Setting Professional Standards and BoundariesWritten by Maria Marsala
Professional standards are strong guidelines for how you treat yourself within your business or career. They can include a code of ethics, guarantees, how many hours you work, etc. Professional boundaries are about how you want your clients to treat you within your business. They can include requesting to be paid on time, honesty, how to cancel appointments, how often they can contact you, etc. As each of us evolve, it is common to"raise" our standards and boundaries.Professional standards and boundaries create a professional atmosphere around your businesses. Sometimes they help you attract a higher caliber of clients. Other times they reflect that your time and effort are now worth more than they previously were. Whatever reason you have for creating standards and boundaries, make sure that you can stand by them. Your new or updated standards and boundaries may - and will - annoy people. You may lose clients. Any time you set a new "rule," someone is bound to be annoyed - and they'll let you know, too! You are bound to hear things like "X" does that for free, I'm only asking for 15 minutes of your time, guess you don't want clients, among a variety of other things you'd prefer not to listen to.
| | "Collaborate Your Way to Success"Written by Paul /"the soaring/" Siegel
The best way to market - or accomplish anything - on Internet is to be helpful. Netizens appreciate it and try to be helpful in return. As I indicated before, 3 ways of being helpful are by enabling people to learn, by cooperating with them in their projects, and by building a community where they may help each other.There is a 4th way: collaboration. Instead of merely discussing problems, you may work together with others for your mutual advantage. You help your partner. Your partner helps you. Try Collaboration Collaboration is used by BIG companies when they form joint ventures. But collaboration truly is a means for SMALL outfit to spread its wings. Instead of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades - there is no such thing these days - work on what you do best and enjoy, and partner with an expert or experts in fields you are not so good at and don't enjoy. Collaboration enables you to strengthen you strengths while working on projects you ordinarily would not get. Someone else, who enjoys it, does what you can't or don't want to do. She strengthens her strengths. As partners, you may reach great heights. > If you are a good writer and you love to write, but you can't draw a straight line, COLLABORATE with someone who is an accomplished artist, but can't write a complete sentence. The 2 of you may be able to design outstanding websites. > If you are a hotshot programmer, but don't know how to sell your exquisite software packages, COLLABORATE with a super-salesman, who though he may not understand details of your work, appreciates results you produce. Though 2 of you may be independent performers, working together you may achieve a great deal more than working individually. > If you are an inventor who loves conceiving all sorts of gadgets but has no idea how to manufacture them, COLLABORATE with a manufacturing expert who appreciates what you do. Why not include a venture capitalist and make it a 3-way collaboration? Finding a Collaborator If you are typical, you are good at some things and not good doing other things. To be productively effective, all you need do is find experts at things you must get done but are not so good at. This sounds simple and easy. But it is not. People come in all shapes and varieties. Some you can work with; others you can not. The trick is to locate an expert that is suitable for you. Among factors to consider are following: > DOES THE PERSON COMPLEMENT YOU? - Compare skills, experiences, perspectives, and working styles. Though your abilities are different, can you discuss these things with understanding? Can you mesh your working styles?
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