Profitability Channel

An increasing number of business owners looking for ways to survive these tough economic times are turning to the ancient practice of barter. According to the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA), there are more than 450,000 businesses and 65-70% of Fortune 500 companies engaged in barter each year. Barter, is the exchange of one product or services for another product or service with equal value without the use of cash. Modern barter exchanges substitute cash with an alternative form of currency, allowing businesses to purchase goods and services from other members or an organized trade group. A business can trade for items essential to operating their business, or those things needed to enhance their personal life. Using this process permits businesses to preserve cash resources, create important business-to-business relationships, open new markets and attract new cash paying customers. According to the Harvard School of Business, "barter is the wave of the future for small business".

With an estimated 500 commercial barter exchanges in the United States and Canada, BarterLink has distinguished itself by focusing on those products and services needed by small businesses in order to flourish. The Atlanta based barter exchange also has established trade groups in New Orleans/Baton Rouge LA, Houston, TX, and Charlotte, NC in its effort to create a national network or organized trade groups. Coupled with an on-line trading platform members have access to more than 40,000 actively trading businesses with every conceivable product or service. BarterLink serves as a third party record keeper brokering and monitoring trades between its members.

Although not intended as a replacement for cash, barter can be used to maximize profits in the liquidation of surplus inventory, excess labor and capacity. Considered the oldest form of commerce known to mankind some have even suggested that "barter is the future of money".

If your organization had to let people go during this economic downturn, your employees are probably wondering how to get everything done since the work did not walk out the door when the personnel left. Employees with increased workloads can increase their productivity with the Time For ResultsTM streaming video instruction hosted here at the Profitability Channel.

The 10-module series was recorded by time management guru Karla Brandau who specializes in infusing time management principles into the tool of Microsoft Outlook. Through her proprietary methods and processes, employees will experience great jumps in productivity and your organization will realize a greater return on the investment of your Microsoft Outlook software.

Get a running jump this January by enrolling your employees in this cost-effective program. Learn more about the total program by going to www.TimeForResults.com or view a preview module right now by clicking here:

Module 00 - http://www.profitabilitychannel.com/program_detail.php?ep=1765
Preview Module

Also available is an interview with Karla by Ruth King, CEO of On The Ribbon:

http://www.profitabilitychannel.com/program_detail.php?ep=1961

In a word: Intent. . .according to Dave Lakhani.

Dave Lakhani has made persuasion his life's study. Why?
Dave and his brothers grew up in a religious cult. No real education - unless it was cult education. Living in shacks. Eating from the dumpsters outside supermarkets. Total cult domination of thoughts, media, and activities.

Somehow, he knew that there was a different world than the one he knew.

At the tender age of 16 Dave broke away from the cult. He was forced to go on stage where the entire cult congregation, including his mother, prayed for his death. Dave was cut off from all communications with his brothers, mother, and the few friends he had. He was alone. Everything he knew was gone from his life in an instant.

At that moment Dave made it his life's work to determine how people were persuaded...both in the good and bad sense. Why people did do what they did? What persuaded them to join groups? Live in cults? Buy things?

From Dave's perspective, persuasion is helping people to come to their most logical conclusion that you share. It is the ability to get an individual or the masses to see your message as the one message that will change their life for the better right now.

Dave's mantra:
- People buy what they believe.
- Believers are buyers.
- With no persuasion there is no profit.
- Only polarized people buy things. People in the middle don't do things.

The Persuasion funnel - An upside down triangle:
- Visibility
- Credibility
- Relationship
- Profit

Relationships are the most critical element of the funnel. Where there is trust, you can positively persuade.

By the way, I keep Dave's book, Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want, nearby. I review it when I need ideas. His new book, Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets they Don't Want You to Know, is out. Go to www.subliminalpersuasionbook.com for more information.

Click here to see Dave’s program on ProfitabilityChannel.com.

Give the gift of unique note cards to any business professional and you are giving them the opportunity to establish a memorable reputation.

