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Have you already fallen in love before buying that house? It doesn’t favor your position in the negotiation.

Negotiating is sometimes (by adherents of economic game theory) compared with playing poker.
When playing poker you do not show your cards. You look at your cards, and you follow the eyes of your opponents. Can you notice something?

But if you are to negotiate you could show your cards.

Think of buying a house. You can be open about what you favor about the house; the location, the amount of space, the classical or rather modern style, the fact that it has a fire-place, the kitchen, the fact that it is near your work, etc…

The real estate agent or the owner of the house doesn’t know you. Buying a house from a friend is a different game with different rules. So let’s focus on the normal circumstances;

the house owner — and you.

The house owner should want to know what your preferences really are. Also the owner will normally not show his or her cards; how many more people are there “waiting” — although this can be analyzed by the period the house is already for sale — is he or she in a hurry to sell the house? Etc…

You can be open about your cards. You have mentioned to positive aspects, and you can also present the issues you are not too happy about; the overdue in maintenance (windows and the roof), the missing garage, etc.

When negotiating, you can be open about all these cards. What you shouldn’t show is how much you value each of them. And leave emotions out if you can.

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
You can apply for a free demo account

As your website grows in terms of attracting more footfalls, generating more business, and providing more content; it will demand more time and attention from you to continue performing. As a businessperson, it is advisable that you concentrate on your core competency, which is the reason why you created the website in the first place.

It would be a strain on your time to continuously work on adding new content and design to your website. It will eat into the time that you would otherwise devote to activities such as building customer leads, obtaining orders, executing orders, coordinating with suppliers, etc. In short, it could affect your bottom-line. In order to avoid such a scenario, it is recommended that you employ the services of a websolutions provider, someone who knows his work. It could even be the person who has been hosting your website till now.

As the size of the database increases, so will the efforts required in managing it. A professional websolutions provider will be best placed to decide everything including the size of images that will load quickly, the best design to provide your website with the most appealing look, how to best ensure compatibility across browsers, adding meta tags to the title and keywords to ensure better indexing with the search engines. Professional webservice providers will also provide you with valuable suggestions and inputs based on their experience and expertise. This will help in ensuring that the pages load quickly and are structured in a manner to ensure clear viewing on different browsers and resolutions. Ease of navigability, addition of any multimedia features such as flash to enhance the user friendliness and appeal of the website are some of the important features that a webservice provider will help you with. It would be very difficult for a businessperson to juggle both sales as well as taking care of the website. Given that there are so many variables involved and the technology keeps getting better and cheaper everyday, outsourcing of your website creation, development, and hosting is a very good idea. If all the aspects of webservice can be trusted to a single webservice provider, then it is even better as the provider can holistically view each aspect before taking a decision. It will also work out to be much cheaper.

The outsourcing of the servicing and hosting of your website is to be preceded by a clear understanding on your part on what you would like achieve by opting for outsourcing.

The following points can be considered.

Your exact requirements, in terms of the look of the website, utility features such as Flash, Java applets, the level of visibility that you want on the search engines, etc.

The periodicity of executing each activity, for example the frequency of adding new content, checking for broken links and freezing on the deadlines for completion of each activity.

The cost of completing the project. Outsourcing the job to experts will always work out to be cheaper.

Breaking down your objectives into manageable portions will help you to execute each portion fast and also to understand the implications of its actual use on the overall effect of the website.

Author has been doing freelancing for many years, and can be reached at FreelanceFree.com. You can bid on unlimited projects for free and post unlimited projects and match them against freelancer portfolios.

The value of a service always appears to go down quickly as soon as those services have been performed. The value of any material object you buy may go up in value over the years, but the value of services always appears to decline rapidly after you have performed those services.

Power Negotiators know that any time you make a concession to the other side in a negotiation you should ask for a reciprocal concession right away. The favor that you did the other side loses value very quickly. Two hours from now the value of it will have diminished rapidly.

Real estate salespeople are very familiar with the principle of the declining value of services. When a seller has a problem getting rid of a property, and the real estate salesperson offers to solve that problem for a 6 percent listing fee, it doesn’t sound as though it’s an enormous amount of money. However, the minute the Realtor has performed the service by finding the buyer, then suddenly that six- percent starts to sound like a tremendous amount of money. “Six percent. That’s $12,000!” the seller is saying. “For what? What did they do? All they did was put it in a multiple listing service.” The Realtor did much more than that to market the property and negotiate the contract but remember the principle: The value of a service always appears to diminish rapidly after you have performed that service.

