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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

6 Tips for Using Twitter For Business Communication


Wondering what 140 characters of text can do for your business? If used smartly, Twitter can be a very powerful tool for marketing your business and enhancing your online presence. A business profile on Twitter with regular, informative tweets is a great way of keeping in touch with people who would like to know more about your products or services.
Twitter is easy-to-use micro-blogging site which helps everyone from business owners and CEOs to companies and marketing personnel to keep themselves connected with their target audience with short, insightful posts.

Here are some top benefits of using Twitter:

  • The popularity of Twitter has ensured that a major part of your target audience is on this social networking website, sharing and discussing ideas, products, services, experiences and opinions. Once you start posting on your products and services or offerings with catchy tweets, you may start attracting interested followers. You can thus keep your followers updated on your business offerings, plans and products.

  • Follow people who are tweeting on topics and issues that concern your business. Retweeting these posts, posting responses and offering solutions help increase visibility of your profile and business. You can even send direct messages to followers who are interested in your business offerings.

  • Your competitors too are on Twitter. Follow them, go through their tweets and you may get some good ideas about how to respond to customer queries, announce business expansion plans, launch new products and interact with the target audience. Being on Twitter is an easy way of monitoring your competition.

  • Twitter is also SEO-friendly. By posting a tweet along with a URL, you can redirect the traffic to the targeted landing page. And if you have your company's blog, you can advertise the blog posts on Twitter.

  • You can use Twitter on your mobile device as well.

  • You can use Twitter for recruitment purpose too. Tweet about the job requirement and you may soon receive responses from potential candidates.

Twitter is easy and very convenient to use. Best part is you can market your brand or business openly. Twitter allows you to keep your products, services, brand and business out there for everybody to see.

Twitter is of course, like any other social networking site where you can reach out to many people at once through the virtual media and keep yourself informed about the latest developments in your industry. But when it comes to knowing more about managing your business effectively, a face-to-face interaction with your peers or fellow business owners is always a preferred option.

Seek the company of experienced entrepreneurs through CEO clubs and CEO associations or join a reliable CEO peer group in your city. Attending an executive business coaching session is also a good way of getting hand-on knowledge about how to manage your business better.


Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How To Market your Business On Facebook


In my last blog post, I had talked about why you must consider using Facebook for promoting your small business. In this blog I will be discussing about how you can use Facebook to the maximum advantage for your business.

Create a profile and a Fan Page
Facebook is free. You can create your profile and in the 'About Me' section you can mention about what your business is all about. Do include your photo in the profile as it lends credibility and the people looking for you can find you easily.

A profile on Facebook is basically ideal for personal use. However, a regular Facebook profile page would not work for a business. You are allowed to make only one account and use your real name for creating the profile. For business purposes, you must create a Fan page. A Fan Page can be created for a business, celebrity, event, some products, books, movies or anything. You can customize the Fan page by providing details about your business and put the logo of your company or a photo of your brand in the profile picture. When you write about your business, use crispy language to attract people and hold their attention and provide them with all the latest updates about your products, services, special offers, discount schemes and so on. 



Build an online community
Unlike a profile page, you do not send friend requests here. But you can always invite your friends or customers to ‘like’ your page. You can post about the new events related to your business such as launch of a new product or opening of a new branch and share useful tips or relevant news items with your customers.
If you have written a new blog post or have updated your website, you can post the urls on your Fan page with a catchy wall post.
You can also participate in the discussion boards, create questions for making your page more interactive, upload videos and photos and add your company’s YouTube channel. All these interactive features allow you to build a strong online community and stay in touch with your existing and potential customers. 



Be active on different groups
Apart from your own Fan page, you should also search for other groups which are relevant to your business and industry and join them. For instance, if you own an apparel shop, you can join various groups related to the textile industry. Once you join the group, you can take part in the discussion forums and share interesting tips and ideas.

