You have made a commitment to lose 10 pounds in the next 2 months. You are eating well and working out regularly. You are committed in every way possible- except 1. Your specialty coffee drink of choice. Mochas, frappuccinos, breves and everything in between. You just cannot give up your daily cup of mocha madness.

I don’t blame you. In fact I think the moment you begin to deprive yourself of anything you start a vicious cycle. You start craving the one thing you told yourself you cannot have. So what if we stop denying ourselves of our heavenly coffee drinks? Is it possible to still be on a diet and drink mochas?

Yes, it absolutely is. And I am living proof that you can still indulge and have a fabulous body. I admit that I drink one mocha beverage per day. So if I can do it, you can do it to. Go ahead you have my permission!

But before you run out the door and order 4 venti mocha fraps you should know a few other things. I think that allowing yourself a treat is good and necessary for long term success. The very first thing I think you should do is this- stop dieting. A diet implies negative emotions. It implies that you are restricting your calories and your joy. It also implies that you are going to stop eating according to the diet at some point. After all, who wants to diet all of their life? Not me.

So let’s stop dieting. Let’s make a lifestyle change. Let’s focus more on things we should eat instead of things we should not eat. Let’s focus on all of our accomplishments and not on our failures. In fact, we do not even have failures. We simply had times when we were not as successful as we would have hoped. Let’s also get a few other things in place.

Here are 5 tips to fat loss. Incorporate each of these 5 tips into your new lifestyle change. I know that you will see results. You will feel better, happier, and healthier. You will have more energy and more self-esteem. You will feel good about your body because you are living a clean and healthy life. Here are the 5 tips to fat loss-

1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain one protein and one carb. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking.

2) Drink a glass of water at each meal.

3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 48 hours between strength training the same muscles, and it also means getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Lastly, it means taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.

4) Cardio should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions. Working at varying intensity levels will ensure a well-rounded routine.

5) Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method. Strength training is not hard once you have an excellent routine in place. Focus on proper form and a full range of motion.

All of the above tips combined will result in fat loss. Now that we are living a healthy life and not dieting we can let go of all guilt. So long as you follow these 5 tips to fat loss then you can have a non-fat venti mocha with whipped cream. The key is moderation. The secret to long-term success is to eat well, workout often and never, ever deprive yourself of your mocha.

Lynn VanDyke is a Master Trainer and Fitness Nutritionist dedicated to making fat loss simple. She has authored a popular ebook called “Melt the Fat.” You may grab your copy or learn more about her at http://Melt-the-Fat.com

Michigan - May 20, 2005 - MicroWorld Technologies, Inc. the leading solutions provider in the area of Anti-virus and Content security, has announced the launch of its new version of MailScan Ver. 4.5, the antivirus and content security software for mail servers.

The new version of MailScan provides additional security features to allow users to monitor the TCP connections on their systems, and use enhanced Anti-SPAM control to fight SPAM.

The new security feature interface displays all the active TCP connections to your computer. It lists information about the processes, protocols, local addresses, remote addresses and Process Status on the computer. It allows you to identify any unauthorized access to your mail server and take effective counter measures to safeguard your system.

MailScan 4.5 provides the user with real time access to Relay Blackhole List at <http://www.rbl.org> for IPs of known Spammers. The site maintains active real-time Blackhole list that you can use to verify if any IP that connects to your MailServer is listed as that of a known Spammer, and take appropriate action.

MailScan 4.5 is the next step in the continuing process to provide added security to mail servers against virus attacks, SPAM and other forms of security threats to networks via e-mail.

Mr Govind Rammurthy, CEO, MicroWorld Technologies, Inc. says “MicroWorld’s MailScan 4.5 with its new features, is a step forward in strengthening our products to ensure that corporate gateways are well-protected from ever increasing and smart Internet intruders. Continuous development has made MailScan one of the most popular mail gateway security products available in the markets today.”

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a broad term referring to outsourcing in all fields. A BPO differentiates itself by either putting in new technology or applying existing technology in a new way to improve a process.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry.

