Shiyo

An opportunity should never be bought into. By definition, an opportunity is something that people will never sell you. From franchises to swamp land in Florida, to patents and inventions, it makes no difference. Theres nothing wrong with any of the things mentioned, however if somebody is trying to sell you these things, then they are not opportunities by definition.

An opportunity is an advantage that you can see that others cannot. I dont care about the dictionary definition, this is the real world definition. Opportunities are free. They dont cost money to observe. Of course I dont mean they wont cost you money, you may need some money to act on it. But if you are paying money so somebody can sell it to you (a sales commission) You should run for the hills.

So, getting back to my definition of an opportunity.

“Its an advantage that you can see that others cannot”

So what that means is that you have vision while others do not. We are awash with money around us. Money or “value” is everywhere. As “Hayden Muller” says, “it permeates our lives like oxygen” The difficulty is not finding opportunity. It is literally everywhere all the time. We are suffering from snow blindness if we still work for a living when such abundance is around us in our every day lives.

The difficulty is not money either. Having access to a few hundred dollars is all you need to take advantage of a million daily opportunities that present themselves in our daily lives. Anyone with some determination can find that much.

No, the real difficulty is knowledge, or education. Its what seperates action from indifference. The question becomes, “so what?” “so what if I took this opportunity and made a few dollars, what next?” You see, without education, opportunities are meaningless. They lead now-where because we lack vision. Don’t worry, I lacked plenty of vision myself.

Today you could drop me out of the sky into any free city on the Planet with nothing but the shirt on my back and I would be living well within 3 months and be financially secure within 2-4 years. I know I can do that because my vision tells me I easily could.

Put me in the middle of New York, I would immediately find markets to deal in. Even before I found a place to sleep, I would begin learning about what free markets are available and what they most want and need. I would quickly establish contacts with suppliers and retailers to become the “middle man” my favourite place to be.

Within a week, I would have a few hundred dollars saved. I would use those funds and pyramid my purchases for faster and faster turn over until I had enough to buy small assets that are in high demand. Cars, boats, anything that was being sold that I could find really cheaply. My charm and good looks would make sure I got the best deals and sold them for the highest price (winks)

Charm and good looks aside, the one thing you need is a clarion plan. A master plan that gets you from A to B

Making money with no money is easy and rudimentry. Its the opportunities you spot that makes the real difference. But really its the propensity to take action that delivers the results. Before you can take that action, you need to know where you are going.

Your situation is alot better then the scenario I presented above. You live in a place where you know. You have intimate knowledge of the markets available already present. You have skills and have contacts already that can be of use.

Get a quick short education and go to it. Your first million is not as difficult as you may imagine.

May success find you fast and knowledge find you sooner.

About the author: Jack Reynolds is Operations manager for http://www.opportunity-investor.com. Jack is a professional investor who trades in real estate, Art, Precious Stones and Sea going Vessels. He has followed Martin Thomas his mentor and CEO of the company for over 5 years and has managed to accumulate a large fortune during this time.

“Where do you get all your energy?” That’s a question many of us are asked as we finish leading an intense management retreat, conducting a training session, or keynoting a major conference. My answer, after I jokingly say, “Drugs!” is “Exercise”.

I’ve realized that some of the lessons learned in a physical fitness program are appropriate for our personal and professional growth and have also have application in the training room.

Cross train. It’s essential for continual improvement. We all get into our ruts, doing the same routines over and over again and wondering why we don’t see any improvement. The body (as well as the mind) slips into neutral. Cross- training challenges different parts of our physical structure. We have to learn a new way of holding weights, of balancing, of breathing. We gain a new appreciation for a different skill set. The parallels in organizational behavior are immediate.

Hydrate. The body demands water when it is being physically taxed. So too does the brain. Notice I didn’t say “coffee”. Just plain old clear water. Water might not be our favorite beverage but hydration actually helps our endurance. No wonder we want pitchers of water in our training rooms!

Push beyond your barriers. There are two kinds of barriers; those imposed by others and those imposed by ourselves. The latter are the most restrictive. I finally took a spinning class. This class uses a stationery bike that can be adjusted to tighten or loosen the gears. I can literally feel like I am pedaling up Mt. Everest or cruising along the beach sand. It’s the hardest class I have ever taken. I love and hate it. And I go because it makes me push against what my mind says “you can’t do”. Now, I’m NOT going to challenge Lance Armstrong. My body DOES know its limits. But I AM doing that which I said I could not. It’s a thrill!

