In this issue:

1) Tip of the Week

2) FEATURE ARTICLE: Price of (NOT) Training by Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

3) CLASSIFIEDS Traffic Builders Business Opportunities

4) FREE Resources Recommended Reading

5) POWERQUOTE

6) MARKETING MINUTE: Target Practice by Brian Ciriaco

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If you'd like to read previously ran tips and features, go to http://netcheckspayroll.com/newsletter.html

This week's feature writer discusses how important training is to our professionalism, efficiency and overall success. Although written for businesses with employees, these same principles can be applied to our smaller ventures when we use them to edge above our competition.

Speaking of professionalism, here's a brand new organization whose stringent guidelines separate the professionals from the less-than-genuine online business owners. If you are (as I'm sure ALL my subscribers are) running an ethical, professional online business, go look at the site below and see how you can benefit from iCop,(TM). Give your prospects the confidence they need to become your customers. -founding member, Laura Raushel.

WHO'S WATCHING OUT FOR CONSUMERS ONLINE?

Anyone can start a business online. Anyone. It's easier and less expensive than ever before. It doesn't matter if the person has experience or not. For less than $100 anyone can claim to be anything they want and hide behind a web page collecting money from trusting consumers. The question is, who is legitimate and who isn't? In other words ...

---------- Who *Can* You Trust?

Collecting the money and disappearing is extremely easy. Canceling the web page and vanishing is as easy as the click of a mouse. Unfortunately, the Internet and the World Wide Web - the very same tool that has the potential to change lives for the better - is also creating a haven for scams and unprofessional conduct which is not in the best interest of consumers.

---------- So what can be done?

The International Council of Online Professionals, also known as iCop,(TM) has stepped up to the plate to set standards for business protocol. These standards are establishing confidence in the consumer's mind and assuring the integrity of the business owner. iCop(TM) was organized for this very purpose by dr. jl scott with the help of 29 of the Internet's foremost online professionals as it's Founding Members.

iCop's(TM) stringent guidelines are separating those who are just trying to make a fast buck from those with a genuine desire to run a top notch business. iCop(TM) members are selling their products and services under guidelines which protect the consumer. In turn, this is enhancing the confidence of consumers as they continue to come online to make purchases.

---------- So how can a consumer recognize a Professional?

To quote Dr. Scotts own words:

"Professionalism is not measured by how large a company is - or by how well-known. It is measured by the knowledge, and use, of professional business practices. It is measured by doing the job - and doing it to the best of one's ability. It is measured by the willingness to learn as well as to teach.

Even more importantly, it is measured by the highest ethical standards, by commitment to the customer and by a giving back to the world in general."

In an effort toward making business on the web a great place to prosper, iCop(TM) has stepped in to fill the void through the use of education and guidelines which are helping businesses to help and re-assure their customers. The iCop(TM) slogan, "We Police Ourselves to Protect the Consumer," is aimed at encouraging self-regulation on the Internet.

To further underline iCop's(TM) determination to encourage widespread professional standards, their membership subscription rates are set at an extremely affordable $100 a year, payable in 4 installments.

I would suggest that $2 a week is insignificant when you consider the priceless amount of re-assurance that consumers receive *knowing* they are dealing with someone whose proven credibility is beyond reproach.

For more detailed information on the International Council of Online Professionals visit; http://www.i-Cop.org or email mailto:jlscott@i-Cop.org

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jl scott, ph.d., Director of iCop International Council of Online Professionals We Police Ourselves to Protect the Consumer! http://www.i-Cop.org MONDAY MEMO! - Official iCop Ezine http://www.MondayMemo.org/ezine.htm

Price of (NOT) Training

by: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

As a full-time Professional Speaker for the last twenty years, I have been asked so many times, "How much does your training cost?" I have learned to reply, "Would free be too much?"

Training is not a cost. It's an investment. It really doesn't matter what we pay for an investment. What's relevant is what we get in return. One of the best ways to jeopardize an organization's future in today's world and increase the probability of troubled times is to look at training as a cost and pay the price of not training or provide substandard training that operates only as a Band-Aid for the training requirements.

It's a simple principle. An organization's staff is where they are currently, in terms of competence and success, in direct relationship to what they know and how well they apply what they know. We all come into this world the same way, broke and naked. (And we all leave the same way, broke; they give us some clothes.) We knew how to do nothing when we arrived but then we learned. The more we learned and the more we applied what we knew, the greater our success and thereby, the organization's success has been.

Some like to quantify the results from training. Here's a good example. A person being paid $50,000 per year who is wasting just one hour per day is costing the organization $6,250 per year (excluding benefits, overhead, opportunity costs, etc.). If, for example, through one of our Time Management Seminars, that person can learn how to re-capture just one hour per day, that translates into a payback to the organization of $6,250 per year. If there is a group of 25 people involved in the same training and they all receive a similar benefit, the return to the organization is $156,250 per year. (And this does not include other benefits to the organization such as profitability, reduced turnover, improved morale, enhanced teamwork, better customer service, greater creativity, etc.) Over five years, the payback is $781,250. What should an organization invest to achieve that return and payback?