Few of the motivation factors as to why BPO is gaining ground are:

Factor Cost Advantage
Economy of Scale
Business Risk Mitigation
Superior Competency
Utilization Improvement

Generally outsourcing can be defined as - An organization entering into a contract with another organization to operate and manage one or more of its business processes.

Different Types of Services Being Offered By BPO’s

Customer Support Services

Our customer service offerings create a virtual customer service center to manage customer concerns and queries through multiple channels including voice, e-mail and chat on a 24/7 and 365 days basis.

Service Example: Customers calling to check on their order status, customers calling to check for information on products and services, customers calling to verify their account status, customers calling to check their reservation status etc.

Technical Support Services

Our technical support offerings include round-the-clock technical support and problem resolution for OEM customers and computer hardware, software, peripherals and Internet infrastructure manufacturing companies. These include installation and product support, up & running support, troubleshooting and Usage support.

Service Example: Customers calling to resolve a problem with their home PC, customers calling to understand how to dial up to their ISP, customers calling with a problem with their software or hardware.

Telemarketing Services

Our telesales and telemarketing outsourcing services target interaction with potential customers for ‘prospecting’ like either for generating interest in products and services, or to up-sell / promte and cross sell to an existing customer base or to complete the sales process online.

Service Example: Outbound calling to sell wireless services for a telecom provider, outbound calling to retail households to sell leisure holidays, outbound calling to existing customers to sell a new rate card for a mobile service provider or outbound calling to sell credit or debit cards etc.

Employee IT Help-desk Services

Our employee IT help-desk services provide technical problem resolution and support for corporate employees.

Service Example: of this service include level 1 and 2 multi-channel support across a wide range of shrink wrapped and LOB applications, system problem resolutions related to desktop, notebooks, OS, connectivity etc., office productivity tools support including browsers and mail, new service requests, IT operational issues, product usage queries, routing specific requests to designated contacts and remote diagnostics etc.

Insurance Processing

Our insurance processing services provide specialized solutions to the insurance sector and support critical business processes applicable to the industry right from new business acquisition to policy maintenance to claims processing.

Service Example:

New Business / Promotion:

Inbound/outbound sales, Initial Setup, Case Management, Underwriting, Risk assessment, Policy issuance etc.

Policy Maintenance / Management:

Record Changes like Name, Beneficiary, Nominee, Address; Collateral verification, Surrender Audits Accounts Receivable, Accounting, Claim Overpayment, Customer care service via voice/email etc.

Data Entry Services / Data Processing Services
Service Example:

Data entry from Paper/Books with highest accuracy and fast turn around time (TAT)

Data entry from Image file in any format

Business Transaction Data entry like sales / purchase / payroll.

Data entry of E-Books / Electronic Books

Data Entry : Yellow Pages / White Pages Keying

Data Entry and compilation from Web site

Data Capture / Collection

Business Card Data Entry into any Format

Data Entry from hardcopy/Printed Material into text or required format

Data Entry into Software Program and application

Receipt and Bill Data Entry

Catalog Data Entry.

Data Entry for Mailing List/Mailing Label.

Manuscripting typing in to word

Taped Transcription in to word.

Copy, Paste, Editing, Sorting, Indexing Data into required format etc.

Data Conversion Services
Service Example:

Conversion of data across various databases on different platforms

Data Conversion via Input / Output for various media.

Data Conversion for databases, word processors, spreadsheets, and many other standard and custom-made software packages as per requirement.

Conversion from Page maker to PDF format.

Conversion from Ms-Word to HTML format

Conversion from Text to Word Perfect.

Conversion from Text to Word to HTML and Acrobat

Convert Raw Data into required MS Office formats.

Text to PDF and PDF to Word / Text / Doc

Data Compilation in PDF from Several Sources.

E-Book Conversion etc.

Scanning, OCR with Editing & Indexing Services
Service Example:

High speed Image-Scanning and Data capture services
High speed large volume scanning
OCR Data From Scanned page / image
Scan & OCR paper Book in to CD.
ADOBE PDF Conversion Services.
Conversion from paper or e-file to various formats

Book Keeping and Accounting Services
Service Example:

General Ledger
Accounts Receivables and Accounts Payable
Financial Statements
Bank Reconciliation
Assets / Equipment Ledgers etc.

