What Is A Project Manager?

November 1st, 2011

What Is A Project Manager?Very simply, a project manager is the person who takes responsibility for everything. This is not to say “the one who does everything”. It is not too likely that a project manager even has the skill sets that would make her capable of doing everything that need to be done for a project. She’s simply the place where the buck stops. Have you been watching The Apprentice? When a project fails, who is the person most likely to hear “You’re fired!” Unless she is exceptionally good a deflecting blame, it is the Project manager!

So what skill set does a successful project manager really need? One skill or art is the ability to be a good team leader. Among other things, a project manager requires an inquiring mind. You must be able to gather information from the right people and to assimilate this information quickly in order to make projections and wise decisions. All this is needed in order to plan and develop a project. Plan, plan, review and plan. If you are not good at planning and scheduling in detail, you might want to reconsider being a project manager. Often a project manager must also present and sell the plan to her manager and /or customer. Thus good presentation skills are also needed.

Once decisions are made, she must maintain vision while also maintaining an impartial view of progress and making proper adjustments all while keeping the team motivated, updated, focused and within budget and time restraints. Decisiveness does not mean stubbornly proceeding in a direction deemed to be ineffectual. Constant quality assurance and quality control is essential. Quality is a team process and should be part of the project plan and schedule. Good pre-planning with the team should eliminate or nearly eliminate ineffectual actions. The project manager is in charge of maintaining scope of the project, writing the plan and maintaining change forms. Within the plan she must define project objectives and steps for reaching those objectives, describe the deliverables, manage the processes and avoid scope creep. She and the team must identify risks, have a contingency plan and be able to execute the contingency plan if needed. Changes in scope made in conjunction with the client must be agreed upon, priced and documented.

In order to be a good leader, a project manager needs to be able to evaluate a team’s strengths…and weaknesses as well as the individual team member’s and use this information to get the best results out of the team. Diplomacy mixed with well timed assertiveness (not aggressiveness) serves a project manager well. A project manager must develop a clear line of communication with and within the team. Developing and maintaining a schedule is something that, while the responsibility of the manager, should include team members in order to have bought in to maintaining it.

Project Management Institute (PMI) was developed in 1969. Their premise was that a certain set of skills and actions were needed in any industry in order to be a successful project manager. As a result in 1981 the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of standards and guidelines for project management. This became know as A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This is reviewed often and should be studied if one plans on pursuing project management as a career.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Project Management

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Advertising and Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

August 20th, 2009

When it comes to marketing and advertising your business, it is essential to develop a good marketing plan. Even the most solid plan, however can still fail if it is not implemented correctly. Avoiding these common advertising and marketing mistakes can help.

One mistake that many businesses make is to not market to a defined group or demographic. While it is important to appeal to a wide target audience possible, failing to identify your key demographic will keep your business from reaching the customers who are most interest in the product or service you have to offer. Focus your advertisements to appeal to your target audience, and you will naturally attract more business.

Effective marketing is based on a cohesive advertising strategy, so once you develop a logo and theme for your ads and promotions, make sure that you stick with it. A marketing strategy that is inconsistent will make your company look unfocused and unprofessional. This does not mean that you should focus your advertising and marketing efforts on one medium, however. Many businesses make this mistake because they are unfamiliar with certain mediums.

Don’t allow unfamiliarity with technology to hinder your marketing campaign. Make sure that you utilize all available media sources whenever possible, including television, print ads, radio, and online advertising. Many businesses fail to utilize online advertising tactics because they are unfamiliar with the technology. If this is the case, be sure to take the time to learn, and search for sites that make it easy for you to upload your video advertisements, even if you have little or no experience with this type of medium.

In the process of trying to attract new business, don’t make the common mistake of neglecting your repeat customers. Repeat customers make up an estimated 80 percent of most revenue, so be sure to target your marketing campaigns toward them as well. If your marketing message is unclear, however both new and repeat customers will be confused. Consistency is the key to achieving brand reputation.

The most effective marketing and advertising campaigns take into account the measure of their marketing results, so be sure to keep close track of what works and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to try new things and to discard ideas that don’t work for your business. Remember, the best marketing strategies are the ones that evolve and grow over time to meet the changing needs of a business, its target audience, and emerging technology.

To learn more about advertising online and other online marketing tips visit our site.

