Does your company have an email policy? Did you even know there was such a thing? Well, there is, and if your company doesn’t have one you are not only risking the professional image of your firm, but also risking potential liability issues that may arise from the misuse of your company email system.

Having a published email policy accomplishes three objectives.

First, it teaches your employees how to use email in a professional manner. What’s that? You’ve never really given much thought about the emails your employees send out? Well, you should, because ill-composed and unprofessional emails not only reflect on the employee, but on you and your company, as well.

Chances are most of your employees don’t even spell check the emails they send to your customers and partners. Chances are even greater that they are sending other items through your company email system that may get you sued.

Consider this: if one of your male employees sends an email to a female employee that might be considered harassing in nature, you may be judged to be just as liable for damages when her attorney comes calling with harassment suit in hand.

Creating a company email policy also helps lay out the ground rules for personal use of company email. When an employee is on your clock, using your computer equipment, and your network, and your resources they should understand that personal emails should not be sent or received using the company email system.

This can be a hard rule to enforce, given that kids now email their moms at work after school and soccer coaches email everybody, but as a rule, personal use of the company email system should not be allowed.

An effective company email policy also helps cover your corporate backside against liability. Take the example above of the potential harassment suit caused by an insulting email. If your company has a clearly-stated email policy that details what is considered inappropriate, you can minimize the company’s liability by proving that employees were trained in the proper use of email.

If you can prove that employees knew that sending such emails were not acceptable under company policy, your liability can be greatly lessened.

Having a good email policy can also give you a competitive advantage over the competition. As email becomes the professional communication medium of choice, composing professional, thoughtful emails can truly put your company ahead of the pack.

I can tell you from experience that I have actually won contracts simply because the customer was impressed that I replied to his email quickly and professionally. In other words, I’ve made thousands of dollars just because I respond quickly and use a spellchecker. Is this a great country or what?

How do you create an email policy? If you have other existing policies in place, such as those that pertain to business communications, access to confidential materials, personal use of the telephone, sexual harassment, etc. you should be able to establish an email policy using the existing policies as guidelines.

If you need to start from scratch you can still write the policy yourself with a little time and research, however, many companies rely on professional consultants to do the job for them. When you realize the importance of an email policy and understand the ramifications of not having one, you’ll probably agree that its money well-spent.

An email policy doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out document. Most policies are no more than a few pages long, written in plain English that every employee can easily understand.

The key to the success of your company email policy lies in the training of your employees. You can’t just establish a policy and expect everyone to follow blindly. Once the policy is written it should be distributed to employees and can even become part of future employment contracts. Explain the policy to your employees and have them read and sign to signify that they understand and will adhere to the rules.

Many companies are now realizing the importance of email and are putting on training seminars that not only teach their employees how to stick to the policy, but how to compose and respond to emails, as well.

Here’s to your success!

Okay, you’ve decided you want to make money with Affiliate Marketing. So, you join some affiliate programs and start submitting free ads to newsletters and free advertising classifieds sites. You’re going to make BIG money now — right?

Nope! Sorry! Just sending out a few ads is not going to do it. Not if you want to be a real success.

You must first determine your passion. I mean other than making the money! What is your hobby? What do you know how to do REALLY well? What is your job? Everyone has something that is their own special talent. Find yours.

You probably have more than one thing that you are very interested in and do well. See if you can find five (ten if you’re really ambitious). Write them down in a list. Remember, you are going to be spending a lot of time working with this subject. Make sure you enjoy it!

Go down each item on your list. Start writing a rough outline of everything you know about the topic. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. This is just to give you an idea of how much information is available for a given subject.

Try mind mapping. Write down the main subject of your idea. Draw a circle around it. Now, start thinking of sub-categories that are related to your main category. Draw a line from your main category and end it with a circle. Put the sub-category title inside this circle. Find as many sub-categories (and sub-sub-categories) as you can.

Go through each of your interests with this procedure. Choose the one that you know the most about and that you can write about comfortably.

