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A well written CV will increase your chances of being selected for a job interview.

In the current employment market it is imperative to create a CV that would stand out from the rest. A personal profile that would convince the employer that it will be beneficial to meet with you.

Start off your CV with basic information, including your name and your contact details. Make sure that you provide more than one method of contacting you, like mobile number and email address. This will ensure that you do not miss out on any opportunities.

In some cases depending on which industry you specialise in and also the country you reside in, you may also need to put down things like your age, gender and nationality. This is a practice that is swiftly falling out of favor, but it is still occasionally used.

Always remember that all of your information should be up to date.

Just below your contact details, write down something about your career ambitions and goals. It is recommended to keep this part of your CV down to three brief lines.

Following your career objective, write about your academic background and qualifications. Start with your most recent studies and make sure that you write down the name of the institute as well as the dates of course taken.

Work experience should be listed down, starting with the most recent or current role. Make sure that you include the title of the job you held, whether it was full time or part time and how long your employment lasted. List your duties and the responsibilities, using bullets if possible.

Finally, remember to make sure that you have contact information for your previous employers.

When you are looking to register your CV on the leading job boards and CV databases, keep in mind that they often make use of in-house software to complete their searches, based on specific key words. It is therefore imperative that you also include any skills, training, software knowledge and achievements.

In today’s economy, companies are experimenting with various ways to increase sales and they are also trying to discover innovative sales tips. Businesses are actively seeking out new clients and looking to improve and build upon relationships with existing clients. In order to significantly increase sales, businesses must be willing to devote the time required that it takes to carefully plan and execute a successful sales strategy.

Companies heavily rely upon their sales teams and if their sales department is not performing well, the company will fail regardless of the quality of their products or services. A sales team that can not deliver will inevitably be the downfall of your business. Take time to evaluate the limitations of your sales department. After you assess your current situation, decide whether or not your company needs to take steps towards improving your sales force.

There are a number of options that businesses can look into when they decide to take an active route in pursuing increased sales. A meeting with your sales team should outline a business plan summarizing the steps your sales team intends to take and their desired results. Also include a budget that covers what you plan on spending in order to increase your sales.

When a company decides to make an organized effort to increase sales they must consider investing more money into their sales team. A well-trained and experienced sales team can make all the difference. Money also must be spent on any additional marketing or advertising. Listed below are some helpful sales tips:

First, a strong foundation is imperative to business success. Taking the time to create a sound business that provides good-quality products or superior services is well worth the efforts. A business that is beneficial to both its customers and community will grow.

Secondly, realize the value of social networking. Networking can be a valuable way to increase sales and help to grow your business.

Thirdly, spend time familiarizing yourself with all aspects of your business and its products or services. Learning your business inside and out will make you confident and knowledgeable when dealing with clients. Make sure that your sales team also spends time learning as much as possible about your products or services as well.

Finally, excellent people skills are required when dealing with clients. Always be polite and make an effort to listen to their concerns. Pushy salespeople do not get very far. Follow these sales tips and make sure that you are fair and honest in your business transactions and clients will enjoy doing business with you.

Temp agencies can be a great way to find some extra work and are ideal if you are looking for something that isn’t going to be long-term. There are a number of reasons why you might want to use a temp agency to help you find work, but the question we will be dealing with today is how to actually find a good agency.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of temp work agencies out there that just don’t deliver. You could end up sitting around for months without a hint of a job with these agencies, so it’s important to know what to look for. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you find the right company to help you find work.

- Look for specialties. Many temp agencies only represent one industry. For example, they may only place secretaries. It’s a good idea to check for this when looking for a company to work with. Often you’ll have better luck finding work if you opt for a company that specializes in your area of expertise, as Boost your skills. You’ll be far more valuable as a temp employee if you are already familiar with things on the job. That means you may need to learn a few new things in order to come in higher on the list of job applicants. For example, a secretary who is comfortable with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint is going to be more valuable than one who is simply a fast typist.

- Find one with support. We all know that there are some truly awful jobs out there. Make sure you know exactly what your chosen temp agency will do if you are uncomfortable or detest a particular job. Will they intervene? A good agency will work with the temporary employees to ensure they aren’t being treated badly. If you don’t have the support of the agency behind you, it can be very easy to end up in a position you aren’t happy with.

