Comics For Business

Business writing courses from Stephen Lloyd Training

May 12, 2012

Article by Allision Kraft

Running your own business is tough, no one would deny that. It can be hard to know how to manage your time effectively, what to do for the good of your business and how to get through the mountain of paper work that you have each day.

This is because even if you are a business person it doesn’t mean you are organised and it doesn’t mean that you are able to be time effective. The trick is to get someone to teach you the skills that you need to know in order to be more effective.

One of the things that you should look at is business writing courses. This can make all aspects of your business much easier to handle and much more time effective. For example can you imagine being able to write reports much quicker and easier? This can save you heaps of time and hassle. It isn’t a matter of the fact that you are doing it wrong, it could just be that you are not being as effective with your time as possible. Wouldn’t you like to be a better writer? Being able to write sales patter or even website content quick and easy is a great skill. It is not hard to master the skill but just takes being shown the right direction to take things in.

There are lots of business skills that are worth learning, even things like minute taking can make your life easier.

Even if you don’t feel that a business course will benefit you, have you thought about training up your employees? Business writing courses can be of great benefit to lots of people and by them learning these new skills they can implement them into your business so you still see the benefits. If they can take minutes quickly meetings will flow better, if they can write your reports effectively you’ll have them on your desk much quicker and if they can write to a high level of grammar then this makes for less mistakes. All in all it can only benefit your business to consider putting yourself or one of your employees on some kind of business writing course.

Fundraiser Ideas For Fraternities

May 8, 2012

Fundraiser Ideas For Fraternities

Fraternities typically need a huge some of money for maintenance, community work, and upkeep. Even though members are asked to pay large fees for each semester, the money that is acquired from this is still not enough to allow a fraternity to achieve its different responsibilities and goals. With this given fact, a lot of these organizations are now getting into searching for different fundraiser ideas that will allow them to raise the money that they need. With different these different ideas, fraternities can now have the opportunity to carry out their different service projects while still having the money to pay for regular expenses.

One of the best fundraiser ideas that fraternities can carry out would be sports contests. Different sports events or tournaments offer a huge opportunity to raise money. Sports events work great for groups like fraternities as to the reason that they have a lot of rivals that will be willing to participate in these events so as for them to win bragging rights even if they have to pay a set registration fee to join. In here, you can choose from a wide array of sports such as basketball, golf, table tennis, and football. In choosing the sports for your event, try to go for ones that are of great interest for your participants so that will be able to effectively motivate them to fully participate. In addition to this, make sure to set a justifiable fee that you will charge from each contestant. Aside from raising money from the registration fee, you can also try to sell tickets for your sports event. In addition to this, you can make things more interesting by doing raffles in between the games so that you can allow your audience to participate as well.

Next on my list of ideas would be date auctions. This type of event is really interesting and this will allow you to suck in lots of customers. This in turn will allow you to generate huge profits in the end. College students are really into date auctions so you can expect a huge crowd if you carry out this event. This would be so since date auctions can serve as an opportunity for college students to win a date with their crushes that they are not even brave or confident enough to ask out personally. One of the greatest advantages of date auctions is that it can cause a huge fuzz so you no longer need to exert a lot of effort to spread the word about this to people. Moreover, bids can go really high and really fast during date auctions. This means that the earnings that you will be able to bag in with these types of events are basically limitless. All you need to do to carry out a date auction well is to solicit some volunteers from your fellow organizations. Be sure to include both men and women for your auction and charge a set admission fee for each participant.

Posted, by Business Ideas in Fundraising. Tags: Fraternities, Fundraiser, Ideas

Unique Fundraising Ideas For The Students Council

May 4, 2012

Article by Orson Dixon

While some researchers have argued that the investment behind every dollar raised through a fundraising event is about 15-25 cents, some have projected a figure of about 50 cents per dollar. The difference probably lies in how well deliberated your unique fundraising ideas are and how cost effectively they have been implemented. When it comes to student council fundraisers, raising money for noble causes can be fun yet profitable. However, you need to come up with ideas that will have the entire group engaged and motivated. Although the choice of unique fundraising ideas may depend on the terms, conditions and guidelines laid down by the school, you can ask each member of the council to contribute their own ideas.

Unique Fundraising Ideas: Some Examples
Unique fundraising ideas for the students’ council should be ones that students will need to put some honest efforts into. Their organizing and leadership skills need to be put to test for ensuring a challenging experience. Here are some great event ideas:

* Organize an Auction: Organizing an auction can actually prove to be great fun. The results can sometimes be truly baffling. All you need to do is engage the members of the students’ council to track down some suppliers and manufacturers in and around the neighborhood to donate stuff for the auction. These could be anything from home appliances to airline tickets. Once the items are at hand, organize an auction with the local auctioneer for fundraising.