What if you “think” you don’t know enough about your topic? Then, do some research. Read books and magazines. Do some searches on the Internet. Who knows? You might find an area, a niche, that is just waiting for you to fill it with useful information.

There’s a lot more to affiliate marketing, of course. But the first step is to find your passion. Your “passion” doesn’t have to be making money on the Internet. It can be cooking, sewing, billiards, or whatever. In fact, it’s better if you find a niche that isn’t in the online marketing arena because that’s what nearly everyone else is doing.

Make your topic unique. Make it yours. And make it your passion. It will pay you well.

Browse through any management book these days and you’ll be amazed at the number of concepts that have appeared in the last decade: SWOT analysis, business process re-engineering, CRM, competitive advantage, analysis tools, fix-it tools and measuring tools.

One frequently used (and overused) term is strategic planning. Look at any mid-size to large corporation, and we’re sure there’s at least one Vice President for Strategic Planning. If you really think about it, it would suffice to say “planning” because planning implies that there’s some strategy involved. It would also suffice to say “strategizing” simply because it implies that planning is involved.

What makes for good planning in the context of change?

1. Don’t just brainstorm with team members. Jot down ideas that are worth reviewing. Have you ever walked into a room and noticed that meeting attendees are verbalizing, trying to outsmart one another but no one seems to be jotting anything down? When ideas are tossed about, someone should be taking notes. At the end of the day, who is going to remember those ideas to which everyone said “aha!”

By putting discussions into paper, team members can decide at the next session what issues merit a repeat discussion.

2. Organize ideas by starting with the basics. Here’s an example of how you can organize your planning:

Question: What specific change do we want to implement in the customer service department?

Answer: Include another shift to accommodate customers from Asia. This means we need people to work from the hours of 9 pm to 5 am the next day.

Question: How many more people do we need?

Answer: Let’s start with four and see if we need to add to that number.

Question: What languages are we looking at?

Answer: Since China is our biggest market, we need Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. We probably also need people who are fluent in Hindi and Korean.

Question: So how soon do we need to implement this midnight shift?

Answer: In two months &ndash to align it with our product launch in Shanghai.

Question: How much will this cost in terms of manpower and facilities?

Answer: Details will follow, but we’re looking at a ballpark figure of $75,000 a year.

By breaking down discussions into smaller components, it is easier to identify direction and objectives that are realistic. Imagine a situation where team members say, “we need more customer service people” without explaining the how, why, when, where and who.

3. Once the “start-up” information is settled, think of the possible problems and obstacles you’re likely to encounter together with potential solutions. Listing problems is the easy part. The harder task is jotting down possible solutions. Let’s take the example above:

Potential problem # 1: We may be able to recruit people who speak these languages but they have zero experience in customer service:

Possible solutions: (a) recruit them anyway and then train them in customer service, (b) see if there are personnel in your China and India branches who can double up as customer reps (c) outsource the customer service midnight shift to a provider country or (d) ask suppliers and distributors if they can provide a solution.

Potential problem # 2: Management might disallow the $75K budget.

Possible solutions: (a) prepare arguments justifying the cost, (b) come up with actual and projected statistics on how many people from Asia are calling or e-mailing us weekly to ask about the product, (c) how much more sales can we expect if we beef up customer service to exclusively serve Asian customers, (d) do a comparison chart of competitors who already have a customer service department servicing Asia and are doing very well.

4. “Just do it.” One reason why a group fails miserably at executing a plan is that there’s an element of laziness or a waning of enthusiasm when the initial excitement wears off. Taking the same example above, one week has passed and the justification for adding a midnight shift to be sent to management hasn’t been written. When the person assigned to do it is asked why, he says, “oh I found out that Mr. Jones is out of town for three weeks. So I haven’t done it.” What this person fails to understand is that even if Mr. Jones is away, he can get cracking with the arguments and could even send it by e-mail to Mr. Jones. Why wait? Just do it!