- Prepare for your interview. Just because you aren’t interviewing for the actual job doesn’t mean you should skimp on preparation. Make sure your resume is up to date, dress the part and treat the interview for a temp agency just like you would an interview for a job. This is also a time to get a feel for those in charge of job assignments. It’s not just an interview for you, it’s also one for them. If you aren’t comfortable with the people you’ll be relying on to find you a job, then look at another agency.

- Talk to other temp workers. This is your best bet for finding out what the company is really like. Are people happy with their placements? Do they have complaints about the way things are run? It’s handy to know what you’re getting into from the very start so you can make an informed decision right from the start. Often, you’ll learn things you would normally need to spend several weeks there to pick up.

Temp agencies offer a huge advantage to anyone not interested in staying with one job for a long period of time. Whether you are simply looking to earn money while between jobs or are looking to make a career out of temp work, an agency can help you by putting you in touch with far more jobs that you would normally have access to. However, it’s important to select the right temp agency for you, which means doing a little research. Ask questions, talk to other workers and get a feel for things before you sign up.

When engaging a contractor to perform a service on behalf of your company you are outsourcing the process, not the accountability. Contract lifecycle management ensures that you manage the risk.

Even if you can negotiate to pass on close to 100% of the risk and accept no liability in an agreement, you are still accountable for the results. You have to actively manage a contract to ensure its successful delivery. This is contract lifecycle management.

If I had a dollar for every time I had heard an organisation tell me that a contractor was responsible for something, I’d be a rich man, and “if he does not deliver it’s his responsibility.” This is a bad position to take, because when something goes wrong, it’s already too late, and you are just reacting to an issue that could have been prevented. This is re-active management and all too common. True contract lifecycle management is pro-active. Here’s an example.

ACME Food Services are a global supermarket chain who outsource customer deliveries to contractors. BeeQuick is one such contractor that delivers orders to ACME’s customers on behalf of ACME. ACME Food Services has set-up SLAs that include contractor penalties for late and non-deliveries, so if the contractor is late or the food spoils in transit BeeQuick is financially penalised in some way. This acts as an incentive to provide the correct service as per the specification.

But, what SLAs and penalties do not do, is compensate ACME Food Services for the loss of goodwill when something goes wrong, dissatisfied customers, negative word of mouth, and associated loss of revenue due to poor contractor performance. What ACME Food Services really needs to do, is not just rely on the contractor to meet the SLAs, but also put contract management processes in place that increase the likelihood that SLAs will be met. These activities might include training for contractors, re-training, spot-checks, checklists for drivers, inspections, and even incentives for meeting SLAs or exceeding expectations. Because ACME Food Services is the company that will be blamed if something goes wrong, they have to do everything that they can to make sure that it does not. Even if ‘fault’ is just customer perception, can you afford to take the risk?

In addition, BeeQuick neglected to renew an insurance policy. ACME Food Services checks certificates of currency when they engage a contractor but does not think to check if suppliers renew their policies annually. They do not have systems in place notifying contract managers when key dates are approaching.

One of the BeeQuick’s drivers forgot to apply the handbrake and his van collided with a customer’s fence. The customer blamed ACME Food Services, of course. The contractor was uninsured and ACME Food Services had to settle the claim. Being pro-active about ensuring that all contractors had current insurance policies would have been cheaper and easier.

Whether it was by Twitter or article or blog post, somewhere along the way you saw the term Virtual Assistant. It struck a chord with you so you decided to look into it. Once you did, you knew this would be the perfect resource for you. You set out to hire a Virtual Assistant, but you didn’t know how to go about it.

How do you find a Virtual Assistant? What kind of Virtual Assistant will you need? How much do they charge? How do I get in contact with them? How does this all work?

First things first, there are some things you need to take into consideration before even beginning the process of finding a VA.

1. What kinds of tasks do you want them to take on? Write it out with as much detail and structure as you possible can. 2. Are you comfortable with working with someone virtually? Can you handle not being able to see someone fact to face? 3. How many hours do you think youll need them for each week/month? 4. How much can you afford to budget for this? Take into account how much more productive you will be during those hours that your Virtual Assistant will be freeing you up. For example, if your hourly rate is $200, at $50 per hour for a Virtual Assistant, for that same $200 you can free up 4 hours, opening your availability to make an additional $800.