I’m sure you’ve experienced that, haven’t you? A person with whom you do a small amount of business has called you. He’s in a state of panic because the supplier from whom they get the bulk of their business has let them down on a shipment. Now their entire assembly line has to shut down tomorrow unless you can work miracles and get a shipment to them first thing in the morning. Sound familiar? So you work all day and through the night, re-scheduling shipments all over the place. Against all odds, you’re able to get a shipment there just in time for the assembly line to keep operating. You even show up at their plant and personally supervise the unloading of the shipment, and the buyer loves you for it. He comes down to the dock, where you are triumphantly wiping the dirt off your hands and says, “I can’t believe you were able to do that for me. That is unbelievable service. You are absolutely incredible. Love you, love you, love you.”

So, you say, “Happy to do it for you, Joe. That’s the kind of service we can give when we have to. Don’t you think it’s time we looked at my company being your main supplier?”

He replies, “That does sound good, but I don’t have time to talk about it now because I’ve got to get over to the assembly line and be sure that it’s running smoothly. Come to my office Monday morning at 10 o’clock and we’ll go over it. Better yet, come by at noon and I’ll buy you lunch. I really appreciate what you did for me. You are fantastic. Love you, love you, love you.”

So all weekend long, you think to yourself, “Boy. Have I gotten this one made. Does he owe me.” Monday rolls around, however, and negotiating with him is just as hard as ever. What went wrong? The declining value of services came into play. The value of a service always appears to decline rapidly after you have performed the service.

If you make a concession during a negotiation, get a reciprocal concession right away. Don’t wait. Don’t be sitting there thinking that because you did them a favor, they owe you and that they will make it up to you later. With all the goodwill in the world, the value of what you did goes down rapidly in their mind.

For the same reason, consultants know that you should always negotiate your fee up front, not afterward.

Plumbers know this, don’t they? They know that the time to negotiate with you is before they do the work, not after. I had a plumber out to the house. After looking at the problem he slowly shook his head and said, “Mr. Dawson, I have identified the problem, and I can fix it for you. It will cost you $150.”

I said, “Fine, go ahead.”

You know how long it took him to do the work? Five minutes. I said, “Now wait a minute. You’re going to charge me $150 for five minutes work? I’m a nationally known speaker, and I don’t make that kind of money.”

He replied, “I didn’t make that kind of money either-when I was a nationally known speaker.”

Key points to remember:

The value of a material object may go up, but the value of services always appears to go down.

Don’t make a concession and trust that the other side will make it up to you later.

Negotiate your fee before you do the work.

Roger Dawson

Founder of the Power Negotiating Institute

800-932-9766

RogDawson@aol.com

http://www.rdawson.com

Roger Dawson is the author of two of Nightingale-Conant’s best selling audiocassette programs, Secrets of Power Negotiating and Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople. This article is excerpted in part from Roger Dawson’s new book - “Secrets of Power Negotiating”, published by Career Press and on sale in bookstores everywhere for $24.99.

As an outstanding manager, you won’t just “manage” people; you’ll also assist the members of your team develop to their true potential.

This means helping team members utilize their talents, develop new skills and knowledge, overcome fresh challenges, become more and more productive, become happier, and in all respects grow as employees and people.

To fulfill these responsibilities you’ll need to develop coaching — as well as — managing skills.

The essence of being a coach is to help someone reach beyond his or her own perceived limitations and achieve his or her full potential. (I’ll now interchange the male and female
pronouns for the purpose of readability.)

Unlike other aspects of managing, when you coach someone, you are focused on her as a person, not on the task or tasks you want her to complete.

You have many “tools” to accomplish this. You can give advice and direction — on the individual’s career, on how to complete certain tasks, on how to work within the political framework of the organization, and so on. For the most part, however, coaching involves prompting the person — asking questions — to help the “coachee” discover her own answers.

You may coach via your regular, day-to-day, interactions with your staff as well as during your more formal meetings (including the performance appraisal).

