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Business plans are not static documents. Rather, they are dynamic documents that change often. Keeping your business plan up-to-date can be a critical factor in both your ability to raise capital and your ability to execute on the opportunity at hand.

There are many parts of a business plan that need periodic updates. Sections that most commonly need to be modified include the milestones, competition, management team and financials sections.

Milestones: What milestones has your business achieved since the last version of the business plan was prepared? Showing investors that your company continues to execute on the opportunity and meet milestones is a key way to gain an investment.

Competition: Particularly in emerging markets, the competitive landscape changes rapidly. It is common for new ventures to enter the market and established companies to extend business lines into it. Updating the competitive section of the business plan is critical to letting management and investors understand the new landscape and adapt accordingly.

Management team: As companies add management team members, it is important to update the plan with their bios. A fuller management team is a positive sign to investors that the company is poised for success.

Financials: Business plan financials often have a plethora of assumptions such as customer penetration rates, prices, margins, etc. As a company begins to execute on its opportunity, it is able to replace the assumptions with real figures. Making these substitutions in the financial model is critical in understanding the cash flow needs of the venture. Misunderstanding financial needs is a key reason why some companies fail.

Strong management teams know the importance of their business plan and update their plans constantly to make sure their focus and action plan is always crystal clear. Likewise, they recognize the importance of sharing their updated plans with investors and management team members to keep everyone in synch.

Since its inception, Business Plans by Growthink has developed over 250 business plans. Growthink clients have collectively raised over $750 million in financing, launched numerous new product and service lines and gained competitive advantage and market share. Growthink has become the firm of choice for venture capital firms, angel investors, corporations and entrepreneurs in the know. For more information please visit http://www.growthink.com or download our free Business Plan Guide.

The way you structure your payment offers can increase your sales. I’m not talking about the way people pay like credit cards, digital payments, checks, and cash options. What I’m taking about is can your customers try before they buy, pay later, make payments, do they get a rebate, etc. Below are six payment offers that will sell like your products or services like crazy:

1. Sample It

Offer your customers a free sample or short version of your product or service. Your sample should give them only a few benefits of the full version. This will entice them to purchase the full version to get the total benefits.

2. Name Your Price

Offer customers a choice of want they can pay for your product or service. List your original product and price then add another product with it for a little higher price. Your orders will increase buy letting the customers choose their price.

3. Free To Try

Offer your customers a free trial of your product or service. You could offer the free trial for 5 to 30 days. This is showing them that you have confidence in your product or service and it will sell itself.

4. Give A Little Back

Offer your customers a cash back rebate after they buy your product or service. I feel a good rebate would be a least 10% of their purchase price or higher. This will increase your sales and, like most of us, they will forget to turn in the rebate.

5. Pay Later

Offer your customers the choice of being billed later for their purchase. Bill them in a few weeks or a month. This will stop you from losing customers who can’t afford to purchase your product or service at that time.

6. Little At A Time

Offer your customers the option of paying you a little at a time for your product or service. You could divide up the purchase price into bi-weekly or monthly payments. You won’t lose customers that may not be able to pay the full amount at that time.

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Julia Tang publishes “Smart Online Business Tips”, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you. To find out the best online business opportunities,
to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
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Winners are ALWAYS looking for ways to grow their business. They trust their company, trust their customers to come through for them, and realize that a financial crunch offers advantages that aren’t available during better economic times.

1. Get More For Your Advertising Bucks

When the economy makes a turn for the worse, it just makes sense that your advertising will give less of a return than during and economic boon. Sure there’s a lot less money being spent, but you don’t have to have to watch your profit margin plummet!

Think about it… advertisers are feeling the recession just as much as you are, and are more desperate for clients. It’s the perfect atmosphere to negotiate your way to lower costs - even if you are already getting a good price. Every advertising penny you can save, is that much more profit you’ll earn on the products.

Have you thought about getting free publicity? Local newspapers are always looking for something of local interest. Make the news! Publicity is free, but a wonderful way to get your business in front of potential clients.