Many find it difficult to get the time for training. This is another false economy. (They are so busy doing it the wrong way that they cannot take out a little time to figure out how to do it the right way.) When someone says they cannot afford to take three days out of their next week for training, I know they are looking at training as an "expense", and not as an "investment". Three days out of five is 60% of that week and that would be a big expense. But three days out 365 is a drop in the bucket and if that investment provides just one idea that saves one hour per day, every day, the payback on the investment of three days is over 250 hours just in the next year.

Not so many years ago training, beyond showing employees the basics of doing the job, was an option for most organizations. Today it is no longer an option. If any of us continues to do what we do the same way, within five years most of us and our organizations will become obsolete. Why? Because our competitors are helping their people to become more effective through training. If we look closely at companies that are doing well in the long run, they almost always have in place a well thought out and executed training program for their people. They understand that the price for not training is the real expense of training.

Would you like to receive five practical ideas that can help you and others get more time every day? I have put them together in an article entitled, "More Time". To get your free copy, email your request for "more" to: ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive free Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for our free "TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS". Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select "subscribe". We welcome you aboard!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker Productivity Institute Time Management Seminars 60 Huntington St., P.O. Box 2126 Shelton, CT 06484 (800) 969-3773 (203) 929-9902 Fax: (203) 929-8151 Email: ctsem@msn.com Visit our Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

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"Other people may not have had high expectations for me... but I had high expectations for myself."

- Shannon Miller, Olympic Gymnast

Questions to Ponder

What are my expectations of myself?

How do the expectations of those around me influence my personal expectations?

Are my expectations set where I want them?

Copyright the Discian Group from the Powerquotes ezine. See http://discian.com/powerquote.htm for more information.

Target Practice

by Brian Ciriaco

It's a finely honed skill to locate that group of people who are your real buyers. This is the time to put away the manners mom so fretfully ingrained and get down right nosy. The more you know about your buyers the better your bottom line will be. You know, that line that either reads red or black? That says spend or worry. Grow or groan. So pick up your marketing bow and let's do a little target practice.

The worst thing a business owner can do is delude himself into thinking that everyone is his buying audience. Might as well shoot straight up into the sky and hope to hit a star with your bow and arrow. That approach won't work and it simply isn't true. Every business has a defined audience and every business owner instinctively knows something, some little tiny thing, about his buyers. Think about it, what group of people are most likely to buy your product or service? Let's be obvious as an example. Selling gasoline? Car owners, motorcycle owners and, on the outside, lawnmowers owners are you buyers. But to really pull the buyers in you have to take that little bit of knowledge and try to pull out other useful tid bits of information until finally you have a clear picture of just who would buy your product or service.

So lets start with the little tiny thing you know about your buyers right now. Write those details down. Write down everything you currently know about your potential buyers. Okay, now we have someplace to start. Expanding on this is called research. A word that usually sends people flying for cover as thoughts such as "too hard", 'too expensive", or maybe simply "how?" come to mind. Relax. Take a deep breath. It's not hard, it's not expensive and we are here to show you how.

Okay, with the first tiny list of what you already know about your buyers make a second list of what you want to know about your buyers. Your list of questions should include as much as possible. Get really, obnoxiously nosy on paper, ask politically incorrect questions, pry into every corner of their lives....it's just a piece of paper and this is just a test. So don't flunk out by being passive.

Among other questions your list should include:

Is your buyer male or female what age? Are they the person in the family likely to make a buying decision on this product or service? If not, who is? What kind of job do they have? How much are they paid? Are they happy at their jobs? What do they do after work? What do they wish for? What religion are they? Do they have children? What kind of home, apartment or condo do they live in? Where do they live? What do they primarily spend their extra money on? What forms of entertainment do they indulge in? Where do they vacation? What types of transportation do they use? What kinds of magazines do they buy? What paper do they subscribe to? Which parts of the paper do they read? What kind of car do they drive? What kind of car do they wish they drove? What television shows do they watch? What restaurants do they eat in? What nationality are they?

Get the idea? Okay, now take your list and organize it into a polite little survey. Funny thing about us humans...we love to talk about ourselves. When things are going great we like to talk about it. When things are going lousy we love to talk about it even more. We aren't terribly picky as long as we get to tell someone about ourselves. So this is a prime opportunity to let people do what people love, tell you about them. So once you have your organized the survey, put it online or in email form. Now, take your tiny list, the one we told you to put together at the beginning of this tutorial. The list of characteristics that you already know about your buyer. Yes, that list. Take that list onto the Internet and find a newsgroup, mailing list, or newsletter that best describes this group of people. Once you locate a good match, ask them to participate in your survey. Just tell them like it is. You're starting a new business doing such and such. In an effort to make your business the best it can be you are asking people to tell you about themselves. With a little encouragement and a firm declaration that everything will be kept confidential you will have a large supply of data to add to your original information about your buyers. WOW, now your really beginning to know your buying audience.

What does all this information tell you? Tons. It tells you how to reach them both physically and emotionally. It tells you how to meet their needs. And it tells you how to improve on what you are doing, how to price your product or service and where to advertise. The more you know, the more power you have. Guard this information as if it were cold hard cash, because eventually it will be.

Once you're armed with oodles of information, pat yourself on the back because research companies charge thousands of dollars to do this same thing. This thing you just did all by yourself. And that's hitting the target right smack in the middle of future profits.

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