Manufacturing operations, as the backbone of the economy, are a prime industrial sector that can benefit from innovation and optimization. Without having to stop production for a lengthy re-tooling process, production management software can increase plant efficiency, better manage inventories, and deliver products on time. Fully integrated software solutions will also foster collaboration between engineering and operations as well as improving customer relations management by enhancing after sales service. A top notch system will also do all of this and be easily adapted into current technology without having to train extensively on a new user interface.

Production Enhancement

The first aim of production management software is to support efficient and timely production. This is accomplished via production planning and product management. Production management is achieved through meticulous tracking of materials, capacity, manpower, and time usage. Men and materials have to be directed according to their most effective use in order to allow production to run without bottlenecks. A cornerstone of easing bottlenecks is integrated communication between engineering, operations, and management to keep every department up to date on current issues and upcoming changes. Real-time knowledge sharing facilitates changes on the production floor being completed in a timely manner.

Production planning is the forward looking counterpart of production management. While the current process is being run, future delivery dates have to be kept in mind. Each job and project has to be kept separate and visible in order to meet schedules and reduce wasted work. Planning and production need to be in close communication to allow for changes to be reacted upon without excessive lag or lead time. Effective response time to unexpected changes keeps an entire manufacturing process on track to meet its goals and use its capacity wisely, whether production is made-to-order or made-to-stock.

Business Forecasting

The second aim of production management software is to assist in providing accurate estimates and quotes as well as delivering the best customer service possible. Aligning customer requirements with plant operations is how to provide a proper estimate that will both keep plant costs in line and prevent a high bid from precluding a business opportunity. After securing a contract, customer service needs to continue to foster the business-client relationship with after-sales service. Customer relationship management can be as important for generating sales as the efficiency of the manufacturing process itself. Exceeding customer expectations will obtain future contracts.

Ultimately, production management software seeks to integrate each arm of a manufacturing process together in tight collaboration. Communication will drive processes to become more flexible and prevent unexpected changes from massively damaging schedules, jeopardizing delivery dates, or causing undue costs. A proper software solution must accomplish all of these goals without mandating extensive retraining or retooling, otherwise their benefit becomes nullified. The end users must be able to operate the technology intuitively; this is achieved by having new systems compatible with old systems both in their technical execution and their user interface. For example, Microsoft Office users are quick to learn Microsoft Dynamics software systems due to their synergy in design and execution. The final return on investment for a technology solution depends on its ease of implementation.

Christine O’Kelly is an author for Stanley Stuart Yoffee & Hendrix, Inc., the leader in production management software solutions. SSYH offers its talented ERP consultants to businesses.

[tags]production management software[/tags]

The distribution industry faces a unique set of challenges. Distribution is the crossroads where production, purchasing, inventory, and customer demand all meet. As such, this industry often consists of multi-faceted companies that can suffer from fragmented operation priorities. Communication between these different departments and their goals is crucial in efficient operations and maximized profitability. Supply chain management (SCM) software is meant to bring about such collaboration. By directing a company’s resources and attention according to a unified structure, great gains in efficiency and reductions in cost and redundancy are realized.

Operational Enhancements

Supply chain management (SCM) software ultimately connects the inflow of goods with the outflow of products. This task is accomplished first by inventory, warehouse, and purchasing management. A robust software system will integrate these functions together for live updating of current warehouse stocks and incoming shipments to accurately determine needed purchases. An integrated system takes the guesswork out of ordering and automates order entry to prevent missed or redundant orders, all the while freeing up working time for other core tasks. The supply chain leading to the warehouse can be complicated, but with a strong data sorter and analyzer, materials can be effectively tracked.

Once within the warehouse, supply chain management improves the handling of those materials. The software suite can match a barcode system with upstream and downstream technologies by putting an iron-clad tracker on each and every inventory item. Once goods are entered into an integrated system, the corresponding information becomes enabled across every department. Sales representatives, warehouse foremen, and purchasing agents have live access to stock information.

Customer Relationship Management

Once warehouse information enters a supply chain management system, the information now becomes invaluable to the sales department. Accurate inventory numbers are vital for precision in order entry and the timely fulfillment of those orders. By building a reputation of near-perfect deliveries, a technological investment has created repeat business and a sales rapport with customers. Problems that do emerge during operations filter back into the information database to identify issues and single out solution options. Customer service will link back into the front end of the business, creating repeated value from the same system implementation.

