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Everyone needs a master plan.

Some people like to live by the “seat of their pants,” and no one would argue that a little spontaneity is great to have in your life.

But you do need to plan something at some point, or your life will simply be one reaction after another.

There is so much written on planning these days that it’s hard for nearly anyone to argue against the value of planning.

The non-planner will end up taking no proactive action to improve his or her life.

The most successful people plan their goals and are motivated to accomplish them.

Do you have one?

A master plan should include long term goals, short term goals, and objectives.

You may want to build in some rewards to motivate you to accomplish them as well.

Let’s look at each item that should appear in your master plan:

Lifetime goals:

The first things you should include in your master plan are your lifetime, or dream goals.

These are goals that you want to do at some point in your life and they shouldn’t be dependent on money, time, or skill.

If you’re afraid of heights but have the goal of someday being a professional pilot, write it down!

Create a long list by finishing this sentence: “If I had unlimited money, time and skill, I would want to…”

Short term and Long term goals: Once you have your lifetime goals list, you should break it down into things that you can realistically do in the short term and in the long term.

Short term goals might be anywhere from the present to the next five or ten years.

Long term goals are likely anything five or ten years and beyond. (Don’t worry yet about how you’ll accomplish them; we’ll get to that in a moment).

Put them in order from the things you want to do sooner to the things you want to do later.

Objectives:

Once you have developed your goals, now you need to create objectives for each one.

Objectives are the steps that you need to take to reach your goals.

If you’re afraid of heights but want to be a professional pilot some day, your objectives might be to…

1. Overcome your fear of heights,

2. Ride in an airplane,

3. Take flying lessons,

4. Get your commercial pilot’s license, and 5.

Buy an airplane.

You might look at this list and say “easier said than done!” but by breaking down all of your goals into smaller objectives; it does become easier to do.

You now have some small steps to work on to get you to the next level.

The more you break down the steps that need to be taken, the easier it will be to reach your goal.

What does all this have to do with e-business?

Simple: For many entrepreneurs, a long term goal might be financial freedom.

Building your e-business might be one of the objectives to reach that goal.

And within that “main” objective of building your business will be the smaller objectives that must be reached to do the building.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. The Empowered Soul

Do you realize that the only difference between your success and that of say a Donald Trump or a Bill Gates is the way that they think?

Whether they did it consciously or not, their thought patterns follow a set of guidelines that led them to the success that they enjoy. These patterns are burnt into their minds, and they will not alter them for anything. It is who they are. Like them or not, they are effective in their chosen fields.

Goal setting is a huge topic, and not quite as simple as described.

It is however very worthwhile, and just may make the difference between contentment and a life of frustration.

The biggest frustration amongst people seems to be not having what they want in life.

Yet they have exactly what they wished for.

Your mind is like a powerful computer. Much more powerful than anything man made that exists today. The purpose of your mind is to provide the outcome that is programmed into it, by you.

It will always give you the programmed result, which is a law of nature.

And this is where the trouble starts. Most of us have no idea how to effectively program this computer, and those that do, program it with ineffective programs more often than not.

So what does this have to do with you, and more importantly, can you use this knowledge for your own good.

Well, the short answer is “yes”.

You can use this knowledge, and are actually doing so every single day.

Your life is exactly as your mind thinks and reacts to circumstances on a continuous basis right now.

So the good news is that you are already doing it, you cannot help yourself, it is human nature.

The bad news is that the thought patterns you have running in your mind, are not giving you the results you consciously want.

They are giving you the results that you have programmed into your mind, mostly subconsciously.

This is why goal setting can be so important.

With a clear goal in mind, your thought processes will at least be aligned in some direction most of the time. This can and does make a huge difference to your results.

Lets use the computer program analogy once more.

A computer will process information based on a specific set of rules and criteria. That is basically what a computer software program does.

If you have a program that says if A happens, always do B, you get a predetermined predictable result. You know that a certain input will give you a specific output.

With our minds, not having a goal is like saying, if A happens, do B, or C or D or whatever strikes your fancy.

The result is confusion and wasted energy. Spinning around without going anywhere. Now life presents us with A today, B tomorrow, and C, D, A the next day.

If, however, you have a set of actions ready for whenever A happens (by having a set goal) you automatically move toward your desired outcome every time A occurs.

You might not have moved far, but you did move a small amount toward your goal, every time A happens.