* Fundraising through the Net: Online fundraising could prove to be very profitable if implemented well. There are two ways of facilitating such fundraisers. The easiest way is to provide a relevant link for the fundraising initiative on the web page of the school. Anyone who visits the website of the school can access this link. Alternatively, you can tie up with one of the fundraising bodies and develop a website of your own.

* Organize Events: Organizing events may not be the most unique idea, but the choice of events could be innovative enough to draw attention. You can have drama recitals, music shows, movie screenings, etc., and sell tickets for the event for fundraising purposes.

Posted, by Business Ideas in Fundraising. Tags: Council, Fundraising, Ideas, Students, Unique

Business Writing Help – For Free!

April 30, 2012

Article by Chris Howard

More and more these days freelance writers can find an opportunity to work for a company looking for business writing help to complete all kinds of messages that they need to put out on a daily basis.

In this article I will cover a bit of the groundwork that you need to know in business writing, and then provide a link to a site where you can get a step by step guide on making your business writing shine.

As you will probably already know there are a lot of styles and formats that fit into business writing that you need to know about to impress a potential employer. You should make sure that you have an understanding of the most common stuff below:

* Newsletters and eShots – This is the monthly update that a company will send to their loyal customers that will have a lot of rich content plus a sprinkle of advertising.

* Letter Writing – Often a large company will have to send out a massive volume of letters and will employ a writer to complete this work.

* Reports and Whitepapers – Often used as a content marketing tool and given away free to potential customers in exchange for contact information.

* Power Point Presentations – With many business people needing to give presentations and seminars it will be your job to write their content and make sure that they have everything covered.

* Brochures and Copywriting – You will often see that larger companies have a booklet at reception that explains their vision and core beliefs. This can often be outsourced to a business writer like yourself.

* Blogging – More and more blogging is being seen as a massive marketing tool but it takes time and effort to keep up a good blog and often there are opportunities for freelance business writer to provide the the content.

There are so many different parts to business writing but there are a few cores skill you need to really make it work if you want to have success. You need to work on this stuff all the time:

1. You need to have accurate writing and good attention to details.
2. You need to be expert at proofreading.
3. An ability to get your work in on time is essential.
4. You need to have great communication skills.
5. Market research is a good idea.
6. An understanding of marketing and copywriting methods is also essential.

If you think you fit the bill or would like even more detailed information please see the links below.

As part of their Advanced Writing for Business class, nine students from the USC Marshall School of Business, together with Sandra Chrystal, director of the school’s Center for Management Communication, traveled to Mozambique in 2009 to work with nonprofit organizations while developing their own business-writing skills. The students analyzed the needs of the organizations and then developed memos, white papers, business plans, press kits, grant proposal templates and other documents to help meet those needs. In so doing, the students not only assisted the nonprofits, but also became better writers by honing their own critical thinking skills and learning to write a variety of business documents for different audiences. What’s more, when the students returned, they shared their experiences with classmates who stayed in Los Angeles and teamed up to develop real-world projects, such as business plans and grant proposals.
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Business Writing Guide At A Glance!

April 26, 2012

Article by Josh

A business-writing guide is a quick and handy tool especially if you are in a fast-paced business environment where concise, accurate and to the point content is always required. Most business-writing guides are a culmination of different business writing courses, workshops, and all have a common goal towards improving communication skills of a business individual.

There are commonly agreed principles that apply to effective business communication and the sole purpose of these basic business guides is to provide knowledge, training, quick reference and resources for professional business communication.
Guidelines for Basic Business Document
Know Your Audience, Draft Purpose, Get an Angle

Understand the purpose of your communication and research your audience and their needs. Identify primary and secondary audiences. People who directly receive your document are your primary audience and people who will receive these documents as they are passed on, are your secondary or “hidden” audience. Examine the level of knowledge, interest, and any potential biases your audience may have with regard to your message.
Some Commonly Used Formats

Business Letter: A business letter is preferred when communication is intended for your superiors and or will be seen by many.

Memo: A memo (memorandum) uses a less formal style of writing and is most preferred for in internal communication.