Ideally, however, you will schedule some specific coaching sessions with each team member. These aren’t for giving feedback or for appraising her performance; they’re for coaching. During these meetings — which may last for 30 to 60 minutes — you’ll ask some questions and let your employee do most of the talking. Your aim is to find out if she has any specific goals or challenges, and help her find a way to overcome them.

You might kick off a coaching session by explaining how coaching works. Then you might ask the employee what she would like to be coached about. She might have a problem working with someone else, or she might want to know how she can get promoted faster, or she might want to change roles. (If that’s the case, relax. Remember, you want the best people working for you, not people who want to be somewhere else!).

Your next question may be to ask her what outcomes she wants. After she answers — and remember to give her as much time as she needs to do so — your next question might be about the
difficulties or challenges she perceives in pursuing those outcomes.

You might then ask, “How can you overcome those difficulties?” in order to prompt her to work out her own solutions. Of course, she might be looking for answers from you at this point… and although there is a place for giving her advice… ideally she will come up with her own ideas.

Finally, you might ask your employee to give you her “game plan” for overcoming the problem or achieving the goal, ensuring that she has covered off all possible roadblocks to her success.

You can also coach people on a more informal basis. In fact, all “feedback opportunities” are coaching opportunities.

For example, if someone hasn’t performed a task very well, he will learn where he went wrong and how to work better next time if you coach him through the problem rather than simply tell him what he did badly.

Instead of saying “You should have done this…” “You should have done that…” you might ask him lots of “what” and “how” questions like, “what went wrong” and “how would you do this next time?”

There are also situations where you may wish to engage a professional coach — from within or outside your company (as the case may be) — to work with members of your team. For instance, if they want to make dramatic and difficult changes in their working lives… or you think they need an outside perspective… or you want them to have coaching on a more regular basis than what you can provide…

There are no special qualifications required to be a coach, so it’s critical for you to select one carefully. In particular, look for someone who specializes in coaching executives and who
has been through a rigorous and highly regarded training program.

Incorporate coaching into your role as a manager and you’re almost certain to develop a closer relationship with your staff that leads to greater productivity, better results and higher
morale.

Anna Johnson is the author of the How To Manage People System, including her book, How To Manage People (Even If You’re A Control Freak!). Get Anna’s FREE 12-page report How To Be An Outstanding Manager — The 8 Vital Keys To Managing People Effectively

Whether you’re negotiating a peace settlement in a war-torn country or a peace settlement in an argument-ravaged relationship, strong preparation is the key to success.

The following three steps will help you establish the three keys to your preparation - why you are involved in the negotiation, how you intend to conduct the negotiation, and what are the specific outcomes you are hoping to agree upon.

1. Purpose

Knowing why you are engaged in a negotiation may seem obvious in some situations (to buy a lamp, to stop a fight, etc.), but more complex negotiations generally have more complex purposes.

Ask yourself:

-Why am I negotiating?

-What are the potential benefits?

-What do I ultimately hope to achieve?

2. Result/Relationship Balance

A “transaction” is high result/low relationship - we get what we want, and the other person is incidental to the exchange. Buying a used car is generally a “transaction”.

“Relationship-builders” are meetings, calls, and exchanges of value where developing the relationship between the two parties is far more important than the actual tangible “result” outcome. Early meetings in any project are usually “relationship-builders” - what gets done is far less important than connections being made.

A true “Deal” is where there is a high emphasis on both getting what you want and enhancing your relationship for the future - this “win/win” thinking takes more time and effort, but is essential in any sort of long-term agreement. Successful political (and marital!) negotiations are always predicated on achieving this balance.

Give yourself the following test:

If you had 20 points to distribute between creating the Result you want and enhancing the Relationship, how would you do it?

Example (Result/Relationship):

15/5 - Transaction

5/15 - Relationship builder

10/10 - Deal

3. Outcomes and Options

When it comes to negotiation, having a clear outcome, goal, or target in mind has been shown to be one of the primary determinants in how things come out.

Ask yourself the following questions:

-What specifically do I want?

-What specifically do I think they want?

-What are some plausible options that will get us both what we want?