So find out what you want, then work towards that goal. At least you are moving in a certain direction, that you have predetermined, by simply deciding what you actually want, and then setting a goal to get there.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. The Empowered Soul

If you are not well on your way to achieving your goal for 2007, then pay attention to these words: “Dream big dreams; Only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls. How many times have you set goals, only to see them remain incomplete?”

Stop whatever you are doing and write these words on a piece of paper that you can keep with you at all times.

It is a quote from Napoleon Hill.

By following a simple daily technique you can achieve everything you want in life.

What stops you from achieving everything you want in life?

Here are a couple of things for your consideration.

Procrastination - is one main reason people do not achieve their goals.

Nearly everyone is guilty of procrastination from time to time(although we sometimes use other names for it - well excuses really) even the most motivated are subject to it on occasions.

Stop yourself in your tracks and ask of yourself ‘Is what you are doing at this precise moment taking to toward or away from the goal you have set?’

Possibly your procrastination has come about because the goal you have set is too small.

Your thought processes are - well that can be achieved that at any time at a drop of a hat so I will do it later.

You are procrastinating nothing less.

If it is a goal on your list it is a vital part of your major overall goal, and when achieved it will take you to the next stage of your main goal, the one that gives you motivation.

The second reason you procrastinate is the BELIEF you have in achieving the goal.

This is such a large subject that requires discussion in another article.

It’s just too easy to put off something that doesn’t have a lot of appeal even if you were to achieve it.

BIG goals drive you to do things you would never do for major goals — in many ways they almost pull you through the obstacles you are likely to meet on the way to achieving them.

Because with big goals you plan and also want to achieve them so much they become part of your being.

For example say your major goal is to move to a four-bedroom house in a better part of town.

A minor goal you may set is a new suite of furniture for your new house.

Compared to your main goal it is easy to dismiss the minor goal as insignificant - yet let look at it a different way.

Achieving the goal of the new suite of furniture, having it in your home now and sitting on it helps to bring your major goal into sharper focus.

Just sit there and imagine it as if you were in your new house and you are enjoying the confort of the new suite, suddenly it will become an integral part of your overall goal.

What is one of the main secrets of high goal achievers?

First they write their goals down.

The fact is that writing goals down is so powerful it increases your chance of success by at least 1000%.

Their second secret is that their goals are always BIG.

There’s no power at all in small goals.

When the goal isn’t big enough, it’s too easy to give in to the obstacles that appear in your life.

It’s very difficult to maintain the persistence that all great achievement requires when the goal is small and ordinary.

How big is BIG?

If it doesn’t make you a little nervous, you know that feeling in the pit of your stomach; if it doesn’t take your breath away the first time you think about it, it probably isn’t big enough.

These physical symptoms are the result of a chemical change in your body caused by your thoughts.

When your goal is big enough that the thought of it causes your body to undergo physical changes then you are on the right path.

Even more when the thought of MISSING the goal causes a feeling a nausea in the pit of your stomach you are pitching it just right.

Set yourself time to sit down on your own and with pad and pencil ask yourself what do you want in every part of your life for the next 12 months to 5 years.

No matter what you think of just write it down without questioning your ability to achieve it, that is the subject of another article.

I’ll bet you have have heard all these ideas before!
But have you put them into practice. You can still make 2007 your favorite year!

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. The Empowered Soul

A goal setting activity can be one of the most stressful and sometimes futile things you ever do in your life.

Each new year brings new resolutions. People make unrealistic promises to themselves knowing that many of them are sure to be broken. But we do it anyway, because it is a tradition that has been passed down through many generations.

There are several ways to plan for reaching your goals that can greatly increases your chances for success and reduce the amount of stress involved.

First, you must understand that while goals should be written down, they need not be etched in stone. For instance, say that you want to lose 20 pounds in the next two months, and two months later, you have only lost 15 pounds.

Many people would see this as a failure, get depressed, and go back to their unhealthy habits. The results are predictable. They gain back the weight they lost (or more) and end up back at square one.

Achieving a goal is like driving to a different city. You never travel in a straight line. You make turns, take detours, and sometimes get lost (although most men would never admit to this). Do you go back home and start over? Of course not. You just make adjustments from your current location.

Taking the above example once again, losing 15 pounds instead of 20 is not failure! Absolutely not. You simply need to make the necessary adjustments in your goal and continue on. Instead of dwelling on your inability to lose 20 pounds, consider that you now only need to lose five pounds. Since you just lost 15 pounds in two months, losing five more in the next month should be a snap. But if you do not, you simply make the necessary adjusts once again from that point. Each goal gets easier and easier.