End performance anxiety. Walk into a gym and you see the jocks who grunt and lift huge weights vying with their buddies for the most reps. Go to a class and you’ll see the double-stepping, dance-twirling footwork of some double-jointed exerciser. If you try that move, you’ll twist your knee and land in surgery. We are not built alike. While pushing beyond barriers, also know that each one of us has specific abilities. To demand that I hop and dance like the knee-torking guy in the front row is ludicrous. I am here to improve my body-not resemble theirs!

Talk is cheating. At my gym, there are members who spend most of their time swapping war stories and giving updates on current sport matches. Instead of working out, they talk. And then, they’ll ALSO talk about how hard they worked out. I call that cheating. Stick to the task at hand. Action ALWAYS is louder than words

Get a trainer. We can’t see our postures with free weights. We don’t know what different exercise might improve a specific problem area. And we don’t always stick to a regimen unless we’re accountable to someone besides ourselves. Call it a coach, an advisor, a mentor-whatever. But all of us can benefit from the advise and new eyes of someone outside of ourselves.

Celebrate your success. I admit: I despised exercise when I started. But I KNEW that I had to begin. I set a goal of 3 exercise times per week-30 minutes to start. Every time I exercised, I put a sticker in my appointment book. Yes-a fun sticker: animal, cartoon face, flower, you name it. Amazing but my appointment book began to blossom with crazy kid stickers. I could literally see progress every week. When beginning any new behavior, we all know that rewards are important. Stickers are cheap and visual. Whatever the reward, it’s the consistency of the giving that matters.

Workplace workouts, in the context of learning, can promise growth, stamina, productivity, AND ultimately profitable performance.

(c) 2004, McDargh Communications. All rights in all media reserved.

About the author: Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE is head of McDargh Communications, a training and consulting practice founded in 1980. She’s also an award-winning author, radio commentator, and on the Board of the National Speakers Association. Eileen can be reached at http://www.EileenMcDargh.com.

As a professional entertainer with over 20 years experience entertaining at prestigious events in which my audiences have included Movie Stars, Celebrities, U.S. Presidents, Politicians, International Royalty and the Social Elite, I have had the opportunity to see what makes some of these “high end” events successful and others flops, and I would like to share this information with you.

First let me say that it interests me to see how much time money and effort is spent on arranging the food, the centerpieces and the location and how secondary the choice of entertainment seems to be. Let me state something important right now: THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN AFFECT THE SUCCESS OF YOUR PARTY, DINNER, CONVENTION, EVENT OR YOUR PERSONAL REPUTATION AS THE ENTERTAINMENT YOU CHOOSE — so please make your choices carefully! To put it simply: Good entertainment will be remembered long after the food is gone. (Don’t believe me? When was the last time you heard someone rave about a steak they had at an event three weeks ago?) For this reason, entertainment buying can be a daunting task. So just how do you find the right entertainment to make your event successful?

I will not go into detail about hiring bands or DJ’s — although many of the tips I will recommend here will apply to these entertainers as well. Generally, bands and DJ’s are considered “dance and background” entertainment and although important, they will not affect the outcome of your event as much as a professional act or solo entertainer can. People can still have fun with an “adequate” Band or DJ. As long as they play appropriate and pleasant music at the right times, it will not seriously affect the outcome of the event. On the other hand, an “entertainer” who presents consistent and successful shows can literally have your audience laughing, cheering, beaming with compliments and talking about your event WEEKS LATER and that is what I want to guide you to find. So let’s discuss how to find the best entertainer for your event.

There are two ways to find entertainment: One is to contact a reputable entertainment agency. The other is to hire an entertainer independently. You will find both entertainers and agents in the same way — either by recommendation, yellow page advertising, entertainment directories, internet sites or by direct contact. Choosing to use an agent or hiring an act directly can be done with equal success if approached properly.

I have worked with entertainment agencies for many years and have nothing but praise for the reputable ones. A reputable agent has a list or “roster” of suitable entertainers. If you do not know what kind of entertainer you would like, a reputable agent can help direct you to the right performer. Be warned though that the agent will limit his suggestions to the roster of entertainers he or she represent — which may or may not include the best or most appropriate entertainers. Because the agent handles more than one performer, he will only have a “rough idea” of what each entertainer can do and because of the vast number of entertainers he represents, it is not uncommon for him to unintentionally misrepresent what the act is capable of doing. If you select the right entertainment agency, an agency you can trust or have worked with successfully in the past, you will be able to choose from a variety of different types of entertainers which will be suitable for your event.

