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Have you ever noticed that in many businesses, the different arms don’t seem to communicate of operate on the same plan? For example, the sales office may run by a differing set of rules than the systems wing.

This division is somewhat artificial and partially maintained by the IT people themselves because of a certain culture technical people have about their specialized knowledge and application areas.

If you get to the bottom of it, those strange people down in IT have the same goals as every other business person which is to succeed both personally and corporately in shared projects.

The folks sitting on the business end of the house of side of the corporate landscape depend on the systems guys to let us know how things are going with that highly valuable asset that we have in our IT systems, hardware and software.

Most medium to large businesses run very high capacity computers or multitudes of computers connected through a network and those systems must perform at top capacity each day to accomplish the budgets and goals the boss has set before them.

The upgrade and maintenance budgets for the computers that run your business no doubt represents a fairly sizable percentage of the corporate budget each year.

But because those systems are what make you competitive in the marketplace, that investment is worth the money to assure that the mission critical jobs those powerful systems do get done on time each week and month. You can never sell the IT side of the house short, just as you can’t afford to under staff the sales side either. They are both big time!

When a computer begins to show signs of straining under the load of work, we are giving it, that can be a cause of significant concern for a business.

If your business paradigm dictates that the load of traffic or system resources could be pushed to beyond what the computers can do with their existing computing power, that weakness in the IT infrastructure represents a significant risk to the company should the system become overloaded when there is a large body of work to be done by these machines.

What not every business person knows is that there may be a hidden goldmine of computing capacity already resident in your IT resources that simply is not being tapped to its fullest. You know that it isn’t uncommon for your IT professionals to report that your systems are at 80-90% capacity and must be upgraded to handle the next big increase in business.

That hidden goldmine is a discipline that has actually been around for quite sometime but is infrequently tapped in the modern business world. That discipline is called “capacity planning”.

By implementing a capacity planning office and monitoring function, you can put the tools and the talent in place to precisely measure scientifically if your computer systems are at capacity of if there is just a need for system tuning or realignment of computing schedules to get more out of the systems you already own.

Recently a large oil company in the Midwest noted that many of its mission critical functions were being delayed in processing, seemingly because the computer systems were overloaded and in dire need of an expensive and time consuming upgrade. Capacity planning measurements were taken and the system was diagnosed to determine what the real problem was and it was found that job priorities of new functions were not tuned to the load of the system at critical time frames.

The adjustments were made by talented systems administrators and the IT infrastructure continued to perform at top-notch capacity and the delays were eliminated with no additional hardware or upgrades needed.

By utilizing capacity planning software tools and enabling your IT team to take advantage of this highly scientific computer measurement and prediction method, the business can get the most out of its computer resources and use its corporate resources to further the business objectives of the company. And that benefits everyone.

Give this a try at your company and realize the gold that is deep within: the gold you find in teamwork and caring planning!

When starting out with an on line business there is one thing your going to need, web advertising. As you begin to search on and offline you’ll come across many businesses that will tell you things that seem to good to be true and most of the time they are. You have to have your BS radar on Be very wary of businesses that promise search engine placement “practically overnight” as this kind of thing takes time and lots of money depending on the market your in.

Below are a few tips and key indicators to look out for on your journey for exposure and traffic to your on line business via website advertising.

First, steer clear of the websites that promise to send out a mailing to millions of people. These scams have been around since the advent of the Internet. I mean, if you like throwing your money away then by all means, go for it. If not, keep that money in your pocket.

Second, for the most part, stay away from companies that offer to place your site in a multitude of search engines. There are some really great tools out there that you can use to do this yourself until you get an idea of what is needed and how effective search engine submission should be. Frankly speaking, patience is all you need to have. As long as your site provides quality content the search engines will find you, for free.

Third, it is a good idea to invest your time and money in writing articles. This is a time tested way to drive traffic to your site, increase the number of incoming links from other related sites on the net, get your site listed in many search engines and boost your rankings in the search engines once your in. These articles can be written by you or outsource to a ghostwriter. It depends on your particular budget and preferences.

Fourth, submit solo ads to e zines. With e zine ads, you can place a small ad in a companies e zine that is relevant to your market for a small fee and usually receive great results. You do need to know how to write an effective ad and then convert the traffic once it’s on your site, but that’s for another article.

Finally, research the business or website before you spend money with them. If you feel you have found a good site to advertise on, do a little research about that particular site. See what other people are saying, their individual success stories and so forth. Try going to advertising forums and ask around about the site in question or go to yahoo answers and post a question. You will be surprised at how many people will be willing to help out.

In the beginning, try to find the best places to advertise online can be a nightmare. There is so much research involved and it can be very daunting. You also need to know how to convert that traffic once it’s on your site. Just be skeptical when your first starting out and do your research. Many times you’ll save yourself a lot of time in money just asking others about their experience with a certain site.

What is food cost and how does it effect your business? Food cost percent is the percentage amount of total food purchases in comparison to the amount of revenue generated.

An example:
You are proposing Chicken Picatta for a menu price of ten dollars, and the ingredients cost you two dollars and fifty cents. To figure out your food cost percent you would simply take cost of food divided by menu price equals food cost percent. In this example, you would take $2.50 divide by $10.00= .25 or 25 percent.