You should also make reasonably achievable goals. If you need to lose 100 pounds, do not plan to lose it in the next six months. That is not only unreasonable, it can be dangerous to your health. However, losing 100 pounds in 12 months breaks down to slightly less that two pounds per week. That is certainly within reason.

If your goal is to earn a million dollars in the next year, that is admirable. But have you thought about how you are going to do that? If you are starting from scratch, that may not be a reasonable goal. Perhaps you should start by building a foundation first and shooting for your first million dollars next year.

All goal setting activities point you in the direction you want to go…but it does take constant finessing of your aim to hit the target.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. The Empowered Soul

First, unless you are planning on going public or have hundreds of stockholders do not form a C Corp to begin with. Use an S Corp or an LLC. If you currently are a C Corp ask your attorney or tax advisor about converting to an S Corp. If you sell your company within a 10 year period of converting to an S Corp the sale can be taxed as if you were still a C Corp.

Here is what happens when there is an asset sale of a C Corp. The assets that are sold are compared to their depreciated basis and the difference is treated as ordinary income to the C Corp. Any good will is a 100% gain and again is treated as ordinary income. This new found income drives up your corporate tax rate, often to the maximum rate of around 34%. You are not done yet. The corporation pays this tax bill and then there is a distribution of the remaining funds to the shareholders. They are taxed a second time at their long term capital gains rate.

Compare this to a C Corp stock sale. The stock is sold and there is no tax to the corporation. The distribution is made to the shareholders and they pay only their long term capital gain on the change in value over their basis. The difference can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Secondly, keep all assets that may appreciate in value outside the C Corp and in an LLC. Your real estate, patents, intellectual property, etc. should be held in a pass through entity so you avoid the potential high C Corp corporate tax rate and the double taxation if you do an asset sale.

Let’s say that you are a C Corp and the buyer refuses to do a stock sale. If you can get the buyer to move as much of the transaction value to a covenant not to compete, you will be much better off. That will be taxed to you personally at the long term capital gains rate and not the corporate tax rate and the gain can be spread out over the non-compete period.

Another approach you can use is “Personal Good Will”. This is where the seller’s reputation, expertise, and relationships are in effect separated from the assets of the company and account for as much of the good will value as possible from the business. So let’s say that the company sells for $8 million dollars and the amount allocated to the hard assets is $6 million. That leaves $2 million that can be classified as good will. If that good will is assigned to the C Corp, it will be taxed at the 34% rate and then taxed again when it is distributed to the shareholders at 15%.

If you can move that amount to personal goodwill for the owner, it is paid directly to him and he gets taxed at the 15% rate only. The calculation looks like this: If the good will is $2 million and is allocated to the C Corp. They pay $680,000 in corporate income taxes. The $1,320,000 remaining gets distributed to the shareholders and an additional 15% tax is paid or $198,000 for a total tax on that $2 million of $878,000. Moving it all to personal goodwill results in a total tax on that $2 million of $300,000, a savings of $578,000. This approach was pioneered in a classic IRS case called the Martin Ice Cream Case.

There is a built in bias on the part of buyers with the advice of their attorneys to avoid doing stock sales because you buy everything including any hidden liabilities. You as the seller want to convince the buyer to do a stock sale by demonstrating that there are no hidden liabilities. Another argument you can use is that most contracts are not assignable without the consent of the other party. In an asset sale it could be problematic to get assignments of a large quantity of contracts. An example is if your company is in a favorable long-term property lease the landlord will never agree to an assignment of that lease. If you have a long-term contract with a government entity, a change in ownership can trigger a contract end. In a stock sale these are not issues.

There are many variables in a business sale negotiation. Price, Cash at close, Stock versus Asset Sale, and allocation of purchase price. The IRS does not allow the buyer’s allocation of purchase price to be different than the seller’s. It also must be noted that from a tax standpoint, something favorable for the seller is correspondingly less favorable for the buyer. An experienced buyer will structure the deal in the most favorable way for himself. Sellers must get good advisors to help them negotiate to achieve the maximum after tax proceeds.

href=”http://www.midmarkcap.com/SellerResources.cfm” target=”_blank”>Dave Kauppi is a Merger and Acquisition Advisor and President of MidMarket Capital, representing owners in the sale of privately held businesses. We provide Wall Street style investment banking services to lower mid market companies at a size appropriate fee structure.

