Failing to plan is failing period.Written by Brian Holte
When launching your own business whether it be on or offlline there are many issues that need to be carefully considered. In my opinion it is far to easy to just launch a website and hope that traffic starts to flow in. Launching an online business is almost same as launching an offline business (maybe harder). Not many people consider designing a business plan, in my opinion this is a critical mistake. If you think about it, starting a business is like writing a book. A book needs an outline and research, same with building a house...lay out a foundation and building process goes that much smoother. Conduct a survey to find out what people REALLY want in your industry, not what you THINK they want. You’ll be able to have a much better idea on how to build your business, after all, a business caters to consumers and consumers dictate for most part what happens in your given market. In this day and age we are lucky, for we have internet to automate our businesses and speed research time up, but lets not forget about offline world as well. Often facts and figures collected from internet do at times fall short of being 100% accurate and factual, this is where you should back away from your computer and make some calls to people who are experts in field your researching. This way you will know for sure that research you’ve done on internet can indeed be confirmed as factual and correct, or you may be surprised to know that some of information you’ve collected from internet does indeed contain “factual holes and misguided guesses”. You should never
| | The Fairness of Office Politics ... Integrity and political motivation!Written by Edward B. Toupin
I hear many complaints daily about "unfairness" of politics in corporate America. Employees say that their managers "lie" or issue "personal attacks" against them. Indeed, based on pure ideals that we are taught as a child, this might appear to be case. However, corporate culture is not "real world" in which we live out our personal lives. Each corporate culture is its own world with its own rules and reality. To understand this, one must understand directions and desires of this world and learn how to best adapt to achieve vision and mission of corporation.--- Integrity and Politics --- I have to say that words "integrity" and "politics" do not belong in same sentence. This is in no way an insult to corporate politicians, but politics is not a reflection of integrity of individual. The primary purpose of politics is to obtain a result. In some cases, management may not tell whole truth and might apply "plausible deniability" to escape judgment. However, when an untruth is used, it is primarily to accomplish a task. In this way, managers may not "tell" you directly what needs to be accomplished, but instead they create a gap or an imbalance, which forces necessity for change and action. The end-result is a desired outcome. Realize that, of many reasons for this approach, one of primary aims is to delegate responsibility to subordinates. If a manager has to constantly tell you what to do and how to perform, then they could very well perform task themselves. This contradicts entire purpose of your position as well as manager's and interferes with desired result. However, if they create an imbalance in front of you, then you must creatively solve situation, define a path, and obtain a viable result to attain a rebalance. --- The Thin Line --- While I say that present-day ideals of integrity do not apply to corporate politics, indeed, there are some cases where individuals do abuse their political power. As such, ethics and morals do begin to apply. Not only must you, as an employee, understand reasons and applications of politics, but those who wield political sword must understand how to apply their power properly without stepping over line. The one problem that appears in this situation is in ability to tell difference between "a lie" and a "political detour". Indeed, it is a difficult task if you look at it in simplistic terms. However, until a person has gained some experience with corporate cultures, my standard response is, "when you're in corporate setting, it becomes a political detour". One must not take things personally in corporate environment, as it is not about individual; it is about results --- plain and simple.
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