If you know or have at least an idea of what type of entertainment you want, hiring a solo entertainer or an act (consisting of more than one performer) can be advantageous. Being able to speak with the performer directly, he can tell you much more specific information about his act than an agent can. He can recommend specific routines for your particular audience and can let you know from experience where in your evening his entertainment would best fit. The entertainer can work closely with you to tailor the show to fit your particular event. Please be aware though that as a rule, if you saw a performer entertain at a previous event where he was contracted through an agent and you wish to hire him or her for your event, ethically, he must go through that agency unless he has agreed with that agent otherwise.

Whether you choose to go through an entertainment agency or through the act directly, ask to receive a COMPLETE PROMOTIONAL PACKET or at the very least a brochure. This should include any or all of the following: a photo (or photos), a biography, a list of credentials including places he or she has performed, a list of clients he or she has successfully entertained, a variety of newspaper reviews of their act and testimonials from past clients.

Look at all of these carefully, but be skeptical — there are always acts and agents who lack integrity, and it is not uncommon in this business for them to list prestigious places the act has supposedly entertained when in truth they haven’t. If in doubt, don’t be afraid to question them about the places they say they have worked — make sure they can back it up!

The most important item to ask for is a VIDEOTAPE of the act. This is where the act literally “speaks for itself”. When you review the tape, watch it as if you yourself were in the audience and be sure to watch it more than once. If you are on a committee, watch it with others and discuss it. When viewing the tape, listen not only to the act, but to the audience’s response. Be wary of tapes that are performed in a studio without an audience and of tapes that only show tiny “snippets” of the act assembled with slick editing. Seeing a series of clips containing only one punchline each is not as effective or important as watching a five minute routine with

Murder Mystery events are ideal for company staff training, whether it be for a New Team Icebreaker, to build Team Camaraderie, as a reward for increased sales, for team motivation or purely for fun.

Well now there is a new kid on the block. Murder To Die For are a new Murder Mystery company based in the North West of England.

So what makes them special, why should my company even consider talking to them?

Murder To Die For may be a new company but they were created by a group of Writers, Actors, Directors and Producers with a vast wealth of experience in the field of Murder Mystery entertainment, between them they have more than 80 years experience of providing quality entertainment.

Murder To Die For were formed to provide quality Murder Mystery entertainment at realistic prices. The founding members of the company realised there was gap in the market as far as affordable, quality Murder Mystery entertainment was concerned. There are numerous companies offering Murder Mystery entertainment, but if you wanted quality up until now it would have cost an arm and a leg. The average UK price for a standard Murder Mystery evening being £1000.00, that doesn’t include the venue hire or catering costs, just the entertainment.

Murder To Die For realised that smaller companies just couldn’t afford that sort of expenditure, so they setout to offer quality entertainment at a more affordable price, but how?

The company was formed as a non-profit organisation with all members having an equal stake, this means all income is split equally between the members, and all members have their own responsibilities within the company besides there entertainment roles.

As the company doesn’t have any overheads, no company offices, secretaries, department heads, or executive directors, the costs can be kept to a minimum which enables Murder To Die For to offer quality Murder Mystery entertainment at less than halve the industry average, a standard Murder Mystery evening costing just £450.00.

So, now a Murder Mystery event becomes cost effective for small companies and organisations, so if you want to provide your staff with a reward or an incentive make Murder To Die For the first company you contact.

About the author: Further details can be found on their web site www.murdertodiefor.co.uk

You are a business. You do well. Why do you need to worry about what Entertainment and Media Production companies can do for you? Why would you need to hire some weird artist to make your company’s exposure to the public more attractive? Let’s get to the bottom line. Revenue! You can actually increase your revenue through the way that you expose yourself in the media. This is not a new idea it’s just advertising.

Entertainment and Media Production companies can do a lot for your business. They can make you literature more visually appealing and easy to read and understand. They can make your TV and radio commercials for you. They can even make great designs your internal newsletter. How does this affect the bottom line? It draws people in to what you want them to read, see or hear. That generates more sales leads, which in turn generate more revenue.

