Digg it UP - Business

Entrepreneurs– Got A Great Business And Want To Capitalize As Quickly As Possible? Exit Strategies
Many business owners either with a new or established business are seeking to capitalize on their hard work and move onto other things. Some entrepreneurs are seeking capital from angel investors and need to provide suitable exit strategies within their business plans.Please remember that venture capitalists are seeking high returns in exchange for their high risk investment. Many of them expect your company to go public within a short time frame.Angel investors are not so concerned with you going public, but are still looking for a quick and high rate of return on their investment. They are not as sophisticated as venture capitalists or institutional investors and are more likely to wish to be in your business.Here are a few ideas for you.If you have no investors and merely wish to exit yourself from your business. Investors do not accept these exit strategies as being very professional.Sell: The most obvious option if you have a viable business.Asset Strip: You can pay yourself a huge salary and sell off all viable components of the business. It could be that this is a more profitable option than selling your business as a going concern.Minimize the Business: If time is your problem then just restrict your trading hours and/or product line. Outsourcing some areas of the business will give you more time.Liquidation: Cease trading, pay off your debts and sell your assets. Close the doors and walk away with your memories and stories.Give you

agement levels often results in (1) being "out of touch" with critical events, or (2) the lack of understanding of the size, scope, and technical aspects of the project, and subsequently, the lack of proper commitment of time and resources required for a successful implementation. The result is a failure waiting to happen.

(2) Inadequate Requirements Definition
Surveys have shown that inadequate definition of functional requirements accounts for nearly 60% of ERP implementation failures. This is simply a matter of not comprehensively and systematically developing a quality set of functional requirements definitions. This leads to the second greatest cause of ERP implementation failures: poor package selection.

(3) Poor ERP Package Selection
Poor package selection occurs when a company has inadequately deve

Progressive Business for Student Entrepreneurs
Let’s imagine for a moment that you are in your middle thirties, an established businessman, and are looking to start a new company. What do you do? You write a business plan, pitch it to investors, get everything ready, announce a grand opening and ribbon cutting, and in that instant your business has begun.That is great way to work, but for students it is a hard act to follow. First, we don’t have a lot of to organize a business much less run it. Can you imagine putting a sign in your window that says, “Open Monday,Wednesday, Friday from 1:006:30.” How much business would you get? In reality though, while balancing school, social life, and studies you wouldn’t have much more time than that to work. That is why I believe in a principle called progressive business.Basically progressive business is like dating. When you first meet someone you don’t kneel down and propose on the spot. You start slow and slowly get deeper and deeper and build a strong relationship. With progressive business you start small, spending very little money, and then expand as you earn . Expanding allows you to earn more money which allows you to grow again. Each step takes you from one phase to the next until you have a mature business.Progressive business allows a student to start a business with very little money. This first step creates a type of flexibility so the entrepreneur can test the market and still tweak his business, services, or products, to match the demand and grow based on the market that will help him or her make the most m

Introduction

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) is an outgrowth of Material Requirements Planning (MRP) initiated in the 1970's as a new computer-based approach to planning and scheduling of material requirements and inventory, featuring the time-phased order point. MRP evolved to MRP II (Material Resources Planning) the "closed loop" process, to Business Requirements Planning (BRP) and eventually to ERP. As MRPII came into vogue in the late 1970's and early 1980's, software companies began to develop software packages around MRPII concepts.

At the same time, research of integrated data bases was in progress at a university, and out of that research emerged data base management systems (DBMS). One of the earliest successful commercially-produced data base management systems was IDMS (for IBM-based systems) and DBMS (for DEC-based systems) produced by Cullinane, who's company name was later changed to Cullinet. IMS, a structured data base management system for high transactions, was another data base management system produced by IBM.

The idea of the integrated data base as the engine for fully integrated software was probably one of the greatest outgrowths of Ollie Wight's and Dave Goddard's MRP. Eventually, the acronym ERP was conceived to represent what had already been developed by software companies.

The early software packages were developed by way of a transactional approach, and were highly unfriendly to a user. With the advent of the personal computers, the development of Microsoft's Windows NT, and the mid-range IBM AS/400 computer, client-server systems began to emerge. Windows, used as the base operating system, allowed software packages to become more and more user-friendly.

Today, ERP systems have proliferated extensively, and have reached a stage where development has become industry specific. Thus it is plausible to search for an ERP package developed for one's specific industry idiosyncracies.

The Issues

The biggest single issue in ERP is the failure of a successful implementation. It is mind-boggling to continually encounter companies who make major ERP gaffes in this day and age, especially since most of the trials and tribulations of MRPII implementation were suffered and learned from in the early 1980's with alpha, beta and gamma releases.