5. Assess your plan periodically. Circumstances can force a change of priorities, so looking at the plan from time to time will help you determine if changes need to be made.

You need a plan to work with. A sound plan is one that has foresight and alternatives in the event certain activities don’t work out.

You won’t win every piece of work you pitch for; it’s just not possible…and very time you lose a contract it’s going to a competitor. However, you can help prevent this from happening by analysing the competition.

Why analyse competition? How does this help? It allows you to understand why your competitor looked like a more appropriate fit for your perspective clients needs as well as what they are doing that you aren’t. To get contracts, you need to understand how you lose them.

You need to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. How are they better than you? Do they have more experience? Do they have existing relationships with the client? Figure exactly out their strengths and then do two things.

Firstly, figure out how to turn their strength into a weakness - find a way to twist a positive aspect into a negative one. For example, are they an older company with more experience? Then emphasize that you are more creative, free-thinking and adaptive.

How are they planning to beat you and other competitors? Ghost their strengths in your proposal and try and downplay their importance to the client, instead emphasising the importance of your unique selling points. Where your competitor is weak emphasise what you can do in those areas. Make sure you explain how you excel above what is normally expected.

The internet makes doing competitor research remarkably easy. You can browse a corporate website or, if using an outsourcing site, you may be able to view previous contract history. If they do any type of advertising, weather offline or on, you can review and research the marketing information they use. It’s not hard to find out something about how they position themselves, any legitimate business will do some sort of self promotion that you can find. This knowledge is invaluable to helping you grow and achieve better contracts.

With the Learn to Write Proposals (.learntowriteproposals.co.uk) Bid Management Toolkit you will find the Competitor Evaluation Matrix to help perform and document your competitive analysis as part of your bid preparation.

Another great idea is to get feedback from previous opportunities you have lost. Quite often, companies will be more than happy to discuss why you ultimately lost out. These opportunities are one of the best ways to understand what the bidder liked in the winners bid and the weaknesses in yours.

Q: How important is the name of a business? Should the name of a business reflect what the business does or is it better to come up with something catchy and easy to remember?

– Randy P.

A: What’s in a name? When it comes to your business, Randy, a lot more than you might think. In fact, deciding on a business name is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The right business name can help you rise above the crowd while the wrong business name can leave you trampled in the rush.

With the economy in a slump and competition on the rise, now more than ever it is important that you put considerable thought into coming up with the perfect name for your business.

Unfortunately, this is a task that is easier said than done. It seems like all the good business names are either married or… no wait, that’s a different subject, but the analogy holds true.

We live in an age when a business called “The Body Shop” might repair wrecked cars or sell skintight jeans to teenagers, so before you send your letterhead to the printer, consider the following points to help you select the business name that’s right for you.

The first thing you should do is conduct a little research to determine if the name is already in use by someone else. You would be surprised at how many entrepreneurs forget to research this point and open a business with a name that is already in use. Check with the county clerk and the secretary of state to make sure the name isn’t already licensed for use or incorporated with the state. Also check with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to see if the name is already trademarked, i.e., owned, by someone else. Using another company’s trademarked name exposes you to legal action by the trademark owner. Even if your name is just similar to the trademarked name, you may find yourself in court defending your right to use the name. And odds are it’s a battle you will lose.

If the name you choose is not in use, you should immediately reserve the name with the secretary of state (if you plan on incorporating) and apply for a trademark to ensure your legal ownership. If you do not trademark the name someone can come along later and attempt to steal the name out from under you. Imagine spending years building up your business only to have some upstart trademark the name and engage you in a legal battle over rightful ownership. This is one fight you don’t need, especially when the hassle could have been easily avoided with a few bucks and a few forms.

Another important thing to consider is the domain name for your business. The domain name is the website address a customer will use to find you on the Web. Is the domain name for your business name available? If not, is there a domain similar to the business name you’re considering?