Bonus Tip:
If you’re using this to prepare for an important negotiation, take some extra time to answer the questions AS IF you were the other person in the negotiation. You will be pleasantly surprised at the insights you gain from this process.

Have fun, learn heaps, and the next time you negotiate, do it like a P.R.O.!

Michael Neill is a licensed Master Trainer of NLP and has written over 450 articles on in the areas of business success, money, relationships, health, happiness, well-being, and spirituality. His weekly coaching column is reprinted in newspapers and magazines throughout the world, and can be found online at http://www.geniuscatalyst.com

As a business owner, wouldn’t it be great if you could take time off whenever you needed to? Unfortunately, most small business owners worry that the business will fall apart if they’re not there to mind the store. Too often, they simply lack the appropriate resources for their business to keep going in their absence.

“Taking time off is as important as food,” says Charles Tuttle, leader of a group of entrepreneurs in North Carolina. Don’t worry if this statement raises a red flag for you. Although taking time off can be especially challenging and downright impossible sometimes, it’s important to know that you can do something to make it happen. It takes deliberate work on your part and here are a few simple ideas to get you started.

Find a way to make work fun. If your work is stressful, build in laughter to ease the stress and tension. Take frequent breaks to stretch or breathe if you’re sitting all day. Fun makes the passing of the day more enjoyable. Try it and watch your fabulous day unfold!

Take leisure time in smaller chunks. Look at opportunities to journal, meditate or read between appointments and activities. It may seem pointless but it goes a long way in developing your time management skills while caring for your need to unplug. Tap into a little bit of spare time in your productivity process. It’s a great way to balance the scales in your favor!

Plan personal time on your calendar. Your calendar reflects your commitment to priorities or what’s important in your life. Typically, if you set aside the time on your calendar, you will observe it. Plan, then act to ensure you’re creating plenty of break time and doing something important in your life. You’ll have a greater sense of integrity and accomplishment at the same time.

Consider taking time off on a weekday. Who said you can only have fun on the weekends? Take time off in the middle of the week or even at the beginning! You’ll be surprised at how imaginative you’ll become while creating your fun time.

Identify unconventional ways to take time off. Time off may mean snuggling on the couch in your favorite bathrobe. It may also mean turning the ringer on the phone off, turning the TV and radio off or going to a park to feed the ducks. Your assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to get away from your business - whatever that means for you. Most entrepreneurs are in business because it offers freedom and flexibility so learn to capitalize on it!

Acknowledge yourself weekly for your accomplishments. What you do is hard work so pat yourself on the back for it! Select rewards that nurture and care for you like a facial, manicure, massage or other spa treatment. Treat yourself to a movie or read a good book. The more you acknowledge your progress, the more you’ll enjoy the journey!

Reward yourself for completed projects. You deserve a reward for completing the big projects in your business. Accordingly, let the reward match the milestone you reach when you complete a project. Plan a day trip, weekend getaway, or seven-day cruise. Whatever you enjoy, these are moments to treasure. Establish your reward at the beginning of the project so you’ll have an incentive to motivate to move you forward.

These are a few simple ideas to help you practice taking time off from your business. Remember, whether you’re just starting, squeezing a few moments out here and there or in full throttle, taking time off is good not only for you. It’s great for your business, too!

Wendy Y. Bailey is a Personal and Business Coach with Brilliance In Action, a professional coaching organization that helps women entrepreneurs, business owners and business professionals blend their personal and business lives. For more information, visit www.ebrilliance.net

Ah, I’ll do it later. Just five more minutes. After I take this break. Or right after this,
I just don’t want to miss who kisses who and hey tomorrow’s an easy day I can squeeze it
in tomorrow, and if anything there’s always the weekend…

Life is too short. We can’t afford to keep losing a minute here, a day there, a week here. But efficient
time-management is something that is just SO hard for people to do. It’s remarkable. Years…
YEARS of one’s life are wasted without anyone noticing, except for those of us who have realized
this and are aiming to make time work for us, not against us. The vast majority of people, however,
instead of making use of the little time they do have actually do the opposite:
they can’t seem to help but make their situation worse by procrastinating.

It isn’t especially hard to make good use of one’s time- it just takes a little bit of initiative, practice,
and a lot of planning and discipline. It’s the last one, discipline, that usually kills people. If you’re
reading this, it’s because you need help, so here are some ways to battle procrastination and
add [meaningful] years to your life.

