Process Improvement – A How To Guide

Process Improvement - A How To Guide
INTRODUCTION

Objective:

? To help enable process improvement for better performance?do it better, cheaper, faster.

Would you like a simple, effective approach to process improvement? This is a generic method for almost any type of process and is intended as a guide of things to do, rather than an in-depth tutorial. Because it?s generic, it doesn?t contain discipline-specific technical advice. While it outlines a methodical approach, we also encourage creativity in concert with it, because the biggest breakthroughs happen when method and creativity find a way to co-exist.

This paper first defines key terms, then discusses how to improve inputs to the process, the process itself, and wraps up with some ?lessons learned? advice. Although production and manufacturing terms are employed, nearly everything herein works for service businesses and office operations. It is currently fashionable to say that value is only added on the factory floor, but little would happen on its own without the intelligence value-added of such ?non-value- added? activities as marketing, selling, planning, designing, contracting, buying, shipping, etc. The ?value-added? concept needs expansion beyond the narrow realm of production that it is now so myopically focused upon.

This article is an excerpt of a paper originally written by George Miller, Founder of PROACTION. It has been modified and updated by Paul Deis, PROACTION CEO.

DEFINITIONS

Process

? A process is a collection of related activities that adds value to a product or service, that a customer would be willing to pay for. A process accomplishes specific objectives. Products consume processes, which consume activities, which consume resources, such as money, manpower, material, and machine. They may also require information, in the form of specifications, instructions and schedules.? ? George Miller, PROACTION

? A collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer.? ? Hammer and Champy, in Reengineering the Corporation

Typical potential process improvement areas are:

? Speed
? Cost/Return on Investment/Assets
? Quality
? Flexibility
? Product Innovation/Improvement
? Compliance/Safety

And will help enhance:

? Profitability/asset return/shareholder value
? Customer service
? Market share
? Reputation

Select from the targeted improvement areas above to support your company/project strategies. The most critical areas should have ?metrics? to track performance and possibly, targets.

Excellent processes have or utilize:

? Mission
? Objectives, Metrics
? Responsibility-- who is in charge of process to see that it is right
? Resources, such as:

  • Material
  • Manpower
  • Energy
  • Equipment- machinery, tools, technology
  • Information- specs, direction, instructions, procedures, software, schedules
    ? Activities
    ? Cycle Time
    ? Inputs
    ? Outputs-- Products, by-products, waste
    ? Defects (even excellent processes usually have)
    ? Policies/Procedures
    ? Tools/Technology

Do yours have these? Make sure their availability and quality are addressed in your process review.

VALUE-ADDED ACTIVITY (VAA)

Activity/cost that actually increases the value of a product or service in a customer?s eyes. Fabrication and assembly are examples of this category. The ideal process consists of only Value-Added Activities

NON-VALUE-ADDED ACTIVITY (NVAA)

Activity/cost that does not increase the value of a product or service in the customer?s eyes. Example: storage. Decide if the activity is needed at all, is it duplicated anywhere, can it be done better or differently? Can the timing, method, material, equipment, speed, training, technique, setup, specification be altered to improve the results? An activity may be all value-added, all non-value-added, or a mixture. Certain non-value-added activities may still be needed, such as a storage requirement due to a capacity imbalance or a wait for a required inspection. Customers may see value in some of these activities, if only to ?Band-Aid? a weak process.

NON-VALUE-ADDED ASSET

Non-productive asset. Assets kept working are more productive, but only if the output is actually needed and soon. The classic asset misuse is ?keeping machines or people busy? even though the results aren?t needed. This wastes investment by inflating inventory, tying up material, space, capital, manpower and equipment resources. It is often aggravated by misapplication of metrics. For example a production manager who is measured by raw unit production ?efficiency? measures is likely to commit this ?sin.? If assets cannot be kept productive under this rule, then divestiture, replacement or outsourcing should be considered, as feasible. New metrics may also be needed.

CYCLE TIME

The total elapsed time to produce one unit. This includes all delays including elapsed set-up, queue, move, inspection, rework and also the actual processing time. Typical processes have 60-95% idle time, while product is not actually being worked on. Therefore the greatest cycle time reduction opportunities are normally, but not always, in delay time. Lost time may be recovered by balancing operations, reducing: storage time, handling, waiting for approvals, queues, handoffs, inspection, etc. Shorter cycle times usually improve competitiveness by cutting costs and response time.

WORK TIME

Time required or spent actually working on the product.

TAKT TIME

Interval of time for each unit to be completed?the rate of production. A product may have a 2-hour cycle time, but have three 20-minute operations and one 30-minute operation. One unit comes off the line an average of every 30 minutes. Resources and work content should be allocated to adjust Takt Time to the desired rate of production.

DEFECT

Anything about the product which is legitimately not acceptable to the customer or internal authorities (normally, but not always, documented in specifications). Defects result in added cost, lost time or lost utility of the product to the customer, as well as delays in response time, wasted inventory and capacity.