E-mail: The most commonly utilized tool for informal communication such as reminders, questions, instructions etc. It is very important to remember that email is a public domain and should not carry confidential information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers etc.
Compose Your Strategy

If your audience has already established an understanding of your communication then you can go straight to the point without getting to build their interest. If your audience is neutral or has less interest in your communication, you can adopt the show or tell style of writing to build their interest and motivate them.

On the other hand, if you audience is biased positively, reinforce their attitudes by mentioning the benefits accrued from your message. If your audience is biased negatively then you can adopt the following:

Limit your request to the smallest one
Respond to most likely objections
State points you think they will agree with
Get your audience to acknowledge there is a problem and provide the solution

Smarten Up Your Word Choice

Refrain from using jargon in your communication. Slang and jargon can be taken in different connotations from person to person and make the document hard to read and understand. You must also watch out for confusing and incorrect words. Accept, except, capital, capitol, affect, effect are some examples of the most incorrectly selected words without much realization.
Pay Attention to Your Structure

Introduction is the most important part of the document. Your introduction serves three purposes; builds interest, explains the reason why you are writing and provides a preview for the content that follows.

Building interest is necessary here and you can refer to an existing situation or conversation to achieve that. Explain the purpose of this communication by quickly getting to the areas of concern. Previewing includes a brief table of contents if your document is lengthy. The end portion of your document is an important one and contains reiteration and synopsis of the main ideas discussed. A typical ending mostly used requires an action step or feedback mechanism.
Paragraph Guidelines

Each paragraph in your document should start with a generalization and every sentence in the paragraph should support that generalization. Keep your focus on the main ideas and refrain from using flashy words and phrases. Keep your sentence construction in check and avoid longer sentences.

Sentence construction is of vital importance and will be discussed in detail later in this article.
Use Transitional Words and Phrases for a Professional Spice

To help swing around your main ideas, use transitional phrases and words frequently used in business communication.

Similarly, moreover, in addition to, further, however, on the contrary, accordingly, finally, subsequently etc are some of the very frequently used transitional phrases and words. These transitional phrases maintain a smooth flow of information around the main ideas without any ambiguities.
Drafting Your Professional Sentences
Complete Your Sentences

Complete sentences contain a subject and a verb and one should never make the mistake of splitting the two in half. It simply means that you should not use “periods” where “commas” can do the trick.
Go Slow on Flowery Details

Flowery details are not at all recommended in business communication and are an utter waste of time, both for the writer and the audience. Let us consider some flowery sentences and their replacements mentioned in brackets.

The question as to whether (whether)
This is a subject that (this subject)
He has not succeeded in (his failure)

Mind Your Spellings and Lettering

Always remember to perform a spell-check before you roll out your document. You must proofread the document yourself or have someone else do it for spelling mistakes and accuracy. Most common mistakes are using correctly spelled words you did not intend to use and have a different meaning all together. Affect/effect, capitol/capital, farther/further; are among the most commonly misused words that can change the entire meaning of the communication.

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Posted, by Business Ideas in Business Writing. Tags: Business, Glance, guide, Writing

Brick Fundraising – An Effective Idea to Raise Required Funds

April 22, 2012

Article by Jhon Ford

There are several events where we can make the best usage of engraved bricks. Such events include anniversaries, birthdays, sports’ events etc. In Brick Fundraising, these engraved bricks are becoming a hot idea of this time to collect unexpected volume of fund for any of your project. In general, this idea is used to develop memorials or buildings for social purpose by fundraisers.

Now, you must be interested to know how donors agree to invest or donate in fundraising project. So, as we have discussed that in fundraising, fundraisers use engraved bricks; so these bricks give a long lasting impression by engraving the message or name of donors on the bricks. Thus, their messages get alive for years till the building exist. People also learn about donor’s name and involvement in building project for ages.

Though, the idea of brick fundraising is truly exceptional in this time and many people are getting amazing benefits through this idea as well. However, this job is quite daunting; especially for organizations who are trying it for the first time. How to start, what to do and who will donate, the way to find out donors, all such questions can puzzle you, while going for such campaign for raising funds. Therefore, to get supportive help and right guidance, there are some companies who are dealing in fundraising project, can help you to reach by potential donors and to collect funds as much as you want.

Besides, hiring companies of fundraising services, there are some basic things that must be considered before starting a fundraising project. In the list of basic requirements, firstly you should determine your project type and size. It is a crucial point to pay attention as it would help attracting fundraisers effectively. In project size, you must determine the total fund you need to raise and in type, your project’s social involvement must be cleared.