Now that you’ve got that all figured out, you’re ready to begin. You may be inclined to just do a Google search for Virtual Assistant and go from there. There is a much simpler way to attract the perfect VA candidates for you.

An RFP allows you to take all of your answers from the questions above and put them out there on these sites so that the Virtual Assistants with the proper qualifications can contact you and take some of the legwork out of the process.

Some of the most popular site are:

* IVAA or International Virtual Assistants Association * VANetworking.com * Virtual Assistant Forums * A Claytons Secretary * Find Virtual * Home Secretarial Services * Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce

Once youve posted your RFP, just sit back and relax. Youll get an influx of proposals from qualified, professional Virtual Assistants ready to partner with you. From there its just a matter of connecting with them and discerning which one you feel the most comfortable with.

They way in which you construct your agreements and specify your requirements is equally as important as how you proactively manage the negotiated terms. Contract lifecycle management begins with a good specification.

I keep six honest serving men,(they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who

Near the beginning of last century Rudyard Kipling penned the above verse. In doing so he identified one of the most valuable aspects of the management of the contract lifecycle. Whatever horizontal or vertical in which you work as commercial manager contracts it is true that managing a contract successfully is highly dependent on getting the specification right before you let the contract.

Producing a good specification is worth the effort to make your life easier when managing delivery of the contract.

Specifications should be the backbone of your legal agreements, and legal agreements are that upon which we base our relationships. Without a good specification, managing the relationship will prove problematic, because you have no clear set of rules for delivery, and no clear agreed service levels.

Contract lifecycle management software can help you manage the agreement, but only you can get the specification right.

In a down economy organizations sometimes forget that retaining employees is an important issue. When organizations go through the difficult process of downsizing it’s natural to overlook the need to develop retention programs meant to keep the remaining people happy and productive.

Shouldn’t the employees who survived a downsizing be thankful their jobs were saved? Perhaps, but employees who see their friends and colleagues let go will be fearful and disconcerted. They will wonder if the company is still the best place for them to pursue their careers. Given a chance to go someplace they think is more secure, employees may begin to be disengaged and jump ship.

As always, the employees most likely to have the opportunity to get a job elsewhere are precisely the ones you least want to see go. Working to improve employee retention after downsizing is a wise tactical move. In this article we’ll show how it’s done.

Getting off on the Right Foot Companies that do the right things pre-downsizing will have the fewest problems with retention post-downsizing. The key is to engage employees in the downsizing process; they need to feel that downsizing was done with them not to them.

Involving employees in downsizing is counterintuitive; the natural tendency of managers is to shut themselves behind closed doors and call all the shots. At a minimum, very open and honest communication before, during and after the downsizing process helps maintain employee morale. Even better is to ask employees for their ideas on saving money and generate new revenue-not only do you get good ideas, you prove to employees that downsizing is only being used as a last resort.

Keeping employees engaged not only improves retention, it improves productivity at a time when reduced headcount makes productivity more important than ever.

Information and Engagement Another way to improve retention is to survey your employees to find what their likes-dislikes, ideas for improvement, etc. Employers often are hesitant to do a survey after downsizing fearing they will get bad news, but it is a powerful way to engage and retain those who remain. In addition to the usual survey questions, you can ask questions aimed specifically at finding out how people are feeling about the downsizing process and life in the organization after downsizing. The survey process needs to include not just asking the right questions, but also analyzing and publishing the results then working with your people to implement change.

For example Drake’s HR consulting team performed an overarching HR audit for a chain of restaurants and that audit included an employee survey. The company suspected that people were not happy with their compensation. However, the survey showed that people were not unhappy, they were just confused. Employees didn’t know if they would get a bonus or not and what it would be based on. The company didn’t need to increase the compensation, just do a better job of communicating how it worked-which is exactly what they did.

Digging for More Insights Another basic but underutilized tool is exit interviewing. When anyone leaves after a downsizing event, HR should be doing exit interviews to get as much intelligence from the employee as possible.

