Just imagine working for the imaginary Cooper Sterling Advertising Agency? A Creative Director is hiding a past life that started when he assumed the identity of a commanding officer who was killed next to him in a Korean War battlefield incident. A sex obsessed senior partner has suffered a heart attack while indulging in a tryst on company premises. Publication of an article/book by one of the copywriters is greeted by ridicule and personal put downs by fellow employees.  An arrogant junior employee who undermines his boss is retained on staff because of the importance of his family's connections.

Gossip and scandal seem to run the Cooper Sterling Company. The quality of product and financial health of this company seem to be of secondary importance. Is it any wonder that an employee who feels passed over has started to search for ways to bring down his boss (and perhaps the company?)

During the Vietnam war 120 officers were

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I received a call from a client the other day asking me what to do about an employee who was sexually harassing a co-worker.  As I asked questions about the employee's conduct, it became clear that it was the employee's alleged conduct.  Thus, although the next legal step was to initiate an investigation (which the client had not yet done), the manager had skipped that step and was already talking about what needed to be done to this  employee. 

The Practical Legal Knowledge tip for today is:  Be Careful to Do Your Homework to Know the Facts Before Taking Action.

When issues of sexual harassment (and many other types of issues) arise, it is difficult to keep the emotion of the moment out of the way.  Lawyers and media make it clear that if you don't keep harassment out of the workplace, you will face drastic financial consequences (and they are right). 

But it is vitally important to maintain yo

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I just read about a recent study published related to employee "motivation."  I was not surprised by the findings except that they were published.  The study found that far from motivating employees, the management behaviors of most companies affirmatively "de-motivate" employees. 

The study found that although employees are highly motivated when they join a company, within six months the employee's motivation for their job and company begin to decline and continue to decline until they leave the company.  Six Months!

Knowing this, is it any wonder that employee "motivation" programs are so ineffective?  The reality is companies behave negatively toward employees.  Thus, when they grab onto a motivational program as some kind of "silver bullet" to right the ship, the company has no credibility to implement the program.  Not only aren't employ

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Business leaders get in trouble when they practice righteous indignation as their management theory of choice.  It is bad form from a human perspective and dangerous from a legal perspective.

Righteous Indignation or RI works like this:  1) Employee is doing something that is either wrong or substandard; 2) Business leader does not address the behavior believing that somehow the employee's behavior will magically improve (this is a topic for another post); 3) Employee's behavior continues; 4) Business leader gets fed up and takes drastic action, usually termination, much to the employee's surprise.

RI can be identified with such phrases as "I want him out of here today;" "We can't have her performing like this any more;" "I am sick of having to deal with this incompetence."

The problem with RI is that it is simply terrible business leadership.  Business leaders "know" the employee "kno

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Communication is a vital part of the employment relationship.  Yet, it is also a delicate process requiring tact, assertiveness and diplomacy.  The trouble is, communication also takes time, which is your most precious commodity.  So, when you do not have time to communicate, you abbreviate.

"Attitude" is the classic abbreviation used in employee communication.  "You have a bad attitude."  "You don't have a good customer service attitude."  "Your attitude hurts the team."  And the list goes on and on.  The problem is that while you can always evaluate your own attitude,  managing some else's attitude is impossible.  It's impossible because "attitude" has no definition.  So, when you tell an employee he has a bad attitude, he has nothing measurable to improve.

Although personal attitude is vitally important to everyone's work performance (see Norma

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I spend a great deal of time working with business leaders about legal issues facing them and their businesses.  The most difficult challenge I encounter is helping the business leader remember that law is no different than most other issues -- it is a matter of practical reality that almost always require practical solutions.

I believe in and teach my clients practical legal knowledge (PLK).  PLK is the process of understanding the practical effect of any legal issue.  The important part of my work with clients is not the law part, it is the solution part.  It is working through how to get to the client's desired result while remaining legally compliant.

