**Great tool we found on Yahoo! Finance.**
**Great article we found on Inc.com.**
In a high-pressure situation, a suit used to be the safe sartorial choice. Now, it’s a bit more complicated.
A monkey suit is often over the top. But there are at least three situations where you need to face the “suit or not to suit” decision head-on. And in these situations, if you decide against a suit, you still need to dress business casual. Leave the jeans and hoodie at home.
1. Customers. If you are visiting customers for sales or business development, think about the customer’s perception of your company when they see you. Do you inspire confidence? Professionalism? Discipline and integrity? You are the face of your company. You need to look like you can deliver. You don’t want the customer to feel like they’re taking a risk on you.
2. Fundraising. Not only do you need to inspire confidence when talking to investors, but you also need to communicate fiscal responsibility, steadiness, and dependability. Again, it depends on exactly who you’re meeting. While I’ve met young angel investors (often former Googlers) who wear jeans, most investors are from a generation that expects something more formal, especially if they are on the East Coast. Investors can make harsh judgments very quickly. I’ve seen investors write entrepreneurs off as “emotionally unstable” for sporting an unnatural hair color.
**To read the rest of the article from the original source, click here.**
**Great article we found on Inc.com.**
In 2008 Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks and steered it through the financial crisis. Last year, Schultz sat down with Inc.’s Lewis Schiff.
Click here to see the video on Inc.com where Schultz answers questions and gives some great advice!
**Great article we found on Inc.com.**
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. This is the one thing all successful people know how to do well.
I asked about 20 business owners and CEOs to name the one skill they feel contributes the most to their success.
What did every one of them say?
Sales skills. Without solid sales skills they all felt success is almost impossible—in any field.
Here’s why. To many people the word “selling” implies manipulating, pressuring, cajoling… all the used car salesman stereotypes.
But if you think of “selling” as explaining the logic and benefits of a decision, then everyone—business owner or not—needs sales skills: To convince others an idea makes sense, to show bosses or investors how a project or business will generate a return, to help employees understand the benefits of a new process, etc.
In essence, sales skills are communication skills. Communication skills are critical in any business or career—and you’ll learn more about communication by working in sales than you will anywhere else.
Gaining sales skills will help you win financing, bring in investors, line up distribution deals, land customers—in the early stages of starting a company, everything involves sales.
Understanding the sales process, and how to build long-term customer relationships, is incredibly important regardless of the industry or career you choose. Spending time in a direct sales role is an investment that will pay dividends forever.
Here are a few of the benefits:
Every job involves negotiating: With customers, with vendors and suppliers, even with employees. Salespeople learn to listen, evaluate variables, identify key drivers, overcome objections, and find ways to reach agreement—without burning bridges.
Asking for what you want is difficult for a lot of people. Closing a sale is part art, part science. Getting others to agree with you and follow your direction is also part art and part science. If you want to lead people, you must be able to close. Great salespeople know how to close. Great bosses do too.
You’ll learn persistence.
Salespeople hear the word “no” all the time. Over time you’ll start to see “no” as a challenge, not as a rejection. And you’ll figure out what to do next.
**To read the rest of the article from the original source, click here.**
**Great article we found on SearchEngineWatch.com.**
He walked down the quiet street, a leopard in the concrete jungle. Eyes down, but watching the angles. Hands in his coat pocket concealing but preoccupied. It was then from the shadows a figure emerged, unwanted but unrelenting.
“Hey buddy, you lookin’?”, poured forth with a cloud of smoke.
“Naw, I don’t do that crap.” he blew back. “Don’t ya know that stuff will get you messed up? Just look, right up there” as he pointed to the surveillance camera across the way. “Google seeseverything.”
The fedora topped stranger faded further into the darkness. “These are some awesome high PageRank links though. Cheap. And you just know the other guys are using.” … How this ends, you tell me?
OK, enough with the silliness. But it brings to mind a few things that are actually worth discussing. Let’s explore a few concepts.
Now, this one seems to be one of the largest heads on the many headed hydra of SEO paranoia. Time and time again we see those that truly are out-thinking themselves.
Yes, it is duly noted that Google (and other IR systems) have an entire wing of the AIR commanddedicated to dealing with those that might seek to manipulate their creations. There are even more than a few IR lectures on video where those pesky programmers seem almost psychotic when discussing such matters.
But it’s still just not as prevalent as some passionate pros seem to envision. That’s the tricky thing with search engines. The programmer types don’t always get what they want.
Certainly, Matt Cutts would just love to increase his budget and sway. But these aren’t always the realities.
When folks talk about IR patents and papers, it’s always best to keep that in mind. Things don’t always work out in the wash.
**To read the rest of the article from the original source, click here.**
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