Good and attractive media helps your company look professional. Looking professional helps customers trust you. These customers can be individual buyer or business to business customers. People are more likely to buy from you if the trust you. Many times all the customer sees is your literature. In many businesses they don’t see you office building, or your factory, all they see is your literature and your product. Make your product look great. Then, make you literature look great too.

Good entertainment media, like ads and TV spots can actually work hard for you. A good ad can raise the top of mind awareness for your company or product. As it does this it also positions your company in their mind. Let’s say you own a bank and you ask your entertainment media production department to come up with a TV spot promoting your bank. If they create a TV spot that looks like it was done in a garage, then your bank will be positioned in the minds of the consumers as an unprofessional banking firm. However, if they do an excellent job and make a TV spot that has the feeling of solidarity, then the consumers will position you as a secure bank. In short, find your position then let your ads, TV spots and literature exemplify that position.

Be careful with entertainment media. Vulgarity, offensiveness and even humor can get you in to trouble. You media should never be vulgar or offensive. You are trying to entice people to trust you not turn them away. Humor can be a great tool but it can also be a stumbling block. When you use humor, make sure that it has a purpose (i.e. sell a product or position you company in the mind of the consumers). If it is funny but unrelated. Don’t do it! It won’t help.

Here are a few guidelines about how to use entertainment media.

-Make it look professional

-Don’t be uptight. It is okay to have fun as long you don’t forget your purpose

-Be Fresh but tight. Make all of entertainment media productions clean and appealing

-Make it memorable

-Make it friendly (this applies to most businesses

-Don’t put anything in that is vulgar or offensive -Make it fun. Remember that it is called entertainment media production, there should be an element of entertainment.

-Make your views feel like you are a long-time friend

-Make it speak your company values. Make your media speak volumes about your company by their layout and design not just the type.

-Get it done professionally!

Entertainment media production is a powerful tool in helping generate revenue. Let me close with and example. A few years ago BMW took an interesting approach to advertising. They produced a few of short films that featured their cars. These were actual films but every drove BMW cars. They offered these for free to whom ever wanted one and on the DVD was a brochure for their cars. The films were a great way to promote their cars. Be creative when you work with media and it will serve you well.

About the author: Justin Grover is a client account specialist for 10xMarketing – More Visitors -More Buyers -More Revenue, if you are looking for someone to help with entertainment and media productions please visit Cartoon Solutions

You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 895 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest.

Part One of Creating Well-Defined Processes Series What if your sales increased from $100,000 to $110,000 per day and your profit increased from $10,000 to $11,000 ‘ did you improve by 10%? The answer might shock you…

Because the answer is no. No improvement occurred. In fact, your process deteriorated. Sure, revenue increased, but is this really an improvement? Let’s take a look at the problem by looking at revenue and expenses.

Extra Expenses Prevent Process Improvement

Let’s examine the before and the after scenario. Say, in the before picture, you have sales of $100,000, fixed costs of $20,000 and variable costs of $70,000. Total expenses amount to $90,000, giving you a gross profit of $10,000. In the after picture, sales increase to $110,000, while variable costs rise to $77,000 in addition to $2,000 in Extra Expenses ‘ which give you total expenses of $99,000 and a gross profit of $11,000. In the after picture, remember though, fixed costs are fixed, and do not change with additional revenue. So you should get more than 10% (11.8% to be exact) profit from 10% growth.

But in order to maintain a 10% profit we have to spend $2,000 in Extra Expenses. These Extra Expenses represent your process inefficiencies. These expenses could be sales discounts, travel, overtime, or something else. The names don’t really matter. What does matter is that we are not improving.

Process Evolution Enables Improvement

Improvement results from process evolution, not from an increase in scale. What’s the difference? Scale increases when we hire another person, increase expenses, or purchase more assets in order to acquire or service more business. Process evolution occurs when we change the process and as a result can release hidden capacity and service more business without adding any costs – and this is a form of efficiency. You can measure efficiency with the formula:

Efficiency = Output / Costs

But process evolution is about more than just changing costs. It is about changing time, increasing process velocity, and getting more output from the costs you already have. Cutting costs, by itself, does not evolve a process. In fact, reducing costs, without properly understanding how those costs relate to the process, can actually decrease process evolution (devolution). Let’s review an example’

A Cost Reduction and Procedures Training Case Study

A company decreases costs by switching suppliers and using cheaper materials for their manufacturing process. Now the purchasing department is happy they are saving money. The bottom line is starting to look better as profits initially increase. And so this improved the process, right? Well…

But then complaints start rolling in from the field. Products are breaking down faster. Technical support costs rise, and customers start reducing their orders. Not only do profits evaporate, but customer goodwill does too. To offset this, your first reaction might be to switch back to the old supplier. This is much easier and it fixes the immediate problem, but it won’t recapture the lost sales, customers and damage to the company’s reputation.

