Category: Business

When it comes to etiquette, many people may think of politeness, courtesy, and other likes. Chinese think that etiquette is the common behavior standards that all members should obey, whose purpose is to keep the normal living order of the society. Business etiquette is fundamentally concerned with building relationship which is founded upon courtesy and politeness between business people.

From different angles, business etiquette refers to different characteristics, which include regularity, credibility, time opportunity and culture reflecting.

First, regularity

From its accommodating scope, business etiquette refers to the norms which regulate the people who are involved in different business activities of product flowing process, which differs from other etiquettes.

Second, credibility

From the content of business etiquette, as long as people working for business activities, the interests of both parts are involved necessarily, instead of a single parts interests. Therefore, honesty and integrity is crucial in business activities. Honesty in business etiquette refers to participating business activities sincerely as to reach agreement instead of exaggerating without actions. Credibility means once you have promised, you should keep your promise. Once signed a contract, you must perform the appointment. If something unexpected happens and you cant accomplish it on time, you should try your best to make up for it.

Third, time opportunity

The occasion of commercial affairs is very strong. When the golden time is over, the precious chance is lost. Sometimes, in business activities, if what you have done is just right, the problem will be readily solved. Sometimes, if the business person is too insistent on his own opinions, the deal can rarely be closed.

Fourth, culture reflecting

From the nature of business etiquette, although business activities are a kind of economic activities, they reflect different culture in a large part. The persons engaging in the business activities should be civilized, elegant and polite so as to establish good image among others.

Abiding by norms of business etiquette will make the interpersonal communication much easier and condense the emotions so that the mutual trust, mutual respect and cooperative relationship could be established accordingly.

In order to write an effective business plan, you will need to start by covering the basics. State clearly on a cover sheet the name of your business, the address of the business and the principles that govern the business. These elements, however, are only part of what you need to include in your business plan. There are a few more essential elements to include in your business plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the abstract of your business plan. It is summarises all the information you give in the body of the plan and serves to introduce potential investors to your company. Mention your company background, mission statement, goals, management overview, capital requirements, market opportunity and competitors in no more than three or four pages. Make sure your executive summary is persuasive enough to convince investors about the viability and potential of the business.

Business Overview

The business overview provides more details about your business and why the business was formed. It expounds on your business mission, strategy, model and existing strategic relationships. Clearly explain how your business was formed, the costs associated with running the business, legal structures of the business and any intellectual property you may own. You may also cover issues relating to administration, management, accounting and security in this section of your plan.

Business Offering

The business offering section details why you are in business and what you are selling. State whether you are selling products or services. If you are selling products, shed more light on whether you are the manufacturer, retailer or distributor. Talk about your manufacturing process, inventory processes and availability of materials, if you are the product manufacture. If your business offers services, describe those services in detail. Also, provide information on product or service lines you expect to venture into in future.

Implementation and Strategy

This section provides details of your business strategies. It highlights your sales forecast, products or services launch dates and expected customer or web visitors statistics. Investors will be keen to read through this section to learn about your dates and deadlines. Lay out these details in a table called Milestones for easier information consumption.

Marketing Plan and Analysis

Detail your marketing plans in this section. Provide information about your market analysis, customer service, sales and public relations. Showcase your business vision and highlight the key points that will make your business successful. Validate your points with market research and customer and or industry trends. If you are a smaller entrepreneurial company and lack capacity to conduct in depth market research, validate your points with testimonials from existing customers.

Management Team

Explain the backgrounds of the managers and executives in your business in this section. This is important because investors will be interested in evaluating the risks associated with your business before they invest. Generally, the experience of management teams significantly affects business risks. The more experienced the management team, the lower the risk involved.

Financial Projections

Finally, provide a clear quantitative interpretation and projection of all the information you included in the different sections of your plan. This information should ideally come after all the other sections. Include your cash flow statement for the coming two to three years, balance sheet and projected profit and loss statements in your financial projections.