So what constitutes failure? Several thing come to mind:
(1) Not making the promised return on investment,
(2) Inordinately extending the implementation schedule and start-up date,
(3) Running over budget by unconscionable variances,
(4) Grinding the organization to a crawl pace, or the severest of all consequences,
(5) Stopping production and/or not delivering orders to your customers.

Industry statistics show that >60% of ERP implementation starts historically fail. Does this mean that you are doomed from the start? Of course not, if you learn from the mistakes of others. So the pertinent question is what are the main causes of ERP failure and what can be done to prevent this from happening to you?

The 12 Cardinal Sins of ERP Implementation

There are twelve major reasons for why companies get bogged down or fail in implementing ERP.

(1) Lack of Top Management Commitment
The propensity of top management to delegate the oversight of an ERP implementation to lower management levels often results in (1) being "out of touch" with critical events, or (2) the lack of understanding of the size, scope, and technical aspects of the project, and subsequently, the lack of proper commitment of time and resources required for a successful implementation. The result is a failure waiting to happen.

(3) Poor ERP Package Selection
Poor package selection occurs when a company has inadequately devel

How To Start A Business
"I want my own business, but where do I begin?" You asked.The first requirement for any business is to have a product or service. How will, for example, your service or product be better or different from its current counter-part? Do you provide something others forgot? You pay more attention to detail?What makes my critiquing service more personalized?I address any, all issues. I tune into the small, not yet a problem situation. I rather handle it early, before a full blown crisis.It is less stressful plus customers prefer smooth running projects.A client sent me a certain type of bond paper to use for ghostwriting. Yes, it is one of my services. The end result would not look professional once it was typed and printed. So, I purchased what was needed at my expense. Re-peat business outweighs a few dollars spent. I sent a sample of twenty-five pages for the client's approval. She was pleased.If a mistake sneaks by, remedy it as quickly as possible.Define your market. Who has an interest in your product or service? A way to find out is to visit forums. See what people need or want. Will your product or service have a chance at success? Discuss your wares while there.Start a blog. The theme should show-case your product or service.Open a free blogging account at: blogger.com. You have control over who has access to it.My blog account is at blogger.com. The link: http://critiqueandwrite.blogspot.com.I address where

C-based systems) produced by Cullinane, who's company name was later changed to Cullinet. IMS, a structured data base management system for high transactions, was another data base management system produced by IBM.

The Issues

The 12 Cardinal Sins of ERP Implementation

There are twelve major reasons for why companies get bogged down or fail in implementing ERP.

(3) Poor ERP Package Selection
Poor package selection occurs when a company has inadequately deve

Electrical Jobs: Power Generation Operators or Plant Technicians
Power generation operators or plant operators are at the source of the electricity production controlling the machinery that generates electricity. Power generation operators are in charge of the control and monitoring of boilers, turbines, generators, and auxiliary equipment in power-generating plants. In detail, it means that these plant technicians have to distribute power demands among generators, combine the current from several generators, and monitor instruments to maintain voltage and regulate electricity flow from the plant. If the power requirements change, power generation operators have to start or stop generators and connect or disconnect them from circuits.For the operators working in plants with automated control systems, their work is mostly done in a central control room and they are typically called control room operators or control room operator trainees or assistants. Whereas in older plants, since the control for systems are not automated, switchboard operators have to control the flow of electricity from a central point and equipment operators have to work throughout the plant to operate and monitor the machinery that generates electricity including valves, switches, and gauges.How does one become a power generation operator? For the students who want a career in this field, it requires a high school diploma but those who have attended college-level courses and had prior experience in a mechanical or technical job will be preferred. As with most entry-level operators, you will start first as helpers or

to become more and more user-friendly.

The Issues

The 12 Cardinal Sins of ERP Implementation

There are twelve major reasons for why companies get bogged down or fail in implementing ERP.

(3) Poor ERP Package Selection
Poor package selection occurs when a company has inadequately deve

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? Using A Little Math To Make Your Presentations Sizzle!
The agenda states an end time of 2:00 pm, and yet it is 2:10 and the guy is still droning on with only 52 more slides to go in his presentation!You are told that you will have 30 minutes to present and now you show up and find out your time has been cut to 20 minutes because the person before you went over time.As the band, Chicago sings, “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care about time?” Start your next meeting with this song and then share this mathematical formula to help the speakers for the next time.The average person speaks 150-200 words per minute. During a presentation we should slow that pace down to about 125 words per minute to allow for better enunciation, interaction and clarity. If you are asked to speak for 15 minutes, do the math…15 times 125 equals 1,875 words…period! Type up what you want to say and then do a word count (go to TOOLS menu and select WORD COUNT). This will let you know how long you will need to cover this information.When people ask me how many slides they should have in a 15 minute presentation, I say, “It depends.” How many words are you going to say on each slide? Sit down at your laptop and type out verbatim what you think you will say with each slide. Of course you are not going to bring this typed transcript up and read it, but it will tell you where you need to cut or add more detail.If you have 30 minutes of material prepared, ask yourself what you would cut if they took you down to 20 minutes. What would you cut if you ha

3) Running over budget by unconscionable variances,
(4) Grinding the organization to a crawl pace, or the severest of all consequences,
(5) Stopping production and/or not delivering orders to your customers.