PROCESS CAPABILITY

The ability of the process to meet the desired quality and speed at an acceptable cost.

METRIC

Important performance indicator to be measured. Examples: Inventory turns, cycle time. Metrics should be meaningful to the level of the people held accountable. For instance, ?average plant level cycle time? is not meaningful to a team responsible for assembling a certain model computer disc drive. They need their own metric.

CELL

Production unit designed to make one product/service line or process. Ideally, all resources needed to complete a product or process are contained in the cell. Cells may be arranged as component/assembly feeders to final assembly test cells. Functionally-oriented cells have resulted in improvements, but product or process cells have generally shown superior results.

WASTE

Any portion of an activity performed, resource assigned or utilized that is not absolutely essential to meeting the mission/objectives of a legitimate process.

LEAN MANUFACTURING

Manufacturing process with as much waste as possible eliminated. A Lean Manufacturing manifesto and body of knowledge has been created and is available through the Agility Forum. This is having a profound influence on current thinking.

INPUTS TO THE PROCESS

External to the Process

Don?t jump right into the detailed guts of the process. Start at the top, with the product or service to be provided. Make sure it is defined to meet customers? expectations?technical specifications, service requirements, quality and pricing. First make sure you?re working on the right process, with the right objectives! The biggest, easiest improvements often occur right here, before even getting into the actual process in question.

?Frame the process??Look at things external to the process first. Before you do anything, make sure you know what you need the process to do. There should be a clear, simple, strong overall mission statement. Examples: ?Eyeglasses in one hour,? (Lenscrafters) or… ?When it [your package] absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.? (FedEx). Don?t waste time improving the wrong process with the wrong mission or approach. As you break the process down into lower levels of detail, each piece may not satisfy the overall mission statement, but it should be clear what role it plays in doing that. Accomplish this by formulating simple objectives for each piece.

The mission statement potentially has enormous power to improve the process. For example, a while back, we were brainstorming the warehouse ?process? with a client. The ?owner?? of the process stated that her ?mission? was to receive material, move it to inspection, store it, issue it to production on work order kits when requested, replace shortages and rejections, move finished goods to inspection and stores and ?generate paperwork? (how?s that for a mission?). After much discussion, the new mission agreed upon was to ensure that material was safeguarded, provided to production as needed and then accounted for. This triggered a flood of changes, questioning the very existence of warehouses, inspection, work orders, kits, etc. The company ended up starting to certify key suppliers, using supplier-managed inventories, eliminating most work orders, using kanbans, pull systems, point of use storage and much smaller warehouses, inspection and overhead.

? Decide on scope of change, process boundaries. Are you reengineering the whole company, one process, several products, a department? Are you looking for a complete redesign or major improvements in the current approach or just incremental enhancements?

? Formulate objectives and metrics--Preferably quantifiable and measurable. More important ones will be assigned quantifiable metrics, such as cycle time minutes, or defects for significant attributes. Don?t set them and measure them unless they are important, because it takes valuable resources and time just to do that. Most metrics will fall into speed, cost and time categories. Others may relate to flexibility, innovation and compliance/safety. Still others may meet quality of life and even aesthetic objectives. Metrics themselves are non-value-added activities, to be used only when needed.

? Analyze process inputs and outputs--Study inputs and outputs to see if they are appropriate and what improvements could be made. Also decide if the cycle time is acceptable for competitive purposes, regardless of how easy or difficult it would be to improve it.

? Estimate Improvements?For principal metrics. Do this at the start and again after the internal process has been analyzed. For each one of the performance improvements, write up how you will accomplish it. When work actually starts on improvement planning, other ways will be probably also be found.

Now you?re ready to look at the internal process steps. . .

Internal to the Process

Analyze the overall process flow, preferably using pictorial charts and problem identification techniques. Repeatedly walk through the process physically with employees, customers, suppliers, consultants, objective bystanders and learn all you can about what is right and wrong. This seems to work better when one performs the external steps first. Look for continuity, search for gaps or redundancy, delays and defect generation. It helps to do a map of the area, superimposing activity, paper and material movement.

Finally, it is also helpful to prepare a summary of activities chart, showing: responsible person, cycle time consumed, delays, inspection, movement, wasted time, defect generation, process Takt time, value-added component, non-value-added, probable reduction and whether step is needed under current conditions, wait time, defects produced, resources consumed, applicable policies, procedures and instructions. The number and complexity of worksheets used is a function of the complexity of the process and the mindsets of those in charge. Space limitations don?t allow us to show you enough samples.

See if the broader, overall process, or even parts of this process are interfering with the portion you are working on. For example, in a recent project, a company discovered that its order picking effectiveness was being severely hampered by improper stock and record keeping practices that eroded inventory record accuracy. This prompted the company to properly redirect its energies on improving this critical upstream activity first. Redo Figure 6 when you are done, including the additional ?how-to? write-ups.

Focus on eliminating defects, problems and constraints.