Starting out a new business can be a daunting task, especially for people who are neophytes and dont have any knowledge in the ins and outs of business. If you are thinking about putting up a company or introducing a new product, you would soon realize that having a perfectly good product is simply not enough to survive in business. Developing a strong corporate brand is equally important in order to penetrate in a highly competitive industry.

Creating a brand name can be a very painstaking, understandably so since the brand would be primary identity of the company during its entire operation. Before you start brainstorming and conceptualizing, first you have to understand the full concept of the corporate branding triangle. Taking time to be acquainted with the basic principles of the corporate branding triangle would certainly help in developing a powerful corporate brand.

Similar to a triangle model, the corporate branding triangle has three important points. Since the corporate brand will certainly be the first important impact on consumers, it should be given a certain degree of value. So here are the three important points that make up the corporate branding triangle framework:

Brand Outside

This generally gives stress to the companys relationship outside the organization, particularly to the consumers. To be able to achieve a strong corporate brand, consumers should be aware of the existence of a product or service in the market. Advertising plays a very big role in helping companys develop a high rating on consumers brand recall. It you are introducing a new brand in the market, it is important that people would know what it is, who can use the product, how to use it, and where they can buy it.

Brand Inside

There are several companies who dont invest time to orient their people thoroughly on their products and services, especially those who are not in the marketing and sales department. This is quite an important aspect that should not be overlooked since how would your people sell their products effectively, if they dont even believe in it? It is important that they do not only trust in the brand, they should use it in order to create conviction. Remember, your employees should be the primary endorsers of the companys product or service.

Brand Leadership

Since the top executives of the company are mostly the ones who are responsible in making important decisions with regards to the products and services they are selling, it should be given great importance. While the other to points discussed in the preceding paragraphs are located at the base of the triangle, the brand leadership is at the very topmost part. This means that executives and their own interaction with the brand are important in building an influential corporate brand. Every decision made in the boardroom should be in line with the best interest of the brand and not just solely on making a good profit.

For more articles and information or to view a selection of public company articles and information and business sales related articles and information visit Articles.net.au - Your source for free Articles, Information and Website Content.

If you would like to learn more about corporate branding and its concepts, you can learn a lot by reading related articles in any publication available. You will be able to have an idea as to what it is and what it can do for your company. It will make you appreciate the value of corporate branding and how it eventually affects your bottom line.

Books are available for your use - and these books will provide you with all the necessary information about the topic. Corporate branding books will be a good read and will prove to be worth your money & time - given the valuable information in your hands.

Here are some of the books that you may like to check:

1.) Corporate Branding: Purpose/People/Process by Majken Schultz - This book discusses 3 major factors in corporate branding. It discusses the purpose of branding, the role of the stakeholders and the processes involved in this endeavor. This corporate book also discusses the classic branding approach and the recent development of corporate branding.

2.) Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management: A Strategic Approach to HR by Susan Hetrick - This is primarily intended for HR practitioners for better understanding of corporate-level concepts with regards to corporate marketing and branding. The readers will then be guided in coming up with better HR strategies in support of their companys drive and agenda in corporate reputation and branding.

3.) The Best of Branding: Best Practice in Corporate Branding by James R. Gregory - In this book, one will find the authors findings about branding, what works for companies and what doesnt work - and why. Interviews with executives of companies with successful brands are featured in the book. The successful strategies will be discussed here.

4.) Leveraging the Corporate Brand by James R. Gregory and Jack Wiechmann - This book discusses the need for companies to rebuild reputations and corporate brand identities. It emphasizes the value of corporate brand communications. The book involves itself in practical applications as well, aside from the in-depth theories & insights on the subject.

5.) Revealing the Corporation: Perspective on Identity, Image, Reputation and Corporate Branding by John M.T. Balmer & Stephen A. Greyser - The book talks about concepts on corporate identity, image, branding and communication. It has commentaries by editors, case study sections and links to other related works.

Corporate Branding - Learning It Well

Taking the time to read books will familiarize you with the key concepts with regards to the topic. You will have the background knowledge on what usually works in a particular setting, and relate it to the current situation your company is currently in. Books provide you with the insights and the important points that you can use & apply for your own case - equipping the readers with the know-how in dealing with issues relating to corporate branding.

For more articles and information or to view a selection of ecommerce articles and information and business ethics articles and information visit Articles.net.au - Your source for free Articles, Information and Website Content.

