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Where Do They Go To Get Business Advice?

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StrategyDriven Big Picture of Business ArticleBusinesses operate at a pace such that they grab for help wherever it is available. More often than not, they reach toward the wrong resources, the untied advisors and sources that send them down rabbit holes.

It is lonely at the top. There are many demands upon entrepreneurs and senior management of companies. Each organization is confronted with challenges and opportunities, both real and perceived. It is tough to tackle all the obstacles and feel that substantial progress is being made.

Businesses spend so much time on momentary pieces of their puzzles that they neglect long-term Strategic Planning and miss potential successes. Costs of band aid surgery and make-good work cost six times that of planning for business on the front end.

The need exists for comprehensive business ideas and growth strategies. The need is ever-present for interfacing with senior executives and updating management skills, to avoid burnout and stimulate the seasoned professionals toward new heights. Top management regularly needs the creative inspiration to take the company to new heights. Cutting-edge executives (the very top and those about to take the mantle) need seasoned advice and inspiration.

Here is where they go to get ideas, strategies and help, in the order where they commonly go. The lower numbers represent introductory resources. The highest numbers are where they should be reaching.

1. Hearsay and third hand

  • Comments heard at parties and networking functions
  • Uninformed sources
  • Friends of friends
  • High participation networkers
  • Research and surveys

2. Special Interests

  • Websites containing educational material as a way to sell services
  • Surveys and their feedback

3. People Selling Stuff

  • Vendors who distract you, using expressions like “funding to grow your business.”
  • Online marketing firms
  • Internet solicitors and sellers
  • Website consulting

4. Internal Management

  • People you work with
  • Mid-managers and supervisors
  • Corporate leadership

5. Niche Experts and Consultants

  • Trainers
  • Freelance consultants, per industry niche
  • Banking, insurance benefits, human resources, etc.
  • Technology consulting firms
  • Researchers

6. Educational Programs

  • Speakers
  • Seminars
  • Panels at forums
  • Workshops
  • Conferences
  • Webinars
  • Material published or broadcast in the media

7. Books

  • Articles excerpted for meetings
  • Blog material posted online
  • Thin self-published books by people seeking to establish a platform
  • Online articles and blogs
  • Serious books in libraries
  • Cutting-edge books with original material

8. Advocacy Groups

  • Business clubs
  • Chambers of commerce
  • People with whom you work in community and charity leadership roles
  • Boards of directors
  • The Better Business Bureau
  • SCORE
  • Small Business Development Center
  • Trade industry groups
  • Associations
  • Political action committees
  • Community alliances
  • Professional alliances
  • Consortiums of business
  • Cross-industry cooperative initiatives

9. Mentors

  • Pier advisory groups such as Vistage, Silver Fox Advisors
  • One-on-one coaching
  • CEO roundtables
  • Corporate heir apparent training
  • Programs such as Shark Tank, Fox Den, Ted Talks
  • Leadership programs

10. Senior Business Advisors

  • Professional service firms, including lawyers, accountants, marketing, public relations, quality management

11. Major Business Gurus

  • Track record experts with many years in advising strategically

About the Author

Hank MoorePower Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

Top Apps to Have When Traveling for Business

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In contemporary times, time is of the essence. Advancements in technology have led to increased company projections, growth and the enhancement of capitalist ideals.

The internet has also contributed to the advancement of the global village phenomenon, flying from one place to another for a couple of business meetings is now the norm. At times, one-on-one meetups are quite important because one can learn so much more from them about their fellow business partners.

Before setting up meetings in far-away lands, one should ensure that they have a couple of handy apps at the ready. Gadgetgestures.com covers topics like these to help ensure that one is able to achieve maximum productivity. These apps are made to ensure that the meeting proceeds unencumbered since one is able to keep track of progress back at work without having to be present. We’ve listed a couple of the top apps we believe every businessman needs up their sleeve.

Asana

Asana helps ensure that irrespective of one’s location in the world, they are able to keep tabs on what’s happening in their work circle and communicate with others back at the office. The Asana app enables easy communication, deadline progress monitoring, and the management of tasks to employees. Thus, if one’s business entails team management, output goals definition and a number of deadlines, Asana is the go-to app.

Twitter

The #hashtag feature on Twitter helps ensure that the top trending topics in the world are associated with a specific topic. As a business and thought leader, one should ensure that they stay in tune with the happening in the cyberspace world.

