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Words fitly spoken are like apples of Gold in a picture of Silver – this saying by a man of wisdom, spells out the importance of using proper words. It is a skill. It is the skill of communicating.

A skill worth developing as it helps us to communicate using well-structured language with clarity of expression. A word loosely spoken can lose a friend or even cause a war. There are some people who do not care much about what they say or write. They react when an impulse moves and utter words that comes to their mind without thinking of the effect that such loosely spoken words would have on others.

Little they realize that words are like birds and once they fly away you cannot catch them back. It is interesting to analyze and find that there are different types of words as there are bad words, good words, words that flash anger, hatred, dislike and words that denote love, compassion and goodwill. Usually, a bad word is sharp like the sharp ended knife or a sward. There are other [Find out more ...]

A business loan is a loan taking out to help finance business needs. For a person who is trying to secure a business loan for a start-up business, the process can seem daunting. Lenders know starting a business is a risk. It can be tough to start a business and keep it going within those first few years. Should the business fail, the lender is at risk for not getting their money. It is up to the business owner to prove that their business is worth investing in.

When starting a business, a business owner has many hurdles to overcome. They have to prepare themselves for the process of securing financing. By being prepared, they will ultimately help the lender have more confidence in offering them a loan and they will find that preparing for the loan process also will help their business out because they are going to be looking into every aspect of their future business.

Part of preparing to approach lenders for a business loan is getting together a business plan. A business plan is going to be the [Find out more ...]

This past month I have met a lot of entrepreneurs at events, in meetings, and over the phone. Some of them made a great impression, some did not. When I stopped to think about the last one and why I didn’t have a great impression from them, I realized for many of them it was their voice. The way they used it did not impart confidence and strength. When talking about your company, your products and services, you have to exude confidence and passion. Only part of that comes from the words you use; most of that impression comes from the way you work your voice. So here are a few tips for building a good impression with your voice.

1. Don’t be a shallow breather. Most of us are shallow breathers – our chest barely moves during the day. Shallow breaths mean you run out of air on longer sentences and end up squeaking out the words. Stand straight and pull your breath down into your waist. Breathing deeper also imparts a sense of calm and confidence. This was the [Find out more ...]

I’m always surprised by the number of business owners I encounter who do not have any financial statements generated for their business. Or if they do have such records, they never look at them. That is rather like getting on a flight and having no idea what destination you are flying to.

A kitchen design company hired me a few years back because they weren’t profitable, in spite of sales having grown from $80,000 in the first year of operation to $300,000 in year 2. Sales were increasing rapidly. The marketing program was running. So it made no sense that there wasn’t profits. Yet there weren’t any.

When I examined the business what I found was that expenses were way too high and the hourly rate they were charging wasn’t high enough to cover all the new staff hired to meet the sales demand. Invoices were slow going out and payment collection was not consistent. Essentially the owner was running a non-profit without any of the tax benefits. Every time she took on a new client, she was losing money out [Find out more ...]

As an entrepreneur, you’re driven by the belief that you can do things better yourself. That’s why you decided to open your own business. You want to work for yourself, be the only boss you have, be responsible for the outcomes. You want to be more profitable. This focus on making things happen by yourself is a great strength. It gets you to accomplish things you would never have dreamed of.

But it can also be a great weakness. The death of any entrepreneur is solitude. I see too many business owners out there working their business solo, trying to do it all. You simply cannot build a sustainable business on your own.

This fact jumped out at me when I did a quick survey to find out why entrepreneurs had decided to get a business coach. Here were the main reasons:

• I have built a financially successful business, but know I could be doing even better. I don’t know how to build more success without working even more hours. I’m already maxed out.

• There’s got to be an easier way to [Find out more ...]