Handwritten notes create a memorable connection between sender and recipient. A gift of note cards featuring unique art and motivational quotes allows the recipient of your gift to connect personally with individuals to whom they write notes.

Is there a sales professional on your gift list? A regular practice of handwriting notes could make 2009 their best year ever. Joe Girard, The Guinness World’s Record Greatest Retail Salesman for 12 years, received that title after selling an average of 6 cars everyday throughout his selling career. This was due in part to his stay-in-touch practice of sending all previous car customers 13 personal note cards each year – turning them into repeat buyers and sources of regular referrals.

How about a C-Level executive? Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell’s Soup has written over 16,000 notes, as many as 10 a day, raising morale and energizing Campbell’s in the process. "In business we're trained to find things that are wrong, but I try to celebrate what's right," says Conant.

What about a gift for you? Build your own personal brand through the regular practice of handwriting notes to clients to show appreciation, to referral contacts to say thank you and to leaders to show your support. Establish your own memorable reputation through the personal connection created by handwriting notes.

The gift of unique note cards is the first step to note-working success!

Vanessa Lowry is Chief Connection Officer and owner of Profits in Progress, helping businesses expand connections and build relationships using handwritten notes. She can be contacted at vlowry@profitsinprogress.com or 678-521-8820. Purchase unique note cards at www.ProfitsinProgress.com.

With an estimated $12.7 billion given to charities in 2006 by US corporations and corporate foundations (Giving USA, 2007) and continued struggles for bottom line growth, more and more CEOs and marketing executives look with critical eyes at the return on their investment in charitable causes. Unprecedented market pressures around “going green” and reduced carbon footprints are also feeding and transforming the once predictable landscape of corporate social responsibility.

There are tremendous advantages to companies and nonprofits as these shifts occur, but the conversation is shifting and evolving. Those who can lead exploratory dialogs from a business rather than beneficiary perspective can create greater outcomes against an array of marketing and business issues whether you reside in the profit or the nonprofit sector.

Cynthia Currence creates a highly interactive session drawing on participant insights and her 30 years of experience in nonprofit marketing.

Key areas covered:
• Rethinking strategic alliances between profit and nonprofit companies…both are businesses
with assets that, when leveraged in the right corporate match, create powerful results for all
parties.

• Exploration of key benefits which shift the discussion to include business opportunities with
bottom line results including cost reductions, increases in revenue and increased mission
results from strategic alliances.

• Assessment to create a structure for building or refreshing alliance criteria in order to select
your best matches with the best contractual agreement for your business needs.

• Understanding of the risks and regulations of strategic alliances with companies.

• Ethical boundaries.

• Advice and tips on negotiating.

From the desk of Karla Brandau, CSP,
Time Management and Microsoft Outlook Expert

Is your organization fighting low morale and financially hard times because of the economic crisis in American and around the world?

Fight back!
You may have to tighten your belt, but refuse to be emotionally and mentally sabotaged by doom and gloom. Yes, these are hard times. Yes, there are still hard times ahead. We will live through 2008 and we will be better because of the experience.

Be proactive!
Increasing the efficiency of your workforce is one easy way to increase productivity during tough economic times when sales are slipping.

To help you increase the efficiency of your employees in these tough times, in collaboration with On the Ribbon, I am offering an excellent tool to teach employees tried and true time management principles AND how to implement those principles in Microsoft Outlook. This is a proven remedy for sluggish performance. For more information, click here www.timeforresults.com.

Be tough!
Overcome the fear that everything in the world will collapse. Fearful people are frozen in place and they don't act. Tough people see and seize opportunities. Seize this opportunity to improve your productivity and the productivity of your employees. The added value is increased return on your investment of the Microsoft Outlook software.

Could you use five extra weeks per year to move your business forward and finish your to-do list? That is entirely possible if you sign up for the time and technology program, It’s Time For Results, hosted right here at On The Ribbon. It’s Time For Results is a program that infuses time management techniques into Microsoft Outlook. One manager who recently went through the program said that just one technique he learned would save him four hours a week. That is 208 hours in a year or five weeks of time every year.