Now what does this mean when your starting your own catering business. In general in the world of catering most menus are sold as clusters. A dinner menu would contain a salad, starch,vegetable, and dessert to compliment the main course. So you would have to add up all your costs and divide by the given menu price.

Having a good comprehension of food cost will help you determine your menu pricing and make sure your business is lucrative, distinctively in respect to helping you determine menu costs. Ideally, food cost percent would be 20 to 25 percent. Of course this also depends on what you are serving and what you can charge for it. An example would be a Lobster Tail, it might cost you $15.00. You can sell it for $45.00. Your food cost would be 33 percent,but your making $30.00 a cover. Going back to the previous Chicken Picatta example, you were making $7.50 per cover. That is awesome, but I’ll take the $30.00 per cover and higher food cost anytime.

You do want to push your product for the highest margin possible. When determining menu cost, you must also consider what the competition is charging. You don’t necessarily want to be the cheapest, but you must be able to justify the charge. I would also recommend implementing a service charge, they are typically 17-20%. This will help equalize vehicle maintenance costs, rental, etc, and you will have some left over to put in your pocket.

Knowing your food cost will help you manage your business. It effects your bottom line tremendously.Say, you are averaging one thousand covers per week. If your food cost is 25% of your money out, it would be two thousand five hundred dollars. If your food cost is 30% of your spending, it would be three thousand dollars. The variation is five hundred dollars per week. That’s a twenty six thousand dollars per year raise. If you are just starting off, you’re probably not going to do those volumes to begin with. Just remember, starting off with good habits will stay with you for the duration of your business.

Remember, you do want to have fun with starting a home catering business but your main motivation must be to make money. If you are money hungry, then starting a catering business is for you. Work smart, work hard, and profit well.

Get money for your business startup - read and watch videos about how to get a grant on this blog.

When you and a professional contact meet for the first time, the first thing both of you usually do is to exchange business cards. That means besides the brief introduction at the beginning of the meeting, your business card design plays a pivotal role in creating the first impression the other person will form of you. I would almost go as far as to say that this simple, yet very effective business card is your passport to the start of successful business. Super salesmen can justify the truth in this statement. In today’s world your business card is almost like a currency in your own right – you have the right of designing your own business card and simultaneously determining the strength of your cash flow.
The size and design of your business card

When deciding on the size of your business card, don’t be too concerned about the small size. It is essentially the design and information on your card that is of high importance.

What information should you put on your business card?
Business Cards should display the following information:

* Your Business Name
* Professional Titles
* Company Address
* Relevant contact details of the individual including e-mail.

Using your business card as a marketing tool

If you look objectively at a business card, it acts as a means of below-the-line advertising – in the truest sense of the word. Because business cards are handed out to potential business contacts and clients it is an ideal opportunity to offer a compelling message. This message can be anything from:

* Your business’ objectives and mottos;
* The names of high profile clients to
* Tag lines from your clients.

The type of, and if you put a personal message on your business card is really up to you.

Different types of Business Cards designs

The days are gone where you have to be satisfied with single-sided business cards. Today there are a vast variety of different designs:

* Business cards shaped like place holders
* Four sided business cards
* Colour printed business cards
* Laminated business cards
* A business card that looks and feels like a credit card

How to design a business card?

There are several Internet based service companies that custom design and make your Business Cards from designing the logo and printing to delivering your business cards for you. Some of these companies even have online business card design templates enabling you to design your own business cards online.

Where to design a business card in Toronto

Artik.com is such an Internet based service company enabling you to design your own business card. start designing your business card now!

One of the attractions of home based business opportunities is the vision of freedom it invokes — no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account to for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside — you are likely wasting a lot of time.

My spouse spends time every day filling out these large spreadsheets to account for his day. They work for a large engineering company and his day often encompasses work on a variety of projects for different clients. They hate the task and I saw it as a time waster that is until my home business recently took off and I realized there simply wasn’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all my goals.

I now have my own spread sheet and agenda for the day and I have improved my productivity and reduced my stress immeasurably. If you don’t think you need a schedule for your home business then think again — and read on.

After a spate of relatively unproductive days when my “To Do” list seemed to grow exponentially every time I looked at it I knew something had to change.

Granted I was going through a rough patch. My home business was experiencing growing pains and taking up more than the usual time, my four-year-old was only in preschool part-time, my spouse wasn’t pulling their weight on the home front, and my extended family was experiencing a number of crises. But I’m also old enough to know there is never a perfect time in life — you just live the one you’ve got. These are simply the problems I’m dealing with this year. Next year these problems will be traded in for new fresh ones.

After studying my time and chatting with some other work-at-home folks, I discovered five reasons to embrace the schedule:

1. It’s too easy to waste time doing non priority tasks
2. It’s too easy to get sidetracked or distracted from your current task
3. Unscheduled work time can often overlap into your free time until you don’t have any free time at all
4. Your free time can overlap into your work time until you fall behind with important projects
5. Concentrating your time and effort on highest priority projects means more gets done

I am certainly not the sole business owner using the plan I recently took part in an online forum where men and women had moved to embrace it — and found it more freeing than restrictive. After all, you are still the one setting the schedule so you are free to schedule yourself off for a 3-hour lunch, an afternoon, or a whole day whenever you choose.

If you find it difficult setting up your schedule for your home based business opportunity and priorities for the day and week then perhaps your significant other or a friend can help you set your schedule.

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