Facebook is just one of the ways for marketing your business. In order to create a strong niche for yourself in market and establish a strong brand, you need to make efforts consistently and have patience. After all, a strong online presence is not built in a day. You have to work towards it. You can also be a part of interactive CEO Club or executive business coaching sessions where CEOs, presidents and senior executive meet once per month for a half day. In CEO Conference you can learn new ways and strategies to take your business to a higher level by discussing new strategies for utilizing social media optimally.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Benefits of a Facebook Business Page For Small Businesses

You must be having your personal profile on Facebook. But if you are looking to promote your small business on the web, the Facebook Business Page can prove to be a very effective platform.

Today, Facebook is the biggest social networking site with billions of users all over the world. Facebook is a sort of a big platform for business owners to advertise about their business. If used properly, Facebook can be a boon for reaching your target audience and boosting visibility for your small business.

Facebook is appealing
Facebook is very user-friendly. It is easy to use and appeals to all age groups of people. It is not complex like other software applications. Instead, Facebook offers quite an informal and casual approach to interact with your friends and customers and attract new potential customers.

Management is in your hands
Facebook gives you the freedom to manage your business page on your own. The entire control over the page, its content, images, and applications rests in your hand. You can control what you post and display or hide comments from customers. Besides you can post photos of the new products you are going to launch.

Instant feedback
The best part of Facebook is the instant feedback you receive from people. If you have launched a new product or a service, you can directly ask your fans on your Facebook Business page about their response or start a discussion or a contest, or announce a free offer.

If your customers are satisfied with your products, they would happily offer positive response and share your posts further with their friends.  The interactive nature of Facebook helps you to get some vital insights into customer behavior, their needs and their response towards your product.
These insights help you to work towards improving the quality of products by using the suggestions or recommendations offered by your customers.  You can also ask members in your  CEO Club or CEO Association for suggestions to improve the quality of your products and market it well on Facebook.

Search Engine Optimization
Facebook is extremely beneficial in terms of search engine marketing and optimization. You can post back links to your website as well as link your Facebook page from your site. If promoted well, your Facebook business page can appear in Google searches for relevant keywords. In short having a business page on Facebook extends your presence on the World Wide Web.

In order to stay ahead in competition these days, you have to stay updated and use Facebook for advertizing your business and your products and services. You can take the help of  CEO peer groups  or   CEO Clubs where members from non-competing industries can give you some good ideas on how they have used Facebook for boosting their sales, enhancing their brand visibility and promoting their business.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Tips To Build Strong Networking For Small Businesses

One of the most important things for small businesses is to develop a good network which will help their business to grow and flourish. Networking with the right people can get you good business whereas with the wrong people it is a complete waste of time. Here are some of the effective ways to build a strong networking with the right kind of people:

Do social networking
Internet is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to build network. Build a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus to build connections with the right people and groups that are relevant to your business. Participate in the Q&A area or discussion forums, give your suggestions and post your queries. You can also create separate Facebook pages for your company's profile, its products and services. You can also join Twitter for advertising about your products.

Attend conferences
You can attend conferences or seminars which give you opportunities to make valuable business connections. You can also participate in a trade show and exhibit your products.

Be tactful
Steer clear of self promotion in the first meeting. It sends a wrong impression when you start a conversation with a business card. Rather talk about world-affairs or economy in general but do not promote your business. And end your conversation with an open-ended question which will prompt the person to provide you information about their business. And once you hold a healthy conversation, then hand over your business card which will not only give the recipient important contact information about your business but also reinforce your brand in the potential customer's mind.

It is essential to establish network with as many people as you can but it is equally important to build connections with the right people. So figure out who your potential customers are and focus on them. You can also join a or CEO Association in Atlanta
or anywhere else where you get to meet experienced entrepreneurs with whom you can share your concerns without any hesitation and get expert advice.

But keep in mind that a  CEO corporate association is not a place to build network. Rather it provides you a platform to conveniently share your ideas in a secure environment where what you discuss is never leaked out of the room and get practical tips to build a strong network from the experts themselves.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Practical and Proven Tips To Expand Your Business


When you first launch a new business, you have to do a lot of research - reading books on business, seeking advice from counselors, investing a lot of your time and money. And now that your business is well established, you can expand your business further to reap higher profits.

