Search Results for: blog figuring out the right questions to ask

Figuring Out the Right Questions to Ask

I have written about how asking questions and being a great listener can be the cornerstones of successful business communication and negotiations, but how do you know the right questions to ask? Is asking about the weather and the local college football team going to be enough to close an important sale? As a guideline, you want to learn to ask questions that are going to help you see where the other person is coming from—what he or she wants and needs, what the motivators and values are. This is how you will be able to figure out what you … Continue reading →

Insurance Blog Week In Review February 6-12, 2007

This week in the Insurance Blogs I have focused a bit on the Business of Insurance, including some of the Career paths insurance has to offer. Next week I will be expanding on some of interesting things a person might do with an Insurance License. I have also started a series of Blogs about shopping and quoting my own personal insurance portfolio. A project I have put off for far too long. Yesterday, we were given notice that my husbands employer is phasing out the retirement pension they offer. So, now we need to add retirement options to our personal … Continue reading →

Think You Have What it Takes to Become a Families.com Blogger?

I have been receiving a lot of e-mails and PMs lately, asking me for more info on how to become a blogger. Since I am just about the laziest person you’ll ever meet, I thought that I would write all the info once, and then just refer everyone to this series when they had questions. Yes, I should try to work on my laziness streak, but let’s focus on something I may actually accomplish, like this blog. To start off, if you want to work from Families, you have to choose which topic you will cover. Mine, obviously, is Jobs … Continue reading →

Choosing A Diet That’s Right For You

Choosing the Diet That’s Right for You Part 1 of a Series Today, as promised, we’re going to delve into choosing the diet that’s right for us. Since we’ve got the pitfalls figured out, tossed the myths out the window, and religiously get inspired by Celebrity Fit Club, it’s fine time to figure out exactly which plan is realistic for us and is going to help us get rid of those unwanted pounds. Now the hard part– where to begin. If you’ve tried dieting unsuccessfully (or even successfully!) in the past, the most difficult part is getting your plan together … Continue reading →

Finding Your Identity in Your Marriage

I never thought much about my life growing up. At times in my adult life when I’ve considered getting married, having kids, I didn’t have anything but my own thoughts at that time to rely on. It’s strange because I’m an obsessive planner for short-term details, but I can’t think of any point in my life when I’ve had a vision for the future. As a kid I always had dreams of what I wanted to be when I grew up: veterinarian, zoologist, reporter for National Geographic Magazine, but those were always just fleeting childhood whimsies. I never pictured myself … Continue reading →

Moving Towards Your Home Based Business

Since starting your own business is no small feat, it can seem overwhelming. If you break it down into smaller, more manageable steps that you can take action on day by day, you increase your chances of moving “start my business” from your to-do list to your to-done list. Here are a few suggestions to get you started. First, have a good brainstorming session to get yourself moving in a direction towards figuring out what business you will start. Make some time for yourself to do it, and get a piece of paper (or two, or three) and write down … Continue reading →

Family Home Evening: Troubleshoot Your Problems

Family home evening and family council are designed to help you bring more focus in your family life. At times it may feel like you are just going through the motions to meet each week as a family with family home evening or that your family council meetings are not as effective as you would like them to be. It is important to make the most of the time that you have together as a family. If you feel that your family home evenings are not effective ask yourself these five questions, and you will likely find yourself back on … Continue reading →

Murph’s Progress with the PoochIQ Test

Yesterday morning Murph and I put the PoochIQ.com dog IQ test kit I received to the test. Part of it anyway. We haven’t completed the whole test yet, but we’re having a lot of fun working our way through it. So often the word “test” invokes dread and a dragging of the feet, doesn’t it? But not in this case. The “tests” are fun. More like games for your dog if you approach it with a spirit of fun, enthusiasm, and playfulness instead of a purely clinical air. Murph and I certainly had fun for the seven questions we completed. … Continue reading →

Customer Conversations–Balancing the Personal with Business

There are those people whose life is an open book–they are eager and willing to talk over all the details with anyone and everyone who will listen. Some of us home business owners may be those sorts of open, social people and we certainly have some colleagues, customers, or clients who always have all sorts of personal life and family information to share. It can be tough to stick to business topics or even get a little bit of business accomplished during these animated conversations. So, how can we balance the personal chat, with the business communications? For many of … Continue reading →

Do Customers Know What is Expected?

We spend a great deal of time in our home businesses trying to predict and assess what our clients and customers need or want from us. We may even attempt to morph or change our business to meet those anticipated needs. But one place some small businesses stumble in that we are not communicating well with our customers and clients about what we need from them. Do your customers actually know what is expected from them and what their role is in the whole negotiation/sales/business relationship deal? Setting clear expectations in regards to order forms and process, deadlines, payment policies, … Continue reading →