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How to Calculate Quickly in Your Head

August 11th, 2009

How do those seemingly mental math geniuses do it? Are their brains really programmed differently, allowing them to do what seems to be mental magic? What gives here? Maybe they have integrated circuits instead of dendrites?

The truth is, they more than likely know a number (excuse the bad pun) of math tricks that allow them to quickly find answers to math certain operations. There are many short cuts that can be employed for math problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If you spend some time rehearsing these methods, then you too can perform these seemingly miraculous feats.

For instance, suppose you wanted to multiple 43 x 11. Well, you may be able to solve this problem in your head already if you realize that you can first multiply 43 by 10, and then adding 43 to the result. Sure enough, the answer is 473. This works relatively quickly, but there is another method that you can use to get the answer more quickly!

This is a special case for multiplying two-digit numbers by 11. Indeed, the method can be used more generally on larger digit-numbers, but let’s look at how to employ this method with two-digit numbers:

First, take the digits in the number you are multiplying by 11, and add them. In our case (43), it is 4 + 3 = 7. Now take the result, and place in between the two-digit number. In our case, take the “7″ and place it between the “4″ and “3″. Did you see the result? Right! it is the answer 473!

Pretty neat, huh? Keep in mind that other problems may involve carrying-over numbers, but with a little practice, this will become almost natural.

This was a special case for numbers multiplied by 11, but there are many other methods you can use to calculate more complex problems quickly in your head.

Happy calculating!
Find out how to perform mental math faster than a calculator!
http://mathtricks.org

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Going Back to School the Eco-Friendly Way

August 5th, 2009

Summer time is coming to an end but it has been a blast, especially since we all have been able to enjoy eco friendly summer fun. However, it’s that time again, time for back-to-school. Whether you’re going back to college or just starting your college career, this should be the year you decide to be more thoughtful about your environmental impact. Being environmentally conscious is very easy and fun. Here are some eco friendly products and living ideas that will make going back to school and eco friendly event!

1) Eco bedding: Here is one way to be more eco friendly. Try finding eco bedding that is both stylish and good for the earth. There are duvets that are both eye catching and kind to our planet. Earth friendly bedding is generally made with non-toxic, water based dyes which is both good for you and the environment. Also, earth friendly duvets are organically grown and organically processed so those with allergies don’t have to worry about a thing. Take a break from your busy class schedule on this organic cotton duvet and be kind to Mother Earth at the same time!

2) Earth friendly backpacks: Charge you cell phone and carry your books! That’s right, this backpack is sure to catch people’s eye since you can charge your cell phone right from your backpack. This solar powered backpack comes with a built-in car lighter adapter, like the one in your car, and charges your cell phone, PDA or even your mp3 player. No batteries are needed which makes this backpack easy to use. It is eco stylish for the environmentally aware student.

3) Recycled paper and pencils: Instead of purchasing your usual printer paper or binder paper try purchasing recycled printer paper or recycled notebooks. These may cost a few cents more but in the long run they are saving our planet from harm. Recycled pencils are also available for eco friendly students. Taking notes with recycled pencils can be fun since they are made from recycled newspapers. When you sharpen the pencils you can read the text from the original publication. Taking notes have never been so entertaining!

4) Green gym bags: Hit the gym in style with an green gym bag. No one wants to gain weight while in college and no one wants to be environmentally irresponsible. Hit two birds with one stone with an eco friendly gym bag when making your way to your favorite exercise facility. This gym bag is made from recycled sailboat sailcloth and has plenty of room for all your gym necessities. Take time to work-out your eco friendly sense of style!

5) Natural toiletries: Who knew that being green could reach the bathroom?! Load up your shower caddy with eco toiletries and impress your new roommates. There are eco toothbrushes and razors available that make being an green college student easy. The toothbrushes and razors are made from 100% recycled plastic, including yogurt cups and are made in fun and vibrant colors. Keep clean and eco friendly with these eco friendly toiletries!

Guffly is a one product per day online store and community featuring eco friendly products and fair trade lifestyle goods like home, pet, clothing, office and personal accessories. We know that people aren’t interested in ugly stuff, so you can bet Guffly’s green products are stylish, fun and attractive – eco stylish if you will. Shop the Daily Guff at http://www.guffly.com

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Expand Your Business With Blogging

July 29th, 2009

Statistically speaking, you’re likely reading this outside of normal business hours. Am I right, or am I right? Why? Because if you have a life (okay … admittedly many people don’t) the majority of your time is spent away from the office and outside of normal business hours. Usually, when the sun goes down you are already out the door. Frazier has left the building.