The supply chain management (SCM) software scheme of integrating data systems and sharing information makes the task of financial planners and procurement agents infinitely more effective. Being able to see the whole picture, the entire supply chain and product demand, forecasting becomes much more accurate. Reliable forecasting will eventually improve all other distribution processes as resource shortfalls will happen rarely and orders will be filled at a higher success rate.

This cyclic improvement attribute of supply chain management is what makes the technology such a strong investment. For maximum potency, a solution that is easy to implement and merge with existing systems dramatically cuts down on implementation time and returns the investment much more quickly. Both the technical details and the end user interface must seamlessly blend together for maximum potency. For example, Microsoft users will find Microsoft Dynamics a powerful SCM suite since it integrates with and operates likes Microsoft Office. A transparent, powerful system is the technological solution that will drive profitability within distribution companies.

Christine O’Kelly is an author for Stanley Stuart Yoffee & Hendrix, Inc, the leader in supply chain management (SCM) software solutions. SSYH offers SCM software to fit business needs.

[tags]Supply chain management (SCM) software[/tags]

As necessity is the mother invention, an entire industry has been spawned by the growing field of construction defects law. Construction defects involve an enormous set of circumstances, including actual or imagined construction defects, deviation from what the industry considers the standard of care, and design defects, which relate to the specifications.

Hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits have been filed in an effort to impose penalties on builders and developers who may have constructed buildings in violation of building codes or standards of practice. This has created a growing need for construction experts who can write cogent reports on the facts of the case, can see the issues clearly and can testify in a professional, persuasive fashion.

One of the greatest problems with experts in general is that the more they know about their specialty, the more they tend to forget whom they are working for. In other words, experts often address issues not germane to their clients cases, instead allowing the issues to be defined by the opposition.

Knowing their specialty so well, experts sometimes want to tell everything they know in order to show their mastery of the subject, instead of addressing only the issues that are pertinent. Knowing when enough is enough is fast becoming a rare commodity among the expert community.

This is especially true of plaintiff’s experts, who, by trying to touch on all the important issues, frequently make a simple case very complicated. With the best intentions on the client’s behalf, they may testify on non-issues and even false issues., When facts are bent, astute opposing counsel, with the aid of their own expert witnesses, can nearly always impeach such unfocused testimony in deposition or a trial.

It is now common for attorneys to have degrees or experience in engineering, architecture or other construction-related areas in order to enable them to cope with the specialized knowledge of construction experts.

Some experts command fees that are more than twice the hourly rate of the construction lawyers who hire them; many experts have 20 years or more of practical experience. Paying for top experts in the field is often well worth it, because experts can often make or break a case.

Most experts rely on testing laboratories that test and analyze soils, concrete, wood, plaster, stucco, roofing and piping. These labs can ascertain how much water was used in the stucco mix and how long the process of hydration took before it was completed - information that forensic experts need in order to testify with assurance that the stucco can or cannot perform in the way the manufacturer intended it to.

Testing labs can tell the temperature of the hot tar used by a roofer many years previously when the built-up roof was applied - a measurement that can show the adhesive properties of various roofing components and can prove whether or not the roof was installed appropriately to comply with the manufacturer’s specifications.

In today’s construction industry, wise developers have begun to memorialize the day-to-day progress of buildings under construction through the use of both video and still photography. The photography alone should cause builders to scrutinize the quality of the job progress, with special emphasis on the construction elements that will be covered up by later work.

Unfortunately, few developers are inclined to use the services of forensic construction experts during the actual construction phase. Instead, they usually prefer to rely on the abilities of their on-site superintendent. The feeling among many construction experts is “Pay me now to help protect you, or pay me later to help defend you” - after a lawsuit has been filed. Either way, the construction experts gets paid.

On the defense side, the insurance carriers pick up the tab. They seldom pay quickly, but they do pay. Although, insurance carriers like to win, they will nearly always settle for a reasonable amount.

Is the construction-expert industry real, and is it here to stay? Considering the large sums of money involved, both for the plaintiffs and the defense, the answer to both question is yes. One positive consequence of this development is that, at the behest of their insurance carriers, builders are performing a better job of construction. They are taking greater care to follow the blueprints more carefully; when they do deviate, they are more careful to properly document the reason for their changes.