Do your advertisements really need to be as big as they are? We tend to think the big is better, but the facts are that short ads with 11 words or less often generate higher response than large ads. Give it a try, and trim some costs right off your advertising bill.

2. Take Advantage Of Big Ticket Sales

Not all of your customers suffer during recession. Remember that there are always people who are thriving financially, so don’t be afraid to make big ticket sales offers. Additionally, when money is tight, people who place a lot of stock in your product will value it even more.

Think about ways to create products similar to yours, but with much higher prices. Internet marketers often create members only sites and sell their products at much higher prices. Hey, they’ll obviously make fewer sales, but the people who really value the product will buy. Each sale will net an immensely higher profit. Think about it like this… even though the sales are fewer, the actual profit may be even greater than when it was sold at a lower price.

3. Maximize The Customers You Have

Your customers already know that you have great products and provide satisfactory service. They trust you to come through for them. Think about it… it’s much easier to make sales to someone you already have a relationship with.

Use every opportunity to increase your sales volume within the customer audience you already have. Do you have a product that goes with the one they are purchasing? Offer it to them at the register. It’s a proven and effective method for increasing sales. You may be shocked at the additional sales you can generate from those who are already buying from you.

Copyright 2006 Cutts Group, llc

About The Author
Who is Allyn Cutts, and why should you care?
Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers. Allyn is a marketing and sales fanatic, providing measurable marketing solutions that drive huge results for small-to mid-size business clients. Allyn works personally with clients to design and deliver off-line and on-line direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://www.AllynCutts.com and you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Did you know that you see with your mind as well as your eyes? The mind stores memories and highlights of past experiences as well as color intensity, hue and a variety of other details. How you see (your eyesight) and how the brain makes sense of what you see is at the heart of a total visual experience.

On Being Eye-Minded…

Human beings are eye-minded. This means that in our waking lives we are likely to think, imagine and remember in terms of what we see. Just think about that! Scientists report that being able to read as well as reading on a regular basis:

• Promotes brain cell production.
• Increases your ability to move toward what you see in your mind.
• Enables you to achieve success. If you can visualize or see it in your mind, chances are it will most likely to come to pass.

How to Develop a Reading Habit

When you form a regular reading habit, you reap untold benefits. Unfortunately, most of us just don’t seem to get around to it. So what’s a professional to do in this era of information overload?

Here are a few tips to jumpstart your reading routine and develop an “oh-so-necessary” reading habit:

1. Start with your reading basket. You know, the one that’s on your credenza or desk. You’ve been collecting articles, newspapers, and magazines for weeks nowplanning to read them when you get a chance, but the chance never seems to come, does it? Why don’t you go through this basket, skim the articles for those that concern you and discard the rest or forwarded them to others who may be interested in the subject matter. Plan to read an article or two from this pile each day and develop a method to manage it more effectively.
2. Read a newspaper or listen to radio or television news every day. This will enable you to discuss current events (the morning or evening news can provide topics of interest). You should keep current on local business news as well as what is being covered in national business publications. Even when you travel, keep informed about any news that may impact your industry, company or customers.
3. Read a variety of books–business as well as fiction, biographies, and history. Write your ideas and observations down to clarify your thoughts and develop opinions you can embrace and share in conversations with co-workers or when networking and at business related events.
4. Listen to articles and books on tape. A good time to do this is during your commute. A huge variety of seminars, presentations, articles and books have been created in audio tape format. This eye-minded habit will help you reap more than you can imagine.
5. Consider attending the opera or theater. That’s right! Develop or rediscover your interest. Get a copy of the story line for the play or opera and read it in advance to increase your enjoyment. Research any reviews or critiques to inform your expectations of the actors’ performances.
6. Discover new hobbies. Pick ones of interest that you know nothing about so that you can thoroughly investigate them. Read as much as you can and apply what you have read. Not only will you increase your knowledge, but you will develop new and thoroughly enjoyable skills.

Since vision is our dominant sense, it is probably the most compelling way we communicate with others. As we read, we bring images into play in our minds and the minds of others; we speak a visual language of wisdom and insight.

