In the times when your guests are at your home, you may need to exert yourself more, as you will work doubly — once to spend time with people you love and once to delight your customers with your impeccable work. We all face this kind of problem, and fortunately there is a way out of it. When I say a way out of it, I do not mean an easy way. Let me fist tell you about the ways out of it then you can decide to take it or leave it (this phrase sounds so filmy, isn’t it? Like the Godfather giving an unpleasant deal).

Work in the night

Once you have had all the laughs of the world, it is time to burn mid-night oil. This is kind of difficult, but you can manage it provided you do not end-up dining at mid-night. Stay awake for one or two hours in the night to finish the work.

Work Early morning

Waking up one hour early than usual could be tried. You can use this time to finish the works in due time. Early morning could be good, as your guests will not be waking so early, and nor will your kids and spouse.

Apart from these obvious times, you can also utilize the unplanned free time to complete the assignment. This way you will able to meet deadlines without sacrificing much on the fun your family and your guests are having. As I see, guests are not evil. They give you opportunity to break away from the monotonous life. Why not use it to the fullest? And to maintain pace of the work, do as suggested above.

Then why they are not plunging in?

Because we are not living in the era where capital matters. What matters today to make a business successful is idea. A business requires a killer idea to become successful. In the paragraphs below, I will tell you how to find a killer business idea.

Find killer business idea in 3 easy steps

• Step 1: Based on the ability you have, look for the industry that you can work. Alternatively, you can also look for a sector in which you will be more comfortable working. Find an industry in which you would love to work.
• Step 2: Divide the industry in various sector and list major players in each sector. Also analyze, perceive, and observe the need gap. Ask consumers and retailers about what benefit they are seeking from their existing consumption which are not yet fulfilled. I am asking you to find a need gap.
• Step 3: Find the alternative routes to fill the need gap. See how you can fulfill industry’s demand efficiently. You need to find a way to keep the price of the solution you are offering within industry’s expected price range.

Once you are through with this, make a business plan and execute it. The business plan should cover every aspect of a business. You need to ascertain the challenges as well as opportunity. Do a SWOT as well as PESTLE analysis. Do not forget to make a list of things you need to run the business.

SWOT

SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and threat. Strength and weakness is internal to the product, whereas, opportunity and threats are external to the product. We use this matrix to find out strengths and weaknesses of our product, see what opportunity (matching our ability) the market is presenting, and gauge the threats presented by the market.

PLC

PLC stands for Product Life Cycle. A PLC study of your product gives you an idea about what stage your product is in, and what marketing channel and strategy to use. We divide PLC in following parts: introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline.

Introduction is the phase when the product is introduced to the market, and the organization is striving to create awareness about the product. Profit in this phase is either negative or low.

Growth is the phase in which the product gets acceptance, which results in increase in sales. Profits are high in this phase, and to cash in on the momentum the product has got, organization tends to invest some advertising dollars.

Maturity is the phase when sales start slowing down because most of the buyers have your product. Sales and profit has already passed its peak. Sales and profit may not be increasing but they are steady.

Some marketers divide this phase into early maturity and late maturity to figure out how close the product is to decline phase.

Decline is the phase when sales and profit both starts falling. It could be because the need of the market has changed and some better product is fulfilling that need, or because some other product is meeting the same need at lower cost.

From this phase either the product dies out in oblivion, or get reinvented, reintroduced and pushed on the growth track.

PESTEL

Some call it PEST while other calls it PESTEL. I have taken PESTEL because it is more complete a matrix then PEST. PESTEL is a macro-environment scanning matrix that helps a business find out how the various external factors going to affect it. PESTEL Stands for:

P: Political factors (Policy changes and how it is going to affect you)

E: Economic factors (economic growth, exchange rates, inflation, interest rates, and taxation changes are going to affect your business)

S: Social factors (How does social changes like, education, demographic, occupational, etc., going to affect you)

T: Technological factors (How advent of new technology will affect your business)

E: Environmental factors (How change in climate or rising temperature can affect your business)

L: Legal Factors (how change in legal environment going to affect your low. How much will your business suffer if the carbon emission level is set lower, and government pension plan is made mandatory for every organization, regardless of size?)

PEST matrix analyzes all the factors we discussed above except for the last two.

• S – Strength
• W – Weakness
• O – Opportunity
• T – Threat

Strength and weakness are internal elements, which mean they are inherent to the product or organization. And opportunity and threat are external elements, which mean they are not inbuilt in, but are outside of the product or organization.

Opportunity is presented by the market, whereas, your competitors (both direct and indirect) can be a threat.

Benefit of SWOT analysis

• It helps you find out the opportunity that you can use to maximize the market penetration of your product or services.
• It helps you gauge your competition, and tells you what to avoid.
• It also brings the weakness of your product on the table, which you can eliminative before reaching to the market.
• SWOT analysis will help you make a better decision.

How to do SWOT Analysis?

Step 1: Find the strengths of your product

Step 2: Find the weaknesses of the product you are offering.