But the sun never sets on the internet. It operates 24/7/365 for online and offline businesses both. There are no doors to unlock and no lights to turn on. The doors are always open and the lights are always on. No brick; no mortar; no time clocks.

There are so many important online tools for both marketing (presenting your company and product to the market) and sales (trading that product/service for revenue) … if you’re not using them you’re soon to be extinct. Even the US government figured that out. Filed any corporate taxes lately? Most companies now do it online (it is called EFTPS, if you’re at all curious).

Low-to-No Cost – Many of the online resources available for your business are usable with no cost and can offer great results. Calculate the ROI on that: small investment (mostly in your time) and great results. Infinite ROI? No, not quite. But as a business owner if you use these available tools correctly it will make a difference in your business. Put another way, if you are not using online tools for your business, the wolves are at the door and your house is made of sticks. Not brick and mortar; sticks.

Blogging is increasingly being used to effectively to present businesses and products to the market. Websites like Blogger and WordPress make it possible to share value – your knowledge and experience – through blog posts. Helpful blog posts on relevant content establish you as a leader and creates a relationship that your consumers don’t normally get from just visiting your website. Just today in a phone conversation a client said, “I was so glad to see you are a real person!” The personal touch works.

Need a great example? Go look at 3PAR’s company blog called “StorageRap” (www.storagerap.com). No, I’m not associated with 3PAR in any way. But Marc Farley is awesome at what he does for the data storage industry. Take special note of the value that he delivers. Yes, it comes with a heavy dose of opinion, and more than a bit of controversy, but that is the whole point of blogging! Ever read a boring blog post … more than part-way? I rest my case.

If you are venturing into a company blog, ensure it has a clear objective. Brainstorm with colleagues on ideas of what to write and how to represent the company. Then just to it.

Don’t be stingy. And don’t be a twit. – Contribute to the communication in meaningful ways. A terrific way to increase your network is to be active and to comment on others’ posts. Respect the poster; comment on the post. Remember that a single post could be read by thousands, some of whom may take great interest in you and the products you represent.

Don’t Abuse the Blog – If you use your blog correctly, clients and consumers will appreciate your information and insight. But consistency is key. Deliver value to your business community by remaining active in blogging and in social networking forums. Don’t hold back. Give more, and you will receive more.

Brian Moore is a business coach and mentor that assists serious entrepreneurs in building a profitable online business with multiple incomes streams. Brian and his team have assisted hundreds of people in generating profits that exceed $250K or more in their first year. For more information and to contact Brian, visit: http://www.meetbrianmoore.com

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Left Handed Facts

July 19th, 2009

It is developed in pregnancy, by ultrasound you can see which hand is licked or close to mouth most. While Most people are right handed, but 10% of the world is not. And also they are more common in males than females. That’s another fact about left handed people because they are frequently referred to as “lefties.” Another common nickname for them is “southpaw” (particularly in a sports context). This nickname occurred during the 1890s due to left handed baseball pitchers. Batters are facing east so that the afternoon sun does not shine in their eyes.

Do You Know?

* There seem to be a high likelihood that in twins, one will be left handed. It is believed that there may be some genetic link for left hand preference. There has not been a specific gene pinpointed that is the “left handed” gene as of yet, however it does seem like left handedness runs in families.

* Before birth, exposure to high testosterone may can lead to left handed child (because high rates of testosterone suppresses left hemisphere of the brain).

* 25% of astronauts are lefties.

* Every year Over 2500 people die from using tools which was created for ‘right handed’ people. Life can be difficult for lefties simply because everything is made for right handed individuals. Consider knives, for example, because they are mostly made for righties. The computer mouse is almost always on the right side of the computer and that makes it difficult for lefties to handle. Most guns and golf clubs are made for right handed people. Finding the other versions are easier today, but they can be more expensive.

* Another left handed fact is lefties sometimes find it difficult to complete their school work simply because most desks are made for right handed individuals. Those who are lefties have their arms hanging out in the air when they are trying to write, which makes it very difficult. Maybe it is because of this that many of them have poor handwriting.