However, just as with surveys, it is not enough simply to collect information. It is important that every six months or every year you gather up the data, summarize the results and communicate to employees what you are learning from the exit interviews. Then, explain what you are doing in response to what you’ve learned. If you fail to summarize and communicate or don’t make positive changes employees will suspect that you may be hiding the results and all your good intentions will be undone. By doing these things, not only do you make the changes needed to improve retention, the simple fact of listening to employees drives engagement making it less likely they will leav

One client asked Drake’s http://www.drakeintl.com/ca/bussolutions/index.aspx Hr consulting team to conduct online and telephone exit interviews for their call centre business across North America. The client believed the high turnover was caused by poor compensation and poor supervisory skills. But the exit interviews showed that people were actually leaving because they simply didn’t like the job. This result showed why the recent investments in training supervisors and increasing compensation were not having an effect. After the HR consulting intervention the client changed their recruiting process to ensure candidates got a realistic sense of the job before they were hired. Listening to employees through exit interviews, and acting on what was learned, enabled the call centres to improve retention.

A Sense of Belonging Finally, organizations should look at a variety of culture building activities that create a sense of team. People will stay to support their team members even when times are tough. Being on a team can improve morale and help people focus on bigger goals. You don’t need sophisticated or expensive HR consulting interventions to create a sense of team. Meetings to discuss shared objectives, celebrations of successes, and group meals are all simple ways to create a sense of belonging.

All the actions we have discussed are good HR processes at any time. What companies overlook is how these processes are particularly valuable after a downsizing event when morale is fragile and the organization absolutely needs the best from every employee.

Drake’s Approach Drake has many decades of experience helping small and mid-sized firms with their HR needs. We’ve learned how to take off the shelf solutions and tailor them to the specific needs of the client’s business because every company truly does have some unique issues. We take a consultative approach focused on generating Exponential Impact ™ for your business, through a long term relationship. Our focus is on helping you engineer an improved bottom line through the efficiency and effectiveness of your people. If we can’t do that then you shouldn’t work with us!

Job hunting is hard work, so anything that makes it just a little easier is a very good thing. Temp agencies can be the ideal way to make everything easier as you set about looking for more work. The advantages are numerous, but too many people avoid temp agencies because they aren’t really sure of how to use them or they think they don’t need help looking for work.

So, why would you join a temp agency if you can seek out jobs on your own? Let’s take a look at the many advantages of working for one of these agencies. Wider audience. While you can certainly find your own job opportunities on job boards like Monster, or in the local papers, the number of potential positions you can try for is limited. You’re just one person, so it’s literally impossible for you to check out all the possibilities. Also, many companies never advertise their vacancies, they develop contacts at temp agencies and whenever they are in need of short-term help, they simply let the agency know. This means that if you are working with the temp agency, you are instantly expanding your potential job search to companies that never would have advertised in the papers anyway.

Faster results. As mentioned above, you are just one person, so it stands to reason that you’ll be able to get faster results if there are ten times as many people seeking out jobs for you. While a temp agency isn’t going to be looking just for you, if you have a top notch resume and are ready to go, you should be pretty high on the list. Also, agencies work hard to cultivate a trustworthy reputation so clients know they can trust them to send over the best persons for the job, which will boost the chances of the agency getting more jobs coming in. The best temp agencies will be constantly receiving calls for new employees, which means you could land a job very quickly if you have the right qualifications.

Support. If you choose your temp agency with care, you’ll find that if something goes wrong with a job, you’ll have backup with the people who work the agency. This can be very useful since it often gives you more of a legal leg to stand on should something happen with the job you were assigned. Not all agencies offer their support, though, so do be careful to check this before you sign up with one. Find out what they require from employees and what their policy is if you have complaints about a position. You will probably want to know what they do if the opposite is true, as well, if the company complains about you.

Flexibility. One of the biggest advantages of working for a temp agency is that you aren’t going to be in any job for long. In fact, part of your job description is moving from one workplace to another in rapid succession! For those who find themselves feeling claustrophobic in one job after a few months or a year, this can be the perfect solution. You won’t ever be bored for long in any one job.

Temp agencies can really help you out with finding work. Despite the fact most jobs are temporary, on occasion you may be offered the position permanently, so this isn’t a bad way to go, even if you plan on building a proper career in one location later on. You might find your future career right under your nose. You’ll never know unless you check it out.

Now, more than ever before, businesses are examining their sales force and looking for various ways in which they can increase their sales. There are many reasons why a sales department can potentially be underperforming, and finding the root of this problem and delivering increased sales can be a time consuming task.