I sit on the board of directors of the Midwest Business Brokers and Intermediaries (MBBI). An attorney from a small Chicago law firm was recently elected to the board. In his first meeting he introduced himself and said he was on the board at a Chicago attorney association. He stood up in front of our board and said, “You guys don’t have a very good reputation in the legal community.

That certainly got our attention and he went on to explain the reasons why. As I listened to him, it occurred to me that what he was describing was the behaviors of a few of the big national Middle market M&A firms that put on the Business Seller Seminars. Because these firms have so much marketing muscle, they effectively become the face of our profession. No wonder the legal profession does not embrace us.

I walked up to him after the meeting and asked him if I could meet with him and share with him another view of our profession. As our meeting date approached, I was contacted by a business owner who had located me through a Google search (we write a lot of articles) and told me his sad story.

This was a small company that I would describe as being in the pre-profit stage. This owner had received a series of solicitations inviting him to come to a seminar about selling his business. He signed up and was contacted by phone several more times by this company’s representatives to make sure he would attend. They were very specific that he should not bring any company logo items to the seminar for confidentiality reasons.

The presentations were very professionally orchestrated and this firm gave the attendees the impression that the M&A firm possessed this special skill to take these companies and write a powerful “Book” that would dramatically improve their value to the market. They actually used the words, “We will dress up the Pig.” They also said they had a big roster of foreign buyers and that they had an upcoming conference in Brussels where they would be presenting the seminar attendees’ companies to these qualified buyers that were just dying to get their hands on American companies.

In the Seminar’s question and answer period, this business owner asked, “Why am I here?” The presenter jumped all over that one. Everyone of you in this room was specifically selected because your industry is hot with M&A activity. Later in the presentation, one of the seminar presenters took this owner aside and said he would give him a break on the $37,000 up front fees.

They scheduled a follow-up meeting where this Seminar guy pounded on this poor business owner and below is a cut and paste from the email this seller sent me:

“Thanks a lot for the high speed education this morning. The man explained that because of the vast target market for the Product Name Confidential globally, it’s effectiveness and price etc. that Company Name Confidential in the right hands could generate $300,000,000 a year etc. blah blah blah. “It would also give the buyer enhanced stock value. We probably have about 200 qualified buyers right now for you…” He continues, “What you have is an oil well, what the buyer has is a derrick”. He’s from Texas thus, the oil analogy. “One owner no partners with all their attorneys this will be so easy to sell, so clean neat and tidy…”

Finally, “He left very angry because I told him I wasn’t gonna pay them $29,000. So.. I was left to believe that $29,000 was gonna stop his firm from reaping all that “easy money”. That just doesn’t sound real world enough for me. I don’t want to be stuck in their database. I don’t know what he was pissed about… They called me I didn’t call them. I’m not on any “I wanna sell my company” lists. Hell I just got the company phone number listed about two weeks ago. Honest to God I haven’t gotten the first Company Name Confidential phone bill yet.”

Wow. Where do I begin? How about what a sleazy, dishonest, outrageous load of bull.
Luckily this seller had talked to me before his meeting and I warned him about this approach. I had no idea it was quite this misleading. This business owner sent this guy packing and he was ticked off because he didn’t sell a $29,000 book.

As long as I have gone this far, I might as well expose the whole story. This approach works to sign up business owners with stars in their eyes for $37,000 books. What an awesome business. Write a book with industry boilerplate and some minor analysis compiled by some recent grad analysts sitting in a room at HQ that costs the seminar company a maximum of $2500 to produce. Enter these deals into their inventory database and send it out to the Private Equity Groups and present the list to the foreign buyers.

They lock up the seller with a long contract tail and effectively prevent a legitimate firm from actually working the sale process for 2 to 3 years. If the business is in the 2 in 10 that gets immediate interest, then the seminar firm will have a banker work on it. If you are in the unfortunate 8, you become a passive entry in their deal inventory.

Our bankers and the bankers of the 90% of M&A companies that provide a fair value for their services, can only handle effectively four to five simultaneous transactions. If you took this Seminar Company’s deal inventory and divided it by the number of bankers, you would find that they have over 25 live deals per banker. It is impossible to professionally represent these sellers who have paid an up-front fee of $37,000 for this service.

Foreign buyers are not stupid, they do not pay more for companies than American companies, and they are generally not interested in even looking at an acquisition under $25 million in revenue. A “book” never sold a company or made it more valuable. Making changes in your company to improve its performance will make it more valuable. A good M&A advisor or your CPA can provide you important input about that.