That's what I will be sharing in this blog.  Practical legal knowledge takes the sometimes esoteric world of the law and gives it meaning in the real world.  I hope you enjoy our journey together.

This blog is to help share the latest tools in improving communication skills, eliminating confusion in business and personal relationships and empowering people to live their dream with passion

 

In her groundbreaking book, Never Check Email First in the Morning, time management diva Julie Morgenstern states that email is "nothing but interruptions and uninvited distractions" and the "biggest time-suck of the modern work day."  We all probably agree with that assessment at some point during our day...and yet, email is definitely a mode of communication that is here to stay.

Many clients complain that email creates a false sense of urgency by the sender.  We assume that because our message can be sent instantaneously, it is received with the same response - surely people are awaiting our every message and request!  In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Stephen Covey urges us to distinguish between important and urgent; he claims that a truly important task should never traded with an urgent one.  By responding only to urgent requests, (think emails) we

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The days are long and the Sun is going down, as an employee who shall remain nameless, driving a Rough Terrain Fork Lift, in rough terrain. Returning to the yard for the evening, at to high rate of speed, the folks bouncing, and as the road dipped, the forks caught in the ground. At about 13 MPH the machine comes to a sudden stop as one of the folks is bent at 30 degrees below horizontal and the right side fork rolls up in circle.  Some good comes of this in that as the safety lap belt is in place and on, the operators is saved from more than embarrassment.

As he called me on the raido I heard him say to some one in the background" I know better than that" " How could I be so stuipd?" Any time we take our mind off  Right Now we establish a zone of accident.

In the root cause investigation the employee stated, that he was tired beone belief, and was just thinking about getting home, to the hotel. The rough ter

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If you are like most people, the ability to live out your years comfortably as a self-sufficient business owner is at the top of your list of priorities.  You may even dream of growing rich.  Over the years, there has been televised wealth guru after wealth guru boasting about the riches they have attained and how you too can grow rich beyond your wildest dreams.  But how does one do that?  You have to establish an online presence.

The internet is a great place to get rich.  It is a worldwide marketplace that is open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.  You get to be your own boss, set your own hours and conduct business transactions from the comfort of your own home in your footed pajamas.  There is little to no overhead and the start-up cost is so low that you can see a return on your investment with the sale of just one moderately priced item.  Even if you already own a business, creating an online presence around your products and services is the most cost effective way to expand your current business as it levels the playing field allowing you an equal opportunity to compete with big boxers and other megastores.  The internet allows you to work smarter, not harder.  Here are ten crucial steps to get you started with building an online presence.

1. Decide what to sell and who will be your target audience.

If you are already in business for yourself, this step should be easy.  If not, then I suggest that you think about things that you are good at or that you love to purchase yourself.  Hobbies are especially good places to look for a product or service.  If you are passionate about something, more than likely there are others who may be equally interested in the same subject.  The easiest way to find your product after you have determined what it is you wish to sell is to find a company that allows you to set up a dropshipping relationship.  Dropshipping is an arrangement that allows you to sell products at your own prices and then forward the order to the supplying company to complete the order.  Many suppliers are willing to do this because it is a win-win situation for both parties.  You get to make an income from home without having to stock an inventory and the company gets more business.   If a particular company you are interested in doesn't have a prearranged dropshipping service, contact them and ask if they would be willing to create one.  What do they have to lose?

If nothing else, sell information.  Learn all that you can about the subject and then become an expert.  We live in a world of convenience where everyone wants everything right now.  By providing an information product, you have already done the work necessary to reach certain valuable resources.  People will pay to know what you know because it is more convenient than to find these resources themselves.  Information products can include lists, articles, reports, eBooks, books, training manuals, CDs, DVDs and more.

Think about what type of person would buy your product and service.  What is/are their age, gender, income, buying habits and social status?  All of these demographics play a key role in determining the profile of your "niche" customer.  Identifying and building your marketing efforts around this group will give you a competitive edge in the marketplace.