Through Twitter, one can also check out their team’s social media statistics over a given period and look at possible ways to boost engagement. To do this, all one needs is a stable internet connection.

Google Drive

Google drive allows the mass collaboration of various teams from anywhere on the globe. One can share documents, track team input and adjust their calendars to keep track of what’s incoming and find out the natures of the team’s discussion.

Concur

Concur is an amazing travel/expense manager that has the potential to dethrone all business-oriented apps from whichever throne they sit on. The app has fantastic expense management tools, features to automatically export expense reports and the ability to sync to the office in order to facilitate necessary approvals.

One of the tools on Concur is TripIt which helps make itinerary planning is a breeze and that all reservation numbers are easily stored up in one place for ease of access. To create a master itinerary, all one needs to do is forward the confirmation emails and the app will get hard at work to create everything one needs.

Circleback

This app is perfect because it helps maintain contact records, consolidate them and ensure they remain accurate and up-to-date. In addition to all contacts feature, the app has impressive business card scanning and email signature capturing provisions.

4 Hacks to Become More Productive In Business

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Productivity levels are as important to a business as its revenue streams. In fact, the true character of a company can only be found out from the productivity levels of the workers. Still for many businesses productivity levels seem to be an abstract concept. The point is that a business without a tight grip on its productivity levels is bound to suffer. Here are 5 hacks to become more productive in business. They may take some time to implement and some more time for the workers to get used to it, but the long-term results are promising in terms of work satisfaction and revenue generation.

Control of phones

All organizations must keep a close eye on their workers’ tendencies to use their phones at work. It’s a worrying habit because everyone is a victim of it. All it takes is one notification sound to divert their attention for 10-15 minutes or even more. However, to avert this, a business can establish no notification zones.

In the workplace there should be no notification zones where it’s not allowed to check the phone for notifications. Unless it is a phone call, employees should not be allowed to take out their phones at all in these zones. In case they need to check their phone, they should excuse themselves and leave the room to do so.

To do list apps

Several software companies make specialized apps for businesses to use. A to-do list app that can be centrally accessed can work wonders for an organization. The benefits of such an app are aplenty, some of them include:

• Keeping track of all job schedules.

• Supervisors are able to check which worker is lagging.

• Allotment of work becomes easier.

In case the organization is unable to afford investing in a personalized application, it can always look for free alternatives in the app stores.

Reading business articles

Reading business magazines and journals, especially the types that are suited to the workers’ job requirements must be encouraged by the organizational heads. Here’s how an organization can encourage its workers to read more:

• Subscribing to magazines and newspapers related to the field of work undertaken by the organization.

• Sharing websites and article links on a common social space for all workers to view and read. There are several knowledgeable websites which business professionals must read. For instance, Fabweb.Org is a great website which keeps its readers up to date on the latest technological and business advancements around the world.

Refusing additional work

Productivity does not mean taking up a large number of tasks and not being able to finish any one of them. It is measured in terms of how successful the worker has been in the process of completion of all the tasks that have been assigned to him/her. If they feel that taking up additional work could hamper their chances of finishing their assigned work, workers should be given the chance to refuse it.

Apart from following these guidelines, you must also have trust in the workers and give them their freedom to do their best. Only then can your business become truly productive.

Making a Success of Your Next Big Meeting

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When you hold a meeting of any sort, it’s highly likely that you will feel a little nervous beforehand. This is to be expected. Meetings are relatively intimidating situations, and the pressure is on to perform to the best of your capability. However, there are certain steps that you can take in order to ensure that awkward situations are avoided, and you make a success of the entire venture! Here are a few to consider!

Be Prepared

It’s extremely rare that a meeting will pop up last minute. Generally speaking, you will have an extended period of time in advance where you can prepare for the event. But surprisingly, so many people leave planning and work towards their meeting until the last minute. Sure, it’s easy to procrastinate and put things off, but you’re just making things more difficult for yourself in the long run. Rather than driving yourself into a pre-meeting frenzy of research and work, make sure that you are fully prepared well in advance. Not only does this help you to get the bulk of the work out of the way early on, but it also gives you a chance to work out any tweaks or flaws in your proposals and to familiarise yourself with your facts, figures, and other material.