Form Processing Services:
Service Example:

Insurance claim form
Medical Form / Medical billing
Online Form Processing
Payrol Processing etc.

Internet / Online / Web Research
Service Example:

Internet Search, Product Research, Market Research, Survey, Analysis.
Web and Mailing list research etc.

Challenges for a HR Professional in BPO

Brand equity: People still consider BPO to be “low brow”, thus making it difficult to attract the best talent.

Standard pre-job training: Again, due to the wide variety of the jobs, lack of general clarity on skill sets, etc, there is no standard curriculum, which could be designed and followed.

Benchmarks: There are hardly any benchmarks for compensation and benefits, performance or HR policies. Everyone is charting their own course.

Customer-companies tend to demand better results from outsourcing partners than what they could actually expect from their own departments. “When the job is being done 10,000 miles away, demands on parameters such as quality, turn around timeliness, information security, business continuity and disaster recovery, etc, are far higher than at home. So, how to be more efficient than the original?

Lack of focused training and certifications
Given this background, the recruiting and compensation challenges of HR departments are only understandable.

Key To success

The key to success in ramping up talent in a BPO environment is a rapid training module. The training component has to be seen as an important sub-process, requiring constant re-engineering.
Business Process Outsourcing: The Top Rankers
WNS has emerged as the top BPO in India, pushing Wipro Spectramind to the second position, according to a survey done by NASSCOM. The basis of ranking is the revenues generated by the BPO companies in 2003-04, as per US GAAP. A list of top fifteen BPO companies in India is given below.

WNS Group
Wipro Spectramind
Daksh e-Services
Convergys
HCL Technologies
Zenta
ICICI Onesource
MphasiS

EXL
Tracmail
GTL Ltd.
vCustomer
HTMT
24/7 Customer
Sutherland Technologies

The parameters for the survey was: Employee Size (Operation level executives), Percentage of last salary hike, Cost to company , Overall Satisfaction Score, Composite Satisfaction, Company Culture, Job Content / Growth, Training , Salary and Compensation , Appraisal System, People, Preferred Company: (Percentage of respondents of a company who named their own company as the preferred one), Dream Company: (Percentage of respondents in the total sample who preferred a particular company).

Employee Benefits Provided By Majoriy Of the BPO Companies
Provident Fund: As per the statutory guidelines, the employee is required to contribute a percentage of his basic salary and DA to a common fund. The employer for this fund contributes as well. The employee can use the amount deposited in this fund for various personal purposes such as purchase of a new house, marriage etc.

Gratuity: Gratuity is one of the retrial benefits given to the employee in which the employer every year contributes a particular amount. The fund created can be used by the employee for the purpose of long-term investment in various things such as a house etc.

Group Mediclaim Insurance Scheme: This insurance scheme is to provide adequate insurance coverage of employees for expenses related to hospitalization due to illness, disease or injury or pregnancy in case of female employees or spouse of male employees. All employees and their dependent family members are eligible. Dependent family members include spouse, non-earning parents and children above three months

Personal Accident Insurance Scheme: This scheme is to provide adequate insurance coverage for Hospitalization expenses arising out of injuries sustained in an accident.

Subsidized Food and Transportation: The organizations provides transportation facility to all the employees from home till office at subsidized rates. The lunch provided is also subsidized.

Company Leased Accommodation: Some of the companies provides shared accommodation for all the out station employees, in fact some of the BPO companies also undertakes to pay electricity/water bills as well as the Society charges for the shared accommodation. The purpose is to provide to the employees to lead a more comfortable work life balance.

Recreation, Cafeteria, ATM and Concierge facilities: The recreation facilities include pool tables, chess tables and coffee bars. Companies also have well equipped gyms, personal trainers and showers at facilities.

