Presenting Your Business Professionally

It is of utmost importance to present your business as professionally and outstandingly at all times to the public. Potential customers will be looking for a professional business from the start making it your job to make sure that you present your reputation as such with the way you conduct business to the personnel you choose to employ.

If you do not accomplish this task then you run the risk of losing out on clients or customers before even being given a chance. An unprofessional appearance will cause them to look elsewhere for services. Poor presentation of your business can cause immediate and long term damage. Everything is taken into account with your professional appearance such as your location or even your letterhead.

You would not have a lot of confidence in a company whose place of business is falling apart or in need of a major repair. In the same sense, if you are using stationary and invoices that look amateur or have inefficient equipment/vehicles then your appearance is that you cannot achieve proper working conditions, thus reflecting poorly on your potential as a business.

If you want to stand any chance against other businesses it is very important to make these kinds of things priorities. Appearances may not be everything, but they are a considerably large factor in this sense. You may offer better services to your customer, but if they are greeted with a sloppy appearance they may be too wary to even extend the business relationship that far.

The same applies to your employees. If they look sloppy or unknowledgeable of the company and its services this puts a bad image in the customers mind and can also bring about damage. It is important for employees to take the extra step to impress the customer and keep them coming back.

It is near impossible for a new business starting out to stand a competition with a reputable business that has been around for many years. The new business needs to demonstrate its professionalism and confidence in its services or it is likely to fail within the first year.

In order to gain customers and clients it is important that the business owner is proud of their services and offerings. If you are pondering starting up a business of some type, these are important items to consider before you begin. Every new business just getting on its feet must strive to look and perform their best on a professional level. The above tips help take into play the possible success versus failure of your business.

Stupid Mistakes That Sabotage Your Speech and Business Presentation

It’s hard to believe that speaking before an audience is more frightful than dying, but reports indicate people consistently rank public speaking as their #1 fear.

One reason presenting in public is frightening is that we feel exposed on a platform in front of a crowd. We worry that we’ll do something stupid to embarrass ourselves or to sabotage our careers. After all, we’ve seen other people stand before a crowd and do stupid things.

Fortunately, we can learn from the mistakes of others, and we can avoid them. This article describes mistakes I’ve seen people make to sabotage their own success. I share these examples with you so you don’t make the same mistakes. You can set your fear aside today!

Make Negative Jokes about Your Competence

A consultant was asked to address a group for a potential client. The consultant had 30 minutes to say something useful and make an impression in order to be asked back for a fee. Following the introduction, audience members clapped.

The speaker responded to the applause with this statement, “It’s nice to receive applause before you start a presentation-because you never know what will happen afterwards.” Good grief, what was he thinking?!

Audience members form an opinion of a speaker in the first seconds of a presentation. This speaker used those precious first seconds to say he might lose control of the speech. Who would want to listen to him, let alone hire him?!

Self-deprecating humor is fine, and sometimes it’s desirable-but NOT as you introduce your speech and NOT about your competence. As you begin a speech, strive to grab the audience’s attention, establish a connection with them, and show you are qualified to address the topic.

Tell the Entire Story-Except How It Applies to the Audience

An accomplished physician and medical researcher told me about a presentation she had recently made. “I gave too much background and had to rush when explaining the clinical implications.” “Who was the audience?” I asked. The answer: “It was a conference for clinicians.”

It’s natural for a researcher, sales person or executive to structure a presentation chronologically. It’s natural to expect the background information to lend weight to the finale-the conclusion or recommendation. It’s natural, that is, if you’re thinking from a speaker’s perspective.

From an audience member’s perspective, this “natural” approach can be a boring put-off. Chances are you’ve had the experience-as an audience member-of feeling your eyes glaze over when a presenter droned on about background or technical details that were entirely irrelevant to you.

Audience members come for the finale. They are interested in background details only to the point that the details clarify or support the recommendation or results. Limit background to information audience members must know to understand how the material applies to them.

Start with the finale-even give the punch line-and you’ll grab the audience’s attention and provide a framework to put the details that follow into perspective. Provide a web link for those interested in more detail.

Try to Cram Two Pounds of Material into a One-Pound Time Slot

When you try to cram 60 minutes of material in a 20 minute time slot, you’ve made a stupid mistake. In presentations, a simple equation applies: less content equals more power.
This is not to say that the quality of your content doesn’t count or that superficial equals successful. It does mean the following:

*Audience members are more likely to retain one well-developed point than five points that you rush through.

*Rush speed is exhausting for the speaker and overwhelming for the audience. When you deliver an appropriate amount of material for your time slot, you’ll have time for dramatic pauses and other delivery techniques that increase audience interest and retention.

*When you try to cram 60 minutes into a 20 minute time slot, it often means you haven’t done your homework. You haven’t thought about what your audience needs to hear as opposed to what you’d like to say. Cramming is a mistake of the lazy speaker-don’t do it!

Preparing the Perfect Tender – Part I – Presentation

How you resource and prepare your tender response is a crucial factor in presenting a winning tender. Once your company is in receipt of the tender documentation it must put into effect a dedicated tender strategy.

On receipt of the document start a timescale diary. Log the receipt date and the due date for return of the document. Based on these dates and any other date stated for a pre-tender meeting, set out your timetable for the stages of your response and appoint a tender manager with the authority to conscript assistance from other expertise with your company.

General Principles

The following general principles are suggested while preparing a tender response:

Presentation

It is important to ensure your tender response is clearly and precisely displayed.

Avoid handwritten presentations, even the nearest writer trends to lose clarity after a time.

Use a type size one point larger than the issuing authority’s document if possible. This displays your response clearly.

Normally correction made by the use of correction fluid (white fluid) are not acceptable to most of the organizations. Hence, tenderes should sign with date and stamp, all corrections and overwriting.

All signatures in tender document should be dated as well as the pages of all sections of tender document should be signed at the lower right hand corner whenever required in the tender paper by the tenderer or by a person holding power of attorney authorizing him to sign on behalf of the tenderer before submission of tender.

Prepare covers and covering letters depending on tender system and requirement of the tender. Make sure that you have enclosed right documents in right cover.