Rent a Professional Space

The space in which you hold a meeting can have a profound impact on its results. So make sure to host your meeting in a professional environment. This will help to form the kind of atmosphere that you want to be associated with in your partner, client, or other professional associate’s mind. Another reason to consider conference room rental is that there will be equipment and tools on hand (such as projectors and flip boards) to help you propose your ideas as easily and smoothly as possible.

Arrive On Time

Good time keeping says a lot about an individual. It shows that they are serious about the meeting and it also shows that they are trustworthy and reliable. It also displays their respect for the individual that they are meeting. Leaving people to wait can be deemed extremely rude. So no matter how close you may be to the place where you’re meeting, make sure to leave early in order to guarantee that you are there on time.

Dress the Part

While casual clothing might be fine for day to day wear while you’re building your company up from the ground, you might want to consider putting something a little more formal on for a meeting. As the old saying goes, first impressions count, and you never get a second chance to make one. So look smart and like the professional you want to be taken for. The person you’re meeting with is much more likely to take your proposals seriously if you look like you take yourself seriously too!

If you follow the above pieces of advice, everything should go exceedingly well. Be prepared, be confident, and be the professional that you know you can be!

4 Must Haves for Your Next International Trip

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Whether you’re headed to an exotic destination for your romantic honeymoon, spending a summer backpacking across Europe or planning a fun filled family vacation; you’ll be busy applying for a visa to whatever country you are planning on visiting, obtaining a passport and much more. These are vital to any international trip and should be done ahead of time so that no sudden surprises stand in the way when it comes time to leave the country. It’s a big deal to be traveling outside of the country and you need to make sure you have everything planned and packed accordingly. So, you’ve completed your travel checklist; made hotel arrangements, bought your plane tickets, have your passport and are ready to go! Making sure that you have packed the essentials is a large part of traveling comfortably and will allow you to enjoy a hassle-free trip. Of course, you packed your clothes, shoes, toiletries, money and legal papers; like your visa and passport. Did you make sure to bring the other important must haves along? Let’s look at 4 must haves for your next international trip:

1. A Travel Pillow

You may think that a travel pillow is not necessarily a ‘must have’ for your next trip but bringing along this always needed and often forgotten item can make a world of difference when it comes to international traveling. On average, most international flights are at least 10 to 16 hours long. Having a travel pillow with you will allow you to have additional neck support while sleeping during long flights. A travel pillow can also be used to provide extra lumbar support for extended periods of sitting. Travel pillows have also been known to reduce the symptoms associated with jet-lag. You can also make effective use of a travel pillow during layovers at the airport in between your flights. Don’t forget to take along a travel pillow for your next long trip;

you’ll wonder how you ever traveled without one!

2. A Pair of Ear Plugs

Another frequently forgotten must have for long trips are ear plugs. You may think you don’t need them or maybe haven’t even thought about them, until now. Sleeping is a terrific way to kill time on a long flight and prepare you for arrival so that you are ready to go. However, it can be difficult to do that with all the noise from other passengers, especially if you are a light sleeper. It can be hard to sleep when you hear other passengers talking, the person next to you snoring or a baby wailing from a few seats back. Taking along a pair of ear plugs will help keep the noise to a minimum and provide the peace and quiet you will need, to get some shut eye.

3. A Money Belt

While traveling internationally you will have to keep important documents on you at all times. You also will be carrying cash and other important items with you that you won’t want lost or stolen. Money belts come in many assorted styles and designs to compliment any outfit, without looking conspicuous. Pickpocketing can happen to anyone and unfortunately, most times pickpockets target unsuspecting tourists. Wearing a money belt means, you won’t have to worry about the risk of losing important documents or money, if your wallet or purse is stolen or misplaced. A money belt is a must have for your next international trip. You’ll be at ease during your trip knowing that your money and important documents are safely stored away in your money belt.

4. A Universal Travel Adapter

Not all electrical outlets are created equally. Meaning, most international destinations do not have the same electrical outlets that you may be used to. Do a little research and find out if you will need a travel adapter. If you do need one, it is best to purchase it before your trip to not only save money, but also to get the right one to fit your electronics.  Give yourself time to research exactly what you will need and speak with experts at the store or call the product manufacturer. There are many different travel adapters and you may not know which one you really need. Purchasing a universal travel adapter will ensure the proper outlet design and will come in handy during other international trips. Having this simple device will make traveling easier. When you arrive at your destination you will be able to plug up your phone charger, laptop, blow dryer and more.