Step 3: Find the need gap (opportunity) in the market, based on the strength of your product.

Step 4: List the potential threats that you might face, if you cash in on the opportunity.

Notes:

1. 1. Always Use Bullet points to do the SWOT. There is no need to write long descriptive points.
2. 2. Do not reverse the order. Always start with analyzing S and W elements of SWOT followed by the analysis of O and T elements.

A parting thought

SWOT analysis is just a tool, and how well you use the tool will decide what result you will get from it. It is easy to get biased towards one’s own product and organization, but you should avoid this trap. Stay objective and stay focused when doing a SWOT analysis of your product or organization.

Argue with your client

Argue with your clients, and do it fiercely, if you want them to go out with all their money. This will save you from all the chasings that you do every month. It will help you stay at home for the whole week, months, and years. Arguing with client over big or small issues is a surefire way to agonize them.

Tell them [heck] you are right

You know their business better than they themselves do. After all, you are a sales person than why the goddamn client should say you are not right. You are hell right, and you know that. This meeting is now your opportunity to tell them how write you are and how hopelessly wrong your client is. Teach them a lesson or tom if you want him to go away from you for rest of his life.

Talk, talk, and talk

Listening is a bad thing. Who said you should listen to your client? And why should you do that Listening is for those who do not research their client. ? Does not your client know how much time you have invested in researching his need? Is there any way on this planet in which he could possibly know more about himself they you now do after hours and hours of research?
You are not here to listen to him, but to tell him how great your product is and how it can help him solve his problems. He should better listen to you. This attitude will surely push off your client sooner than you would have expected.

Afterthought

I know you would not like to push your customers off then why do you adopt one or all three of the above written steps? No presentation works. Try to engage your client in discussion.

Taking those thoughts into account, you are better prepared to make your case.  Start out by making an appointment with your boss for a personal meeting.  Springing a situation like this on your superior is never a good idea.  Talking money is not a great surprise conversation for anyone, and your boss won’t appreciate being sprung with that at all.  So ensure you avoid that confrontation, and set up an appointment to meet with them, but don’t tell them the situation just yet.

Try to have the meeting take place in a different area than the boss’ office.  In their office they are the master of the domain, and will act as such, creating a power shift from your arguments to theirs.  So try some neutral territory, like a working lunch.  Take your boss out and have the meeting at a restaurant, that gives you a good level playing field, and if you offer to pay for the meal, a happy boss to start out with.  Otherwise you can always try a neutral meeting room around the office, or an empty break room.  Anywhere but the boss’ office is good for making your case.

Practice your argument for why you feel you deserve a raise.  This way you know the points you want to make, and will appear prepared and knowledgeable about the situation at hand.  Also it gives you an opportunity to answer any arguments your boss may have, through your understanding of the facts.  But remember to always be courteous, this isn’t a “give me a raise or I’ll leave scenario“.  This is just an opportunity to outline your worth to the company, and your hardworking nature which makes you feel worthy of a raise.

Finally, just be cautious to not cross a line that your boss wouldn’t appreciate you crossing.  Stay courteous and professional, and overall positive even if the meeting doesn’t go the way you want.  Your boss already knows whether or not they want to give you a raise before you’re even having the meeting, this is just a chance to take some initiative.  If your boss doesn’t want to pay you more, you’re not going to get it, so don’t take that personally.Feeling that you deserve a raise for your hard work is all well and good, but bringing about the fact is a fine art.  You have to time your approach perfectly and ensure that you are well prepared to make your point in outstanding fashion.  Anything less can lead to an uncomfortable confrontation the likes of which you’d want to forget.  Or worse, could lead your boss to think it may be time to look for a different employee happy to work at your pay level.

Taking those thoughts into account, you are better prepared to make your case.  Start out by making an appointment with your boss for a personal meeting.  Springing a situation like this on your superior is never a good idea.  Talking money is not a great surprise conversation for anyone, and your boss won’t appreciate being sprung with that at all.  So ensure you avoid that confrontation, and set up an appointment to meet with them, but don’t tell them the situation just yet.

Try to have the meeting take place in a different area than the boss’ office.  In their office they are the master of the domain, and will act as such, creating a power shift from your arguments to theirs.  So try some neutral territory, like a working lunch.  Take your boss out and have the meeting at a restaurant, that gives you a good level playing field, and if you offer to pay for the meal, a happy boss to start out with.  Otherwise you can always try a neutral meeting room around the office, or an empty break room.  Anywhere but the boss’ office is good for making your case.

Practice your argument for why you feel you deserve a raise.  This way you know the points you want to make, and will appear prepared and knowledgeable about the situation at hand.  Also it gives you an opportunity to answer any arguments your boss may have, through your understanding of the facts.  But remember to always be courteous, this isn’t a “give me a raise or I’ll leave scenario“.  This is just an opportunity to outline your worth to the company, and your hardworking nature which makes you feel worthy of a raise.