Often our greatest successes come when we look at pictures of information, apply wisdom and insight gained from these visual experiences, and see the results in our mind’s eye. So…GO AHEAD! FORM A Read-and-Reap HABIT TODAY.

Althea DeBrule, entrepreneur and seasoned human resources executive, has focused for more than 30 years on helping people achieve their career goals. Creator of The Extreme-Career-Makeover and a founding partner of RADSGroup Organizational Consultants, she is recognized for her bottom line and practical application of career development and management strategies in a way that penetrates hearts and compels action. She speaks and teaches with inspired talent, humor and contagious zeal at management conferences and leadership retreats nationwide, and has been featured in CFO Magazine, Strategy@Work, Human Resource Executive Magazine. Althea is the author of Bosses & Orchards, a compelling and candid book about how to make your work relationship with your boss succeed. To discover how you can take your career to a new level, visit http://www.extreme-career-makeover.com/

A supervisor of any type carries on the responsibility of “supervising” his/her workers and making sure work is getting done. It is a challenging role, yet rewarding, when a supervisor and the team has meet their goal. What makes a good supervisor? . Or better yet, what makes an over-the-top supervisor? In this article, you’ll get some brief supervisor training tips recognized as the three I’s.

Initiate change-When work productivity is not meeting expectations, supervisors carry on the responsibility to initiate change. For example, envision an assembly line of several workers lined up in a row, each with a certain task that will contribute to the final product. What would happen if the first person in the line did not make his/her quota or starts falling behind in with production? As a result, the second person might not be able to contribute because his/her role is based upon the first person’s duties and so on. This chain reaction of work productivity will only get worse unless a supervisor steps up to make a change. There are several possibilities to what this supervisor could do. Probation may be an easy answer for some, but with effective supervisor training, a good leader will discover a way to make things work without having to compromise any work standards. Reorganizing the line of workers, cross-training, and confronting the individual about his/her drop in performance could provide insight, answers, and solutions that a supervisor can execute upon. Initiating change isn’t just about putting someone on probationary status or switching roles and hiring someone else that will do the job. A good supervisor will strategically handle problems and find new solutions that will make the work environment continuously more productive and operate more smoothly.

Introduce new ideas-A resourceful supervisor who entices employees with new ideas in the workplace will serve as a successful problem solver and motivating role model. For example, a supervisor could observe work conditions as monotonous, unmotivated and sense that workers are getting burned out from daily work. He or she could ask themselves, ‘What can I do myself to motivate my workers?’ or ‘How can we fix this problem at work?’ Brainstorming and executing new ideas at work will help broaden the possibilities of the ideal work setting, or what works best in each situation. Supervisors providing new ideas will help keep workers active and rejuvenated and thus keep them from reaching job dissatisfaction and complacency.

Influence others-A charismatic and hard working supervisor will earn the respect of his/her employees. Not too many individuals want to work for a supervisor who doesn’t practice what he/she preachesor carries a negative aura everywhere? An influential supervisor will get involved and take a moment to help their employees out with a difficult project or task. A supervisor who influences others but also motivates workers to influence each other will foster a continuous circle of positive emotions. Workers are more inclined to work harder when they see that their supervisor is equally working his/her part.

Using these three “I’s of supervisor training tips will provide you with a foundation to organize and run your group of workers more effectively, whether you are currently a supervisor, or will be transitioning to one in the future.

If you would like more information on Supervisor Training, please contact a representative at (888) 962-6224 or visit the CMOE website.

Timeboxing is a simple time management technique I use often. I first learned about it in software development terms. Let’s say you have a fixed deadline for a new product you need to release, such as an annual upgrade to software for calculating income taxes. You must have a new version ready by a certain date. So you’ll probably use timeboxing for your development cycle, meaning that you do the best job you can within the time available. What new features you can implement are totally determined by the time frame. Slipping the schedule is simply not an option, so if you get behind, you must cut features.

In terms of managing your own tasks, timeboxing can be a helpful technique. I primarily use it in two different ways.

