Author: Lena Benjamin, MBA 🌍 25+ Years | Global | Multi-Industry

If you are looking to start a small business of your own, there is a proven process that is necessary to start off with. Many creative people have great business ideas, but their approach to planning is ineffective and eventually flops. First and foremost, you have to find a market that is a good size. Now what does this mean exactly? Finding a niche market that is a reasonable size entails pinpointing one that is big enough to make a profit but small enough for the resources of a small business and one that does not compete with large corporations.

Two main mistakes that entrepreneurs make in finding small markets are targeting a market that is too broad and targeting a niche that is already heavily exploited. What you decide to sell must connect product to target audience or you will not be successful.

To start off with, choose your own unique area of expertise. What are you good at? What do you have experience in? Use your education, your skills and the people you know who could help you transform your idea into reality. If you have many areas of interest and are not sure which one would be the most profitable, a little more research will be needed. Consider how it will be possible to convert your education and skills into money-making opportunities. Research your surrounding marketplace to see what is needed in your area.

Now if you are trying to find small markets online, be forewarned that this can be tedious and time-consuming. You will first have to think of a list of possible target audiences, then take your first idea and research an exhaustive list of keywords and keyword phrases that people in that target audience are using for information on their desired product. Next, one must research all keywords and phrases for relevancy and then study which keywords on your list might lead to other niches that will need future researching.

Then, you need to compare all your keywords to web pages to evaluate the present competition. You will use all your information to narrow down your list to keywords and phrases that have the most online traffic and those that are the least exploited. If your small market does not appear to be profitable, you must start the entire research process over. If you do find one that seems to be a money maker, you then must focus on finding ideas to profit from.

Business outsourcing is a fundamental element in a successful business venture. This is the provider of innovative solutions to business problems empowering clients for a competitive advancement so that they could mainly focus on their core business activities. Its main function is to transfer the entire critical business non-core activities to the external vendor that uses information technology upon providing services and delivery.

Business outsourcing business vendors or third parties are available worldwide possessing qualities such as English language proficiency, low billing rates and have high-performance quality and favorable time zone. Since the application of this method in India, it is expected to grow more in the coming years and continuously influenced other countries.

This not only influences small companies, but also giant companies broadening their horizon with the help of business process outsourcing, gaining more power and production reliability.

World markets have extensive competition; however, every company has their limitations maintaining productivity and profits. Companies need comprehensive procedures to broaden their knowledge and gain expertise on the core competencies and remove non core activities by incorporating business outsourcing services.

Business outsourcing became the sorting business practice. The outsourcing services leads to the formulation of the business and strategic partnerships. It can be associated with other business sectors divided into manufacturing and services where information technology is categorized.

Business outsourcing is a part of the non core activity designated to third party with skill expertise on various activities regulated under a legal agreement. There are different features of business outsourcing categorized as project management, professional services, outsourcing development units with proficient resources and joint venture with an offshore trader or a subsidiary that is owned for offshore outsourcing services. They provide productive advantages beneficial not only to the customer but also to the service providers.

Take for instance, your business is bearing manufacturing, its core competency lies in the manufacture of bearing but the organization cannot give their entire focus on the core competency because it has to deal with various business functions such as invoicing, documentation, data entry, inventory management, finance, and accounting. There are lots of lost valuable resources that are profitable if integrated properly. Business outsourcing helps in decreasing business issues accepting some loads such as finance and accounting processes.

The application of business sourcing strategic planning and decision are critical. Reviews of its importance must be given weight for the companyís success upon its implementation.

A self-help guru once defined leadership as simply the ability to make things happen using the help of other people’s skills and abilities. Some leaders are quite gifted from birth, but many leaders go through leadership development after being spotted to possess the leadership potentials.

One question: What type of person or personality makes the best leader?

Leadership personality

One can imagine that the person who has the greatest success, heading the largest organization or corporation is the one that makes the best leader. It is possible.

On the other end of the pole, could a person with a little drive or entrepreneurial skills end up being a leader? It is also possible.

Developing leadership skills

Some people are very lucky because they have an easier time developing their leadership skills more than the others. There is no question that certain personality types make better leaders than the rest of us.

The next question is this: What personality types would make better leaders? Each of us fit into some personality types, whether ordinary or on the eccentric side.

Whichever it is, there might be some parts of it that would make an excellent type of leader. On the other hand, your personality type could undergo a leadership development training and become a very effective leader.

The following are some of the more recognizable leadership personalities, different though they are in more ways than one.

Powerful leader

He or she is the “king” or “queen”, the lion or lioness in an organization. The type of person who wants to be in the driver’s seat.

A personality notwithstanding, the strength of their leadership comes from good decision-making skills which come naturally. The negative aspect their tendency to be a morale-buster.

However, people will eventually discover a caring heart and they will learn to love and respect their leader. They might even grew and develop themselves from their challenges.

Perfectionist leader

As an animal, they could be compared to a beaver in the organization. They will be the one who will never forget to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.

This personality type can handle all the details of the group’s daily operations, but can nevertheless let go of the small stuff. Another good news: everyone they meet will soon learn and share their wisdom.