There is no substitute for intelligently applied experience - because good judgment comes from experience, while experience comes from bad judgment. In order to remain on top of the developments in this expanding and rapidly changing field, counsel in construction cases must be able to rely on highly experienced experts.

The author is a Construction Defects Expert. Visit his site at: http://constructiondefectsexpert.com

[tags]construction defects,expert witnesses,construction experts,construction lawyers,construction[/tags]

The nuts and bolts of a company will tend to encourage or hinder growth and profitability. Yet, they are often overlooked. For a growing or mid-sized company, financial services and accounting can be a stumbling block as revenues and costs increase in amount and complexity. In the manufacturing sector, production planning, project estimates and quotes, and customer service for one’s clients demands an integrated system of business management software and technology. On the distribution end of business, inventory, purchasing, and warehouse management, systems are essential in providing quick and accurate sales and product shipments. Technology, simply put, is an investment in a company’s well-being.

What Makes Quality Business Management Software?

In order for new technology investments to provide short- and long-term value, the integration of that technology needs to happen seamlessly with a minimum of re-training and re-tooling required. A software suite that can interact with existing IT prevents a total overhaul of electronic systems and lengthy training sessions. For example, Microsoft Dynamics is well integrated with all other Microsoft productivity suites and will fit into existing structures easily on both the technological and personnel sides. Microsoft technology communicates with each other very well and the interface is based off Office, making re-training a minimal time requirement.

Communication is the lifeblood of efficient business, and this is no different whether it is computer systems or people communicating. Business management software needs to emphasize universal solutions without gaps or seams between business functions and business units. A robust technology will cover business needs from financial services to production and supply chain management to business intelligence and human resource utilization. For its users, collaborative workspaces and end-user configurability allows business management software to enhance the human element. In the end, when a new technology launches with minimal disruption, businesses will see immediate savings and profitability as well as continued long term value.

Software System Specifics

When researching the best technology for investment, there are specific implementations that offer a solid return on investment. The financial service industry relies on up-selling and cross-selling; technology can facilitate this business opportunity by driving down fees and compiling complete client profiles for effective cross-selling. These systems also have to be flexible enough to withstand changes in regulations and compliance with a minimal of tire-spinning downtime.

The manufacturing sector is still the backbone of economic activity and growth. Technology solutions have to focus on pinpointing market opportunities and pairing them with production scheduling. While product management is paramount, technology has to ease collaboration between engineering and operations to maximize production efficiency. Engineering design changes have to be related to operations personnel in order for process improvements to be fully realized.

Technology solutions to optimize business functions are a sound investment for companies looking to expand their profitability as well as for divisions within larger companies to improve their performance. A fully integrated package, with minimal retraining and retooling, that enhances business decisions and performance is necessary. Such an important investment should be made with a dependable business management software provider using a robust, fully supported software suite, such as Microsoft Dynamics. The impact on productivity and profitability will be immense and quickly realized.

Christine O’Kelly is an author for Stanley Stuart Yoffee & Hendrix, Inc., the leader in business management software solutions. SSYH offers integrated Microsoft Dynamics systems tailor made to fit specific business needs.

[tags]Business management software[/tags]

Note: As a medical and dental practice management consultant, I can tell you that goals are needed for you and your business to be your best. Is your goal to have the best dental or medical practice and attracting a lot of good new patients? Read this article on how to make your dream come true.

What the business owner can’t imagine he will not achieve!!

It is the business owner, which has to be the main dreamer in the place.

Everyone should be a dreamer for his own life and for the area of his business endeavor.

Let me give you the hierarchy of dreamers, managers and workers.

As said above, all of the best are dreamers. But the “chief dreamer” is best off only to dream. No working if possible. By the way, by a dreamer we are talking about a goal-maker. So every time I use the word ‘dreamer’ or ‘goal-maker’ I mean the same.

It goes like that:

It is the company’s boss, the practice owner, who sets the direction and goals of the practice. This is a well-known fact and every doctor does that, even long before he ever enters medical school.

This is exactly my point: You must dream up something for it to happen.

Then the practice is open, patients start coming in, and everyone, including the practice owner gets busy. That is good; in fact, it is what the practice owner dreamed up before and during medical school.