After finalizing your campaign size and type, publicizing your brick fundraising event is your next step. In this step, you should bring forth your real idea behind fundraising before people. For this concern attractive and informative advt. on a local newspaper can be a great step. Or you can put your campaign ad on TV or radio as well. These steps would affect your campaign greatly and in small amount of time, your campaign will get publicized. These steps are necessary to take on if you are really serious in your brick fundraising campaign.

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Posted, by Business Ideas in Fundraising. Tags: Brick, Effective, Fundraising, Funds, Idea, Raise, Required

New Professional Copywriting Service Ups the Ante For Unique Custom Content and Business Writing

April 18, 2012

Article by Danny Brown / Press Release PR

Email Tune-up by businessenglishpod.com is a new series of business English video podcast for ESL students looking to improve their business writing skills. In this episode of Email Tune-up were looking at an email from Kenny, who works for a bathroom fixtures, or equipment, manufacture. He is writing to his colleague, John, to inform him about the changes he has made to the design of a shower door.

Tips to Improve Business Writing Skills

April 14, 2012

Article by Emil Andrews

When running any kind of business, it is important for you to have the best skill in business writing because it will help you to do the right thing in your business. By having these skills, you will be able to create any kind of proposal so you can ensure your clients in a better way. Having these skills can be shown that you are professional in your business since you have the ability in creating any type of business writing. If you would like to improve your skills in this kind of writing, please read this article to get more information about them.

1. First of all, you need to practice your writing skills oftentimes so you can learn them well. In this case, you can try to enhance your skills anytime such as sending casual office memos or emails. Learning process oftentimes you do will maintain and increase your ability very well so you can take the benefits from it. Also, you must know that each of business writing has its etiquette so you must learn it well so you will not make any mistake in making the writing.
2. You can brush on the writing skills into two methods so you can make them functional for you. For the first method, you need to take an online course that will teach you in increasing your writing skills so following the course will be the right solution you need to take. Then, you can learn from handbooks that will give you more explanation and information on how to write well in your business. In choosing the right handbooks, it is advised to check the content firstly through the opinions from some people.
3. It is important for you to be mindful in writing a proposal or business letter. It means that you need to utter the information clearly so the readers will understand your meaning. In this case, you must use simple dictions that will make your proposal easy to understand and get the points at glance.

— Bad Writing Habits No worries. I’m not about to ask you to own up to ALL sins–just your worst WRITING sins. We’re going to talk only about the ones that surface when trying to write important documents: Those sales proposals that could win a big contract. That report that outlines what you’ve accomplished for the quarter. That email that requests and justifies your raise. What makes the writing task difficult for many people? Like many things, it’s the process. Identify Your Bad Writing Habits. Then determine how you might replace the habit with a different process, plan, or habit. Consider these common but counter-productive habits: * Waiting for inspiration rather than approaching the task like any other * Waiting until you’re under pressure from a deadline * Interrupting yourself from the task to check email too frequently * Starting to write before you’ve collected all the necessary information you’ll need * Writing before thinking * Starting to draft before you’ve identified your key message * Starting to draft before you’ve determined the outcome you want from the reader * Starting over continually, trying to “get it right” the first time * Trying to write in “bits and spurts” (15 minutes here and 30 minutes there) * Allowing other people to interrupt you while writing * Writing when you’re angry or otherwise upset * Editing and rewriting sentence by sentence as you go rather than after you finish a draft * Checking a thesaurus to find and use complex words for …
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Posted, by Business Ideas in Business Writing. Tags: Business, improve, Skills..., Tips, Writing

Raise Some Dough with Cookie Dough Fundraisers

April 6, 2012

Article by Thomas Rockwood

Cookie dough fundraisers have been a fundraising mainstay in schools, clubs, and organizations for some time and growing more popular by the day because people love fresh-baked cookies! Americans consume over 24 billion cookies per year.

These types of fundraisers generally involve selling (usually pre-selling) boxes, tubs, or large tubes of cookie dough that can be frozen for future use by the consumer.

Cookie dough fundraisers can be a fun, easy way to raise money and be highly profitable!
They are perfect for any organization or club including cheerleaders, marching bands, sports teams and leagues, schools, youth groups, and churches to name a few.

The participating organization normally takes advance orders or pre-buys a specific number of boxes and then sells the dough to friends, relatives, parents, and the public–essentially, anyone willing to buy.

The cookie dough boxes or tubes are sold using simple order forms provided by the fundraising supplier which takes the burden off of the organization. The frozen dough is normally packed in containers and there are usually several different varieties available. Some suppliers offer up to eleven different recipes!