Peaceful leader

They are a golden retriever, and they can be the hardest to motivate. They can definitely frustrate most of the personality types listed in any group.

However, they have the most compassion among everybody. It is very easy for the rest to share their most personal feelings with this leader.

Popular leader

This person is the most fun of all the other leader types. If there is no fun, that person will create a fun situation for them and everyone.

Their greatest strength is his uncanny ability to rally everyone to meet the organization’s goals. Almost everyone wants to be with this leader, except of course, the perfectionist.

In their quest to make things fun, they usually overlook some details that can be important. Or so, the perfectionist would like to think.

You as the leader

What leadership personality would you be? What are your strengths and your weaknesses? If you are to be developed and groomed as a leader, what would you want for yourself?

One-on-One executive coaching can give your leaders the creativity and training they need to make your organisation excel. Read more to see how.

Does your company need a jumpstart? Is revenue low, morale declining, and your leadership tactics no longer making an impact? This may be the perfect time to look into leadership coaching.

A good executive coaching program should do more than just set you up with a speaker reading over a PowerPoint presentation. Team up your senior leaders with a good corporate coaching program, and you could be discussing fostering relationships, building strategy, and improving revenue and communications all while hitting the slopes, climbing a mountain or rafting some white water. It’s easy to connect in an environment where you can be creative, and think outside the box.

A good leadership system can make all the difference in your organization. It effects; communication, human performance, accountability, delivery, and measurement. A one-on-one approach and a program that is tailored to suit your organization ís specific needs is the best choice in executive coaching.

There are a few important things to consider if you want to engage in an executive coaching program. Look for a company that will provide you with someone who is more than just a speaker. You want to be paired up with someone who will be a trusted advisor to you as your organization grows and changes. Also, a good coaching program will include industry consultants to provide expert advice in some technical areas. Talk to your consultant about the specific goals you want your leadership program to meet. Every business or organization needs direction in a different area or department. This is what makes a one-on-one coaching program so unique; you work on meeting goals where your company needs it the most.

When you become a leader, whether it be that of a small team or a large company, the prospect is always daunting. Leadership is always a large responsibility and it can be a crushing burden if not handled properly. History is littered with leaders who weren’t able to handle the pressure. Thankfully, we’ve learned a few things from history ñ which is where leadership development programs come in.

Being a good leader is not a trait that’s spread out in the human population. It’s kind of like being a good soccer player or a good player. Some people have a natural talent to be a leader. Some people need a little push in the right direction. The problem with being suddenly handed the big chair is that, unless you’ve had previous experience, you might not know which of the two are you.

Which is why most employers initiate leadership development programs for those who are in a management position. You might be confident enough in your leadership abilities but those higher-ups have to make sure that you are doing the best that you can at the job. The following are two reasons why leadership development programs are good for you:

1) Better self-assessment: Most of the time we’re often blind to our own faults. A cursory self-examination will always come up with the result that you may not be perfect but you’re not that bad. That’s a completely wrong way to do it. When evaluating yourself, you need to be your own worst critic. This is mostly because most other people are not as forgiving of your own faults.

Having a faulty high opinion of oneself is a recipe for disaster everyone’s heard of the arrogant boss or supervisor. You should identify your personal shortcomings before your subordinates do and do something about them. Leadership development programs have a strict self-assessment portion that helps you do this. Additionally, the professional counselors who run these programs can help open your eyes to any troublesome personality traits or habits that you may have.

2) A more aware learning experience: Most leaders learn on-the-job. It’s not exactly optimal but sometimes the best way to learn something is to experience it. These learning experiences are often problems at work. The problem with experiencing crises it is sometimes we don’t think of it as a learning experience and just pass it off as being part of the job. They do not care to examine deeper into the problem.

This is why they do the same mistakes that resulted in the situation in the first place. Leadership development programs usually give you a better handle on these incidents. A more positive outlook and an inquisitive mind are what these programs encourage and they often result in leaders who know how to identify roots of problems and eliminate them at that level.

There are, of course, several other reasons why you should join leadership development programs but these two are the primary ones. Enter one as soon as possible and prepare to learn to become a better leader.

Intuition, also called body wisdom and gut feeling, is knowing something without being aware of how we got to that knowledge or conclusion. It is a way of instinctively feeling what steps to follow, what to do or how to react in certain situations. A way of knowing something without having rationalized the path towards that something.

It is perhaps a privilege for humans, and throughout history, there are thousands of examples of successful people, amongst which many are women, who claim that part of their success came from having followed their intuition, from not questioning that knowledge that arrives without any effort.

Anita Roddick, The Bodyshop founder, said “I think that business practices would improve immeasurably if they were guided by ‘feminine principles. Qualities like love and care and intuition”.

Intuition, usually attributed to women, is a phenomenon that happens in all humans, it just needs to be exercised by listening to it and trusting it. Perhaps more women than men are more respectful to their inner guidance, after all, we live in a society in which it is fine for women to pay attention to their emotions and feelings and to act accordingly to them, yet men are not expected to do so. Perhaps it is now time for men to allow themselves to listen to their gut feeling too, as it is not just a female sixth sense but a universal one.