But here is where the trouble starts and the dreaming ends. Well, actually the dreaming does not quite end but the time to implement the dreams is gone.

The goal-maker is too busy seeing patients, making sure billing is done, OSHA is complied with and the staff in general does what they are supposed to do, otherwise NO profits at all.

The rat race has begun; expansion is slow, overhead high due to government regulation, stress is up and it looks like the dream of yours is not making it. What changed?

Too much work to be able to dream and to implement the dreams.

No time. You started trading time for money and are totally engrossed in the mechanics of practicing and in the daily operations of the practice.

The same, by the way, is happening with your managers.

They after all are supposed to set goals for their departments and then get them executed. They are supposed to constantly check whether all other employees are doing their job. Right ?

But what usually happens is that the office manager really is only the best person for all the jobs and she/he is just doing that. Your office manager has little or no time to manage because she/he is doing the actual work. Sometimes they call it ‘trouble-shooting’. The only reason too much trouble-shooting is needed is because of lack of organization. Also called ‘no real managing’ going on.

Of course not, the manager has no time because he is doing the actual work.

This, my dear doctor, is a real cut-throat situation. It robs you of most of your dreams.

Workers do the work. While they do their work, such as billing insurance or making phone calls or sterilizing the instruments or performing a surgery, they cannot manage and cannot set goals.

The actual ‘work’, by definition, demands the person to be hands on. There is no possibility of doing other things while working.

You might have noticed that I put the doctor as a ‘worker’. Because that is what he is when doing the health care work — a higher paid worker than a typist, but still a worker.

So, a manager must have lots of time to manage, organize and give orders which can be executed by the staff at a certain pre-determined time.

Managers might be the managers because they can do all the jobs and can do them well, but they MUST stop doing them and MUST start running the place.

If this sounds like it will cost you money, because you are too small to have a manager who does “nothing but manage”, then I might remind you that the large companies do not do the things they do (such as having managers, train people at great expenses, do lot of meetings, spend lots on marketing and public relations) because they are large. They are large because of the things they do.

Read the above again. This is important.

Sure, you might have to start small, free up your manager to do the managing some of the time, and you will find that business is expanding more smoothly.

Don’t stop there, continue to free up your manager to manage more and more and expand more and more.

Now, if what I said is true for the manager, then what do you think would happen if you, the practice owner, starts concentrating a lot more on the creation and implementation of your goals?

The moral of the story is that most small business owners and practitioners work too hard so they have no time to dream and set goals. Never mind that they have absolutely no time to organize their dreams into actions to be performed by their staff. Even if they give orders to get some new project (a dream or a goal) going to the office manager, it will hardly ever get done because the manager is herself too busy doing physical work and will have little time to organize the staff to implement your orders. She herself has only two hands and can’t do it alone either without neglecting the other necessary workloads.

So, in order to not neglect the necessary work which services the current patients and pays the bills, most new expansion projects which could bring some well deserved freedom and peace of mind, fall under the table.

Most of the time, such attempts at implementing new dreams not only falter shortly after, due to what I explained above, but in the meantime they distract from the current affairs of the practice.

Contained in our consulting programs are exact ways which you could work your way out of a ‘worker’ position and become a true goal-maker. All you need to do is to believe in your dreams and dare to dream and think big.

Dream on doctor, dream on - and your dreams will come true.

Remember: Doctors and dentists, like small business owners, work very hard - they have to deal with billing, practice management, staff management and new patient marketing etc. But they must make it just as important to set goals and dream.

Helmut Flasch is a marketing consultant who uses Un-advertising rather than the traditional advertising methods. Find out more information about his marketing strategy at Un-Advertising.

[tags]practice management, small business owner, practice management marketing, dental practice[/tags]

As a small business owner, it’s critical to pinpoint the areas that will increase your revenue and profits. The easiest way to define that sweet spot is by following the Pareto Principle.

Developed by Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, his original observation was in connection with income and wealth. Pareto noticed that 80% of Italy’s wealth was owned by 20% of the population.

The Pareto Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 Rule, states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our activity. The outcome to this is that 20% of our results absorb 80% of one’s resources or activity.