But keep in mind that expanding business requires as much effort and research as starting a new business. So here are a few tips to help you expand a small or medium sized business:

  • Expanding business requires more staff. So make it a point to hire the most efficient employees who can take your company to new heights. Besides you can also recruit interns from college and universities who are dedicated and work for free just to gain experience. Hiring such interns will save you money and besides you may also come across really talented people who are willing to learn and can be an asset for your company in future.

  • The Internet has made it so much easier for small and medium sized companies to reach wider market. A well-designed website can help you showcase your products and services to your potential customers far and wide. Besides the usage of Internet helps you advertize about your business in a cheaper way. For instance, you can publish your press releases in free press releases distribution sites or start a Business Page in a major social networking site such as Facebook.

  • Another way to expand your business is by diversifying your products and services. For instance, if you manufacture hair oil, shampoos and other hair care products, you can start manufacturing other cosmetic products as well such as moisturizers, lotions and creams. The idea is to manufacture or sell complementary products or services that allow you to generate multiple streams of income from different sources and increase your profit margins. 

  • Apart from all this, keep one extremely important point in mind. Don't spend all your savings and revenues in expanding the business. You never know how beneficial the expansion of the business would be, and spending all your resources on one thing can be a fatal mistake.  Be cautious not to spread your resources too thin, and save a tidy amount as reserves.

Be wise and expand your business step by step. You can take advice from other CEOs and experts by joining  CEO Clubs or  CEO Associations . At  CEO Clubs in Atlanta  or anywhere else, CEOs and executives from non-competing industries meet and here you can discuss your problems and share your ideas to expand your business without any hesitation.

Monday, August 8, 2011

How To Get The Most Out Of A CEO Club


There was an acquaintance of my friend, Charlie whose business was in doldrums. Creditors were closing in on her and she could not see a way out. She was wondering what could she do that could save her company from bankruptcy. She contemplated selling the business but the price offer she was getting was too low. She was not really able to make up her mind whether she should take on a new partner, carry on with the current business or sell the business. Then she chanced upon a friend who introduced her to a CEO peer group where she was guided to make a thorough exit plan that required her to work on the business, take it up to a position where it can command a good price and then sell the business.

Just like Charlie, a growing number of CEOs and other top level executives turn to CEO peer groups or CEO clubs for proper guidance and insight. However not many are able to take the full advantage of a CEO association. Many CEOs end up joining an unsuitable CEO corporate association which doesn't yield any results. There are some CEO corporate clubs which are so large that certain members hardly get opportunity to share their problems. And then there are certain CEO groups where members pay more attention to daily business activities and don't focus on strategy implementation. Therefore to get the maximum benefit out of a CEO club is to join the right CEO corporate association. And a successful CEO club is the one which contains not more than 10 to 15 members so that each member gets a fair chance to put forward his/her problems and suggestions.

Besides look for a CEO club which comprises CEOs from non-competing industries such as an architect, manufacturer, designer, a marketing person and so on. Such a diverse CEO group will offer you a broad cross section of skills and strengths that would help you have a different perspective on your business situation.

In order to get the most out of a CEO association, you need to be accountable to other members in way that the group members give you suggestions. You must work on it and discuss in the next meeting on how much you have implemented the suggestions.

Besides when you join a CEO association be it a CEO club in Atlanta or anywhere else, keep in mind that the primary motive of joining it is to discuss the problems you are facing in your business openly and not to only network. So instead of trying to solicit business from other members, try to focus on your problems and get their solutions from the experts.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