Rather than detail planning, followed by a ?big bang? implementation of changes, it is desirable to test and incrementally implement new changes. In the case of radical process change, this is not always possible, although prototyping and parallel operation can help alleviate the risk and pain of major change.

? The performance of a process may often be improved without a change to the process itself, but just by better clarification, training, measurement or emphasis on it.

? Tips for organizing a process:
Determine WHAT is to be accomplished and WHY first, before determining HOW, WHEN, WHO and with WHAT, pretty much in that sequence. This can best done correctly by putting the process in perspective with the overall enterprise, business unit and workflow.

? Internal Process Improvement Checklist
Here is a list of improvement ideas to help out. Keep in mind that some of these are radical and may require planning and coordination. For example: don?t eliminate inspections of nuclear pressure vessels without some overarching quality strategy in place, along with customer and regulatory approvals!

? Identify or assign process ?owners? and accountability for implementation of improvements and ongoing performance results.
? Compress time, do things faster and cheaper, by overlapping operations, eliminating hold points and inspections, scheduling better, eliminating capacity and defect bottlenecks.
? Eliminate non-essential activities.
? Eliminate non-value-added assets, such as excess inventory, space or unneeded equipment. Some say this is impractical, because the assets are already there and the money is spent, but they might be sold, scrapped, transferred, leased or converted, with some thought. For instance, a company had four factories, with much unneeded space. Employees were encouraged to consolidate layouts, move out unneeded assets, rope off unused spaces and place ?FOR RENT? signs on them. Result from this and other actions: Plants were consolidated, one plant closed and employees transferred, some to better jobs, remaining plants saved from closure.
? Do activities in parallel or other optimized sequence to get high resource utilization while reducing cycle time.
? Reduce queue, move, setup, inspection, storage, wait/administrative time.
? Time-phase improvements to improve payback while reducing risk.
? Eliminate bottlenecks, which might be inadequate capacity, excessive setup time, bureaucratic check-in/out or approval procedures, etc.
? Reduce defects, through awareness programs, personnel screening, process training, set-up training, equipment tune-ups/maintenance, rebuilding/replacement, poke-a-yoke approaches, revised material specs, better screening, reworked tooling, redesigned processes.
? Reduce capacity constraints/bottlenecks.
? Reduce number of required approvals, sign-offs.
? Reduce steps, complexity, in general.
? Reduce number of hand-offs. Reduce number of organizations, people, facilities involved- Change organization and facilities to fit the desired process if feasible.
? Increase flexibility- avoid ?hard wiring? the system, design it for change.
? Use standardized approaches, ?packaged? solutions, where practical.
? Simplify design of product, process, tooling, equipment. Use the simplest product, process, equipment, tooling design that will get the job done effectively. Only automate/make significant investments when significantly higher productivity, quality or speed will result. Beware of expensive investments that cannot be recovered, or result in losses of money or flexibility when volume, mix or design changes. Keep it flexible!
? Try to modularize the new process design. Design process/business ?objects? that are self contained in what they do, that can easily be linked to other activities or processes and redesigned without having to ?rewire? other activities or processes. They ideally should be reusable and interchangeable elsewhere in the organization, system, maybe even in other organizations.
? Throw away functional organization charts and functional space layouts. Make the organization chart and layout fit the process, not vice versa. This make take significant time, planning and internal salesmanship.
? The amount of time and trouble to accomplish needed changes is almost inversely proportional to the support, strength and competence of the people responsible for approving and making the changes. Get the best and most adaptable people you can afford. You can?t afford weak people.
? Employ cheaper materials, or maybe even better, more expensive materials that reduce defects, improve quality, reduce overall costs.
? Reduce costs (most of the above reduce costs).
? Use OPM (Other People?s Money)- ?leverage? their inventory, capital equipment, technology, organization, knowledge.

  • Set up supplier partnerships/contracts.
    ? Outsource where practical, in-source where you are clearly better.
    ? Use consultants, where it makes sense.
    ? Utilize professional and trade associations contacts, services and body of knowledge, to learn better methods, find and train better people, locate helpful people and organizations.
    ? Use schools, colleges and universities, when they can deliver useful knowledge.
    ? Brainstorm, get outside opinions from almost anyone you can?employees, managers, mad scientists, poets, writers, freaks, even customers!

Selectively Employ:

? Policies/Procedures
? Checkpoints
? Controls
? Auditing, Checking
? Metrics

? because these are ?non-value-added? activities that should only be used as needed.

LESSONS LEARNED

A. 80% of the improvement task is selling it and getting peoples? support.

B. Organizations resist change, no matter what they say. Certain individuals may help or even lead, but many people will slow down, stop or even reverse improvements unless they are properly trained, motivated and led. Focus on education and change management more than technical improvements.

C. Talk to people first. Soften them up before the big push. People who are your friends are more likely to help you, simply because you are familiar and they like you. Find out what thy want/need and help them if possible.

