and some hosting for your website. If you lack the confidence or knowledge to do this yourself, there are websites out there that offer a way of outsourcing this task to others quite cheaply, simply check out outsourcing sites for that offer that type of service. Often you can put a bid on the outsourcing websites that will invite people to bid for the work. This can be a great way of getting the best value for your money.

Again, there are training packages available that offer step by step training on the best ways to create a website for you business together with the cheapest ways to drive traffic to the website including how to get onto page 1 of Google.

Without a doubt, regardless of what small business you own, it is vital to have a good internet presence to ensure consistent sales for your business.

Business Blogs- Seeing The Bigger Picture

It’s often quite challenging to persuade small businesses to start blogging. They fail to realise that writing a blog can significantly increase sales for their business; most sadly fail to see the bigger picture.

Blogging takes time but if you are consistent, your business will begin to see dramatic results. Blogging for your business can help you to connect with people, especially if you are careful to write in a style that is unique to you and that you offer valuable content. If you are careful to offer useful advice within you blog, then you will help to promote yourself as an expert who people can trust, which will result in the reader buying from you rather than your competitor. It doesn’t matter what business you own, whether you’re a dog trainer, a piano teacher, a shop owner or a driving instructor, writing a blog can offer an affordable and fun way of getting your business noticed.

You can then drive traffic to your business blog by sharing the link to your blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. There are also opportunities available, (for a small monthly fee) for small businesses to use existing high ranking blogging sites to promote their business.

These are the 3 ways that I personally consider to be the most effective way to increase sales for your small business. They are methods that I have personally used, with success, within all of my businesses as they are affordable and create instant results.

How to Become Wealthy – The Insider Secrets to Become Wealthy

How Can I become wealthy? Many people daydream and even organize their plan of action to obtain wealth. What do the wealthy know, and how can you use that to help you to become wealthy?   The fact is majority of people did not create their wealth by buying a lottery ticket, or stumbling across a long lost relative that left them a fortune. Those that created their riches, created it by having the right mindset, and finding the right opportunity to create that life style.  

You want to become wealthy; it all starts with evaluating your values, and up bringing. Most of us were geared from a young age to believe you go to school, get a degree and find a job.   What is wrong with this philosophy, it is the rule of thumb we all use, but ever wonder why a small population is wealthy.   Education is critical in all markets of life, but most will not teach you how to create a rich life style.  They will not give you the critical elements and teach you how to build a business to create your own wealth. You don’t hear of a Wealth Building Class, on the high school class list, your core values start as young as pre-school. You can see the challenge with many to start thinking and creating that millionaire mindset.

Become Wealthy – Your Action Game Plan

You have to work on your core values. The rich did not become rich without stepping out of the ordinary.   They stepped out of their safety zone, and got rid of the nine to five rule. Majority of the high income brackets are not working for someone else rather they are creating their own businesses, their own products and services to prosper.

 Your Action Guide To Become Wealthy

1.) Wealth Building Mindset Change – It all starts with you, and your thought process may have to change a little. This is not often an easy task; as for many they have the work ethic of a nine to five job. What the rich know is that majority of the time that job is not going to make you rich. Start saying today, that I want to stop working for someone else and want to make a change to improving mine. Understand as of this moment the only one in charge of your financial situation is you.

2.) Where Do The Wealthy Start From – Some were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but there is not since crying over the fact that the silver spoon was not in your cards. Think of some of the top millionaires, usually Donald Trump, trumps the list. What does he do, how did he create his millions?  If you examine the trends you will notice the majority of the wealthy, are entrepreneurs.

3.) Where You Are And Where You Want To Be – Okay nine chances out of ten what you are doing now is not working. Where are you now, is their open possibilities in your position that you are not exploring. What do you have to change in order to become wealthy? Now most are going to fire their job, until they are showing real profits and change. But maybe it is time to look in different directions.

4.) Internet Wealth – Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a successful business was more difficult years ago. In modern times there are more platforms and avenues to create your wealth. The worldwide web, and Internet Business start-ups are changing people’s financial services. Compared to starting a bricks and motor business, there are lower start up with higher returns. For thousands each the Internet Business, or home based business industry is giving many a road map to success, without large overhead, and large set up fees.

5.) Online Mentoring and Coaching – Anybody who is wealthy did not  achieve those results without finding a mentor and training platform. This is not the type of training you can get in school, rather life methods and business building methods needed to create wealthy. In order to obtain your wealthy you need to align yourself with successful people. Seeking out a mentoring or coaching team to teach you how to build a successful business, and how to get that business to start creating your wealth is critical.

6.) Take Action – The wealthy did not just sit on there hands and wait for the day there life changed. They started to take action steps to become wealthy. Start researching different avenues. Start researching Internet Business, look for a mentoring team that can teach you how to build a successful business. 

If you want to become wealthy it has got to start with you.   The formula to changing your lifestyle goes beyond wishing and wanting for a better life, it goes toward changing your thought process, and then aligning yourself with successful people and getting the right training towards reaching your goals. The first step to become wealthy is to step out of your safety zone, and reach for those goals. Are you meant to become wealthy, I do not know and neither will you unless you start changing your mindset and breaking out of your safety bubble to seek your own wealth.

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