Most people use Microsoft Outlook merely for e-mail and an occasional meeting or appointment. To find five extra weeks of time per year, this manager tapped into the power of Tasks and the prioritizing principles I teach. Outlook Tasks permit you to configure several views including a master task view, a completed tasks view, and a daily task view, enabling you to customize your tasks for your personality and your workload and effectively giving you more time every day.

Some individuals try to work from a running list of tasks. I would recommend keeping a master task list and then from that list, make a daily task list comprised of exactly what you think you can get done today…given of course all of the interruptions and “Please, I need this now” tasks that are thrown at you.

If you are a time-crunched professional, you find out more about the Time For Results program by going to www.timeforresults.com.

Hello everyone,

Peg Titus-Hall here. I’m the new host for LIVE, on-line broadcasts of Tap Your Potential, Tuesday, September 9, at 10 a.m. I’m really excited about this new and amazing venture. It will be a true pleasure interviewing interesting experts who know how to deal with the personal side of small business ownership.

My first guest, Dr. Kimberly Jackson, is a phenomenon in the business arena. At 27, she was an executive vice president of a major corporation. After continuing her stellar work history, she ultimately has become a much-sought-after executive and small business coach.

Coach Kimberly has some remarkable tips for you and your business on the topic on “How to Stay Focused on What Earns You Money!” She’ll also discuss her exciting new books and programs scheduled for release in the next few months. I hope you’ll watch.

“See” y’all Tuesday, September 9, at 10 a.m.—where you can dig deep and tap your potential!

Warm regards, Peg

Do your people frequently have three people waiting to see the, ten telephone messages, fifty e-mails, and twenty IM’s waiting for them in any given hour? Add the need for critical decisions on top priority projects and you get the recipe for a frazzled work day and the need to help your employees “make” time.

Time For Results is a revolutionary new product that helps employees make time. It infuses time management principles into the technology tool of Microsoft Outlook, bringing increased productivity which means more dollars at your discretion for organizational needs.

In a recent Time For Results program, an engineer was ecstatic that the techniques taught would save him at least 4 hours a week. Another attendee, a president of a large contracting firm and an avid Blackberry and Outlook user, stated that the Time For Results program would save him 3-5 hours a week as well. He wanted everyone in his company to have the training.
With the Time For Results program, everyone can find more time.

Compute the benefits: A person who is paid $55,000.00 a year plus benefits, makes about $37.00 an hour. If that person gains just 4 hours a week, as people who have gone through the program testify, that person has given the company a gift of $148.00 worth of more productivity per week. That is a gift of $592.00 per month and $7,104 per year.

By training just 12 people from your organization in the Time For Results program, you have a potential productivity gain of $85,248.00. Would your bottom line like that kind of productivity gain from just 12 people? If so, check out our product at www.TimeForResults.com. The streaming video is hosted right here at The Profitability Channel.

My guest this evening, Jeff Burrows, will be amazing. How do I know this? I just sat, glued to my chair, scrambling to take notes, through a breakfast presentation that Jeff delivered. Not only did Jeff give me food for thought, he gave practical ideas and concepts that I can implement today.

Tonight at 7 PM you have the opportunity to learn from Jeff’s 20+ years of experience working with thousands of small business owners and managers like you. He’ll show you how you can triple your closing rate (no kidding – he’s done it and helped others do it too).

Here’s how to participate in this free program:
At 7 PM Eastern time go to www.profitabilitychannel.com
Click on the Channel Calendar
On the August 19th date, click on Jeff Burrow’s program – 5 Ways to REALLY Increase Sales.

If you miss it live, you can watch it from the library:
Go to www.profitabilitychannel.com
Click on the Library
Click on Jeff Burrow’s Program – 5 Ways to REALLY Increase Sales

See you tonight!

Thanks and have a great day.