By Robert Thompson Posted 28 Feb 05

One of things that I like to do with my spare time is visit various business forums and chat rooms. It is interesting to see what others are thinking, and once in awhile, I run across a question or post that makes for a good article.

Here is a good example from SMC Members Forum. I have changed name to protect identity and privacy of user. This post represents a very common sentiment throughout stay at home job community.

From Jennifer

I just started SMC not to long ago and I have mostly heard negative things in this forum. When I say negative I mean people who have been in 3-4 months and have not had any luck. That is very discouraging. I also noticed their are a lot of SMC members competing for business. This is also discouraging. Is there no one else that has success from this business with any marketing method? I think I'm going to ask for a refund. People these days are cruel.

Hello Jennifer,

Hang in there. You are just getting started, and you still haven't even paid for a business education yet. Once you spend a few hundred bucks on a promotion that fails to bring in a sale, you will understand why I say this. I don't think of my screwups as failures. Instead, I think of money spent as tuition for a new business lesson. LOL

Here are a few things to think about:

1. You are right about level of competition amongst SMC members. With several members selling items on Ebay, for example. Your chances of earning a decent profit there is limited by your knowledge of little things (jacking up shipping costs to cover cost of item sold, or how to effectively follow up with another offer to customers who do buy).

Regardless of whether you are selling products from a large wholesaler, such as SMC, or promoting an affiliate program, such as SFI or Empowerment, you will find this to be true.

Since competition is so heavy in more traditional venues, it is best to avoid them until you have a better understanding of unwritten rules of game.

See full color web version at: http://www.SeniorManagementServices.com/pvt-101-assets.html

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"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." -- Immanuel Kant.

Whenever your employees leave for any reason -- even just to go home -- they take all or most of your company's most valuable assets with them.

Every time they walk out your door, you say good-bye to:

* your trained employees who possess... * your intellectual capital and conduct ... * your proprietary business processes.

And when you l'ose any part of those three assets, you risk losing customers.

I'm sure this is not news to you.

============================================================ But, question is: What can you do about it? ============================================================

You can protect yourself from this Triple-Threat by slaying one of your company's worst enemies - undocumented (tacit) employee knowledge (your intellectual capital).

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: I recently met a couple in a restaurant.

Sam was in real estate, and Betty worked for PeopleSoft. Betty was losing her job due to Oracle/PeopleSoft merger.

Betty's boss asked her to go to India to train her replacement!

Well, I suppose her manager had nothing to l'ose by asking. But, you can imagine her answer.

OK,n0w multiply this problem by 5,000 employees! (As I recall, that is how many will be laid off in merger.)

Baaaaad timing! As a manager, you must not wait until your employees are packing to leave to ask them to document their positions and tacit knowledge.

MURPHY'S LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS "Things get worse under pressure."

============================================================ Too busy to manage knowledge? ============================================================

I have helped companies that were moving all or part of their company out of California. Some employees were moving with company, some were being "let go."

The employees who were moving to new location were "too busy moving" to document their work. Besides, they already "know their job."

Worse, most people being laid off were uncooperative to-the-max when it came time to document their (lost) positions!

They had virtually nothing to gain and little to l'ose - except maybe a good recommendation (except management couldn't really make that threat).

Really, during good times, it is difficult to get employees to document their positions and divulge their tacit knowledge - unless management provides an incentive. In fact, I recommend that you make it part of their position contract.

"Even in best of times, it's a battle to convince employees to participate in knowledge management programs. But in tough times, tendency is for employees to horde what they know." -- Lauren Gibbons Paul