But, again, you need to focus on the most important issue. There is a limit to the amount of costs one can reduce in any process ‘ zero. You can’t reduce costs below zero. On the other hand, there is no limit to the process potential we can achieve. Process evolution concerns the numerator (the output), not the denominator (the costs) in the efficiency equation above.

Change in Process Evolution = New Output / Old Output (Assuming costs are held constant)

By focusing on process evolution instead of costs we can continue to increase our output forever. We just have to make sure that the output increases faster than the costs. Then what we have is incremental improvement. But what procedures can you use to achieve this?

Process Training

It’s all about collecting feedback to set the right priorities for your change process. You need feedback to drive the change process. The more feedback you get the better you will be able to evolve your process. So let’s take a look at what your change process needs to include.

1.Feedback Records with Deficiency Notations 2.Trend Analysis 3.Corrective Action Process and Criteria for action 4.Audit Process 5.Management Review Process

And then ask yourself the following questions about your change process:

‘Are process feedback records created? ‘Have the feedback records been analyzed for process deficiencies? ‘Are the deficiencies analyzed for statistical significance? ‘Are the deficiencies of statistical significance written up for corrective action? ‘Is corrective/preventive action implemented? ‘Is there an objective review of all processes to ensure the change process is working? ‘Does management review all findings to ensure the change process is working — and that processes are evolving to meet or exceed organizational requirements?

Next week: Business Modeling

With these thoughts in mind, you can see how important it is to first define continuous improvement and note how it can actually affect your business.

But you can’t gather feedback from all processes at once. If you did, that would generate a process overload. So where do you start?

Next time we will show you show how when we discuss business modeling. Business modeling prioritizes which core processes you should improve. It tells you which processes are most important to not only achieve your company goals – but also to survive as a profitable business.

About the author: Chris Anderson is currently the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance.

To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: Bizmanualz, Inc.

I remember once seeing a cartoon which showed two people working a counter. On the wall behind them was a sign which read, ‘Quality Work, Low Price, Fast Service ‘ Pick Two.’ In order to deliver all three, which is what customers expect, it’s important to understand the flows of your organization.

The first flow is, of course, cash flow. This comes in two varieties, money coming into the organization, revenue, and money going out, expenses. Understanding cash flow is not as easy as it appears. Throughput accounting and Lean accounting are two methods some companies are using to try and get a better understanding of how cash flows through a business.

The second flow is the product or service flow. This starts with how the product or service is designed. The next step is how the product is built or the service delivered. How is the product or service used? Finally, what happens when the customer is done is the product discarded, recycled, or consumed.

How does information flow through the organization? How does it come into the company and how does it leave? How is it used in the organization, does it follow the work or pull the work forward? What types of feedback is received?

How does material flow in the company? If a product is built, how are the raw materials or parts brought to the point of assembly. For a service, how do the necessary information, materials, and people get to where they are needed? How does the movement of the workers flow? Is the motion smooth or does it start and stop like rush hour traffic? Are there any wasted motions, like retrieving a paper file from a cabinet in another room or walking over to get a tool which is required for product assembly? Why is the tool at the point where it is needed? Why is the file located in a cabinet in another area?

Creative flow is important to understand. Creative energy, like any other kind of energy, can be harnessed and managed. Does a research and development department create everything and the rest of the people just do what they’re told? Or are all employees thinking about innovation, how to reduce costs, looking at safety issues, reducing wastes, and improving the environment. Are people developing skills to identify, articulate and communicate those kinds of things?

The final flow is time. Time is, of course, a factor in all the other flows. Since we can’t change time, rather than looking at how time flows; we need to see how the organization flows through time. How long does it take to accomplish things? Can the time be reduced? By reducing the time it takes to do our work, we reduce or eliminate the wasted things we do. Eliminating wasted brings us closer and closer to excellence.

By observing the flows in our work, we can see where things run smoothly like a tranquil river. Bottlenecks in the workflow create turmoil, much like the rapids in a river.