Corporate Credit Card: The main purpose of the corporate credit card is enable the timely and efficient payment of official expenses which the employees undertake for purposes such as travel related expenses like Hotel bills, Air tickets etc

Cellular Phone / Laptop: Cellular phone and / or Laptop is provided to the employees on the basis of business need. The employee is responsible for the maintenance and safeguarding of the asset.

Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups): Some of the BPO’S provides the facility for extensive health check-up. For employees with above 40 years of age, the medical check-up can be done once a year.

Loans: Many BPO companies provides loan facility on three different occasions: Employees are provided with financial assistance in case of a medical emergency. Employees are also provided with financial assistance at the time of their wedding. And, The new recruits are provided with interest free loans to assist them in their initial settlement at the work location.

Educational Benefits: Many BPO companies have this policy to develop the personality and knowledge level of their employees and hence reimburses the expenses incurred towards tuition fees, examination fees, and purchase of books subject, for pursuing MBA, and/or other management qualification at India’s top most Business Schools.

Performance based incentives: In many BPO companies they have plans for , performance based incentive scheme. The parameters for calculation are process performance i.e. speed, accuracy and productivity of each process. The Pay for Performance can be as much as 22% of the salary.

Flexi-time: The main objective of the flextime policy is to provide opportunity to employees to work with flexible work schedules and set out conditions for availing this provision. Flexible work schedules are initiated by employees and approved by management to meet business commitments while supporting employee personal life needs .The factors on which Flexi time is allowed to an employee include: Child or Parent care, Health situation, Maternity, Formal education program

Flexible Salary Benefits: Its main objective is to provide flexibility to the employees to plan a tax-effective compensation structure by balancing the monthly net income, yearly benefits and income tax payable. It is applicable of all the employees of the organization. The Salary consists of Basic, DA and Conveyance Allowance. The Flexible Benefit Plan consists of: House Rent Allowance, Leave Travel Assistance, Medical Reimbursement, Special Allowance

Regular Get together and other cultural programs: The companies organizes cultural program as and when possible but most of the times, once in a quarter, in which all the employees are given an opportunity to display their talents in dramatics, singing, acting, dancing etc. Apart from that the organizations also conduct various sports programs such as Cricket, football, etc and regularly play matches with the teams of other organizations and colleges.

Wedding Day Gift: Employee is given a gift voucher of Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 7000/- based on their level in the organization.

Employee Referral Scheme: In several companies employee referral scheme is implemented to encourage employees to refer friends and relatives for employment in the organization.

Paid Days Off
Maternity Leave
Employee Stock Option Plan

Inspite of all these benefits, the attrition rate in BPO industry is very high, why?. What is the reason for an employee to leave? These and many more are the questions that need immediate attention from the industrial gurus.

Why people prefer to join BPO’s?

In general a person with any graduation can join any of the BPO. Some BPO’s like to take people with MBA but then again the specialization are of an individual hardly makes any difference. Again, this is the industry, where there is no reference checks and very often people don’t even specify there exact age. Lets me share with you some of the reasons as why people prefer to join a BPO:

Did not get a better job.
Find nothing better to do.
Education level doesn’t matter
Good work environment
Good Benefits
Flexibility of time
Attractive life style
Transport facility

Why people leave the BPO’s?

When there are so many benefits associated with BPO industry….when there are so many privileges for the BPO employees than what makes them to change the company/industry?? Is it only MONEY that matters or anything else as well?? Here are some of the reasons for a BPO professional to change his/her job.

No growth opportunity/lack of promotion
For higher Salary
For Higher education
Misguidance by the company
Policies and procedures are not conducive
No personal life
Physical strains
Uneasy relationship with peers or managers
What they have to say?

With so much of uncertainty in the market…..people are trying their best to stop or to at least have a control on the attrition rate…let me share with you the opinion of the real gurus of the industry.