D. Try to hire, transfer, or borrow like-minded people. It?s often easier than trying to convert them.

E. Simple systems usually work better than complex ones.

F. People are more accepting of change when you take the mystery out of it and show them what?s in it for them.

G. People are much more accepting of change when you can show it working somewhere else, preferable nearby and full-scale.

H. Teams and consensus are great, but strong leadership still has its uses.

I. Constant repetition and leadership by example are needed. Don?t think that you can simply state the mission, objectives, conduct a brief training session, then come back in a couple of months and reap rich rewards. This war will consist of multiple campaigns and many battles. There will be resistance, indifference, confusion, conflicting priorities/philosophies, even outright opposition, or worse yet, covert opposition. Persistence and determination are called for!

J. The process improvement methodology can be straightforward. There are other approaches besides this one. Some will yield better results, but may require much more skill and complexity. The methodology is only a framework. Technical expertise and creativity are also needed. Beware of either letting ?industry experts? drive the solution down the same old roads and also letting those ignorant of industry lessons learned move into naive approaches.

K. Imagination and creativity are needed for best results. The folks who were determined to deliver packages overnight, provide a computer for ?the rest of us?, sell books over the Internet, invent the Internet, provide eyeglasses in one hour, had real vision (no pun intended) and enriched life for many.

Process Improvement Examples

When this session is presented live, workshops/examples are offered to illustrate the points made herein. If you?re reading this, why don?t you try the ideas out on your own with an actual case, preferably a simple one to start with--one that people agree needs great improvement?

REFERENCES

Reengineering: 40 U$eful Hints,? George J. Miller, APICS XX International Conference Proceedings, APICS, Falls Church, VA
The Process Reengineering Workbook, Jerry L. Harbour, 1994, Quality Resources, NY, NY
Reengineering Your Business, Morris & Brandon, 1993, McGraw-Hill, NY
Reengineering the Corporation, Hammer & Champy, 1993, Harper-Collins Publishers, NY, NY
Business Process Improvement, James H. Harrington, 1991, McGraw-Hill, NY

Youth Business Entrepreneurs

Youth Business Entrepreneurs ? Useful Tips
Who is a Youth Entrepreneur?

A youth business entrepreneur is a passionate industrialist, who produces certain selected products and distributes them to consumers to make a handsome profit.

Youth entrepreneurs are usually more energetic to take part in all the commercial activities of their entrepreneurship. They work hard to establish themselves from a very young age in the commercial sector.

The legitimate acceptable age for youth business entrepreneurs to start any commerce is 16. The ideal time for youth entrepreneurs to undergo business training is during their academic term, when they are pursuing a degree or diploma.

Health of young enterprisers has to be stable since, business activities are demanding and can have a bad effect on the health. They are also required to work for longer hours, to achieve the set objectives of the day.

Youth entrepreneurs need to supervise almost all the business activities, and hence they have to be accessible at any time. They also need to prepare themselves to work and conclude the task effectively and successfully.

Important Factors:

Entrepreneurs have to take lot of risks, if they wish to grow and establish themselves in the market. For this, it is important that youth business entrepreneurs prepare themselves mentally to take tough trade decisions.

To start with, entrepreneurs can examine the administration and technical support system of a couple of small business development centers and participate in special management programs. Several universities, colleges, and business schools around the globe conduct venture capital forums, youth business programs, and entrepreneurship seminars.

With the assistance from several collegiate entrepreneur associations, youth business entrepreneurs can educate themselves on myriad topics. Such associations, notify, encourage, and support youth?s business ideas to mold them into successful capitalists of tomorrow.

Further, they can also extend their commercial talent by surfing the internet. They can browse several sites devoted to tips and tricks related to youth entrepreneurships, to educate both the business and mind. Some sites also entail inspirational stories of victorious young entrepreneurs to inspire upcoming youths.

Youth entrepreneurs can hone their skills for executing the business by undergoing training for manufacturing the goods, marketing, packaging, and managing good customer rapport

Youth entrepreneurs need to march beyond the boundaries to achieve huge success in their industrial venture. Therefore, it is essential for them to gain knowledge through reading, experimenting, studying, and observing.

Youth Entrepreneurs Program:

Youth entrepreneurs program motivates young people to initiate their own full-time businesses and pursue self-employment as a career option. Such program accepts applications all through the year from youth aging between 18-29 years.

Young entrepreneurs under this program are eligible to meet a grant of up to $4000 to aid in paying their business start-up costs and capital expenses.

Youths interested in such a program are required to submit a complete program application and a business plan.

The young entrepreneurs program offers grant to repay approved applicants, for suitable business startup costs and capital investments. The grant depends upon the capability of the applicant.

