Coaching whether executive, corporate or business has become an ever popular strategy to improve the bottom line. During the 2006 holiday season, coaching even reached the top 10 must have gift list.

So if executive coaching is such a must have, then the obvious question is Why? For years organizations have spent millions of dollar in education, training and development. In the December 2006 issue of Training and Development, corporate training expenditures were estimated to have reached $109.25 billion.

However, much of these training dollars failed to deliver a significant impact to the bottom line. Even with high technology and extensive educational research, traditional training still delivers a poor return on investment. Some estimates suggest that as high as 90% of all training dollars fail to achieve a positive return on investment (ROI).

Coaching appears to have reversed that trend. Even though data is limited, one report from MetrixGlobal LLC revealed that coaching produced a 529% ROI. Beyond the measurable business results, coaching also produced significant intangible benefits to the organization.

Fortune 500 companies have also measured the results that coaching delivers. For example, Dell Computers has been tracking the return on investment for more than 5 years. Measurable results include 90% satisfaction from company executives. Also, those who participated in the corporate coaching program tended to be promoted more often than those who did not participate in coaching.

Some other measurable results and benefits from corporate coaching as reported by International Personnel Management Association include improvement in:

Productivity – 53% Quality – 48% Customer Service – 39% Teamwork – 67% Job Satisfaction – 61% Working relationships with direct reports – 77%

So if you truly want to realize the full benefits offered by a business coach begin by focusing on the results.

What specific measurable outcomes do you desire from this intervention?

For in the words of Marc Steinberg, a business coach from South Africa, “Successful coaching is measured by the client’s results and nothing else.”

By: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

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Online business is creating a lot of hype these days as any one who thinks that he or she knows how to use internet also thinks that can have an online business. Well its not wrong completely because of technology becoming so easy. When we talk about technology being easy we only get reminded of one name and that is Microsoft. They are not only leading the market because of their professional looking applications but the main reason that customers are using Microsoft technology in majority is because of its ease. Microsoft like other field have also contributed and concentrated over the area of e-commerce and internet business.

I remember I talked to a lot of people who prefer to host their e-commerce web sites with well known companies because such companies and reliable. The main reason of reliability here is understood and that is because you are going to have an online business where you will have money dealings, customer relation and profits so you need a handler who have some experience and who is trustworthy.

Many people have a lot of different technical resources and they are likely to be around for the long haul. And when we talk about technological resources in every user’s hand we cannot forget that it’s the main aim of Microsoft. Microsoft’s own e-commerce hosting service, Microsoft Office Small Business Center which was formerly known as bCentral), provides the same sorts of services as the other hosts available in the market for online business hosting. Microsoft office small business enables you to have your own setup of an online store and they provide with the same ease they always provide to their users. The main target to is to streamline the process of setting up a sales catalog; it provides you with a payment system; it gives its members various technical support options.

If we consider the market value, we see that Microsoft office small business is more expensive than Yahoo! Small Business; the least expensive hosting option runs $12.95 per month. However, you can also have a 30-day free trial period of Microsoft office small business which you can use to see whether you are able to invest on something like this or not. On the other hand Yahoo! Small Business does not offer any trial period. Microsoft office small business also provides you all the support for Microsoft web building tools (if you use any in making your web pages).

By: Lawrence Anderson

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Imagine this: you wake up at a two in the morning with a phone call from your local fire department. Your building where your business is run from has burned down. You have insurance to cover the building but what are you going to do about your business loss? You cannot operate from a building that is burned down and you cannot afford to relocate while the building is being rebuilt. This is a situation that happens to many business owners every day. Do not fret however, with a simple plan added to your already existing coverage you will have everything you need to deal this situation and many others like it.

Business interruption insurance is a policy that covers an owner of a business in case there is a major disaster at the business, (like fire or flood), that causes the business to stop work for a short amount of time. Most often this type of insurance will take care of the profits that you could have earned before your temporary interruption, the expenses that might keep running tab even though you are not doing business, and a temporary relocation of the business.

Many business owners do not take into account the need for this type of insurance because it is not a major policy. It is one that has to be added to an already existing policy, like one to cover fire damage to property. It should be an essential part of the package though because it will cover you if you cannot operate out of your building because of the damage. In order to determine how much coverage you will need you should do a work up of a business interruption worksheet with an accountant. This will give you a roundabout number of how much you need to cover your business for an extended amount of time in case of a disaster. With these policies there is usually waiting period of two days after the disaster before the coverage will kick in.

There are some things you should consider before you take out a business interruption insurance policy. First, find out exactly what each company’s policy offers. You should find out if the policy will cover things like inventory and not just revenue. Compare the policy’s to find out what each insurance company deems as an appropriate reason for you to be out of business; remember it is the insurance company not you who gets to decide this so find the one that works best for you. Also, you should be sure that the policy covers many different aspects of disasters. For example, maybe your building collapses due to unstable ground and your building did not meet the building codes. This way no matter what the problem you business is covered.

Natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes happen all the time and many buildings are damaged. Your building could also catch on fire or have a major bust in a pipe that floods the whole business. In these situations you will want to have an insurance that will cover your losses and possible relocation if needed. Investing in business interruption insurance is a vital part of protecting your business.

By: Brantley Graham

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