You will undoubtedly discover that securing a suitable domain name is actually harder than choosing a business name. Most logical domain names are already reserved, but you might get lucky. Keep in mind that domain names should be short and descriptive, and preferably have the .com or .net extension. You can use other extensions (I’ve even used the “.to” extension on occasion) if necessary, just keep in mind that you will need to put forth a little extra marketing effort to promote the website address as people typically assume a .com extension as the norm. Whatever you do, don’t use a domain name that is a confusing amalgam of letters and numbers that is hard to remember and even harder for your customer to type in.

One good way to approach the task of naming a business is to do so from your customer’s point of view. Your business name should clearly define your offering and communicate your message to customers. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. If you were looking for a business that provides your product or service, what would you expect that business to be called? If you were in the market for computer parts, for example, wouldn’t you look for a business that has “computer parts” reflected in the business name? Jim’s Computer Parts may not sound as snazzy as Jim’s Electronics Emporium, but snazzy doesn’t pay the bills. Happy customers who quickly identify you as the source of their purchase do.

The name of your business can also spark subconscious reactions in a customer that may drive them to you or drive them away. Words like quality, complete, executive, best, low-cost, and on time often spark positive reactions in the mind of the consumer. Words like cheap, discount, and used tend to create negative emotions. You’ll notice that no one claims to sell used cars anymore, but the dealer lots are loaded with vehicles that are “previously owned.”

Finally, let’s talk about things to avoid. Experts agree that you should avoid using generic terms like enterprise, corporation, partners, and unlimited as part of your everyday business name. These terms are fine for the legal business entity name, but are often too unclear for everyday use. Can you tell me what any of these companies do: ABC Corporation, Big Dog Enterprises, M&B Partners, and Discounts Unlimited sell? I didn’t think so.

Also avoid abstract names like Yahoo, Google, Monster and Flip Dog (I am not going to list the names of the numerous local high tech firms that have bucked this rule :o). Abstract names will require a subtitle to explain what the business does or an expensive marketing campaign that brands the name into the minds of consumers. Unless you have deep pockets, I suggest you go with a name that describes your business at first glance and leave abstraction to the likes of Cher.

Finally, you should avoid hokey names, unless of course, you are starting a hokey business. Crazy Dave’s Stereo Shop is a great name if the business is really run by Crazy Dave and his personality is exploited in the marketing of the business.

However, if you want to be taken serious, then give your business a serious name.

Would you go to Crazy Dave’s House of Dentistry?

Neither would I.

Here’s to your success.

Laminators are not longer just being used in large office buildings or printing plants. Today many people are opting for a home laminator that preserves and protects a wide range of important paper products. Schools have also gotten in the laminating swing of things by creating colourful and lasting memories of the children’s projects, self-made books and other artwork. Take a look at some of the many uses for laminators.

Where to Use a Desk Top Laminator

Desk top laminators are a popular addition to home offices because of their many uses. They generally take sheets of laminating film and can laminate projects as large as 9” x 12”. Some home laminator models are cool touch on the outside so they are safe even for children to use themselves. The finished project comes through the system cool as well so little hands can handle them right away.

Here’s a list of some popular items to laminate at home:

1. Recipe cards

2. IDs and Social Security Cards

3. Important documents such as birth certificates and marriage licenses.

4. Book marks

5. Children’s flash cards and study aids

6. Family chore charts

7. Children’s homemade placemats

8. Photographs

9. A babysitter’s contact and checklist

10. Papers with poems, quotes, or lists of any kind.

There are also many home business applications for a desktop laminator. You can laminate business cards or phone lists. If you use supplies in your business an inventory reorder list or documentation for procedures can be preserved month after month.

Industrial Sized Laminators

The larger, industrial laminating machines are able to take large rolls of laminating film which allows you to laminate continuously with foot after foot of durable plastic. The extra wide width also accommodates extra large projects. Many businesses such as printers will laminate printed materials for their customers on these machines. Some examples are menus, book covers or charts. These laminators use high heat for a lasting seal.

Making Efficient Use of Your Laminator

If you are still questioning whether or not you would actually use a laminator, remember that smaller projects can be lumped together to save time and money.