2.  Perform a review of competitor sites.

Start with a major search engine such as Google or Yahoo.  Think about what common keywords or phrases a potential customer would use to find your site and subject matter.  For instance, if your product is strawberry ice cream, you would type in "strawberry ice cream" or "flavored ice cream" in the search bar.  Examine the listings on the first page of results.  What title and descriptions were used?

Click into each of the sites and check out their source code.  You can find this by clicking on the "View" menu located in the toolbar of your internet browser and then "Source".  This will display the site's HTML source code if the webmaster has not hidden it.  Look toward the top of the code for the HTML tag "head".  Within a few lines you will find the tag "title".  This should be the same as the title you saw on the search page.  Take note of what words or phrases were used and their frequency.  Beneath this tag should be a group of tags that begin "meta name=description..." or "meta name=keywords".  Take special note of the "content=" portion of these tags. 

Finally, close the source code window and examine the content of the Home page.  Compare what keywords and descriptions were used throughout the page with what keywords were included in the meta tags.  You should perform this task with the top three to five listings on the first page of the search results for every keyword that could be used for your own site.  Examine your results as these would determine which keywords and phrases will be used on your own site.

3.  Purchase a unique domain name and subscribe to a good, affordable hosting service.

Your domain name will be your site's URL.  For instance, if you are "Bob's Motor Oil", your domain and URL could be "www.bobsmotoroil.com" or "www.bobs_motoroil.com".  Whatever you use, it should be specific to your product or service, easy to commit to memory, not difficult to spell and be unique to prevent confusion with a similar company.  Using your own name as your domain name could be difficult unless your name represents your product or service as a brand. 

A good domain name should help portray a feeling.  For instance, "www.totalwellbeingcenter.com" presents an image of peace and relaxation.  This is hard to achieve with your own name unless you are Donald Trump whose name represents power and wealth.  Any product or service that bears his name would immediately be recognized as luxurious.  Keep this in mind when choosing your domain name.  For a simple beginner site, your domain registration should cost no more than $15 to purchase for one-two years and hosting should be less than $20 per month.  Make sure the hosting company has a built-in shopping cart software package so that you can create an online store if you will be selling products directly from your website.  Try to stay away from domain extensions such as .net, .biz, or .ws.  It is best to stick with the traditional .com extension because the majority of your customers won't remember the other extensions and, therefore; they will not find your website.

4.  Create keyword-rich content on each page.

Now it is time to start building your website.  You can either use the free page builder software that is probably included with your hosting program or for more flexibility; you can use a program like FrontPage or DreamWeaver and then upload the completed site to your hosting service.  I prefer to use FrontPage myself.  Build each page with good, solid descriptions of your products and services.  At a bare minimum, your site should include a Home page (the entry into your site) with a welcoming address, a Company Profile or Bio page, and a Contact page so that potential customers can reach you.  Additionally, a products and services page with a detailed description of each item should be included either separately or within the content of you built-in shopping cart. 

Each page should include several instances of at least three of the keywords and phrases that you have decided best describe your site.  Title each page appropriately and enter a keyword-rich description.  Descriptions should be no more than twelve words long and must include similar keywords as those in your title and the content of your page to achieve the best possible search ranking.  If you don't know what to put on your page to help build up your site's relevant content, there are many free online article databases that will allow you to borrow content to use on your site.  If you choose to go this route, make sure that you do not forget to include the author's bylines or "about the author" box as otherwise use of their copyrighted material would be considered plagiarism.  Finally, publish your site and be your first visitor.  Check to make sure that all links work and there are no grammar errors.  Go through the process of making a purchase from yourself to get a feel for what your customers will experience.  Correct any problems as needed.