‘Oh, this ol’ river keeps on rollin’, though, No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow, And as long as it does I’ll just sit here And watch the river flow.’ – Bob Dylan (Watching The River Flow © 1971 by Big Sky Music)

Any process, any product, any service can be made better in some way, somehow. So observe and understand the flows of your organization, it will lead to improvement opportunities.

Copyright © 2005 Chuck Yorke – All Rights Reserved

About the author: Chuck Yorke is an organizational development and performance improvement specialist, trainer, consultant and speaker. He is co-author of ‘All You Gotta Do Is Ask,’ a book which explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from employees. Chuck may be reached at ChuckYorke@yahoo.com

If recent media coverage were any indication, it would appear that virtually nobody in the United States has had any success at losing weight. Crash diets, weight loss pills and get-thin-quick gimmicks are more prevalent than ever, yet two-thirds of our population is still overweight. Even more startling is the fact that approximately one-third of the people in our country are clinically obese.

Yet more and more Americans are finding that weight loss success is not only within their grasp, but also actually easier to achieve than they thought possible.

Due to the rapid growth of women-only circuit-training gyms, women in particular are finding that weight loss is an achievable goal. Workouts just for women have become a common sight from sea to shining sea, with the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association reporting that as of July 2005 there were 26,046 health clubs in the United States (a 10.8 percent increase from just six months previous). Women-only circuit training clubs account for more than one out of every three fitness centers in the nation.

Sales at fitness clubs have also been on the rise. In January 2003, the latest figures available, the industry collectively took in $14.1 billion in revenue, a jump from $13.1 billion a year earlier.

Why has the women-only circuit-training exercise model worked so well? The short answer is that it works. Circuit training is a proven exercise system that, for many women, has proven to be more effective than dieting or nutrition programs alone.

The routine at these ladies express gyms is quick and simple, allowing each woman to progress at her own pace. The ladies exercise in a circle, each at a station. They spend 30 or 45 seconds at each station, either working a hydraulic resistance machine or doing aerobics. The entire routine takes 30 minutes.

Pick Up The Pace is one such gym for women that has carefully tracked the success of its members for years. Deanna S., a member of Pick Up The Pace in Libby, MT, lost 14.75 inches in just one month. Kim M. reduced her body-fat by 4.2 percent in just one month at Pick Up The Pace, while at the same time losing 10.75 pounds of fat.

With results like these, it’s easy to see why this fitness center concept has skyrocketed in popularity with today’s average woman. For perhaps the first time in their lives, women are finding that it’s possible to slim down and tone up in only 30 minutes each day.

What many women see as just a great way to achieve some quick weight loss, others see as a business opportunity. Despite the incredible growth of these hydraulic gyms, there seems to be no shortage of customers. As reported by CNN on 1-14-05 “Americans were expected to spend more than $40 billion in 2004 on weight control pills, gym memberships, diet plans and related foods, estimates Marketdata Enterprises, which studies the weight loss industry.” Furthermore, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 80 percent of overweight individuals and almost 87 percent of obese individuals are trying to lose or maintain their weight.

As reported by www.mygoals.com, 80 percent of Americans made a New Year’s resolution in 2005. A whopping 26 percent of those resolutions were to improve overall health and fitness, making this the top category for self-improvement. This year was no anomaly, either, according to Amy O’Connor, deputy editor of Prevention magazine: “Fifty-nine million people every year resolve to lose weight.”

With so many potential customers, many women seek to start their own circuit-training business only to find themselves discouraged by the typical franchise opportunity. They’re finding that a hydraulic gym franchise such as Curves for Women can be expensive, restrictive, and sometimes difficult to purchase.

According to the International Franchise Association, one of the women-only workout franchises recently announced that they are raising their franchise fee from $9,995 to $12,500. Another franchise package costs anywhere from $85,000 to $225,000, including a $36,000 franchise fee and startup cost. Monthly franchise royalty payments, which can range from $395 to $590 per month, place an additional burden on the franchisee. Assuming that the franchise agreement permits the buyer to use the franchise name for 10 years, the gym owner will be paying approximately $60,000 in royalty payments over the franchise term. These figures can scare off many would-be health club owners.

Many women who do opt to open a circuit-training franchise find that the franchise agreement does not grant them the liberty to add amenities as they wish. Many franchise operations restrict their fitness centers by not allowing them to add tanning, nutrition counseling, supplements, vitamins, massage therapy, body wraps or other extras for which ladies are clamoring.

