Thanksgiving Success: 12 Must-Dos For First-Time Hosts

Thanksgiving Success: 12 Must-Dos For First-Time Hosts
By Reagan Alexander, eHow

Hosting your first Thanksgiving for family and friends can be a daunting task. You want the day (and the all-important meal) to be perfect, but you don't want to run roughshod over everyone else's holiday with the iron-fisted dictatorial fervor of a fledgling Martha Stewart. It's not your first Thanksgiving, but the first in which you're in charge, and you feel like the success of the day falls on your willing, but slightly trembling, shoulders. No holiday comes off without a hitch, but you can make the right preparations to ensure that the hitches don't turn into glitches, and the glitches don't land your party at an otherwise empty Chinese restaurant.

1)Make a Guest List
The best, and most logical, place to start is with a guest list. As this is your first Thanksgiving as host, don't overreach and invite too many people, because you'll most likely end up overwhelmed. Take it easy on yourself and start with a modest guest list. There will be people you can't invite, and so there may be some hurt feelings, but remind yourself (and them) that there's always next year.

2)Prepare Your Menu
Once you know who is attending, you can get down to the Thanksgiving Day menu. Have some fun with it, but apply the same caution to the menu that you did to your guest list. Keep things relatively simple. Remember that these are your friends and family, so there's no reason to make it seem like you're auditioning for "Top Chef."

3)Get Your Guests Involved
Once everyone is invited, and you have an idea of your menu, pick up the phone again and get your guests involved. Find out if anyone has any food limitations, and invite people to pitch in and bring a dish. It'll take some of the pressure off of you, while making everyone else feel as if they're more a part of the celebration.

4)Order Your Turkey (or Your Tofu Turkey)
You'll have enough on your plate (literally and figuratively) when the big day comes, so plan ahead and order your turkey well ahead of time, especially if you want a fresh one. Plan on 1 1/4 pounds per each adult, and if need be, know that there are companies that make, and deliver, fresh tofu turkeys as well. Also, defrosting a turkey takes a while (24 hours for every 5 pounds), so if it's frozen, remind yourself well before the day arrives to start the process.

5)Make a Seating Chart
Thanksgiving is a day about being thankful, and when the day comes you'll be thankful that you took the time to make a seating chart. It's your friends and your family, so you should have a good idea of the personalities coming to the table, and where they will work the best. You're the host, but you're also peacekeeper, and maybe matchmaker, and that all starts with a seating chart.

6) Make a Seating Chart
Thanksgiving is a day about being thankful, and when the day comes you'll be thankful that you took the time to make a seating chart. It's your friends and your family, so you should have a good idea of the personalities coming to the table, and where they will work the best. You're the host, but you're also peacekeeper, and maybe matchmaker, and that all starts with a seating chart.

7)Clean Your Home
You're inviting people into your home, and you have to realize that no one is going to be comfortable if your place is dirty or messy. Your guests may even have a different idea than you do of what "clean" is, so give your place a thorough once-over. Pay particular attention to high traffic areas, as well as the bathroom, which should be stocked with fresh linens (and a scented candle).

8)Decorate and Set Your Table
Have fun with this, but try not to go overboard. Bear in mind that come meal time, the table will be brimming with plates, platters full of food and glassware. A cluttered table can detract from the mood of the meal, and you want everyone to be comfortable (and to be able to see each other). You don't have to recreate the Plymouth Rock landing to give the room an autumnal feel. A few candles, some dried maize and a few colorful gourds go a long way.

9)Do Last-Minute Shopping
Remember that second shopping list? Pull it out and get yourself back to the store. We call it "last-minute shopping" but don't wait until then. Try to get it done the day before, or at least during the early morning on Thanksgiving, or you'll find yourself in a packed grocery store that looks like it's been picked over by locusts.

10)Schedule Your Dishes
Cooking takes time, and depending on your menu and your kitchen, you're probably going to have to stagger cooking of some of the dishes. Set a time for dinner, preferably about an hour after everyone arrives, and then count backward, writing down the times that everything needs to go into the oven or the microwave.

