REMEMBER TO THINK PINK

Written by David Stoddard


When it comes to influential people ofrepparttar business world,repparttar 106646 names that come to mind include Carnegie, Rockafeller, Ford, Gates and others. Their life stories are worth looking into just to see where they came from and how they got to where they got.

But perhaps none has been more of a force inrepparttar 106647 business world (or inrepparttar 106648 field of inspiring others to become more than they thought they could become), than Mary Kay Ash.

The cosmetics queen best known for her pink packages, pink cadillacs passed away on Thursday from natural causes.

Mary Kay is mentioned here not so much as a news update, but as a bit of an inspiring story. It shows one's current situation does not have to remainrepparttar 106649 same. Where you begin doesn't mean nearly as much as where you end up. And forrepparttar 106650 cynics in all of us, those who made something of themselves most likely worked at it instead of had it handed to them.

Her personal story includes being born in 1918, taking care of her seriously ill father when she was 6 while her mother worked in a restaurant 14 hours a day. Later, she married a radio personality atrepparttar 106651 age of 17. But that began to dissolve when he went intorepparttar 106652 service.

She took a job as a part-time sales person selling household goods at parties. She studied to be a doctor, but stuck with sales as that was her calling. Years later, she took a position with a direct sales company. But she quit when a male colleague who had been hired as her assistant was promoted at more than twice her salary.

Guidelines for surviving -- and even thriving in -- the online recession

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Lant


As a Baby Boomer in good standing, I've seen recessions before -- lots of 'em. The first recession I remember was 1958 andrepparttar effect it produced onrepparttar 106645 Republican Party. (I sure hope George W took American History at Yale, but I doubt he remembers much.)

Anyway, as a Recession Veteran, I've been watchingrepparttar 106646 economic prognosticators, commentators and opinion-makers struggling withrepparttar 106647 current economic reality. Everybody wants this thing over yesterday. Because this is what they want, lots of people are dishing out a lot of "it's going to end in about five minutes" predictions onrepparttar 106648 belief that to say it is to have it.

Well, it's time for some economic reality. These "doldrums" are universal; they effect every single industrialized country on earth... and there's no way inrepparttar 106649 world you can turn this worldwide phenomenon around in a couple of months. What's more NOBODY know when things will end and get better, so we can all break out into a rousing chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again."

What I suggest is that you stop wondering when it's going to end and prepare to dorepparttar 106650 best you can to make maximum profits now and emerge from these troubled waters inrepparttar 106651 best shape possible. The truth is NO ONE knows when this will all be over and only one thing is certain: in time things WILL get better.

#1 Cut Every Expense

One key to weathering a recession is to take your outgoing expenses and put them under both a microscope and a knife. You need to look at each item you spend money on and ask yourself whether you need this, whether you need it atrepparttar 106652 current levels, or whether you could not get along with less of it or arrange your activities to cut back on this expense. In other words, you need to get total control of all your outgoing expenses, including (importantly) personnel, which is for most businessesrepparttar 106653 largest single expense. Remember your objective: to surviverepparttar 106654 bad times with as little discomfort as possible, cutting expenses torepparttar 106655 greatest amount possible, while leavingrepparttar 106656 infrastructure of your business intact so that you're ready whenrepparttar 106657 economic turnaround eventually comes.

The silver lining inrepparttar 106658 economic cloud is that all businesses spend at least some money unwisely. During economic times, when everyone is fat and happy, there's no incentive to make changes. "What me worry?" isrepparttar 106659 Alfred E. Newman approach to expenditures during boom times. Thus, an economic downturn may actually have a salutary effect, causing people who are determined to survive to develop their MONEY CONSCIOUSNESS by putting every single expense underrepparttar 106660 microscope and asking, "Do we REALLY need this?"

#2 What's Selling The Best? What Needs To Be Done To Sell More Of It? Do not accept diminished revenues as an immutable inevitability!

All businesses have best-selling products/services. A recession means you sell fewer of them. Is that acceptable to you? It certainly isn't acceptable to me! Thus, you've got to look at your best-selling items and then do what's necessary to sell at leastrepparttar 106661 same amount of them, if not more. Ordinarily this means cutting prices; certainly you should review your price structure. But you shouldn't only review your price structure. For instance, you can add more ofrepparttar 106662 product forrepparttar 106663 same price, add extra time (like an extra month to a one-year service), or otherwise improverepparttar 106664 perceived valuerepparttar 106665 customer is getting. People don't stop buying in a recession. But they do put their buying decisions under a microscope. However, by understanding that they continue to respond to value and to bargains, you can structure your offers accordingly to counter diminished sales.

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