The 80/20 rule teaches simplicity and applies to several examples:

-20% of employees are responsible for 80% of a company’s output
-20% of customers are responsible for 80% of the revenues
-80% of your daily interruptions come from the same 20% of people
-80% of your personal calls are to 20% of the people in your address book
-80% of your annual sales come from 20% of your sales force
-80% of what you produce is generated during 20% of your working hours
- 80% of your website traffic comes from 20% of your pages

Your job is to find out which 20% of your marketing is motivating the most sales, to determine which 20% of your customers are producing 80% of your profits, and to learn which 20% of your prospects are most likely to become customers.

The value of the 80/20 principle for a business owner is that it reminds you to focus on the 20% that matters. Think about it; of the things you do during your day, only 20% really matters… and 20% of your customers really matter.

When you discover which 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your sales, your marketing and communication will focus on keeping them happy, increasing the amount of business you do with them, and tapping them for referrals and testimonials. Paying more attention to this 20% reduces your marketing budget because you can pay less attention to the 80% who account for only 20% of your profits.

Now, consider applying the 80/20 principle to your life. For example, do you spend more time with people you enjoy being around? Do you try focusing on a few habits that can bring huge value to your life? Do you identify goals and priorities on a daily basis so you can focus on what matters most in business and in life?

No matter how big or small, start writing and assessing your dreams and goals in relation to the 80/20 Rule. Can you identify which 20% of your goals, when achieved, will give you 80% of your satisfaction and happiness?

Now step back and assess the ‘More with Less’ path. There are typically 4 routes to achieve a certain objective: the ‘Low Effort, Low Reward’ route, ‘High Effort, Low Reward’, ‘High Effort, High Reward’, and ‘Low Effort, High Reward’. It doesn’t take an Einstein to realize that focusing on the ‘Low Effort, High Reward’ route brings the greatest return on time, energy and investment.

Look at it this way; imagine you are planning to host a dinner party. Your objective is to make sure that everything is ready when the guests arrive. The four routes we have in this scenario are:

1) Low Effort, Low Reward: Do not cook or clean until the last minute.

2) High Effort, Low Reward: Start to clean a week before the party, but things get dirty again. Dedicate time to run errands during the day, but get side-tracked by other interruptions.

3) High Effort, High Reward: Start to prepare food every day. Clean as many times as possible. Go to the store on numerous occasions because of forgotten items.

4) Low Effort, High Reward: Make a list of all the items you will need for the party. Dedicate the day before the party to run errands, cook, and clean. Delegate additional tasks to your husband/wife/kids.

Don’t wait another day to evaluate and apply the 80/20 rule to work and life. The first step is easy. Get a pad of paper and a pen and start writing! Create two columns; one entitled “20″ and the other entitled “80.”

In the “20″ column, put everything you must do. If you have commitments that must be met, or responsibilities that cannot be put off, put those items in this column.

In the “80″ column, jot down items that give you low rewards, or tasks you find useless and/or tedious. Remember, the key here is to always ask yourself: “What is truly important to me?”

By putting the Pareto Principle into effect in business and life, you will do less and achieve more, and you’ll feel a whole lot more energy and passion as you focus on what matters most.

Certified Marketing Spitfire Leslie Hamp is on a mission to ignite small business success with proven strategies, lifestyle solutions and personal one-on-one and small group coaching. To find out more, and to get your *FREE* Marketing Mastery Success Kit, visit www.boostyourbottomline.com

[tags]marketing, small business, time management, advertising, public relations, promotion[/tags]

When it comes to family business management succession planning, and farm succession planning for that matter, there are lots of “keys” - virtually all of then claim to be the most important one. The truth is that there really is only one most important key to succession planning and it is not what you are probably thinking.

Some may say it is getting good advice, or taking advantage of planning strategies, or figuring out what others are doing successfully, or slipping through some clever business management succession loophole. Or maybe it’s having a conflict free atmosphere at the plant or developing better relationships at work.

Well, you’d be wrong.

The key to success during the family business management succession process is enlightened self-interest. In other words being able to set aside whatever petty feelings you have about the incompetence of your brother, dad, or uncle because you are savvy enough to realize that they aren’t going anyplace, they are not going to change, and if you want to succeed you will need their help to do so.

Not only that, they need your help and all of you must share one thing and one thing only, a commitment to right action. A commitment to investing the time to uncover what’s important to each of you, to the business, and to any other stakeholders - then making a commitment to work toward the goals you share.