11)Take Time to Be Thankful
With everything that you've put into this, it's easy to lose sight of what this day is all about. More than just a harvest celebration, it's a celebration of friends, of family, and all that is good or hopeful in our lives. Take a moment before everyone dives into the meal that you have so lovingly prepared to go around the table so your guests can share one thing they're thankful for.

12)Enjoy Yourself
Your work is done (as long as you're ignoring the stack of dirty pots, pans and dishes waiting in your kitchen). Hunger has been sated, thirsts quenched, belts loosened, and a football game is probably playing in the background. Not only did you survive hosting your first Thanksgiving, but you've given your guests a day they'll not soon forget. Take a moment to appreciate it, as you only have 364 more days before you do it all over again.

5 Mistakes That Can Sink a Good Boss

5 Mistakes That Can Sink a Good Boss

By Andrea Novakowski

If you own a company or manage a department, part of the reason you’ve come this far is because you’re good at what you do. But inspiring the people who work for you to give their best efforts is another skill altogether. It’s hard to complete tasks well and on time if your staff isn’t on the same page with you, or if they don’t share your commitment to success.

Are you frustrated by employees who don’t perform as well as expected? It may be time to take a look at your leadership style. Here are five common mistaken beliefs that may be interfering with your effectiveness as a boss.

1. Good new hires will know how to do the job right out of the blocks.

Hiring a competent person is only the first step. Even if the new person arrives already accomplished in his field, spend time with him so he can get to know your approach and share your vision. No matter what position he occupies, help him become attuned to your strategic plan. It takes time, but the payoff is huge.

2. No one else can do the job as well as I can.

As your organization grows, you’ll be adding people below you. Why did you hire them if not to help lighten your load, so you can focus on what’s most important? (What’s important may even include your own improved quality of life.) Surround yourself with good people, then give them a chance to show they can handle the responsibility. Step back and let them take some of the weight off your shoulders.

3. If I tell them once, they should be good to go.

Not necessarily. Part of the job of a manager is to provide ongoing feedback. Don’t limit this to just once a year during performance reviews: help your people understand how they can do a better job now. Helping them grow and develop increases their value in the workplace, and more important, to your company.

4. I’m too busy to plan – I need to do!

Do you ever feel as if you spend your whole day at work just responding to the biggest crisis? Take time to sit down and map out a strategy for the future. Planning may seem like a luxury when you have so much on your plate already, but if you don’t invest time now, you’ll find yourself operating in perpetual crisis mode later – which, as everyone knows, is a sure recipe for burnout. Don’t try to muscle your way through every issue that faces you. Think before you execute (or delegate the execution to others).

5. My people know they are doing a good job. I don’t have to tell them.

One of the biggest mistakes managers make is failing to recognize their employees’ successes and only pointing out their faults. Think about it – do you perform better when you know you’re appreciated, or when you’re only chastised for your shortcomings? Letting people know you’re pleased with their achievements will encourage them to continue striving to do good work. It’s human nature!
Coaching Call To Action

Would you rate yourself as an inspiring leader with your people giving their best? If not, choose one or two changes from the above list that will free you and your employees to do the job each of you is supposed to be doing.

Andrea Novakowski is an executive and personal coach who has been helping clients align their professional goals with their personal values since 1997. Contact her at info@coachandrea.com or visit her web site at http://coachandrea.com/.

http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/bossmistakes.htm

Top 10 Marketing & Sales Strategies for a Slow Economy = How to Attain, Retain and Maintain Customers

Top 10 Marketing & Sales Strategies for a Slow Economy
How to Attain, Retain and Maintain Customers

by Gregory P. Smith

This economy has created both winners and losers. The quickest road to bankruptcy is to sit on your hands, do nothing, and wait for the economy to improve. No matter what industry you work in a "business as usual" mindset will sink your ship. You have to be innovative, stand out, and market your products and services in a new way.

Now more than ever you have to focus, improve, and possibly even change what you do to attain, retain and maintain customers. Consider the following ten-steps to make your business recession proof.