If you have several small photos, for example, that you want to laminate, you can place as many as will fit on a 9” x 12” sheet together and send them on one pass through the laminating machine. Just be sure to leave enough space between each item and the edge of the sheet for a good, strong seal of film to film.

When trimming your laminated project, leave between 1/8 and

There are two kinds of capital: debt and equity. Both kinds are typically used by a company during its lifetime. Lenders have different objectives than investors and therefore look at different factors about a company when deciding whether or not to invest or make a loan.

Debt

Debt is money borrowed, which must be repaid at a set time period and generates income for the lender over that time period. Lending sources include not only banks, but also leasing companies, factoring companies and even individuals.

Lending sources look primarily at two factors: how risky the loan is; and whether the company can generate sufficient cash to pay the interest and repay the principal. The growth potential of the company is secondary; the primary considerations are the track record and asset base of the company. Usually the debt must be secured against the assets of the company and very commonly must also be secured against the assets of the owner of the company, also called a personal

guarantee.

Assets of the company are not usually given full book value in securing a loan. In other words, if your inventory has a book value of $50,000 (or it cost you $50,000 to produce that inventory) a lending source will only give you 50% to 75% of that value. The reason being is that the lending source is not in your business and would have to quickly liquidate the inventory, rather than selling it at market prices.

Accounts receivable, or money that is owed to you from customers who have previously purchased your product but not paid for it yet, are also discounted. Using the same example, $50,000 worth of accounts receivable may only be worth 60% to 70% of that value to the lending source. Customers may not pay the full amount owed, or feel they have to pay for the product at all, if an outside lending source is demanding payment. And so on…with equipment, land, buildings, furniture, fixtures and what ever other assets the company has, the same general rule applies.

The lender often requests that the personal assets of the owner of the company are pledged as a contingency and as a gesture of faith by the owner. Obviously, if the owner of the company does not believe in his/her own company’s ability to repay the loan, why should the lending source?

Equity

Equity capital is money given for a share of ownership of the company. Equity can be provided by individual investors, sometimes known as “angels”, venture capital companies, joint venture partners, and the sweat equity and capital contribution of the founders of the company. Equity providers are more interested in the growth potential of the company. Their objective is to invest an amount now and reap the rewards of a 5 to 1, or even 10 to 1, payoff in three to five years. In other words $100,000 now will be worth $1,000,000 in three years if invested in the right company.

Since the objectives of investors are different from lenders, the factors they evaluate in determining whether to invest are different from lending sources. Investors like to put money in companies that have the potential for rapid growth. Growth potential is based on the quality of management of the company, product brand strength, barriers of entry to competitors and size of the market for the product.

So Debt Or Equity Capital?

The answer is dependent on the answers to several questions: Why does the company require additional capital? What stage is the company at? What is the financial condition of the company? How much capital is required? What constraints will the financing source put on the day-to-day operations of the company? And finally, what impact will the financing source have on the ownership of the company?

Why Does The Company Require Additional Capital?

The reasons funds are required, or how they will be put to use, may lend themselves more to debt than to equity or vice versa. Debt is often a source of funds for the day-to-day operations of the company or to refinance a current loan. Expansion capital can be debt or equity. Start up funds most often come from equity sources. A turnaround situation, refinancing a delinquent loan, covering a deficit in revenues, could be either, but in these cases the financing will come with a high price.

What Stage Is The Company At?

Companies grow through several different stages: seed, start-up, first stage, and second stage. The stage of the company can be an indicator of the risk involved. While neither debt nor equity would be prohibited at any stage, the older and more established the company is, usually the less risky it is.

Seed Stage–the idea for a product or company is in the mind of the founder, but there is still substantial research and development necessary to determine whether the idea is viable.

Start-up–the company has a business plan, a defined product, and basic structure, but little or no revenues are being generated. The product may still be just a prototype.

First Stage–the product is either ready for market, or is generating some revenues. The structure of the company is in place.