CEO Clubs- A Cut Above The Rest


Are you one of those CEOs, presidents or senior executives who from time to time undergo personality development programs or training sessions and workshops but are yet not satisfied with the results you get? Though some of these programs are really useful, many a time you may also find that you end up with a lot of academic knowledge but gain little in terms of practical solutions for real business problems.
Especially, small and medium sized companies go through problems and challenges that may be peculiar to companies that have smaller sized manpower, resources and reach compared to larger companies. These companies, and especially their business owners and CEOs need practical, hands-on solutions from people who have been there and done that. In other words, people who have faced similar kind of problems are best placed to offer solutions that actually work and not just look smart on the drawing board.
This is why a growing number of CEOs of small and medium sized companies are turning to CEO Clubs  or CEO peer groups. So what make these CEO associations or CEO clubs different from other executive programs?
Firstly, such CEO associations are not academic or theoretical. Here you get practical and realistic solutions from other CEOs who do not have any personal agenda behind advising you or are not depending on academic theories. These are people who will give you honest, no-holds-barred insights and suggestions, at times really blunt, but useful and workable nonetheless.
Besides these CEO corporate associations provide a platform to CEOs to share their frustrations, problems, interests openly with the other CEOs. By being part of a CEO club you don't beat around the bush. Rather you get to share your business problems without any hesitation and the best part is that whatever you discuss with your peers remain confidential and never gets leaked out of the CEO club.
Another good part of a CEO association is that only CEOs from non-competing business are allowed in one group. Direct rivals or competitors are not allowed to be a part of one CEO club. So that makes it easy and convenient for members to share their fears and strategies freely.
So whether you want to sell your business or plan to start a new business or adopt a new strategy to push your sales; a CEO club is one of the best and most affordable executive coaching programs you can attend to gain useful guidance and solutions directly from the experts.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Benefits Of Corporate Executive Coaching For Companies

Corporate executive coaching is the latest buzzword these days. In today's hyper-competitive corporate business world, corporate executive coaching is one of the most effective ways to enhance executive performance as well as improve business efficiency and make the organization more successful.

The major benefit of corporate executive coaching for companies especially is that it focuses on the people of the organization and aims to improve the overall corporate culture. In this blog, we will be discussing about how corporate executive training helps the organizations as a whole.

Reduction in staff turnover: One of the major benefits of CEO clubs or corporate executive coaching is that it enormously helps in reducing the staff turnover. In other words,  the organization succeeds in retaining its top performing executives and thereby enhances the organization's overall performance and success.

Establish loyalty: When a company invests in corporate executive coaching for its employees, it shows how much the management is committed towards its employees, their growth and their productivity. Quite naturally, it helps in strengthening the bond between the organization and its employees and develops greater loyalty among the staff.

Higher morale and increase in productivity: Another advantage of a corporate executive training session is that it gives a boost to the employees' morale. The opportunity for training and skill up gradation which the company provides and the trust it reposes in its employees leads to an improvement in overall employee morale which pushes them to do better. Such corporate executive training sessions typically create greater commitment among employees to work harder and more smartly.

Better client relationships: It also helps in improving client relationships. No matter what type of business you do, client is the boss. And undergoing a corporate executing coaching helps you in establishing a wonderful relationship with clients and retaining them.

Positive work environment: A corporate executive coaching session generates a friendly atmosphere where employees get to share their ideas, discuss their problems and get solutions from experts. Therefore this overall practice creates a very positive work environment where employees love to come and work, thereby resulting in greater productivity.

CEO corporate or corporate executive training also goes a long way in improving organizational strength and performance. Therefore get your employees to join a corporate executive coaching in Atlanta or anywhere else which will ultimately help in improving the culture in the organization and enhance overall success.