Strategy 1. Think big and audit your time. No matter the size of your business, place a mental image in your mind as if you are the largest and most successful person in your industry. How much time is consumed by routine office work someone else should be doing? Spend more time with more important tasks such as marketing strategies, improving customer relations, and implementing new strategies to expand your services.

Strategy 2. Be different and stand out from the competition. Jordan Furniture sells more furniture per square foot than any other furniture store in the nation. They transformed their family-owned business into a multi-million dollar corporation by following a principle called "shoppertainment." To surprise employees and customers, Barry and Eliot Tatleman dressed up like the Lone Ranger and Tonto and rode horses in their parking lot. They built an IMax theater inside one store to entertain children while their parents shopped. When you drive around the back to pick up your furniture they provide you free hotdogs and wash your car windows.

Strategy 3. Build relationships with your customers. For each month that goes by, customers lose 10% of their buying power. Create a customer database and contact them on a regular basis. Mail them a postcard, birthday card, sales flyer, newsletter etc. to keep your name, phone number, and service on their mind.

Strategy 4. Collect E-Mail Addresses. As part of your customer relationship process get permission from your customers to use their E-mail address. Periodically send updates and notices to your client list. As long as you have their permission and avoid overuse, E-mail can be a powerful and inexpensive marketing tool. Consider the Fox's Pizza Den in Punxsutawney, PA, they ran an anniversary promotion offering a medium cheese pizza for the 1970 s price of $1.40. To get this special price, customers had to go to their web site and register their email address to have the special coupon emailed to them. An amazing 500 email addresses were collected in two days.


Strategy 5. Avoid poisonous personalities. Unfriendly and negative employees cost you money by chasing your customers away. Spend more time and money interviewing and hiring people who enjoy helping people. Use behavior based interviewing and screening assessments to improve your chances for hiring success. For more information go to www.behaviorprofile.com.

Strategy 6. Put a shopping cart on your website. Online sales are still growing at a dramatic pace. According to Jupiter Research this past year's holiday season generated $13.2 billion in online purchases, a 17% growth rate over last year. This increase of sales is coming from people who want to save time, followed closely by avoiding crowded stores, and the ability to shop outside of store hours. Make an audit of what services and products you can offer online.

Strategy 7. Pay-per-click advertising. Many business owners are cutting back on classified advertising in lieu for pay-per-click advertising. Pay-per-click will insure you receive top visibility on websites driving more customers to your door. Advertisers bid on keywords and the more popular the keyword, the more expensive each click is. Prices vary between a few cents to many dollars. For example, you can pay ten cents a click for the keyword, "pool supply store." The most popular pay-per-click advertisers are found on Google, Yahoo, and Overture.

Strategy 8. Use customer service commandments to create good habits. Bates Ace Hardware store located in Atlanta created "Twenty Customer Service Commandments" modeled after the Ritz-Carlton hotels outlining specific behaviors employees are to demonstrate when dealing with customers and fellow employees. For example, "Accompany a customer to the correct aisle instead of pointing to another area of the store." They print the commandments on a small card and employees carry it with them at work. Furthermore, supervisors reinforce good customer service by quizzing employees on one commandment each day.

Strategy 9. Take your message to the media. Local newspapers and television are always looking for stories and topics of interest. Learn to write a press release or call your local media outlet about a special aspect of your business. The Varsity restaurant in Atlanta featured an employee who had worked there for 50 years. This resulted in a two-page spread about the employee and the restaurant.

Strategy 10. Take advantage of trends. For some this economic downturn is an opportunity in disguise. Consider one entrepreneur who created a special brand of toilet paper. Printed on each piece of toilet paper is the face Osama Bin Laden followed by this saying, "Do your part to wipe out terrorism." I am not sure if this person made any money off his product, but he captured a lot of attention.


Gregory P. Smith shows businesses how to build productive and profitable work environments that attract, keep and motivate their workforce. He is a popular speaker and author of the book, Here Today Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention. He speaks at conferences, conducts management training and is the President of a management consulting firm called Chart Your Course International located in Conyers, Georgia. Phone him at 770-860-9464. More articles available: http://www.chartcourse.com





http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/slowecon.htm

What's It Like To Be Your Customer?

