Americans For Financial Security

Fuel Your Motivation: 6 Tips
Word-of-mouth referrals are a coveted form of advertising because they’re highly effective and free. Here are four ways you can fast-track word-of-mouth referrals and generate some buzz for your startup business.

Time For A New Biz Plan?
There’s no substitute for a written business plan, especially in these uncertain times. If you’ve never created a business plan or haven’t updated your plan recently, there’s no better time to do so than right now.

Is Your Business Cash Safe?
The growth and success of your small business is directly impacted by the quality of your employees. Whether you manage one employee or 10, you can become a better boss by following these guidelines.

Improve Your Negotiation Skills
"Everything’s negotiable." If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve probably witnessed this truism at work. Here are 10 expert tips for how you can improve your negotiation skills and arrive at more win-win solutions.

Do You Need A Financial Planner?
For many small-business owners, the demands of running a business leave little time for managing their personal finances. This is why owners can often benefit from the advice and assistance of a personal financial planner.

Be A Better Boss
The growth and success of your small business is directly impacted by the quality of your employees. Whether you manage one employee or 10, you can become a better boss by following these guidelines.

Tap Your Strengths In Tough Times
Gas prices keep going up. Credit is tightening. Home values are slumping. Consumers are cutting back spending. Learn how to tap into the traits that made you a successful entrepreneur.

Work Faster!
You can’t add more hours to your day. But you can work faster by tapping into these small-business resources.

Survive A Travel Crisis: 6 Tips
Last month, business travelers found themselves stranded at airports across the country as airline carriers grounded hundreds of planes for inspections. American Airlines alone cancelled more than 3,000 flights in a week’s time.

How To Survive An Ebbing Economy
Call it an economic downturn, a stall or a recession. No matter what you name it, it’s clear that the U.S. economy is getting choppy.

Be A Voice Mail Hero
Efficient voice mail messages show that you respect the recipients and don’t want to waste their time. Follow these tips to make a great voice mail impression.

Tools To Help Your Business Grow
Small-business owners can often launch a successful venture on a wing and a hope. But, if you want your business to grow, you need the proper tools.

6 Resolutions For A Great 2008
Ready to turn over a new leaf in the new year? Here are six resolutions that will help you run a more successful small business in 2008.

Don’t Embarrass Yourself: Six Holiday Tips
Holiday etiquette once was a far simpler thing. But in our increasingly pluralistic and polarized culture, what was once nearly universally recognized as sincere, meaningful expressions of reverence, celebration and gratitude unfortunately can be misconstrued these days.

Are Employee Bonuses Worth It?
Many different factors figure into employees’ job satisfaction and loyalty. But there’s no denying that compensation is near the top of the list.

What To Do In A Cash Flow Crunch
Cash is king. If you don’t believe it, run out of cash and see what happens.

Reduce Seasonal Sales Slumps
If your small business experiences peaks and valleys every year, consider these ideas for bumping up sales during your off season.

Train Yourself
You invest in equipment to help build a better small business. You invest in marketing to keep customers coming in the door. So why not invest in yourself by getting trained in skills that will help you be a smarter business owner?

Get Out Of Town!
We’re half way through summer. Have you taken your vacation yet?

10 Small-Business Stress Busters
While running your own business can be rewarding, it doesn’t come without stress, anxiety and worry. When you feel like things are spinning out of control, try these 10 techniques for reducing stress.

5 Web Site Must-Haves
A recent study by ShopLocal found that 85 percent of adult Internet shoppers used the Web to make more informed shopping trips to their local stores.

Is Your Home Business At Risk?
Your home-based business could be hit by neighborhood burglars or by a natural disaster.

And chances are, you’re not covered for the all of the losses.

Avoid Dumb Advertising Decisions
Small businesses on a tight budget often don’t have money to throw around on their advertising.

Are You A Micromanager? Take The Quiz!
Is this adage true or false? “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”

Keep Your Small Business Healthy
For small-business owners, winter brings its own unique challenges.

Colds and flu run rampant in small offices. Winter sports cause injuries and absenteeism. Dreary days give folks excuses to abandon their fitness routines.

Be A Leader. Listen Up.
You might think that your abilities to close deals or hire the right employees are the top skills you need to succeed as a small-business owner. But you might be wrong.

By All Appearances...
It may not seem fair, but customers judge your small business – and you – by appearances.

Tax Planning Now Pays Off Later
If you haven’t started your tax planning for 2006, you’re already behind. Waiting until Dec. 31 – or worse – until April 15, 2007, could cost you a bundle.