An Overview of The Call Centre Industry in India

An Overview of The Call Centre Industry in India
Call centres in India came into being in the early 2001, and since then they have continuously grown in number and scope.Today, the call centre industry in India is a very big industry that is still progressing. India benefited the most from the offshoring trend because it has the second largest English speaking population in the world that is exceeded only by U.S. India's offshoring industry took roots in the low-end IT functions in the early 1990s, and has since progressed to back-office processes like the call centres and transaction processing. In the late 1990s, India's abundant and inexpensive software talent combined with the great demand from the Y2K problem resulted in large-scale software development firms to get interested in India. In the present times, India's engineering talent has made it a favored choice for the outsourcing firms in U.S. and U.K. like AMD, American Express, Dell, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, etc.The majority of firms have the plan to invest at least $1 billion in India to face the competition and get a lead over the competitors. There are several important reasons that large corporate houses are choosing India for outsourcing their call centre activities. Some key reasons include: The easy availability of qualified and skilled labor force; most of the Indian call centres have state-of-the-art infrastructure and modern equipment; and, India provides the time zone advantage to the majority of outsourcing firms, which enables these firms to provide round-the-clock services to their customers. The call centres presently operating in India could be classified under three major heads viz., inbound call centres, outbound call centres, and web-enabled services call centres. The inbound call centres are intended to receive the calls from customers and entertain their request; the outbound call centres make calls to the customers; and the web-enabled services call centres are concerned with IT issues like computer and computer peripheral troubleshooting, software installation, virus removal, etc. The calls made and received through inbound and outbound call centres are for various purposes like product/service promotion, credit management, market survey, online sales, information verification, request/complaint registration, general queries, etc.Today, there are numerous call centers in India that are spread across the length and breadth of the country and providing employment to a large number of people, especially to the youth. Nowadays, many youngsters prefer to work in a call centre out of their free will. The primary reasons behind this may be that almost every call centre in India offers attractive salary packages and perks. The career growth is also comparatively fast in the call centre industry in India in comparison to other industries.call centre in india

Positive Thinking And Effective Marketing Go Hand In Hand


Copyright 2006 Joel Sussman

Successful sales and marketing requires persistence, continuous improvement, and the expectation of a positive outcome. If one doesn?t approach every aspect of marketing with enthusiasm, creativity, and a positive mental attitude, then it?s like embarking on schooner race with no wind in your sails. You?ll have no momentum or direction, and the competition is guaranteed to overtake you.

Attitude has an insidious way of infiltrating everything we do; and it can lift us up to great heights or pull us down to the depths of failure. It can energize us to do and say all the right things at the right time, or it can undermine our motivation and cause us to sabotage our own best laid plans.

The bottom line is this: either we own our attitude or our attitude owns us. Every now and then, it?s necessary to make a conscious decision to take charge of our thoughts, attitudes, and habits. An unfocused effort, whether it involves marketing or any other aspect of business, is sure to produce inferior results.

Allowing negative thoughts to infect your mind creates a cascading effect of self-defeating behavior. In direct sales, one needs to have a winning attitude and a magnetic personality to influence and persuade prospects to become customers. That?s only the tip of the iceberg, though, because a successful salesperson also needs to have the finesse and people skills to win back lost customers, negotiate the best deal, ask for and get sales referrals, inspire teamwork, and have the energy and optimism to overcome setbacks and keep moving forward in the face of temporary failure. Without a positive mental attitude, none of that is going to happen.

Cultivating a positive attitude also feeds the creativity and optimism necessary for nearly every other aspect of marketing ranging from sending out press releases and sales letters to placing ads or launching a web site. If you don?t believe it?s going to work, either you?re not going to try at all?or your efforts will be weakened and half-hearted. In both cases, you?re doomed to failure before you even get out of the starting gate.

On the other hand, if you make up your mind to be an ?eternal optimist?, you?ll be willing to take calculated risks and put your best foot forward. Getting there may involve an integrated program of reading motivational books, listening to self-improvement CDs, making a concerted effort to identify and avoid (or filter out) a lot of the negativity in your environment, and establishing daily habits that will tend to attract beneficial people and circumstances into your life.

Being an entrepreneur and running your own business is an intrinsically risky endeavor. If an expensive marketing campaign falls flat or a major client signs on with the competition, you might find yourself scrambling to make up for the loss. A positive state of mind not only helps you be creative, resourceful, and energized, but it also enhances your ability to anticipate, adapt, and regroup.

While many aspects of marketing are considered a gamble by anyone?s estimation, the best way to hedge your bets is by adopting a focused, optimistic, and positive mental attitude

New Techniques Vs. Old Techniques To Grow You Home Based Business


Whether you have just signed up in a Network Marketing company or your tenth attempt at growing a home based business, you might be shocked to know that there are two completely different schools of thought, regardless of what you're marketing.

Up until the mid 90's, the majority of networkers used techniques like hosting home parties, putting flyers on cars in parking lots, hanging signs on bulletin boards, renting small rooms at hotels for meetings, and talking to your warm market (people you know). At the same time the market was becoming over-saturated with everyone and their brother trying to make a dollar on the latest health product that came along.

There's really no need to leave your home to build a large organization today. The world is at your fingertips instead of out in the shopping malls. This is extremely powerful. Don't we sign up into a "home based business" for a reason? Most people would rather not leave their home if they had a choice. The main problem with the internet, however, is that most people do not know how to properly use it for marketing their products.