Relying on good old American made ingenuity, many women entrepreneurs are choosing to either open a completely independent workout center or opt for a license package. While going independent carries the inherent risk of having to reinvent the wheel, it still may be the best option for some women. The other option is to capture most of the benefits of a franchise while at the same time avoiding the financial burdens of that system. This is done with a license package, such as the one offered by Pick Up The Pace 30-Minute Workout For Women (visit www.letspickupthepace.com for more information).

For many women, getting fit, slender and in shape themselves has not only been good for their health but has also prompted them to enter the fitness market as a gym owner. With obesity rates still climbing, this is a trend that may continue for years to come.

* Copyright 2005 Pick Up The Pace. Permission is not required for the distribution of Pick Up The Pace articles as long as they are used in their entirety, are properly credited to Pick Up The Pace, and are accompanied by our website link: http://www.letspickupthepace.com/.

* The information in this article and on this site is for general reference purposes only and

b>Kaizen

What is Kaizen? A five word definition is: A system of continuous improvement

An improvement in what? Anything and everything in your facility, your production line, your office, materials handling, purchasing, operations, maintenance–any part of your company or organization can be improved by Kaizen. Using Kaizen results in improvements in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety, and customer satisfaction throughout your organization.

Who can use Kaizen? Any organization from a manufacturer, to a government agency, to a non-profit organization. Big or small, Kaizen can help.

So let’s get started. This introduction to Kaizen will look at three basic questions: What is Kaizen? What are the benefits of Kaizen? How do I get started using Kaizen?

What is Kaizen?

The word Kaizen means “continuous improvement”. It comes from a combination of the Japanese words “Kai” meaning school and “Zen” meaning wisdom.

Kaizen is a system in which everyone is encouraged to come up with suggestions for small improvements on a regular basis. These are small changes targeted at continually improving productivity, safety, quality, customer satisfaction, employee effectiveness, communication, and at the same time reducing waste. The Kaizen philosophy is that everything, even it it isn’t broke, can be improved.

Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production, shipping or marketing. Kaizen is based on making changes anywhere improvements can be made. The Kaizen philosophy is to continue to improve every aspect of a business, because if you don’t, your competition is improving and will leave you behind.

What Are The Benefits of Kaizen?

With every employee, from the executive suite to the janitor, looking for ways to make improvements, you can expect results such as:

<> One of the first and most significant benefits noticed when Kaizen is introduced is the waste eliminated by Kaizen suggestions in areas such as inventory, waiting times, transportation, worker motion, employee’s skills, over production, excess quality and in processes.

<> You’ll find Kaizen suggestions will improves space utilization, product quality, use of capital, communications, production capacity and employee retention.

<> A major benefit of Kaizen is that it provides immediate results. Instead of focusing on large, long-term capital intensive improvements, Kaizen focuses on creative ways to continually solve large numbers of small problems. Capital projects and major changes may still be needed, and Kaizen will improve the capital projects process, but the real power of Kaizen is in the on-going process of continually making small changes that improve processes and reduce waste.

(Read about the benefits Sony achieved from using Kaizen in this magazine article reprint.)

How Do I Get Started Using Kaizen?

Kaizen starts by changing how everyone thinks. The attitudes of employees – from top management down to new hires will need to change. This means that management must actively lead, support and participate in the Kaizen process. The result must be something all employees participate because they want to, because they know it is good for them and the company. It can not be something employees do because management dictates that it be done.

To get started, employee training and communication is key. Employees need to know what Kaizen is, how it works and what it will do for them. This must be combined with proactive involvement of management. For example, managers could spend a week directly working with employees to help and encourage them to develop suggestions. It is also critical that managers ensure employees see their suggestions immediately acted on. Suggestions should not be implemented next month or even next week–but today. In some cases, a suggestion submitted in the morning can be put in place that afternoon, or sooner.

In addition to acting on suggestions quickly managers need to keep employees informed about what has happened to their suggestions. Don’t let suggestions disappear into a management “black hole.”

It is the managers job to develop methods to help encourage suggestions. For example, a manager might set up teams or five to 12 people to evaluate work areas, processes, quality, productivity, and equipment availability/reliability. The team then makes suggestions for improvements. The team may even implement improvements in the afternoon that they suggested in the morning.