It does not mean you will ever be buddies, coach one another’s kids, or go on vacations together - you can if you want but it is not required to be successful today or tomorrow.

Everything that happens in your business takes you closer to or farther away from your goals.

Internal problems, often personality problems or feelings of entitlement, can reduce the effectiveness of decisions you or one of the others make until you are all willing to set aside what’s wrong with the ideas of ‘others’ and look at what’s right with them.

You and I know that most of the conflict that undermines well considered decisions is not based on facts - it is the result of people wanting their way because they want their own way.

Lots of experts talk about how to build better relationships at work, saying that it’s important to success. There are books on the subject as if that makes it true.

But if your brother is a jerk and your sister is a spoiled brat (in your opinion) there is very little likelihood that any of the lessons in getting along are going to have any long term effect - for any of you.

Let’s take a look at the situation from a different perspective.

What if you and your siblings could work together effectively, make more money (so you could all take longer vacations away from each other) without sitting around the campfire singing “We are the world” and holding hands?

Your family business doesn’t have to look like a Norman Rockwell painting to be successful. It has to identify what’s important, create strategies that will move you toward that end and execute those strategies relentlessly.

There are lots of people out there who would tell you, in confidence of course, that making more money, being an industry leader, and having the respect of your peers outside the business goes a long way to make up for the fact that their brother and sister and them do not like each other very much.

Let’s say that each one of you aligns yourself with a group of successful peers, people you know, like, trust, and respect - where your ideas will be heard by others with an open mind. The members of your group will offer you continual, unbiased knowledge and feedback because they have no axe to grind, no advice to protect ,and they are not likely to feel diminished by your success - rather that’s what they are there for.

They are not your employees, your managers, your board or your family - so they will consider your ideas and offer insights that will help you test your assumptions in private, with additional decades of experience to validate them.

The result - fully developed, well considered, actionable ideas and tactics that you can take to your family members and company managers as clearly though out solutions to pressing problems and exciting opportunities.

Instead of spending your time sniping at one another you and your family members can create a management succession plan that combines the best thoughts from many experts in your industry. Each of you will have peers and mentors rooting for the success of these combined strategies.

Instead of being one of the vast majority of successful companies that fail to successfully emerge from the business management succession process, yours will be one that is a model for the industry.

The only thing you’ll have to agree on, if the stage is small, is which one of you will accept your industry’s company of the year award!

Business owners and family business consultants who think strategically, plan comprehensively, and execute flawlessly will certainly outpace those who simply set goals and hope for the best. If you want to be even more successful in the future than you are today, visit management succession planning to learn how to focus more clearly on what’s important to you, you family, and your business.

[tags]succession planning, farm succession[/tags]

Have a goal? Are you, for example, a dentist so busy involved in dental practice management that you forgot about new patient marketing to improve your practice growth? Focus on your original goal and new dental patients will come.

It is easy to concentrate on problems and forget to see the thing you wanted in the first place. After all, problems are impinging on you - no money, bad employees, creditors chasing you, governments not giving you the licenses you need, etc.

But, you see, the more you obsess on the problem the more it will consume you to the point, like a horse with blinders on, you will see nothing but the problem.

Hey, at least those horses with their blinders are made to see the road only. They only see what the jockey wants them to see. They are made not to see the horse next to them, the crowd, or anything else. In this case, the blinders are good but if you keep worrying too much about the problem you will not see the goal, and thus never reach it.

Concentrating only on the mechanical steps of doing your job is just another way to forget all about your goals. Make it a daily habit (especially when you have problems) to force yourself to look at your goals. Do not, however, lessen your goals because of the magnitude of your problems. Look at your original goals only.

In fact, whenever you think you can not make it, make the goal bigger not smaller.

Do you remember a time when your dreams or goals were so big that you could not sleep and nothing else mattered? People around you might have even have discouraged you from undertaking such a big thing, and though you knew it would be hard you embraced it anyhow.

Well, if your problems are currently overshadowing your goals then you better remedy that by making your goals so big that you will be so excited you will have no time for those skimpy problems.

Try it, it works!!