Saturday, May 14, 2011

How An Executive Can Benefit From Corporate Executive Coaching


Business owners, CEOs and business leaders also are in need of guidance, advice and coaching, just as other people in their organization. In fact, at times they need it very badly when they are in the middle of a crisis or a problem with no one to turn to in their own organization. 
Corporate executive coaching comes in as a handy support in such times for CEOs and business owners who are looking for some fresh and practical ideas into running their business better. There are some pretty direct benefits of corporate executive coaching and in this post we are going to explore some these:
  • Identifying executive strengths and development needs – this is a crucial area for any CEO to start making improvements. The key lies in identifying the real executive strengths and areas where further upgrading is necessary.
  • Once the executive is able to identify the strong points, his next job is to leverage the existing strengths and push the performance graph up to the next level.
  • Corporate executive coaching also helps the executive to gain insights into creating an executive strategy with an Action Plan. However, no action plan is complete without accountability and that is essential to help the plan stay on track.
  • Another benefit which a top executive draws from corporate executive coaching is the ability and insight to adopt or reinforce executive leadership competencies. These competencies are crucial to the firm’s culture and productivity levels.
  • Apart from strategic insights, corporate executive coaching also brings about substantial qualitative changes in behavior, approach and attitude. It helps the executive to develop and hone his leadership skills and practices and also pick some coaching skills which he can implement among his team.
  • In terms of career planning and development too, corporate executive coaching offers some practical and realistic ideas to the executive which helps him to draw up an action-oriented, target based plan for career development.
  • In a busy executive’s life, work and personal life often get inextricably mixed up. Coaching helps the executive to strike a better balance between life and work.
  • Regular executive coaching is a great way of getting ongoing feedback and support.
Understandably, corporate executive coaching is necessary but expensive, especially a one-to-one session with the executive coach. For small business owners, the benefits of executive coaching are equally needed and necessary but affordability sometimes poses a barrier. A great alternative to one-to-one coaching is available in CEO peer groups, CEO clubs and CEO associations. These CEO conferences are attended by experienced and knowledgeable business owners who play a great role as peers to each other, discussing problems without inhibitions and sharing insights, ideas, advice and strategies. 
Hence, the best way to go about getting some valuable insights into how you can up your performance, resolve problems and derive benefits from executive coaching is to confer with other CEOs and business owners in a reputable and reliable CEO association or CEO club. If you are living in a big city such as Atlanta, CEO associations or CEO clubs in the city can provide you with some great inputs and ideas for your business. Corporate executive coaching also brings some great benefits for your organization as a whole but more about that in our next post!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Qualities Of A Good CEO

Generally in the daily struggle of handling and managing so many responsibilities, CEOs tend to forget that their main job is to lead. Employees rely on the guidance and strong leadership of CEO to show them the right direction. Hence it is very important that you possess qualities which will help you guide the people who look up to you. Here are some of the qualities that you must develop in order to become an efficient CEO:

Be accessible
If you want to be taken seriously, make your presence felt. Be accessible to your employees. Communication plays a very important role in strengthening the bond between the employees and the CEO.

Select right people
When recruiting, don't just go for people who have vast knowledge and skills but no integrity. Instead choose people who have positive attitude, good communication skills and integrity. After all, skills can be taught but not integrity.

Listen & communicate
One of the endearing qualities of CEOs is listening. Listen to what your employees have to say. Listen to them when they need to share their problems with you or when they want to offer some suggestions. As a CEO you will always be heard but if you allow people to express themselves they will really appreciate it.

Boost confidence and accountability
If you want your employees to take responsibility for their work, give them some freedom to make some decisions. By entrusting them with responsibilities, you will only boost their confidence.

Be responsive to clients
When it comes to dealing with the clients, maintain a good, open communication with them and respond to their mails or queries immediately. Never ever argue with your customers and if some mistake shave been committed, admit it.

Keep on learning
No matter how much knowledge you possess, there is always scope to learn more. You should regularly hone your communication skills and do programs that expands your horizons and enhance your leadership skills. You can join a CEO club in Atlanta or anywhere else where you can share your problems with other CEOs from different industries and get to learn from them. In a CEO association or a CEO club you can expect to get honest feedback from the experts and receive proven insights into business management.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Selling A Business- Create A Proper Exit Planning Strategy

Just like launching a business requires proper planning, selling a business too needs proper exit planning strategy. Usually business owners remain so busy in handling day-to-day business activities, that they don't get ample time to draw out an exit plan. Here are a few tips that will help you in creating an effective exit planning strategy:

• Before you decide to sell your business, you need to figure out what assets of your business you wish to sell. As apart from physical assets, a business also includes client lists, trademark and goodwill. So be clear about what you plan to sell.