Want to see more left handed facts? Visit http://squidoo.com/factsaboutlefthanded

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How to Get Free Advertising in the Yellow Pages

July 10th, 2009

I actually stumbled across this technique completely by accident when searching for a home cleaner in the Yellow Pages. There was a large full page display Ad and when I called it, the phone number had been disconnected.

At first I thought I had called the wrong number. Then, when I called it again (double-checking of course to make sure I had the right number), all I got was the “beep-beep-beep” sound that confirmed that the number had been disconnected.

I was amazed to say the least. Here, a company had spent $30k to place a full page Ad, only to have the number misprinted? Surely it was an error. So – I did a little digging out of curiosity only to find the cleaning company had gone out of business.

Bingo.

I couldn’t believe my luck. That particular edition of the Yellow Pages still had six months to run, and surely there were going to be plenty of people calling that number. So – I immediately contacted the phone company and bought the number.

Two weeks later, I created a joint venture with another cleaning company and took 20% of the resulting sales. All we did was set up a separate phone line to handle these new inquiries so we could track the results. Not only did we get new business, we also had repeat customers of the bankrupt business calling and we managed to get over 50% of these people to do business with us.

Talk about easy money!

Now, of course not many businesses who place full page Ads (or even half page Ads) will go bust throughout the year. However, if you look long enough you will find 1 or 2. A more systematic approach is to subscribe to an insolvency site that publishes new bankruptcies. When you are notified of a company gone bust, you can then check if they have an Ad in the Yellow Pages first, then buy the number once it’s disconnected. In my experience the phone number is almost never sold when a small or medium sized business is put in liquidation.

Also, there are lots of unpaid listings in the Yellow Pages that get disconnected or no longer apply to that business. The reasons vary, but usually the smaller businesses are operated out of home and when the owner moves or sells his or her business the number sometimes doesn’t get changed over.

Of course, there’s nowhere near the same amount of value in unpaid listings but they do still work. Otherwise they wouldn’t be there. My advice – don’t pay more than $50 for phone numbers that are in unpaid listings. –Marcus Maclean

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If You Own a Service Business, Forget Advertising

July 9th, 2009

Strangely enough, almost every business out there at some point in time will turn away potential customers, despite the fact they’ve paid thousands of dollars in advertising to get that customer to call. The reasons why businesses do this varies, but in the service industry, most of the time they’re just too busy, or their service is too expensive.

This true fact creates an amazing opportunity to quickly, cheaply and effectively increase sales by simply taking the business your competitor doesn’t want or need or can’t cope with.

There are two ways to do it.

ONE: When your competitor has so much demand they literally cannot keep up, you could offer to do the jobs they can’t do (for lack of resources or labor) and pay them a referral fee. For example, a panel beater might be fully booked up for the month but a customer needs a job done urgently. Rather than kissing the sale good bye, your competitor might as well give you the job and take a cut.

In my experience, many owners don’t like this idea for the simple reason that their name is on the line. After all, if a customer comes to THEM and they point them in the direction of a competitor who botches the job up, it’s THEIR name that suffers.

So, it’s important when you approach a competitor that you are confident in the quality of your service and you have a track record to prove it.

TWO: Almost ALL service businesses will refuse jobs from time to time because a customer is haggling them on price. In my experience, I have NEVER come across a business that doesn’t deal with the dreaded price shopper.

If you do offer a lower-cost service than your competitor, and you’re willing to deal with these types of customers if only to get the sale, you could offer to have them refer their price shoppers to you.

A word of warning though. I would only use this method in slow periods when you really need the money. Or if you are able to offer a lower-cost service and still make good margins. The only one fatal flaw in this technique is that you’ll often attract the annoying customers who complain and never pay on time. But if you need the money – it’s worth it. — Marcus Maclean

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Article Marketing Blog Help

June 22nd, 2009

Article marketing is said to be a great way to generate money online in this day and age. It is actually being used by authors to promote their books or ebooks as well as it is also being used by businessmen in marketing their products and services. But don’t you know that you can also use article marketing even if you are not a certified author or businessman? You simply have to come up with good quality article contents which you need to post on your own website or weblog. As a matter of fact, one of the best ways to be a successful article marketer is by being aware on how to do the article marketing blog.