What really helps you maximize your company’s selling price is to have an M&A advisor directly contact the universe of most likely strategic buyers and to get several interested in your company. This results in a competition for your company, often called a soft auction. As these strategic buyers view your company as a must have acquisition, the price and terms are significantly improved.

href=”http://www.midmarkcap.com/SellerResources.cfm” target=”_blank”>Dave Kauppi is a Merger and Acquisition Advisor and President of MidMarket Capital, representing owners in the sale of privately held businesses. We provide Wall Street style investment banking services to lower mid market companies at a size appropriate fee structure.

Are you living a life of excellence? Are you everything you aspire to be? Those are the questions life coach and mentor Terri Werner asks her clients, many of whom are chiropractors.

Werner, who has a background in marketing, financial planning and business development, recently spoke to a group of chiropractors at the Karl Parker Seminar in Dallas, Texas. Her message, in the words of one attendee was “tremendous.”

Werner does one-on-one coaching, public speaking and is the author of several books and recordings on building excellence in your life and business practices. Says Werner, “I help a lot of chiropractors market their practice, look at vertical marketing, and how to get their message out, but I do that after we first address the issues in their life.” Her vision is creating a culture of excellence, one life at a time.

When a business or individual engages Werner to assist them, she first looks at what is going on in their lives in general. She asks, “Are they living in excellence? Are they living in integrity? Have they forgiven?” All these things that have to do with the heart and head coming together to create a dynamic excellence in one’s life.

Werner feels that once a person finds what is lacking in their life, and what they could do better, then all things fall into place. “I really believe everything has to do with everything.” She recommends journaling as a way to discover areas where a person is lacking and can improve. Excellence, she says, comes once a person discovers these things and works to change them. “I don’t think excellence has to be difficult. I really define excellence as creating an environment where the propensity to excel is easy.”

Werner knows from experience that anything can be accomplished when you apply these principles. “I had gone through some really tough things in my life and I just decided to implement and do everything I could to create excellence. Doing so meant forgiveness and releasing judgments.”

Werner’s pursuit of excellence paid off in the form of a new book, Train Wreck to Triumph, as well as a partnership with Dr. Denis Waitley and NFL star Tim Brown to create a kid-safe web browser. She is currently working on a new project called A Question of Change. “The premise is that no matter where you are in life whether you’re in trauma or grand success requires focus on getting the right answers. In order to get the right answer, you must ask the right question.” This new book assists readers in asking the right questions to get the outcomes they desire.

Werner has been instrumental in helping many people enrich their lives, grow their businesses and become outcome driven by living lives of excellence.

You can hear Dr. Patrick Porter’s complete interview by going to Listen To The Podcast. Dr. Porter’s chiropractic support program can be viewed at Find Out About The NXTLynk

More often than not, people feel overconfident and treat the approach a bit too casually. However, you should make sure that both the cover letter and the resume are well drafted, so that they make a lasting impression on the reader. They should be planned to stand out in content as well as presentation.

The Importance Of A Good First Impression

The First Impression is usually the Last Impression. In today’s highly competitive world, creating a good first impression is extremely important. This is where the resume plays a very important role in contributing towards success in landing a job. A resume is the most effective tool that can help you win a coveted interview opportunity.

How To Create A Good First Impression

Writing an impressive resume is an important part of your job search preparation. Keep in mind that your resume is indeed a catalog of your abilities. Here are a few steps on how to write a resume that will leave a lasting impression:

- It is very important to create your resume in a professional and appropriate format. There are two basic formats that are used - Functional and Chronological.
- When creating your resume, you can use the free resume forms that are posted on the Internet. However, be careful that your resume doesn’t end up looking like a cookie-cutter template.
- The two most important factors to keep in mind while creating your resume are correct grammar and proper punctuation. Using proper punctuation marks is vital for conveying clear and precise business messages. A resume that contains plenty of grammatical errors creates a bad impression. If you are unable to proofread your own resume, get another professional or a friend to do it for you.
- Make use of industry-oriented words that help you to come across as a highly knowledgeable and professional person.
- Most people think that a comprehensive resume that describes all their past and present achievements is the best way to showcase their skills and expertise. However, this is not true. As a rule, you only need to go back about 5-6 years. Unless you are a recent grad, that job you had in high school is probably irrelevant.

Whether or not you have a professional degree from a coveted institute and are on the lookout for an entry-level position, it is important to market yourself efficiently. Your main aim should be to display your abilities, skill, work experience, educational qualifications, projects, achievements and anything that might work to your advantage.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.