Second Stage–full scale production. The company’s product has been selling and accepted by the marketplace. The company is ready for a major national introduction of the product or introduction of a second product.

Established–the company has been operating successfully for at least three years.

Turnaround– the company has been operating for a number of years but is underperforming. A hard turnaround refers to a company that is not only underperforming, but has been in a cash deficit position with little hope of returning to a positive position without major restructuring.

What Is The Financial Condition Of The Company?

In certain situations the company’s financial condition will suggest one kind of capital over the other. If the company needs all its cash to fund its growth, then a loan is not feasible, because the company could not afford interest and principal payments. If the company just needs a line of credit to fund a cyclical increase in orders, then it doesn’t make sense to bring in an equity investor.

A lender looks at the asset base to secure a loan, and the cash that has been generated to pay the interest. They also look at what other debt or liabilities the company has and very often the debts and liabilities of the owner(s). The old adage that it’s easiest to get a loan when you don’t need one is close to the truth. A strong balance sheet, top heavy on cash, and light on the side of liabilities is easier to finance.

Investors look at how healthy the company is by reviewing trends in the operating statements and the balance sheet. A company that has demonstrated a positive trend in the past is looked upon favorably. However, the future outlook for the company’s product and market is just as important to an investor as the past performance. A company with a somewhat shaky past in a currently booming industry is probably preferable to an equity investor than a great performance in the past in an industry that’s on the downslide.

But what if your company is a start-up and doesn’t have much, if any, history? Then other factors will be reviewed such as:

How much money the owners contributed to the company.

How strong is the management team.

How dedicated to success is the management team.

What other proprietary assets might be available such as patents, trademarks, goodwill, etc.

What barriers to entry to the marketplace are there?

While both debt and equity come at a price, the company must generate enough cash to repay the principal of the loan and the ongoing interest expense. Equity does not have to be repaid according to a fixed schedule. Equity investors are seeking long-term returns.

How Much Capital Is Required?

A small amount of capital required for a short time is not often an attractive situation to either traditional debt or equity sources. Lenders are not interested in loans that cost them as much in processing as in the income that can be generated. Investors feel that the due diligence required to fund a small amount of capital is nearly the same as that to fund a much larger amount.

On the other hand a very large amount of capital may only be obtainable if broken into stages that are funded based on achieving performance levels. For example: you have an idea for a diagnostic test that would be a medical breakthrough and revolutionize the treatment of all disease as we now know it. But you need $3.5 million to get the product ready to market. The initial funding may be as little as $50,000 to perform a literature and patent search to see if anyone else is working on the same idea and to determine the size of the market demand for the product. If the search shows that no one else is working on the idea, and the market is every doctor’s office worldwide, the second stage of $500,000 could be available to acquire lab equipment, hire lab technicians for six months, and hire consultants to develop a business and marketing plan. If the lab technicians develop a prototype test apparatus by the end of the six months, then $1,000,000 more could be available to develop a working prototype and patent it. When the working prototype is patented then $750,000 would be available to obtain FDA approval and independent tests.

What Constraints Will The Financing Source Put On The Day-To-Day Operations Of The Company?

You must consider how the financing source may limit the company’s operations. Loan covenants often restrict what the company can do with excess cash. They can also put limits on how much the company can spend, and on what type of expenditures, as well as demanding that the company maintain certain balances in their accounts, collect their receivable within certain limits, even determine the credit policies that the company extends to its customers. The company may not be able to take advantage of some opportunities because of these restrictions.

Equity investors can demand the same restrictions and in addition require that they have veto power in certain instances, or expenditure approval, even if they are in a minority ownership position.

What Impact Will The Financing Have On The Ownership Position?

The last issue and probably the most important one is, how will the owners react to having their ownership and management control diluted. An investor can often contribute experience and management expertise, as well as money, and has a vested interest in the success of your company. A lending source has no impact on the company (other than any loan covenants discussed above); its primary objective is to be repaid.

So Debt Or Equity? The choice is yours.