Using All Your Strength
Note from Jan: This is the third in a series on managing tough times. For full benefit, I encourage you to read: 4 Musts for Managing Tough Times & Hunkering Down before reading this article.
So —are you using all of your strength?
The best success I’ve experienced with big budget problems (other kinds as well) came about by involving others. Staff members always came up with far more ideas than I did on my own (one time we came up with a list of 100 ways to save money!). Plus they were much more committed Read more
Hunkering Down
This is a follow up to “4 Musts for Managing Tough Times“. Please read that article before hunkering down to read this one.
PLEASE. Don’t just hunker down. It’s important to take charge. Stay out there. Act boldly. AND then just in case… hunker down.
And please don’t read this article until you have set an expense reduction goal. If you are one of many who wants to skip this step, please go back and do this first. Otherwise you’ll just be burning (your time) while reading.
Got your goal?
Good.
It’s design time!
If your goal isn’t huge and if you haven’t already spent some time searching for them – it may be real easy to spot ways to cut back with little pain and just enough gain.
If not – then another line by line study of each expense category may do the trick if you ask yourself questions like:
Power
This article has been updated.
Hope you’ll enjoy reading: Have you lost power?
Angels
Note from Jan: We woke up on this Inaugural Day – a fresh layer of snow on the ground. It made me think of angels. I hope you enjoy this article from the archives.
We rode MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) from the airport to the Peachtree Center Station.
There we needed directions to our hotel. Mr. Parsons, the gentleman we asked, was very helpful. As he gave us directions, he walked with us down one escalator, through the subway area and then up another escalator. It was a long walk. There was time for him to tell us a little history about the area, tell us about some interesting spots to visit and even talk a bit about sports. We asked where we could get a route map for the train. “I just happen to have one right here,” he said as he pulled one from his pocket Read more
4 Musts for Managing Tough Times
A group of business owners recently attended a workshop on doing business in a recession. The facilitator told them to cut costs, cut employee hours and raise prices. When it was all over, many participants asked themselves and each other, “Okay but —- how?’.
As they talked about this, I could hear frustration in their voices. And could see fear on their faces. Or maybe I was projecting my own feelings – re-living some tough times of my own.
Yes - I’ve had lots of experience – not with a recession quite like this – but with major budget crunches. Very challenging ones. Lots of perseverance needed. And creative problem solving. And teamwork. Resulting in lessons learned that I’d like to share here - hoping to help anyone hoping for help.
Workplace Etiquette – Recommended Reading
This is a very good article on Workplace Etiquette - in particular on the use of technology
Because of their good material, we have also included Career Builder on our list of Suggested Sites.
See right hand side bar for other Suggested Sites.
Recession Proof Your Career – Recommended Reading
Wanted you to know about a great article, written by Aleksandra Todorova and published by Smart Money.
Here is an excerpt from: 7 Ways to Ression-Proof Your Career
Indeed, the No. 1 concern for more than two-thirds (69%) of American workers is how to keep their jobs, according to a survey by human resources and placement consulting firm Adecco to be released next week. What’s surprising is how little, if anything, employees are doing to improve their chances of staying employed. Only 27% of respondents said they are working harder than they were a year ago, a mere 13% said they’re looking into other opportunities and just 17% said they’d be willing to take a pay cut to keep their job.
“That’s human nature,” says Bernadette Kenny, chief career officer at Adecco. “It’s very threatening to think about losing your job and it’s difficult to think about change and being proactive about your career.”
No matter how intimidating, that’s exactly what employees should be doing. Here are seven ways to recession-proof your career.
Fear & Freedom
Featured in “Business Class” Volume 7 Issue 1
Ten days into the new year, there have already been some snags with new goals and resolutions. A lot of people are backing down or backing out altogether.
Did they set their sights too high?
Or is there something big and scary in the way?
What if they could get over it or around it?
The Hot Dog Story
The economy had taken an unfavorable turn and so had our close rate. Objections were getting tougher – in particular and understandably – the ones about budget. A group of us were commiserating in the sales room. We were worried and wondered how we might bide our time until things loosened up. A vacation perhaps?
Dan, our sales manager, must have been able to hear some of this from wherever he was at the time, because he swooped into the room as he tended to do and said, “Have you guys heard the hot dog story?” Read more
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