Most people get persuaded into thinking that they need a fancy website and expensive leads in order to play the numbers game on the world wide web. That couldn't be farther from the truth. First of all, numbers games do nothing but waste your time and money because it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Secondly, all leads stink. So why spend a lot of money for them?

Experience is a key factor when it comes to building a successful network marketing organization today. You can try to shortcut your way to success, but cheaters never prosper. There are no substitutions for walking the walk. Success comes with knowledge of what to do, how to do it and understanding why you're doing what it is that you're doing.

The best place to start is with the basics. If you don't have a basic skill level of being able to know your target audience and communicate with them properly over the telephone, getting them to your website will be impossible. You'll spend most of your time weeding through people who aren't really serious because they answered an ad they weren't really looking for.

Imagine your website as being a convenience store way out in the middle of the desert. If you are in need of water, how are you going to find it? And when you do stumble across it, is it really going to matter what it looks like? If you have a want, need or desire for water, you're going to buy it whether the store is fabulously decorated or not. What your message says and the type of person you get in front of it makes the difference between success and failure in network marketing. There is no better way to do this than with the internet. You can reach anyone.

Ultimately though, you are going to have to speak to your prospect. Being a master of the telephone is even more important than mastering the internet. Create a prospecting script with a solid interest question that leads with your product.

Let's say you were marketing a weight loss product. Create the interest by asking if you can honestly show them how to safely lose 9 lbs in the next 20 calendar days without drastically changing their diet or running 3 miles a day. Would that be worth 27 minutes to find out how to make that happen? Now honestly, if you're dialing weight loss seekers, do you think someone in their right mind is going to say no to that question? Probably not. That interest question can be modified to solve the pain and needs of any prospect in any industry.

Success ultimately comes from doing the basic, over and over again - and being persistent. Once your skill set is built, you can then move on to more advanced techniques and even some hands off business building approaches. The foundation must be firm first. Gain experience by trying over and over and over again to build a firm foundation. There is no free lunch. You must learn the basics before worrying about websites and auto-responders.

The best way to keep current is seeking proper marketing education. If this means breaking out from the clutches of your parent company, then do so. It doesn't mean you don't believe in your products. It means you are willing to be a leader instead of follower and you recognize that in order for things to change, you've got to change first.

The 5 Essentials Of Starting A Successful Business


Business is in my blood. I grew up listening to many dinnertime discussions between my father and grandfather about running their businesses. I heard about the issues, challenges and successes they faced every day and learned more about running a business through those discussions than I did in school. I believe this gave me one leg up over other businesses when it came to getting started; I understood early on what it takes and I was ready when it finally happened to me.

Although I plan on tackling the answers to questions concerning the operation and growth of a wide range of businesses, I want to get down to basics first. Just how do you start a business?

It seems that it?s never a ?right? time to start a business; you often have to take a leap of faith for those first baby steps. And, this year?s economic turbulence might provide just the right incubator for a strong idea. If you are thinking about jumping, here are some key points in starting your own business:

  1. Find your passion. I believe that having a passion is the first step toward building your own business. Start with both a zeal to be your own boss and an idea that you are excited about. I came up with the idea for my first business, an online payroll service, in the late 1990s when I was still working at Intuit. I had a fire and passion in me that kept me going and attracted excellent people to participate and share the rewards of making my dream happen. Eight years later, my first business has 60K+ small businesses as customers. Even with that success, the dream is never complete, it just changes.
  2. Believe in yourself and your idea. If you have a tendency toward entrepreneurship already, the next step is to build on an idea that has staying power. It?s important to do your homework first. That means getting quantitative data about the market for your product or service, competitive information on the companies already out there and qualitative data from potential customers. There are hundreds of Web sites and research resources available to get the information you need to help build your case. With a conviction for an idea, plus the data to back you up, you will have a powerful case to present to potential backers, employees and customers.
  3. Be resourceful. Once you?ve done your homework on the viability of your idea, then it?s time to figure out your financing. Unless you are independently wealthy with a cash reserve for business ventures, you will need to raise money. There are hundreds of approaches.

My grandparents used money from their back pocket?whatever was in the bank went into the business. My Dad has done the same while supplementing with small loans when needed. I have used some of my reserves but mostly have relied on professional investors, such as Venture Capitalists. Many people rely on credit cards to either fuel their start-ups or pay their day-to-day living expenses while they use savings to fund the business.

There are pros and cons to all of these approaches. Some business owners mortgage their homes. It?s not a practice I used, but it has worked for many. Others use credit cards to launch. Taking a second mortgage offers lower interest rates compared to credit cards. Otherwise, using credit cards protects your investment in your home.