Executing the cookie dough fundraiser simply involves your sales team members (participants, parents, volunteers, and anyone else who will be helping with your campaign) showing the brochures to potential customers, taking down their orders, and then collecting payment upfront. On the specified day, all of the orders are collected from the sales team members and then submitted with your payment to your cookie dough supplier. Your order arrives within a few weeks and will be ready to be delivered to your paying customers.

Potential Income associated with cookie dough fundraisers

Fundraising with cookie dough typically requires little or no out-of-pocket expenses and often you are able to keep the profit right away. Typical profits on cookie dough sales range from 30-55 percent. Cookie dough suppliers usually recommend that you have at least 30-50 dough sellers for the fundraising effort to be successful.

Here are some other things that may influence your profit; make sure to ask about:

* Order forms and brochure costs

* “Money collection envelopes” costs

* Cost of computerized sales

* Distribution sheets costs

Advantages of cookie dough fundraisers:

* They are highly consumable, permitting repeat fundraisers.

* Require no, or little, upfront capital.

* They are very popular baking treats. Everyone loves cookies fresh out of the oven!

* Profits are immediately kept.

Disadvantages of raising money with cookie dough:

* Requires that it should be kept frozen until delivered.

* There can be complicated restrictions on delivery.

* Some ingredients cause complications for allergy sufferers.

Tips for successful cookie dough sales:

1. Set sales objectives goals for each team member. Have awards or prizes for the highest and fastest sellers.

2. Set a specific start and ending date for the fundraiser. Stick to it.

3. Allow sufficient lead to organize, plan, and promote your sale.

4. Be aware of other fundraising efforts close to you. Never sell similar products as, and at the same time as your competition.

5. Promote. Two weeks to a month in advance of the event or sale. Advertise in your local newspaper, distribute flyers, use the internet.

6. Orient your sales team. Inform them what the fund raising is for as well as how much money is you are trying to raise. Before they go out and sell, let them practice on each other. They need to be well acquainted with the product that they are selling.

Cookie dough fundraisers can be fun and profitable for a participating organization and in the end, they just might raise some big… dough!

Posted, by Business Ideas in Fundraising. Tags: Cookie, Dough, Fundraisers, Raise, Some

Internet Writing Business

April 2, 2012

Internet Writing Business
One of the foremost profitable home based businesses today is an Internet writing business. This type of business is nice for those who have a home computer, and a few spare time on their hands to write articles for the web. There are thousands of folks on the Internet today that are looking for somebody to jot down articles for his or her websites. This will enable them to have recent material on their sites to get additional traffic. You will be the behind the scenes sort player that can produce the product nevertheless will not be accredited to it.
Finding Contracts
It is rather simple to seek out contracts nowadays for your Web writing business. There are a number of sites that are founded and running, where folks place ads for writing jobs. This can be where you go and you browse the ads to work out if there is anything that you are qualified to put in writing concerning, and then you place a bid.

This can be one thing that would take a small amount of time to regulate to, thus you will need to be sure that you are not giving up on any income sources that you have already got lined up. When you bid for work, you would like to attend for the awarding of the contract to the winning author of company. From there you’ll be instructed on what you have got to try and do next, if you’re of course the winner of the contract. The contracts can vary in length and quantity of articles.
Selection
The good factor concerning an Internet writing business is that you will never get bored with what you’re doing. There are such a lot of completely different varieties of topics that you’ll be writing concerning; the work will never get stale. You’d be shocked to see simply how many totally different varieties of articles that you’ll be writing among per week’s period. Some subjects are serious, whereas others are a lot of laid back and merely informative. If you’re lucky, you may even land a contract that can require you to jot down and EBook. This can be one thing that would take some time, yet the pay and also the thought of your own book is reward enough to attempt something like this. Many individuals are literally making an attempt their hand at this type of work, as they’re seeing the potential for nice profits to be had.
Easy To Get Started
One of the simplest aspects of an Internet writing business, is that’s truly comparatively simple to get started with. You may clearly need a sound pc, and good writing software like Microsoft Word. You will conjointly would like a smart Net association as well. The higher the association, the additional probably it will be for you to land decent contracts. It’s not simple to do something on-line with a dialup affiliation, so you’ll wish to speak with your Internet service provider. Make certain that you prepare all your own tax information at the end of each year as you’ll be thought-about self employed.

Jack Appleman is interviewed by Mark Morrow about his book 10 Steps to Successful business writing, which is available at store.astd.org
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