• No prospective buyer will buy your business if it is not in good condition. So make a little extra effort to keep everything up-to-date. Make sure all the financial documents are updated, inventory is full and keep the premises clean.

• In order to get maximum profits on sale of your business, generate maximum revenues. After all, buyers are interested only in those businesses which guarantee great revenues in future.

• In order to draw potential buyers, make sure you don't have any pending liabilities. And if there are any, make sure you reduce your liabilities as much as possible. And settle any lawsuits if any.

• For proper guidance on exit plan, it is best to join a CEO peer group in Atlanta or anywhere else where you get to meet other CEOs, COOs and presidents with whom you can share your problems and new ideas and get honest feedback. Becoming a part of a CEO conference or executive business coaching gives you the opportunity to meet with the people who have years of experience behind them and can offer you practical advice on chalking an effective exit planing strategy which will be profitable for you.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Tips For CEOs To Delegate Work Smartly


In today's fast paced, hyper-competitive world, it becomes very difficult for CEOs to cope with all the stress. This makes it extremely important for people at the helm to delegate work. If done properly, delegation of work can help you boost productivity, increase employee or customer retention, and increase the overall profitability.
To help you understand how to delegate work effectively, here are a few tips:

Prepare
Just as building strategies and implementing them requires prior planning, delegating work too requires proper planning and preparation. Before you delegate work to someone, decide who is best suited to do the job you are delegating and what kind of outcome you are likely to expect from that person. Having clarity on these crucial issues will help you in getting the desired results.

Discuss the work
Discuss in length with the person about the work you are delegating to him/her. Make sure he/she understands the task and the kind of outcome you are expecting from him/her. And also you must both agree on how the work is going to performed. If there are certain disagreements, clear them right in the beginning to avoid any confusion later on.

Weekly review of work

Schedule a weekly meeting where you can review the progress made so far and give your feedback. Offer your suggestions if the employee is encountering any problems while pursuing the task or if you are not happy with the way work is being done. Discuss with your employee and guide him/her on how you want the job to be done. Weekly or monthly review of the work will always keep you updated about the progress.

Deadline
Be realistic and reasonable, when you set a deadline for the task. Take into account, whether the employee can juggle the work assigned to him/her along with other existing responsibilities. After all, it is better to postpone the deadline rather than ending up with a low-quality work within deadline or a missed deadline.

As a CEO, you need to delegate about 90 percent of work smartly to your employees so that you can devote more time to making strategic decisions.

If you think you are not able to delegate work properly, better join a CEO peer group or undertake an executive business coaching session. A CEO group consist of CEOs from different industries who come together to share their problems and ideas. It is possible that the kind of problem you are facing in delegation of work might have bothered some other CEO as well. It is a great idea to learn from the experiences of people in similar position on how they handled the problems and found solutions to them.

Once you learn from others' experiences, you are better equipped to avoid making mistakes which they may have committed as they went along looking for a solution. A CEO peer group in Atlanta or any other city is a give-and-take platform for practical ideas and solutions where you get to learn new skills and knowledge from the highly experienced people without spending a fortune.



Saturday, February 5, 2011

Upgrade Managerial Skills With Executive Coaching


Gone are the days when key executives could reach heights by just mastering their technical or functional areas. Today, a lot more is expected from the senior executives. As a senior executive, you are expected to assist the CEO in making the deals successful and chalk out the organization's future course. You play a major role in launching and marketing your new products and services and generate ongoing revenue streams.

While the CEO focuses on the vision and business strategies, you are responsible for building the culture in your department that your CEO envisions. And whenever a business gets into some financial crisis, you are expected to be the main support of the CEO in turning the fortunes of the company.

You have to show your leadership qualities in implementing the changes within the organization and be the best in your area of expertise and so on. In short, you have to be the role model to others. Expectations are so high that at times it becomes difficult even for extremely professional and brilliant executives to manage. That is where executive coaching comes to the rescue. These executive coaching sessions aim to help you increase your productivity, skill sets, managerial skills and your contribution to your organization's growth.