Remember, a good business plan is never completely finished. Review, revise and build upon your plan from time to time to keep it accurate and up to date.

If you’ve been thinking of opening a wedding invitation business, let me just say, Do It! It’s very easy to do and, depending on which way you decide to go with your business, the start up cost can be as little as a few hundred dollars.

There are three types of wedding invitation businesses. The first type, where you work as a manufacturer’s representative, is probably the least expensive in terms of start up costs, and also probably the easiest way to get into the business, especially if you’ve never had your own business before.

In this business model, you simply sell the manufacturer’s ready made cards, you act as their representative in your area. They provide you with samples and order forms, and there’s usually some type of training or support system in place to help you when you have questions. Although there may be some small investment required to get sample books from the manufacturers, you don’t have to invest in any stock or supplies with this method.

If you’ve never sold wedding invitations before, this is a good way to start. All the work is done for you. The invitations are already printed and packaged, the order forms are already created and the pricing is already set by the manufacturer. All you have to do is sell the invitations and you earn a commission for each sale from the manufacturer. This way, you can concentrate on learning how to run a business, and the ins and outs of selling wedding invitations, without investing any of your own money.

Another option you have is to sell Bespoke. These are invitations that you create yourself from card stock, pretty papers and embellishments like ribbons and pearls and flowers. This type of invitation business requires the largest investment of time and money, usually $1000 to $3000, but also has the largest profits because you can set your own prices. And if you’re the artistic type, you’re creations can command a very pretty penny. This business model, though, requires that you have more than a basic understanding of business because, since you’ll be making the invitations yourself, you’ll have to know how to control your costs and how much mark up to include in order to make your business run profitably.

The third type of wedding invitation business, which is the best method in my opinion, is the combined business. In this case, you sell sell pre-made blank wedding invitations and stationery, that you get from a supplier, and you finish it off on your home computer. With this method, you’re not working for a manufacturer, you’re purchasing the blank invitations from a supplier. The cards are already decorated on the outside, all you have to do is print inserts for the invitations and other assorted cards, and then put the inserts inside the invitations.

Opening a wedding invitation business that concentrates on selling the combined invitations is really the best way to go because you have very little initial investment, only the few blank cards that you want to start off carrying, and you get to set your own prices. While not quite as profitable as selling Bespoke, this method is more profitable than if you were a manufacturer’s agent.

Advantages Of A Business Directory

Registering in a business directory is a very wise move to increase the prospects of any business. As the Internet has made everything very accessible, registering in an online business directory can be very beneficial to the local businesses.

Who does not want to expand ones business in this rapidly burgeoning economy? Of course, everyone does wish the concerned businesses to prosper and soar high. To make that happen different people employ different strategies. Where some people distribute their pamphlets, cards or offer various promotional services and products, some people merely just register themselves in a good business directory.

If you are looking forward to further the prospects of your local businesses then registering yourself in a business directory is a very wise way to advertise and become known to the masses. Business directories are really beneficial in promoting local businesses of an area thereby improving the sales of their services and products. These days the facility of online business directories is also there. Thanks to the advent of Internet, that has made connecting to masses so very accessible.

An online business directory has lots to offer if you get registered with them. The major advantages of getting registered in an online business directory are:

It promotes the visibility of your local businesses in higher place in comparison to their competitors who are still employing the ancient methods of advertising, i.e., in the yellow pages and newspapers.
It strengthens your relationships with the existing buyers, customers and clients by updating valuable information regarding your company online.
You can acquire the customers of your competitors, as your company will be much more visible and updated attracting and promising the customers of quality services.
You can always remain in the sight and mind of your customers by offering only website coupons and special promotions.
There are no restrictions regarding the quantity of the content that you can include in the business directory.
You can also upload your products pictures, menu and service records along with your very own business URL.
You can add the business directorys website address on your business cards so that customers find it very easy to access you and thus avail your services.
You can keep the prospective customers duly informed about tour new products, business hours, special offers and discounts.
A business directory also submits your companys Internet page to the leading search engines that helps to increase your websites quality traffic flow.
As increasing number of consumers are availing the facility of the Internet, it is very easy for them to spot your company and seek services.