5.  Do some PR.

Order new business cards that include your site URL and email address.  Send out a press release to your existing media contact list or create a new one.  There are also several free PR services on the web.  If you belong to a community organization, inform them and request that they send out the release on your behalf.  You can also ask for these associations to broadcast an announcement to their mailing lists.  If you publish your own newsletter from your existing business, it would be wise to include an announcement to your existing customers.  It would also be a good idea to take your newsletter online and create a free email marketing campaign. 

There are many online services that will allow you to do this but your functionality would be limited to basic broadcast newsletters and announcements that would include their company advertisements.  If you want your newsletters to be branded with your company information only, then you will need to pay for the service.  Either way, it is worth it.  I also suggest setting up an autoresponder with these services or even within your own email program.  An autoresponder sends an instant reply to any inquiry submitted to your email.  It acts as your immediate customer service to ensure customers that you care about them.  You can include new product announcements, links back to your website and other news as well as a general customer service statement in your autoresponder.  These are a great tool to build customer rapport.

6.  Develop an elevator speech and include it along with your site URL in your email signature. 

This is free advertising that is effective.  You do not have to include your full elevator speech but try to extract a few key points or announcements that will catch your reader's eye.  I always include my title, company tagline, my website URL and a phrase or two about any upcoming events.  For instance, I might want to inform people about my new radio show so my signature would include "Tune in to my radio show, Building Bridges, every Tuesday at 1:30PM CST on BlogTalkRadio. Visit my Events page for more information or subscribe to download for podcast."  This is informative soft advertising that really works.

7.  Join webrings, link and banner exchanges. 

Although these services are promoted as traffic builders, they really do not serve this purpose as directly any longer.  While you can achieve some traffic through these links, there is a science to it.  The primary reason you would want to join these services is to rank higher in the search engines.  The trick to using these effectively is to ensure that they are quality content-oriented sites that are also somehow related to your own site's subject matter.  You wouldn't want to trade links with a site that sells dog food if your website is concentrated on hair care products.  Instead, you would want to trade links with a beauty magazine or modeling and talent database.  By doing this, you are associating your site with quality related content which the search engines recognize and merit.  Also, you don't want to have too many outgoing links so try to limit your number of exchanges as this can show negatively in search engine ranking.

8.  Write related articles or post to a blog that links back to your site. 

This is key to improving your search engine ranking as well as establishing yourself as an expert in your field.  When you submit articles to free submission sites, other webmasters who are seeking quality content for their own sites will copy your article and use it in their webpages.  These webmasters only want articles that are related to their targeted niche so you don't have to worry too much about your article being reposted in a strange place.  The webmasters will include your author bylines which are a few sentences about you and your services with a link back to your own site.  These are one-way links, meaning that you do not have to have a reciprocal link to the webmaster's site on your own site.  The more sites that link to you, the better your listings will be among the search engines.

9.  Submit your site to major search engines every 30-45 days. 

You can do this more frequently if you update regularly.  I try to update my site on a regular basis by writing new articles for inclusion in my blogs as well as staying abreast of my competitors by consistently reviewing their webpages for ideas on new content.  I also reevaluate my keywords and descriptions and then resubmit whenever there is a change.  You can drop in the rankings if the search engines "forget" about your site.

10.  Actively participate in newsgroups and other online forums. 

This is another good marketing avenue that will allow you to get your links out via your signature line as well as establish you as an expert.  Answer questions truthfully and stay away from subjects that you are unfamiliar with.  Be as helpful and informative as possible in the discussions.  Other group members will be impressed by your knowledge and be inspired to visit your webpage for more information.  At the very least, it is possible to pick up quite a few referrals.  Be careful not to "commercialize" your postings so that you do not turn people off.

The bottom line is that to make it as an entrepreneur today, you must establish an online presence.  Put together a website and optimize it for the best possible rankings in the search engines.  If your potential customers can not find you, then your site will be for naught.  Use as many avenues as possible to promote your link and have a method for customers to make purchases online.  Many online consumers make impulse buys much the same as in a traditional brick-and-mortar store so promote, promote, promote.