  1. Share the Risk. For my first venture, I minimized the risk of the new venture by joining up with my co-founder, Martin Gates. I also had been socking away money for just this time. We started the business in my house, as we developed the business plan and ironed out the details of the product. Once we had a prototype, we brought in other people (both backers and possible employees). It was a cautious way to start up, but it worked out in the end.
  2. Listen to your customer. In the early stages of launching a business, although it?s important to have passion for your ideas, it?s equally important to listen to the market and tweak when necessary. For example, while working at Intuit, I became an expert in payroll and saw a distinct need in the market for specialized payroll services. The original idea for the business was to manage payroll needs surrounding household employees. Today, after moving in the direction of the market needs and really listening to our customers, my first venture is a leader in providing on-demand payroll for small businesses and small business accounting professionals. At both my previous and current businesses, we prototyped an automated solution while performing the tasks manually behind the scenes. That way we were able to get early feedback from customers on what was valuable and wasn?t. Some of our best, most unique features came from listening to the customers using our prototyped solution. There is nothing like real customer data to make decisions.

Where to Buy Bitcoin Without Verification?

Someone thinks that Bitcoin is the next step in the evolution of the economic world, but for someone, it has already become the main currency. Both newcomers to the crypto world and experienced ones face a completely logical question, namely, where to buy bitcoin without the verification process? Here you will discover a site that will provide such an opportunity.

What Is the Verification Process?

Almost all exchanges require a lengthy verification process that is far from the usual registration procedure. You need to create a profile and verify your identity. On the one hand, this is a security measure, on the other hand, it excludes anonymity and requires entering not only real data but also awaiting verification. Here is the standard verification procedure:

  • Registration on the platform, entering a real email.
  • Email confirmations.
  • Filling in the current data: country of residence, city, mobile number, and sometimes address of residence.
  • Identity verification using a document. In most cases, you will be asked to upload a photo of an identity document. Some platforms require a personal photo with a document in hand.
  • Waiting for a verification confirmation.

Agree, this process takes a lot of time and is not suitable for everyone. Is there any alternative?

Where to Buy Bitcoin Without Verification?

Fortunately, there is a safe alternative, and today you can buy BTC without a verification process and even without registration. This method is completely safe and tested by many crypto enthusiasts. It allows you to purchase cryptocurrency quickly. For example, a crypto exchange platform Cryptex without verification is a reliable place to buy BTC at a profitable rate. Cryptex is an automatic service for exchanging, buying, and selling Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency Exchange on the Cryptex Platform

To exchange bitcoin quickly, you do not need to go through the standard verification procedure. What is more, you don't even need to register a profile on this platform. All you need is an up-to-date email and any other personal data. 

This exchanger is ideal for beginners, as it has 24/7 online support. If you have any questions, you will immediately receive a detailed answer. What else is interesting about this platform?

  • Favorable Bitcoin and Perfect Money rates
  • 24/7 support
  • Possibility of refunds after crediting using the Cryptex Code.

Buy And Sell BTC without Difficulties

In addition to currency exchange, you can both buy and sell BTC without verification. The whole process can be done in a matter of minutes without any restrictions and limits, which many exchangers in this industry cannot boast of. Here are the main advantages of the platform:

  • No verification procedure, the platform offers complete anonymity.
  • Safe crypto wallets.
  • Absence of limits and restrictions. You may manage any amount you need. 
  • The platform guarantees a 0% liquidity provider commission.
  • Reliable account protection within the platform.

Final Verdict

As you see, you can buy, sell, or exchange Bitcoin without all the problems with verification. You need a safe place like the Cryptex platform. It is ideal for beginners, as in case of any difficulties, you can get advice and even get a refund if the rate does not suit you. Don't waste your time and test the platform now, as Bitcoin can rarely be 100% predictable!

How to Make Money Online- Clerical Work at Home Jobs


Tips on how to make money online help people to start online business. These are called clerical jobs that are generally done to market products, services, or helpful information on various topics by using several tools of internet marketing. The best part about such kind of jobs is that they help people to earn money while managing home responsibilities.Nowadays, many people prefer to work from home due to a variety of reasons. For example, inflation and uncertainties involved in the job market and factors like inclination towards flexible working hours. This becomes possible with the help of basic knowledge of computers and doesn't require much maintenance.Requirements for home jobs are very few and are easily manageable with very less expense. Clerical work doesn't require much specialization and is easily possible by means of simple work related knowledge. Anyone can start up work from home by collecting simple infrastructural facilities. For example, personal computers, internet, modem, backup battery, etc.Skills Requirements for Home JobsUsually, clients in distant locations outsource accounting work or documentation to the people residing in developing nations.

This task is familiar as the services that they get become available at reasonable rates as there is flexibility in work timings and shifts.What are Home Jobs and What do they Comprise?Home jobs basically involve secretarial work which is designed as per the requirements set by the offshore client. The customer generates income by using tools used in internet marketing for selling a variety of products like cosmetics, computer peripherals, gadgets, jewels, books, etc. On the other hand, some people are interested in marketing various financial plans or investment stock options. Some of the most common activities involved in home jobs are:Who can benefit from Home Jobs?Home job opportunities are beneficial for housewives or people who stay at home due to old age. As they get plenty of spare time after finishing their home responsibilities, they can utilize it in a better way to earn some money as well. Besides this, teens as well students too can earn good money by putting few hours in clerical home based jobs.