Quick Guide To Setting Salaries
Small-business owners often struggle when determining how much to pay an employee because there are so few rules and so many variables. Here are some guidelines to help you set employees’ wages.

8 Tips To Better Business Writing
Inscribe proficient business scuttlebutt that commonage comprehends. In other words, follow these tips to write professionally for your business.

How To Be A Better Boss
If you want to know how you’re doing as a boss, take a look at your employees.

4 Biz Books For Summer Reading
Summertime and the readin’ is easy. Kill two birds with one stone this summer. Relax with a good book, but make it a book that’s good for your business.

Negotiate Like A Pro: 11 Tips
Volumes have been written about conducting business negotiations, and if you’re too lazy to read, high-paid consultants will advise you.

Motivate Yourself
There are days when it’s tempting to swat off the alarm clock and hide under the covers rather than face another round of luring, serving and pleasing customers.

Polish Your Speaking Skills
If you’re like most folks, you’re petrified to stand at a podium and speak to two or more people, but have no problem yakking away in a room full of family and friends.

Make Yourself Memorable
There are truisms in business we ignore at our peril.

Get Organized In 2006
January is National Organization Month. There’s no better time to get your ducks in a row or to get your desk in order.

Get The Technical Training You Need
Busy small-business owners can’t afford a steep learning curve. You need to get up to speed fast with computer software technical skills. That’s where training comes in.

7 Business Card Blunders And How To Fix Them
The ubiquitous business card. So vital, yet so often an afterthought. That’s blunder No. 1.

Teamwork. How Project Management Software Can Help.
Every business project needs a manager to oversee the progress and the end result.

9 Cold-Calling Secrets Of The Pros
Cold calling gives many otherwise competent business people a cold sweat and lockjaw. Few folks naturally have the personality or the gumption to spontaneously talk to virtual strangers.

5 Rules To Be A Better Communicator
Are you a good communicator? How can you know? Why should you care?

7 Ways to Say Thanks
Happy customers are repeat customers. Repeat customers are the least expensive customers to market to, and the most profitable customers to sell to.

Let’s Do Lunch
Many deals are sealed – or lost – over business lunches. These face-to-face encounters prove the adage, “People do business with people they like.”

Improve Your Productivity. Get Some Sleep!
If your productivity is suffering, take a look at your sleeping habits. Chances are, you’re not catching enough Zs at night to keep yourself perked up during the day.

Get On The Fast Track
Generalized training may be fine for learning basic business skills. But if you want to take your small business to the next level, you’ll need to break out of cookie-cutter seminars and workshops.

5 Success Basics For Service-Based Businesses
Sole proprietors in every nook of the nation operate service businesses. Plumbers, Web site designers, janitorial firms, landscapers, electricians and a host of other service providers build their small businesses one customer at a time.

Retailers & Shoppers Differ On Service
If you want to be the best retailer on the block, you’d better listen to what your customers have to say about service.

8 Steps To Beat Burnout
The new year just started. So why do you already feel a bad case of burnout coming on?

How To Sell More
Quick! Name the most powerful selling tool for your small business.

Become A Top-Notch Employer: 9 Tips
As a small-business owner, you can’t compete with the expensive employee benefit plans that big corporations offer. But you can provide generous benefits that workers value.

5 Tips For Choosing A Workshop
A small-business workshop or specialized seminar might be just what you need to get those creative juices flowing again.

4 Tips To Get Referrals
Referrals can be the springboard for growing and expanding your small business. They can give your business a bounce by bringing in new clients and customers.

Goal Oriented: 4 Steps To Reaching Your Dreams
If your small business is in a stall, it might not be the fault of tightwad consumers. If your solo enterprise is floundering, you might not be able to blame the competition or the economy.

11 Profit Making Strategies
Successful businesses are profitable businesses. Profits mean a bigger paycheck for you and maybe even a bigger business in the years to come. If you’re looking for ways to squeeze more profits out of your small business, check out these 11 strategies:

Training Ground
Whether you’re a new entrepreneur or a veteran business owner, training can give you the competitive edge.

Tips To Create A Winning Customer Experience
The customer experience grows out of a thousand little details. By attending to the details, your small business will shine brighter than all of your competitors. Here are a few details that often get lost in the rush of doing business.

Lead With Integrity

Not vision. Not creativity. Not decisiveness. What employees want most from their leaders are basic principles such as honesty, integrity, ethics and caring, according to the results of a 2003 survey conducted by Philadelphia-based Right Management Consultants, one of the world’s largest organizational consulting firms.

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