Planning

The saying ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ is so true. So here it is. Get a sheet of paper, a working
pen or pencil, and write down the top things you have to do today (no excuses) and
things you can do should you get ahead of schedule. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Think
carefully and plan accordingly. Plan for minor setbacks.
Make your plan flexible in case you have to change something and make sure to factor in breaks.

Write down realistic short term goals and long-term goals and label them as such.
You want to be best friends with your pen
and paper, because psychologically if we see it written, we feel obligated to do it. When you’ve
completed a task, DO cross it off for clarity and to give yourself that oh so good feeling of accomplishment.

What to do? Start Small

Now if you’re still having trouble completed the tasks you’ve set out to do, write down….WRITE
DOWN the most basic, easiest baby steps to get you working in the right direction. Write GET UP….
walk to the office, turn on the computer, and open a word processor (for example), or write grab the phone,
just grab the phone, and cross it off as you act.

Once you do something small, like step into a room, or
go outside, or get yourself a little dirty by kneeling on the floor under the hood of a car- whatever- anything small just
to get you started, you will be SO much closer to doing what you have to do. Cross
out what you’ve just done, then do what you can to take advantage of that momentum and keep going.
In fact, let’s practice now. If you’re serious do this exercise. Write down :

• stand up
• step forward
• put both hands in the air
• stretch and take a deep breath

When finished cross each one off. You’ve just completed your first task for today. Congrats.

What are you waiting for?

You have got to start now. Start as early as possible, always. The later you start, the more work
you will have to do. That is a fact. Not only that, but you will be pressed for time and your
work will be half-assed and it will show. This whole I-work-better-under-pressure is a BS
excuse for procrastination. So if you’re thinking it, you are full of it. Get to work…NOW.

You will find that once you practice these skills regularly, you will feel MUCH better. You will be
less stressed, you will do better work, and you will be able to accomplish more of your goals. If you get bogged down again,
and suddenly see yourself again under the influence of procrastination, don’t worry. Take a deep breath, forgive yourself, and follow these steps again. The fact that you’re reading
this is already a step in the right direction.

Vincent St. James of thecollegeguys.com has written several articles on self-improvement that can be found all over the web. All are original works of thecollegeguys.com.
Vincent also writes about personal finance and the film industry.

Believe it or not, fear of death is actually second to the one greatest fear that the majority of humanity seems tensely afraid of: fear of speaking in public.

If fear is all that you are thinking, then forget about that presentation that could earn your company and you the necessary sales. Presentation and public speaking is one of the most efficient as well as effective manner in making your products and services known. Why deny your product or service the chance to be heard? If you are still afraid, try your very best to focus on the various positive after effects of making that presentation. Create in your mind the numerous clients, customers and contact persons you might not get to see or be involved with if you let that unnecessary and irrelevant anxiety take hold of you. Your presentation may only take thirty minutes but the long term effects of your pitch or presentation might go a long way.

If the fear is still gripping you, try to do the following exercises to help your body relax and warm up to whatever it is you plan to do in your presentation. Turn that negative energy into a positive one and see who benefits best from it.

Warm up your body

Are you wearing high heeled shoes now? If you are, please take them off now. Then go and stand up. Try to stand on only one leg. Then shake the leg that is off the floor. Switch legs and do the same thing again. What you are doing is taking the negative energy of anxiety towards the floor and out of your body. Though this may appear and sound so out of this world, it actually works. For your information, actors use this as a warm-up exercise prior to attacking any scene.

Hold out your hands, shake them, fast. Put your hands over your head and bring them to your sides. Repeat the same process. Doing this continually will take the tension off your hands and arms so any movements you make with them during your presentation gets to appear natural.

Ease the tension present in the muscles of your face. In order to do this what you could do is chew in a manner that is exaggerated.

These exercises are done for the purpose of warming any part of your body that is edgy, uptight or taut from being too nervous thinking about how you will do in your presentation. Do not think too much though as it only adds unnecessary stress. Relax and your audience will relax along with you.