The best part about getting registered in an online business directory is that once you have registered, you will keep progressing as your business is exposed to a large populace inland and abroad. Moreover, you do not even need to possess a personal computer to keep checking your companys status on the online business directory, and you merely have to avail a hosting service for Internet, some technical skills or ISP to make the best possible use of this facility.

After you have registered in an online business directory, the sales quotient of your business will improve considerably and you can happily cater to the needs of your clients.

Why Trying to Be a Loan Officer (that is, Sell Mortgages) Is Especially Grim

… and why pursuing a career in home loans is pretty much doomed to failure.

I gave the mortgage industry — the whole loan originator gig — a serious go of it a few years back. That was just before the entire real estate market melted down.

But even then, I knew after about six months that it just wasn’t for me. And as it worked out, I ditched just before thousands of loan officers were driven out by the economic collapse.

It’s odd, really, that I even gave it a whirl. I already had a great freelance sales gig in place, and that was earning me a great income. But I’m the kind of guy who is always out there looking for something new and more exciting. It was right when I was moving to Dallas, and the whole “mortgage consulting” thing seemed as if it could be fun, and I had buddies in the industry pulling down $25K a month routinely. So I thought what the hell, and I gave it a go.

But it didn’t take long for me to realize I was in the WRONG PLACE.

Because there was no way it was ever going to create the lifestyle I wanted for myself.

Even leaving aside all of the stuff I’m about to cover here, (even leaving aside having to pander to real estate agents, and what that does to your soul), at the end of the day, trying to sell mortgages — working in that industry — is just nowhere near capable of creating the kind of life I’ve got going on and had come to get used to.

The hours, the office, the boss, the stress, the tedium, the grief … It’s enough to make you want to jump off a bridge. Seriously.

But even leaving that stuff aside. Even assuming you’re a glutton for misery and your idea of a good time is a life of constant, bitter struggle and mind-wracking tedium … Fundamentally there are three main reasons why I think trying to sell in the mortgage industry is a really bad idea, especially right now.

FIRST –
The gravy train is over. It has become harder than ever to close deals.

There are several reasons for that. I’ll list a few of them:

The housing market has tanked, taking with it a lot of the people who used to be in the industry. The ones who are left are desperate for business. This has the effect of not only putting you on a crappy level with the client (since it’s get the deal or eat Ramen noodles all next month, you end up begging for business, cringing under anything a client says or demands), but it also has the effect of making the whole mortgage racket more and more a rate game.
And that’s the second reason for why it’s harder than ever to close deals. Rate are too damn high, they’re fluctuating all over the place because of all the government interference in the economy, and your prospects are OBSESSING over rate, ready to cut your throat and run to the guy down the block and leave you high and dry with nothing, over an eighth of a point.
What else is making it hard to close deals is the fact that they’ve taken away all but a small handful of programs — I think you’ve got THREE now; used to be dozens. Everyone needs to put money down, and everyone is stuck in a fixed rate. Like it or lump it. (Problem is, a lot of people are choosing to lump it.)
And finally, one other thing making it harder to close deals is the increased difficulty of getting lenders and proposed loans to fall in line with the new guidelines. Used to be, deals could be slam-dunks and you knew it. You could bury three points in the YSP and still slam-dunk it. Nowadays nothing is a slam-dunk, even at par, and underwriting can kill a deal sixteen different ways before sun down, and leave you feeling you’ve been mugged in a back alley.

So those are some of the reasons why it’s become harder to close deals. And that’s assuming you can even find prospects and get the deals into processing and submitted to begin with. That takes me to the second reason I think trying to sell mortgages as a loan officer is a bad idea:

SECOND REASON –
It is just flat out hard as hell to attract attention anymore, much less differentiate yourself from all of the other loan guys out there.