How To Write For Business Greeting Cards


Business greeting cards are very different from normal holiday or ?occasion? type greeting cards. When you print greeting cards like this, the tone of it is distinctly different since its whole purpose and goal is very different as well. Do not go about it like your normal kind of personal greeting card since people will just wonder and get ?weirded? out at the person or entity sending them. Nothing screams uncomfortable more than a greeting card that is too personal (Hi Lizzy how are you!) yet you do not know exactly who it came from.

So it is important to know how to write for business greeting cards. You have to know how to approach the customer correctly using the alternative but very effective medium of the greeting card. To help you out with this, here are my tips on writing for business greeting cards.

  1. Be personal yet formal ? The first thing that you should know about for writing for business greeting cards is the approach. We all know that greeting cards are best when they are personal, but as illustrated above, you can?t just go directly personal with a potential customer. It might be construed as invasive and even creepy. So, you have to walk a fine line between personal greetings and formality. For example instead of using the customer?s first name, you have to use titles like Mr., Mrs. or Miss and then use their last names. If they have a professional title like Dr. or Atty. then you have to use them as well. You of course have to research on these things so that you can do it correctly. Format titles like this plus their last names make the greeting card appear personal (by using a specific name) without appearing too much like a mass produced medium like the ?dear sir/madam? approach. So like this, try to walk the fine line between personal and formal so that you can maximize the usefulness of greeting cards without failing in the execution.
  2. Use a polite and respectful tone ? Also of course, as a standard practice, try to use a polite and respectful tone in your business greeting cards. More particularly, try to use a tone that uplifts the status of the potential customer making them feel like they are in charge and you are there to serve their needs. People like feeling like they are in control or that someone is there to help and serve them. You can capitalize on this and have people respond well to your greeting cards by using this kind of tone.
  3. Try to be subtle with promotions ? Nobody likes unsolicited sales mail. Most mails like this usually get classified as junk mail immediately. So keep the commercial talk to a minimum and focus more on establishing a relationship with the customer. Just casually say that you have that new product line that they might be interested in, but don?t go too much on its specifics.

Great! Hopefully this helps you out in writing your business greeting cards. As you can undoubtedly see, there are fine lines that you must tread to make them effective and acceptable. So keep your focus and review all your content before you go into greeting card printing.

Selecting The Proper Womens Work Boots

Selecting The Proper Womens Work Boots Will Ensure Your Well Being
Work footwear are important for the people doing work in an outdoor conditions. These days, as increasing numbers of women are involved in the manufacturing as well as building market, the needs for work shoes or boots designed specifically for girls has been rising among the boots and shoes producer. Subsequently, the marketplace for womens work boots has grown to be just as variable for example womens hiking boots. At this moment you could potentially take advantage of the diversity as well as freedom to select from numerous creations, brands and prices.For women whom are employed in the construction environment, this womens work boots you need must be strong and even tough. Shoes are likely to be created to be comfortable whilst guarding the foot from any pain or even any form of pain. Certain unique industrial sectors would requires selected safety measures incorporated into a pair of boots. However essentially, the womens work shoes typical suggestions consist of water proofing, steel reinforcement and light-weight. Some might require six or eight inches covering the ankle shoes or boots based on the function scope. But above all, all work footwear really should have the no slip capability to give good support and also steadiness.When discussing womens work boots, getting one that's inexpensive and wonderful looking merely won't cut it. The toughness and even practicality of the footwear are important. Whether you are choosing iron toe boots which ensure top level of protection and also metatarsal boots which were ideal for fragile bones or composite toe boots which offer light boots for the much less intense; you must make certain that these boots you happen to be getting is heavy duty and even safe. Should the protection part is assured, and then only do you need to consider the styles that might match your womanly needs.A few of the well known brands that provide good quality womens work boots are often Caterpillar, Wolverine, Harley Davidson, Danner as well as Timberland, in order to mention a few. Womens Wolverine boots especially has been liked by numerous pros and verified so with good growing demand in the marketplace. This W03979 Wolverine DuraShocks Safety boots that can be purchased from $148.95 gives non-stop convenience towards the person wearing them. One more boots really worth bringing up would be the Timberland Women PRO 6 Inch Titan Steel Toe. At the price of $89.95, this unique light shoe will certainly save you from any power potential risks in addition to all the usual options that come with a safety boot. Most of these boots and those just like these will guarantee high protections together with great level of comfort to your foot.When it comes to acquiring the right work boots, it is always a good suggestion to choose names you are informed about and usually obtain great feedback. You should never accept inexpensive footwear that has poor standard as you will find yourself required to obtain another pair soon. Be wise when it comes to buying womens work boots that fits your foot properly, offer you comfort as well as shield the feet from hurt.