A blog is actually a web page or site which can serve as your personal journal wherein you can write anything and everything that you want. You can write your personal views and opinions about some things which can be of great help to other people. In point of fact, you can create your own blog and use it for article marketing purposes and gain extra cash eventually. You only need to make sure to arm yourself with some of the basic article marketing blog tips. The following are some blog help tips which you can consider to be successful in the realm of article marketing:

• Place your blog on a main website. This is essential in order to easily acquire more web visitors. You can actually choose a keyword or keyword phrases that would best describe your page and make your chosen keywords to be your blog’s title. You also have to see to it to create a URL for your own blog site.

• Link your blog to all of your articles. This is important in order to acquire greater traffic. All you need to do is to include your blog’s URL to all of your written articles. Furthermore, you should make sure not to publish your articles instantly on your blog. You only have to write on your blog some little explanations or remarks regarding your articles, its purpose, as well as its basis and link it directly to your original website.

• Do the link exchanging. Exchanging links works in a way wherein you are going to include on your blog the lists of online article directories, sites, newsletters, or even other blog sites which publish your articles. This is in fact another way on how to generate web visitors and traffics through other useful sites.

• Put a comment box on your weblog page. This is somewhat helpful in order for you to be aware on how people respond to all your written articles either on your blog site itself or to your original website. You need to accept all kinds of comments whether good or bad and consider all those comments when it comes to improving your blog, website, and articles to attain success in the realm of article marketing.

Indeed, you can use a blog in order to do article marketing and gain instant cash. You only have to keep the aforementioned article marketing blog tips in mind in order to ensure success in the long run. After all, the tips mentioned above are believed to be truly helpful and can be done without much effort at all.

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Should You Guest Blog?

June 18th, 2009

Plan and simple, yes you want to guest blog, but you want to be picky about the sites you are guest blogging on. I say this because you want to make sure your blogging on a site that is actually going to help you get target traffic to your site. You don’t want to waste time and energy creating a blog post on say SEO (which is your specialty) on a blog that is dedicated to preserving Barbie. The point of guest blogging is that it is a win win for the webmaster and the guest blogger.

I am sure that you are not really interested in what guest blogging does for the webmaster at this point. You want to know what it is in it for you. That is the focus on this post. So here we go, the first benefit of guest blogging is that you get instant exposure to your blog. Let’s say that you just launched a new site that you are really excited about and you know offers great benefit to visitors. You want traffic now, not in a few weeks or months. Find an authority site or other site that is reputable in your niche, contact the webmaster and offer to guest blog for them. You blog post will offer informative content and a plug about you and your website.

The second benefit is that exposure you gain. If you don’t have a business that you are trying to promote, but skills you want to offer to hire… guest blogging can help you there as well. When you guest blog on a site, as I said above, you get to do a little blurb about you and what you do, and from there you can direct people to a place where they can learn more about you.

The third benefit and reason as to why you should try to guest blog is that you get a link back to your blog. We have talked in the past about how important back linking is. This is a great way to increase your rankings with links from reputable sites.

Notice that I have mentioned reputable sites. You want to look for sites that have a good ranking, because you know that they are getting traffic. You also know that they are getting crawled by the spiders on a routine basis and that what they say on that website is trusted by people in the niche you are addressing. You don’t want to waste your time blogging on a site that isn’t getting more traffic then you currently are, or worse yet, they are not getting traffic at all.

There are a few rules that you need to keep in mind in regards to your posts. You want to make sure that your post fits into the category of blog you are posting on. Remember, Barbie isn’t going to care much on how to SEO optimize. The blog post that you create must be original and unique. You can’t post an article that you wrote and posted elsewhere.

Also, we are talking about your reputation so you really want to post only articles that you have written. If you are going to farm out the blog posts writing then make sure that you have proofed what is said in the article. The last thing in the world you want to do is make yourself look bad or the website you are guest blogging on.

Finally, when you guest blog if you are going to use a link in your post, it must be a link that is related to the website you are writing for. You should NOT use your own affiliate links. This is just poor taste and not only will the webmaster kick you to the curb, it will get around in the industry that “type” of person you are and you will have a hard time getting another guest blogging spot.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of MyIMCoach.com. My IM Coach provides aspiring Internet Marketers with Tips and Techniques for getting started and/or improving their marketing skills. To learn more INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “How To Make It Online”

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