First, let’s say you want to get something done, but there’s a risk it could end up taking far more time than it’s worth because it’s the kind of task where you might exhibit perfectionist tendencies. So you give yourself a specific amount of time, which you won’t go over, and you simpy do the best job you can within that time.

As an example I use timeboxing when doing my Christmas shopping each year. I usually allocate a total of 2 hours to the task, which for me involves buying gifts for 8 people (my wife handles the rest). I decide in advance what kind of gift I should get each person on my list, and then I order as much as I can online and then head off to the local mall, where I zoom from one store to the next picking up gifts as I go. I also usually take advantage of my flexible schedule, doing the shopping on a weekday morning when the stores aren’t busy and I don’t have to wait in line. So I’m in and out with everyone’s gifts in under two hours.

(I know some people love holiday shopping, and taking multiple trips to browse is fine if it’s something you enjoy. But if you’re shopping-challenged like me, and you’re no more likely to get gifts that are any better if you invest an extra 10 hours in the task, then it may be best to simply resign yourself to doing the best job you can within the time you have available.)

The second way I use timeboxing is when I have a task or project that I wish to complete, but I don’t really know where to begin, or it seems like it’s going to be a long time before I can finish a meaningful chunk. Or maybe it’s something I find really tedious and would have a tendency to procrastinate on. Then I use timeboxing to simply commit to working on the task for a given period of time to make a dent in it. I normally use a period in the range of 30-120 minutes. I release any concern about reaching a particular milestone within that time I simply commit to putting in the time, regardless of how far I get. An example where I use this approach would be when I’m writing a new article. Finishing a complete article will usually take me 3-8 hours. Sometimes I can complete an article in a single stretch, but most of the time I’ll stretch it over multiple sessions. So I use timeboxing to just put a dent in the article and get started, committing myself to writing for 1-2 hours without worrying about how far I get. Then I just repeat the process until the work is complete.

A side effect of this last method is that I’ll often end up working much longer than I originally intended. If I commit to working on a tedious task for just 30 minutes, it’s easy to get started because I’ve given myself permission to stop after only 30 minutes. But once I’ve overcome that inertia and am now focused on the task, 90 minutes may pass before I even feel the desire to stop.

Timeboxing’s ability to circumvent perfectionism and avoid procrastination makes it a useful time management technique. I even used it for this blog entry, and now that my wife has returned home with dinner and a movie rental, it’s time to say goodbye…

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

Most of us know how to manage our time. It is pretty simple really. What most of us miss are compelling reasons to manage our time. We know the “how” but miss the “why.” Here are six foundational reasons I have that motivate me to manage my time and myself properly.

It is a matter of stewardship. I view my life as not my own. I am merely a steward of it. I am given control over it for some 70 years and I should make wise decisions with it! This is a great sense of responsibility that compels me to manage my time.

It is a matter of personal fulfillment. When I get to the end of my life I want to be able to feel a sense of pride and satisfaction that I have lived well, helped others, and achieved much. This drives me to not waste time but to use it wisely.

It is a matter of providing for and being responsible to your friends and family. I owe some of my time - serious amounts - to my friends and family. If I let myself get out of control, they suffer the loss and that is something I do not want for them. I manage myself and my time so that I can give valuable portions of it to those who matter most.

It is a matter of accomplishment and purpose. I manage myself and my time because I want to fulfill my mission here. That is to use my abilities to enhance the lives of others. If I don’t manage myself, I hinder my ability to accomplish what I want and to fulfill my purpose. This drives me to manage right.

It is a matter of self-control. This and number six are closely aligned. One of the reasons I manage myself closely is because I can! Imagine that. What separates us from the animals is that we do not live by instinct, but by self-control and choice.

It is a matter of choice. See number five. I can choose when and where I will spend my resources. That in and of itself sounds like fun!

I am sure you can come up with more reasons, and I would encourage you to do so!

About The Author:

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of
Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn
their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and
achieve their dreams.

To see Chris “live” at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on
the subject of Secrets of Influence go to
http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434.