As Joseph E. Cossman said, “Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”

Remember: Your goals can be achieved - as long as you do not forget about them and have your eyes on them. Any business owner, dentist, doctor etc will have a thriving business with many new customers or new patients, if he or she constantly keeps his or her eyes on business expansion. A dentist might feel that his dental office is not organized enough, staff not efficient enough etc. Improve organization and dental staff training and motivation, yes, but he must keep his eyes on creative dental marketing because practice growth is still his original goal.

Helmut Flasch is a marketing consultant who uses Un-advertising rather than the traditional advertising methods. Find out more information about his marketing strategy at Un-Advertising.

[tags]dental practice management, new patient marketing, new dental patients, business advice, management[/tags]

Despite the economic climate, many people are still staying in hotels, be it a short overnight stay to save on a commute or a longer stay for a holiday or working commitment. However, as a hotel manager, it is still essential to purchase hotel supplies at a price befitting the economy.

Pricing, however, is not the only consideration that should be made when selecting your range of hotel supplies - quality and selection should also be taken into account. Selecting appropriately priced ranges for your hotel is essential; purchasing high-end soaps and shampoos for rooms in a Travel Lodge, for example is not a sound economic choice, where as a higher priced hotel should have a range of supplies befitting that price.

It should also be taken into account when selecting your range of hotel supplies that there are often losses made. Visitors frequently take items home from hotel rooms, from the supplied toothbrushes and toothpaste through to towels and sometimes even sheets. As such it’s worth not becoming too attached to such items and purchasing disposable models where possible or slightly cheaper options rather than paying premium rates for something which may well disappear after their first use.

There should also be decisions made on what to supply in your hotel rooms. Do you really need to supply facial scrubs and combs for free? Chances are, if your customer is the kind of person who will use facial scrub, for example, they will already have their own and will have it with them. Toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap and shampoo are nice to supply as many hotel customers take a room either because they want to avoid the commute home, or a public transport issue has made it almost impossible to get home in an evening and these individuals will most likely not have these essentials with them.

Ultimately, choosing which items to place in your rooms will come down to the kind of hotel you run. Is it orientated towards function, luxury or somewhere in the middle? The budget at which you operate will often have a direct impact on this choice and although it is nice to put high end products in your rooms for your customers, the expense incurred can often be prohibitive, especially since they will largely be one-off uses.

Thanks to the internet, it is easier than ever to source good value hotel supplies, giving you the opportunity to purchase the range of products you have selected for a price which is less than you may expect, meaning that whatever size hotel you are running, it is possible to acquire the right products for a price which befits the current state of the economy.

Anna Stenning is a business consultant with many years of experience advising the hotel industry. Find out more about hotel supplies at http://www.personal-products.co.uk/

[tags]Hotel supplies[/tags]

Giving corporate gifts to your clients is a very effective way to maintain brand loyalty and rapport. When your clients are loyal to your brand, this will affect your bottom line positively. Giving corporate gifts to your clients is a good strategy and you can use this regardless of your company size and budget.

Other than sending corporate gifts to clients, there are other ways to use corporate gifts to build your business. I believe you understand that employees are assets to your business. If you can get good and loyal employees, it will definitely help your business to grow. In order to keep employees committed to their jobs and perform efficiently, you must find ways to motivate them. One very effective way to motivate employees is to reward them with tangible gifts when they achieve their targets. By doing this, you will make them feel valued and appreciated, and they will in return work harder for you.

When you give the right corporate gifts to your hardworking employees, you will make them more loyal to your company. This ultimately translates to better work efficiency and increases the bottom line of your company. When they are motivated, they will transfer the positive attitude when they handle clients and in return increases sales.

When you decide to give corporate gifts to your key employees, you should organize a mini ceremony and present the gifts in front of everybody. Say a few sincere words to thank them for their contributions to the company. By doing this, you not only make your key employees motivated, others will also take them as their role models and thus will work harder so that they can receive gifts from you in the future too.

Before you engage any corporate gift vendor, make sure you do a thorough research first and shortlist a few vendors. To look for potential corporate gift vendors, you can either browse through your local directory like Yellow Pages or do a search on Google. Visit their websites and call those that you have shortlisted. Ask for quotes and compare their prices before you decide to engage one.

Employee morale and motivation are things that you must take note of if you want to have a more efficient team to grow the business. Rest assured that giving corporate gifts to show your appreciation to key employees will definitely help to improve the overall morale and motivation of the entire team.

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