James Masterson is Stand out, Be Recognized and Be Remembered keynote speaker. Click Here To read his latest advice free-online-course.com/masterson

Even if you are smart and interesting and a snappy dresser, you may not be communicating effectively at work. Your business culture, priorities, processes, and physical environment, all play a part in how well information is sent and received. A large part of improving your communication environment is improving your own ability to communicate on an interpersonal level.

One of the paradoxes of the 21st Century is that we are able to communicate like never before we have 24-hour news, e-mail, Internet chat, and cell phones everywhere. Still, the quality of our communication seems to be diminishing we write fewer long letters, we rarely sit down to dinner with the family, we have fewer face-to-face encounters, and we take less time to hold meaningful conversations. As the efficiency of our communication increases, it becomes less interpersonal.

It’s interesting that in 1990, only about half a million individuals in the US had a cell phone (that is less than one-quarter of one percent of the 1990 population). In 2000, 10 years later, there were about 100 million cell phone subscribers (about 35% of the population) and new subscribers are added at the rate of 50,000 per day.

Still, in a world of perpetual sending and receiving of information, our contact with other people has become routine and efficient like the drive-thru window at Burger King. We pass some impersonal words, get our value meal, and drive off. The process occurs with hardly a thought. We’re on autopilot.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with this type of impersonal communication which we seem to be doing more of as long as we do not neglect the more meaningful interpersonal communication that makes a real difference in our work and personal lives which we seem to be doing less of.

Your communication exists on a continuum between impersonal and interpersonal. You should move from one to the other based on your goal; is it more important for you to get the task done or strengthen the relationship with the person or people you are communicating with?

For example, when you are driving through Burger King, your goal is to get your food and drive away. You don’t really care who is behind the window, and he or she doesn’t really care who you are. Your focus is on the task, which is to send your request as clearly as you can so you get what you want.

What if you go to the same restaurant for lunch every day and have the same waiter? Might you be more interested in building a relationship with the waiter? Sure. A stronger relationship might get you a better table at the restaurant, faster service, better food, or just interesting conversation. The waiter might get a better tip, a good recommendation from you to other people, and more business.

Based on your goals at work, are your communications with employees more impersonal or interpersonal? For the most part, managers and leaders need to find a balance between impersonal and interpersonal communication. Too impersonal and relationships suffer; too interpersonal and tasks suffer.

Despite our best intentions and skill at relating to others, interpersonal communication is a complex process. Rarely are any of us completely at ease or satisfied with our encounters. We often feel misunderstood and frustrated by our inability to convey our messages clearly.

The best way to improve as a communicator is to get out from behind the computer and the desk. Engage with people face-to-face, put yourself in varying social situations with diverse people, deal with differing opinions and ideas with respectful debate, and so on.

Don’t treat life like a drive-thru window. Sit down and chew the fat with people once in awhile.

Do you manage your time or does your time manage you?
Do you start your day knowing what you want to achieve today and how you are going to achieve it?

Time management is a skill. You should learn the basics and learn how to implement it.

Following a thorough research on the topic of time management , I strongly suggest you use the most important time management tip - delegate
“Do not do what you do not have to do”
You had enough time to realize what you are good at and what you are not so good at. Hand over things you are not so good at to others. Make people work for you.

Take a look at some of the delegating examples below. Create a personal effective time management using delegation techniques.

1. Take some one to sort your mail - most of the mail we get is junk mail or routine mail messages. Make someone sort the mail for you to manage your time better.

2. Send others to meetings - Meeting are great time wasters. When you are invited to meetings make sure you know what the purpose of the meeting is. If you do not have real contribution send some one else to the meeting. Give him a brief and make sure he gives you a summary of the meeting after it is finished.

3. Take a secretary - Your life must be organized. Most of us tend to lose our focus of the important things due to the amount of tasks we have to do. Prioritizing the different tasks and finding the right balance between business, family etc. is almost impossible.

Make it easier. Delegate it. You will soon not understand how you have organized your life without a secretary. Let the secretary manage your time - let her decide when you come and go from work, let her schedule meetings for you and most important let her handle all paper work and mails.

Find more time management tips on http://www.911makemoretime.com. It’s all about time management - The most comprehensive resource for time management skiils, Time Management Techniques, Time Management tips, Personal goals etc. -
http://www.911makemoretime.com