What's It Like To Be Your Customer?
Courtesy of SmallBizResource.com, a service of bMighty.com

by Gayle Kesten

Think your company is easy to do business with? Here are eight great ways to find out, though the underlying premise is the same for all.

Pose as a customer. Simple, yet makes total sense. With customer confidence remaining at depressed levels, this low-effort way to learn what it's like to engage with your business from an outside perspective could give you insight into customer abandonment rates, among other factors.

Credit for the following tips belongs to Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist, author, and entrepreneur whose latest brainchild, Alltop, is an incredible compilation of Web sites organized by tons of categories. (To get an idea, here's the Alltop page that focuses on startups.)

Back from that quick tangent, here's what Kawasaki suggests:

1. Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you.

2. See if your website has a "Contact Us" section. If it doesn’t, add one. Ensure that it has a street address.

3. Send your company an email asking for customer support and see if someone responds to it.

4. Answer customer support calls or emails (not the one you sent in) for a day.

5. Go out on a sales call with your salespeople and a service call with your service people.

6. Read the documentation or manual that your company provides. Extra credit: See if you can do this without reading glasses.

7. Pretend that you lost the documentation or manual that came with your product or service and try to find it on your website.

8. Register your product or service including finding and reading the serial number of your product. Extra credit: See if you can read your serial number without reading glasses.
Posted on January 21, 2009 at 11:33 AM



http://www.businessknowhow.com/blog/2009/01/whats_it_like_t.php

Lessons Barry Moltz learned when he started his own business

Dreams are important but they are not enough. Running your own business is not as glamorous and as fun as you think it is.

You must find business partners, employees and vendors who complement your skills.
“Cool” ideas don’t always mean new business.

Start businesses you have an interest in. It doesn’t really matter if it is the hot thing or not.

Don’t bother trying to pick the perfect time for a business launch. Take a leap of faith. If you are unable to take a leap right now, take it as a signal that you are not ready.

It is not enough that you have an idea. You must also execute.

As an entrepreneur, you will have to do tasks you never thought you had to do. You must learn humility. Everything is your job.

Check your attitude. Your moods will affect everyone in your business.

Build your business one customer at a time. Don’t focus too much on the future. Focus on the present moment.

Allow your business to grow at its own pace.

Only you can save your own business.

The most important thing is passion. If you have lost your passion in your business, close your company or transform it into something else you are interested in.


http://appitive.com/business/2011/10/11/lessons-barry-moltz-learned-when-he-started-to-run-his-own-business/

APOLOGETIKA in acrostic

APOLOGETIKA =

A godly lifestyle - our way
P urpose to equip well
O h apologetic skills
L et's use - our faith defend
O ur world impact with His love
G o!
E nds of the earth to spread
T he pure Gospel
I n grace share
K now Christ
A nd make Him known

Sing to "Stand Up for Jesus"

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VISI
Pelestarian Kemurnian Injil

MISI
Menyajikan pemberitaan Firman
Menumbuhkan motivasi iman Kristen
Memberikan sajian pokok-pokok dasar iman Kristen
Memelihara, membela dan mempertahankan kemurnian Injil di tengah tantangan jaman

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Objectives

Godly Lifestyle (1 Petrus 1:16), Melengkapi dan memberdayakan orang percaya untuk mempunyai gaya hidup yang sesuai dengan kehendak Tuhan.

Apologetic Skills (1 Petrus 3:15), Memperlengkapi orang percaya untuk mampu berapologetik, sehingga dapat membela iman percaya melalui pikiran yang telah dikuduskan oleh kebenaran Firman Tuhan.

Impact the world (Matius 5:13-14), melaksanakan program diakonia berdasarkan Kasih Tuhan.
Research & Development, memberikan bea siswa, dan mengembangkan program berdasarkan riset yang memadai.

Quote

Inner determination and total commitment to your goals are keys in achieving success. Check out my website at www.successwithbing.com.


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Change the way you look at things - and the things you look at change!