As a senior executive, time is of utmost value. Corporate executive coaching guides you on how to manage your time effectively. You have to figure out what are your priorities and accordingly spend time on the most important things. You can manage a calendar or a dairy in which you can chalk out which areas deserve your utmost attention and plan accordingly.

Besides the time management skills, you can learn various other things at executive coaching sessions such as honing your leadership qualities and learning about how to put your point of view across in a way so that it gets heard and is acknowledged by your team.

Creating a talented team of people to work with you with equal enthusiasm, team spirit and productivity is not child's play. It requires in-depth understanding of fundamental rules of team-building. To learn these managerial skills, strategies and insights, it is beneficial to undergo an executive coaching in Atlanta or anywhere else in the USA. These sessions will help you to view the problems and find their solutions in a new way which you might have missed earlier.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Successful Exit Planning Is A Long Well-Planned Process

Does the idea of selling your business frighten you? For most CEOs or presidents, selling a business is often a nightmare. You can't sell your business just right away. Exit planning is a long, well-planned process. Usually it takes around 5 years to carry out a successful exit plan which would yield profits for you. Prospective owners look for businesses which guarantee regular cash flows and you have to fulfill that criteria to make your business sale-able.

In an exit planning process, you need to consider a number of vital issues such as chalking out a succession plan, providing intensive training to key employees, tracing a suitable buyer and so on. What most CEOs find difficult to decide is whether they should focus on asset diversification, create a brilliant management team which can take over the business when they exit and so on.

Usually CEOs remain so occupied in day to day business activities that they don't get time to plan out an effective exit planning strategy. Most of the times they find themselves in a fix where they don't understand which is the right way for selling their business. No wonder CEOs find it tough to find a competent successor who is willing to take over the business happily and where they also stand to gain maximum profits on selling a business.

Hence it is wise to take the help of CEO peer groups in Atlanta or any other city if you are thinking of exiting a business. Consulting a CEO Peer Group or CEO Conference is always a better and more cost-effective alternative to expensive consultants who charge you by the hour. CEO groups typically meet once in a month and consist of CEOs, managers, presidents and COOs from different industries. They share their business related problems, and counsel each other. So if you wish to sell your business, you can freely discuss about your problems and make out a successful exit plan with the help and experience of other CEOs.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Four Tips To Choose A Good CEO Peer Group

Are you one of those who is thinking of joining a CEO peer group? A growing number of CEOs and other top level executives these days turn to CEO peer groups in Atalanta or any other city to provide them with the much needed guidance. However it is very essential to choose a CEO conference which suits your needs. As a good CEO group can help you achieve greater results in your business whereas a bad choice can be a sheer waste of time. Here are  four useful tips to help you select a good CEO group:

Tip no. 1:
Go for a CEO group which consists of a 10 to 15 members. Stay away from a CEO conference which justifies having a larger number of members as in that kind of group you will have to wait for a long time to be heard.

Tip no. 2:
Select a CEO group where attendance record of members is consistent. As any CEO group with a shoddy attendance record of members will never be able to establish and retain the  atmosphere of trust and confidence.

Tip no. 3
Join a CEO group where confidentiality is taken seriously. After all, CEOs share their problems, business ideas, exit planning strategies and so much more openly with other CEOs. Therefore confidentiality is a primary requirement in a CEO group.

Tip no. 4
Large success of a CEO peer group depends upon a facilitator. A facilitator makes certain  that all members are given a fair chance to speak about their issues and prevent any member from dominating the conversation. Make sure the the CEO conference you join has a good facilitator.

Generally, a meeting in a CEO group takes place once in a month where everyone discuss their problems, ideas and offer advice. Given that you will be spending a good amount of time in a group, make sure that you do a thorough research before joining a CEO peer group in Atlanta  or any other city. Keeping the four above-mentioned tips in mind will help you make the choice wisely.