Finally, just be cautious to not cross a line that your boss wouldn’t appreciate you crossing.  Stay courteous and professional, and overall positive even if the meeting doesn’t go the way you want.  Your boss already knows whether or not they want to give you a raise before you’re even having the meeting, this is just a chance to take some initiative.  If your boss doesn’t want to pay you more, you’re not going to get it, so don’t take that personally.

Know that writing an article will give you an opportunity to showcase your expertise in your chosen industry.  This will allow you to gain recognition from sources that you otherwise may have been unavailable to, and it’s a fantastic way to get your name out there.  But make sure you know your stuff, because writing an article will also expose any lacking knowledge that you just don’t have.  Nothing looks worse than when you’re supposed to be writing an informative article when you’re not an expert in the points you’re trying to get across.

So first choose a concept that you want to focus on for an article.  Just one, so that you’ll find it easy to stay on topic and not get away from the point of the piece.  Then focus on writing an informative article, in your unique voice, displaying your unique expertise.  Remember that you have something worthwhile to say, that’s why you’re writing in the first place.  Carry through that confidence into your words and formulate something you would want to read.

From there, just use the typical writing guidelines to improve your article.  In editing ensure that all of your sentences are concise and make a good point.  Make sure you stay on topic, and make sure your article isn’t too long.  You want people to be able to take something from what you’ve written.  The only way to do that is to edit your piece successfully so that the end product is a concise informative article.

1. Research, research, research.  Make sure you know the in’s and out’s of every single detail of the meeting.  Make yourself an expert, so that if you have visual aides during a presentation, you know all of them without having to look.  Or if there are packets of statistics to be used during discussion, make sure you know the important stuff like the back of your hand.  Knowledge is key to presenting yourself as a valuable, informed employee.

2. Participate in the meeting by offering useful information or helpful suggestions.  Don’t try to take control of the meeting, as the idea is to get yourself noticed in a good way.  Coming off as a control freak is not your aim at all.  So just offer positive insight whenever the situation presents itself.  But don’t try to force yourself into every open dialogue.

3. Show up a few minutes early to the meeting.  This shows preparedness every time.  Nothing makes you look worse to the big wigs than showing up to a meeting involving them late.

4. Follow up on anything that you promised during the meeting immediately.  If you said you’d deliver a report after the meeting, make sure that it’s the first thing you do afterward.  Nothing makes you look worse than when you promise something and don’t come through.  Always keep your promises, especially when they were made in front of a room full of people.

One sign that’s fairly easy to spot is if your company is in trouble.  Every company is in a relative amount of trouble, given the global recession that’s been battering the world for quite a while now, but if your company is in dire risk of bankruptcy, it’s a good time to think about abandoning ship.

If your company has just recently been turned over to a new CEO, or if you see new leaders at a lower level begin to be negotiated into the company, it’s a good time to think about leaving.  The problem with new faces, is that they bring in more new faces that they’ve been familiar working with in the past.  Chances are you don’t factor in to their plans, as they don’t know you, and most managers would prefer not to spend time learning how to work with new people, when they can let you go and hire a past employee at the new company.

You hit the plateau at any given company for your skill set.  If you’ve gone as high up the ladder as your education/skill set will provide for, it’s time to get looking for a new job.  Chances are, even if it’s the same level position with another corporation, you may be able to get a larger salary.  The chance to renegotiate pay with a well proven set of skills is always an opportunity you should take, and the new corporation will offer you new challenges and the ability to add a new credit to your resume.

Your boss or corporation fails to fulfill a promise that they had made to you during an interview, or early on in your hiring process.  These mean promises not put into writing as an actual contract, but something verbally promised to you.  Whether that means a certain amount of money you should be making over a set length of time, or a promotion you should receive within a set amount of time.  Whenever these promises are not met, they’re leading you on, and it’s time to find the exit as soon as possible to put your energy towards pursuing a more meaningful opportunity with a company that doesn’t lie to you.

Well, always reread anything you’ve written a few times, to ensure that your sentences flow naturally, and to clear up any grammatical mistakes you may have made.  Good policy also suggests reading your pieces aloud, as it’s a fantastic method to double check how your writing sounds on the whole.  Reading aloud will give you the opportunity to make sure that everything flows properly, and that all sentences sound complete.

Another widely used, and remarkably effective tactic, is to read in reverse.  This is helpful for weeding out those cursed grammatical errors that you may still miss despite completing two or three rereads.  When you read your piece in reverse it eliminates the brain’s tendency to remember what you’ve written, which can cause you to skip over mistakes without even knowing that you have.

When restructuring a sentence never add more words to the sentence than were originally there, always cut the excess.  The problem with most first drafts of any piece of writing, is that they are much longer than necessarily needed.  Focus on condensing your concepts into as few sentences and paragraphs as possible, that way you can form a short concise work that will appeal to a broader audience.

These are just a few quick editing tips, there are many, many more concepts when you really get more in depth into what the editing process can do for a piece of writing.  But follow those guidelines and you’ll find yourself well on your way to becoming a better, and more complete writer.