Businesses are actively looking for growth opportunities. Producing a high-quality product or providing an important service are not enough to surpass the middle market. These businesses need professional sales teams that can deliver results.

Outsourcing your businesses’ sales department had become a popular alternative for business owners that do not have the time or the resources to reorganize their sales force. An outsourced sales service can provide an assortment of sales assistance ranging from a full service sales department to a customized sales strategy for your business. They also can provide assistance in new product launches, new market penetration, new client generation, and in lead generation.

General sales tips may or may not be useful to your specific business. Sales outsourcing providers can provide your business with customized sales tips and strategies. While applying these strategies will result in increased sales, if you want to surpass the middle market a customized sales execution will get you the best results. However, many companies in the middle market do not have the time or the resources to devote to sales, which is why they should consider outsourcing their sales department.

Taking the time to hire and train a professional sales team can be a daunting task, especially for a business owner that has a number of other priorities. Outsourced sales services can help you build or expand your sales team by recruiting qualified and professional sales executives.

Outsourced sales can give your more time to spend focusing on your products or services. Businesses need to produce high-quality products or services first and foremost.

Sales outsourcing specialists have more tools and resources available to get faster and better results. They are also able to provide you with accurate sales forecasting and give you realistic sales goals.

Sales outsourcing specialist have years of experience in developing successful sales strategies and they will be able to find the best strategy for your business. The market knowledge that they have acquired will help your business to grow through increased sales.

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the Ox officially began on January 26th and this year promises to be a challenge for everyone. The Ox is one of 12 animals that represent the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The Ox symbolizes prosperity, strength and ambition.

As the New Year has begun it is my belief that adopting the attributes of the Ox is necessary to deal with this recession that is causing problems for the entire world. The common consensus is that buyers all over are being very cautious. They must continue to buy goods, but are taking a more detailed and methodical approach.

Below is a list of tips that can with your negotiations with your new or existing Chinese suppliers. These tips should be used in conjunction with good Project Management, QC, and Third Party Inspection techniques.

1. Steel prices are one example of how raw material prices have gone down recently (about 20% from September 2008 to January 2009). So asking your suppliers for price reductions should be done immediately.

2. Push for lower Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs). The factories are more willing to reduce their MOQs now than they were before 2008. Use this to your advantage to lower your inventory dollars.

3. Push your suppliers to become more efficient, develop new product, and be proactive during these slow times. If you have manufacturing experience, use that to help your suppliers any way you can.

4. Try to negotiate payment terms that are better for you. Maybe you can reduce or eliminate the deposit or increase Net 30 to Net 45. It is important to do this now because many factories will probably be asking to change the payment terms more in their favor because money is not being lent easily right now. So if you beat them to the punch, you have a better position to negotiate from. Also ask yourself why they want to change their terms and is this a signal that they are having financial issues.

5. Visit your suppliers, do inspections, check out their production line and ask a lot of questions to confirm their financial strength is good. This will give you an idea of how their overall business is going. Ask simple, small talk questions to middle managers and below who you think will answer you honestly. Asking things like how is overtime work been compared to last year, have you had a lot of containers ship this week, etc are good ways to get a true feel of what is happening at the factory

6. Be aware of the product codes, description, etc of the raw material used in your items. With pressure to reduce costs, using less expensive materials than used previously is a high possibility. Make sure your factory uses your specified raw material.

7. Having and keeping a good supply chain is better than no supply chain. So working with your factories to get the best pricing is important but not at the expense of driving them out of business. I have seen factory bosses drive themselves out of business trying to meet all their client’s needs. Work together with your suppliers and not against them, so you both make money and can be around a long time to support each other.

8. Keep your suppliers clued in to the current state of your business and market. They too are nervous about the slow down in the economy, so if you share with them what you are experiencing they will be less stressed about your recent reduced orders and more willing to quickly react to your needs when the time arises.

Be like the Ox in 2009. Use quality Project Management and Third Party Inspection to prosper and take market share in these challenging times. With the right approach and attitude this year can be more than just surviving, but actually THRIVING!

Sincerely,

Greg Schultheis President AMROSIA Group Limited info@amrosia.com www.amrosia.com