To encourage the submission of suggestions, a part of each manager’s and supervisor’s evaluation should be based on the number of suggestions submitted by those they supervise. Don’t evaluate employees on the number of suggestions they submit, evaluate your supervisors and managers and how well they are doing at getting those who work for them to actively participate in Kaizen.

Kaizen is a system that will improve your profits, quality, safety and productivity, when properly implemented and supported by management.

About the author: Steve Hudgik is the Internet Marketing Manager for Graphic Products, Inc. Graphic Products offers a free Introduction to Kaizen booklet that may be ordered online. Or feel free to call them at 1-800-788-5572 to request your copy.

November 2005. Winter is just around the corner here in Western Michigan. The leaves are literally raining off the trees. Just this morning at breakfast as I looked into the woods and I could see a steady stream of golden brown, red and yellow leaves heading towards the earth.

Last month I talked about keeping your quality improvement changes in place–using a manual that you develop of SOP’s, standard operating procedures. By the way, if you missed that issue, you can find it on my website, and several earlier ones too.

This month I want to address starting a quality improvement project. That is, how do you decide what project to work on? What issue or process is causing the most waste, is doing the most harm, is most affecting the bottom line? Maybe you are a leader at your site and you have an idea of what is generally causing problems. For instance, you may think that patients with catheters are getting a lot of infections. Perhaps, checking patients in at your site is taking too long and creating a bottleneck. Maybe patients are complaining about having to wait too long at check in at a doctor’s office. It could be that certain departments are running short of supplies too often. There are many other possibilities. The probability is that unless you are directly involved in the contentious process, you probably are not aware of what the exact problems are and are not aware of possible solutions.

This leads us to the conclusion that in order to discover the many problems facing every organization, especially in terms of wasted effort, time and money, there has to be in place a mechanism for the problems to surface to the leaders from the front lines of the organization. There has to be a way for the leaders to hear about the problems from those who are directly involved. For instance, does anyone in your organization know what ideas the cleaning staff has for making the organization better? When I say that there has to be a way for the ideas to surface, I don’t mean that the only ones with a voice should be nursing staff and other professionals. Rather, as in the Baldrige Improvement Plans, the entire staff is involved in quality improvement.

I know of a few hospitals where the leadership–president, CFO, COO, etc.–go out several mornings every week to talk to staff at all levels and patients to see how things could be better and to get some positive feedback about what things are going well. Perhaps at your site you want to start something like this. As time goes by and as suggestions are implemented, staff will feel safer about making suggestions.

Leadership needs to make sure that staff feel safe about making suggestions, no matter what the method of suggesting changes is used. Perhaps you might want to use an anonymous survey for collecting initial suggestions. After some of the suggestions are acted upon, the staff will feel like the leaders really want good ideas and will feel safer making them known. Perhaps you might want to use a consultant in Lean Healthcare (many of these ideas I suggest come directly from Lean Healthcare) to teach the staff the principles and processes of Lean Healthcare and other tools as may seem fit. This approach will help a large organization start making many positive changes quickly, rather than using the idea of slowly spreading the means of change throughout an organization, as some prefer.

Whatever your initial process of getting the ideas percolating up in the organization, after some ideas for quality improvement recommended by the rank and file are successfully implemented and after the improvements and savings are made known in the organization, it is time to create ways to get more ideas. Perhaps you want to have regular meetings with a designated leader and representatives from several staffing areas that will bring up ideas. That means that the rest of the staff must feel comfortable about making suggestions to these team members. If your site has few employees, then perhaps it would be best to have regular staff meetings with all employees where the agenda always includes time for quality improvement ideas and for updates on ongoing projects. Whatever method you decide works best for your site, be sure that an atmosphere safety and security exists for all the staff. This may mean going so far as to guarantee that no staff will lose there position as improvements create more time to get things done.

So, once you have a steady flow of quality improvement ideas being generated by all in the organization, which ones should you act upon? Next month, I’ll address that issue. This issue I decided to concentrate on the Define step of Six Sigma’s DMAIC (define, measure, act, improve, control). Next, I will discuss the measure segment. Sometime in the future I’ll cover team dynamics too.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

About the author: Donald Bryant helps healthcare providers meet their challenges and writes “Making Good Healthcare Better” a free monthly ezine for healthcare providers who want to dramatically improve patient health, improve the bottom line, and make work more rewarding, guaranteed. Go now to http://www.bryantsstatisticalconsulting.com