The 12 Cardinal Sins of ERP Implementation

There are twelve major reasons for why companies get bogged down or fail in implementing ERP.

(3) Poor ERP Package Selection
Poor package selection occurs when a company has inadequately deve

What Questions Should I Ask During an Interview?
What are good questions to ask during an interview is a good question in itself, and one that always comes up when a conscientious person is preparing for a big job interview. The fact that a person even wonders that sets them apart from the crowd of applicants and means that he or she is a proactive individual, intent on making a good impression and proper presentation of skills and experience.The best question to ask, according to many human resource management professionals, is “what can I do to benefit the company?” This question shows a good, positive attitude and will lead the HR manager to think of you as a go getter and team player and the type of individual the company needs.The worst question to ask would be anything that makes you, as an applicant, appear to be selfish or self centered. A bad interview question would be a question related to vacation, pay or raises too early in the interview. It is best to first establish that there could be a good ongoing professional relationship between you as an employee and the company as an employer before getting into the details. Of course vacation, raises and starting pay are important to you, and the answers will come in good time, but it is best to show the interviewer that you will be a team player who thinks of the good of the company and the team.When interviewing remember that the HR manager or other decision maker you are interviewing with has been through the process dozens of times, if not hundreds. The decision maker may be a little bored, and is l

(3) Poor ERP Package Selection
Poor package selection occurs when a company has inadequately developed functional requirements definitions. It also occurs when staff members assigned to ERP projects do not take the time to run the screens of the new system, as they would during their daily work tasks, to find out if the software package features are adequate for their needs.

Another reason we have found is executives, familiar with an ERP system from a last job they held, implement the same system in their new company without defining functional requirements. We have also encountered companies who made major gaffes by selecting a package at the top levels of a company without intimately knowing its characteristics. What often results from this is the ERP package doesn't fit the organizational needs, or that the package selected takes longer to process daily work tasks.

We have also seen executives select a distribution package for a manufacturing environment, or a manufacturing package for a distribution environment, for obscure reason, such as liking one salesman over another.

(4) Inadequate Resources
The third greatest reason for ERP implementation failures is inadequate resources. Many companies will attempt to "save dollars" by doing everything on an overtime basis, whether or not there are adequate skills within the company, extending individual work loads to 150%. This approach can be a "kiss of death" for the program. Time and time again we run across this mistake in ERP implementations. The financial and emotional drain of what seems sometimes to be perpetual extensions, reschedules and delays of implementations takes its toll. People burn out after having put in extensive hours over a long period of time.

(5) Resistance to Change/Lack of Buy-in
The lack of a change management approach as part of the program can prevent a program from succeeding. Resistance to change is quite often caused by (1) A failure to build a case for change, (2) Lack of involvement by those responsible for working with changed processes (3) Inadequate communication (4) Lack of visible top management support and commitment, and (5) Arrogance. A lack of buy-in often results from not getting end-users involved in the project from the very start, thereby negating their authorship and ownership of the new system and processes.

(6) Miscalculation of Time and Effort
Another cause of ERP implementation failure is the miscalculation of effort and time it will take to accomplish the project. Companies who treat an ERP selection, evaluation and implementation comparable to buying a washing machine are doomed to failure.

(7) Misfit of Application Software with Business Processes
One of the main causes of ERP implementation failure is the misfit of application software with the company business processes. This failure -- to examine underlying business process flaws, and integrate the applications with the business processes, causes loss of productivity and time, and ultimate benefits.

(8) Unrealistic Expectation of Benefits and ROI
Another significant cause for ERP implementation failure is the unrealistic expectation of benefits and return on investment. Software providers are notorious for overstating the benefits in terms of ROI, when the total costs of the project have been understated. Often left out of the total costs are costs of planning, consulting fees, training, test

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Need to reduce the cost of doing business? Electronic check recovery and consolidation can dramatically lower operational expenses. This has great applicability to schools, colleges and universities that receive an over-abundance of bounced checks.

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