For one, people are jaded and afraid of getting screwed. They’ve become insanely suspicious — in part because they’re being flooded every day with offers for free credit reports, refinancing opportunities, doom-and-gloom horror stories of foreclosures and mounting unemployment.

Try marketing yourself as a loan officer. Good lord. You’re competing against fifty thousand other hungry mortgage guys. You’re competing against huge banks and desperate net branches. And everyone is selling on price, price, price. Selling on having the “lowest rate.” Everyone is fighting to make a buck. They’re running ads, they’re running banners, they’re sending out useless mailings, they’re falling over each other trying to get someone –anyone — in town to refer them some business.

Not a pretty sight.

And to make it worse, the big advantage you USED to be able to have was in specializing in something, some niche. The guys making the best money were framing themselves as “mortgage consultants,” and trying to stand somewhere between being a loan officer and a financial advisor.

And it worked for long time. The guys who were good at it made a fortune.

But things have changed. Back in the day, you had dozens of programs to choose from. You could customize a mortgage solution for a client, and really bring value to that interaction. You could build a plan for them, around their goals and dreams, and show them how the mortgage you were structuring for them would help them and their families get where they wanted to go.

Well … That’s all gone now.

You’ve got THREE programs you can offer nowadays. Conventional, VA, or FHA. Fixed, fixed, or fixed. That’s it. That’s all.

No more no-money-down programs. No more stated-income or stated-asset programs. No more negative amortization loans with investment plans behind them.

Increased restrictions on investment properties.

Massive reduction of new-construction loans, and the effective extinction of jumbo (much less super-jumbo) loans.

There’s no way to “consult” or offer “mortgage-planning” when it comes down to a fixed rate. People have been trained to focus exclusively on price.

And there’s always someone willing to cut your throat for an eighth of a point.

So the second reason why I’m against selling in the mortgage industry came down to how hard it is to find good leads, and how hard it is to differentiate yourself, or in any way rise above price.

The third reason is more personal:

THIRD –
It just takes so much damn WORK to try to close a mortgage deal.

Even leaving aside the effort it takes to bring in a qualified lead. (And “qualified” has a whole other meaning when it comes to home loans. Someone can want a new home loan all he wants. Whether he qualifies, under the new guidelines, however … That’s a completely different story.)

Even leaving aside the effort it takes to get the prospect to want to work with you.

That still leaves all of the endless documentation required to get the deal closed and a commission check in your pocket.

There is the appraisal, the sales contract, the gigantic loan application, the credit check, the required bank statements and pay stubs, the verification of employment and income, the verification of bank funds, the home-owners insurance, the mortgage insurance, and on and on and on it goes.

Then the client has to actually get approved.

And come up with the down payment.

(And somehow, during all this, manage to avoid the hoard of hungry banks and mortgage companies and other loan officers out there trying to steal your deal out from under you before you can get it to closing.)

And even THEN it’s not over. Because it takes time, you see. And you have the pure joy of sweating under the stress of endless underwriting grief, where nothing is easy anymore, and every closing is precarious and uncertain.

So let us try to sum up …

At the end of the day, trying to sell home loans in the mortgage industry is hell on wheels. It is getting harder and harder, to earn less and less.

This year the industry is predicted to take another slug in the head, and thousands more will end up unable to close enough loans to pay their bills, or see their mortgage companies chain their front doors closed, without so much as a severance check from commissions on deals that had already funded.

I predict that we’re headed toward complete and utter commoditization of mortgage lending, with mounting government controls, where everything becomes cookie-cutter and in the hands of a few gigantic banks.

So unless you want a future in a cubicle, taking down loan applications over the phone and entering them into a computer for eight bucks an hour (assuming things don’t go completely automated, and they still need someone to at least type the stuff in) …

Here’s my recommendation:

– Forget the mortgage industry.
– Find something different.
– Find something better.

I’ll be talking a lot more about that “something better” here real soon …
At MaverickSalesGuy (dotcom)