“Training is a very important aspect of the ITES-BPO industry”- Mr. Arjun Vaznaik, COO, Tracmail

” Career growth in the industry is robust and there is a long-term opportunity. The great growth momentum that the industry is witnessing is creating both vertical and lateral career opportunities. There also exists enough growth opportunities in the middle-management and supervisory level within the industry”. - Aadesh Goyal, Executive Vice President & GM, Hughes BPO Services

“It will not be possible for the industry to arrive at a blanket agreement on poaching but bilateral agreements between companies are being signed. Basic norms are being put in place and code of ethics is being stressed upon by industry players within the sector with respect to HR practices. We are encouraging companies to adopt responsible behavior in order to ensure that the industry does not become a victim of its own actions. Industry needs to go aggressive but not cannibalistic.” - Mr. Suren Singh Rasaily, Senior Vice President, NIIT Ltd. and Head Plantworkz,

Conclusion:

This is a descriptive report on BPO industry. I have tried to cover almost everything related to the industry. I like to have your opinion about the same. Even at the end of this comprehensive report, my concerns are related to development of employees in BPO, controlling attrition rate in BPO, can we have some standard industrial compensation package/ break-ups?

About Author:
Sanjeev Himachali

E-mail: ss_himachali@yahoo.com; sanjeev.himachali@gmail.com

Blog: http://sanjeevhimachali.blogspot.com/

You can read my ITES-BPO related articles at http://www.bpoindia.org/research/ or http://www.contactcenterworld.com/articles.asp

Sanjeev (Himachali) Sharma, is a 29 yrs of age from India, having six years of experience in “Human Resource Development”. By qualification, he is Bachelor of Science and Masters in Business Administration. He is also a Motivational and Inspirational writer and speaker.

Many people making the shift to a vegetarian or vegan diet may be reluctant to try meat or dairy alternatives. Others simply do not realize the variety of products available to replace meat and dairy and still enjoy favorite foods like burgers, shakes, and cheese.

Meat alternatives are usually made from soy protein and other ingredients. These foods are not only of interest to vegetarians but are also of benefit to people who want to take advantage of the significant health benefits of soy. Soy protein products can be made to taste like meat. There are soy protein products that are naturally flavored to taste like beef, pork, chicken, and even fish. There are “veggie” burgers, hot dogs, and deli meats as well. These products vary in terms of how much they taste like the meat-based foods they are named after. Some taste remarkably like meat while others do not. In many cases, people like the new versions better, even if they do not taste like meat. There are also products, like Revival soy bars and shakes, which use a natural process to pack concentrated amounts of isoflavones (the compounds in soy that are credited with health benefits) found in into a single serving.

Of course, the most popular meat alternative is tofu. Tofu, which resembles soft cheese, is made when soymilk is curdled with a coagulant. By itself, tofu is rather bland, but it has an amazing ability to soak up flavors. It is used as an ingredient in many flavorful recipes, such as scrambled tofu, tofu casserole, tofu stir-fry, and tofu taco filling.

Meat alternatives are available frozen, canned, and dried. There are also fresh products, like tofu hot dogs and veggie burgers that can be cooked just like the meat-based varieties of these foods. Natural food stores and food coops have the widest selection of meat alternatives, but they are also increasingly available in mainstream grocery stores.
Soy can also be made into dairy alternatives, such as soymilk, soy cheese, and soy-based puddings and frozen desserts. There are also soy products made to resemble butter, cream cheese, and yogurt.

Soy products are an excellent source of protein, iron, and B vitamins. Some soy products are fortified with other nutrients as well. You may want to get more soy in your diet because of its nutritional benefits whether you are a vegetarian or not. There are many other soy products in addition to the wide variety of meat and dairy alternatives made from soy. These include soy oil, soy protein concentrate, textured soy protein, soy sauce, soy flour, and many other products that are used as cooking ingredients. You can also snack on soy nuts or crackers and soy butter. The possibilities are endless.

There are hundreds of delicious recipes, like the taco recipe below, that use tofu or soy as the main ingredient. Many other soy and vegetarian recipes can be found in the e-book Vegetarian Cooking, available at www.d-vegetarian.com.

Easy Tacos

1 (12-14 oz.) bag frozen or refrigerated precooked soy crumbles*

1 (1.25 oz.) envelope taco seasoning mix

3/4 cup water

flour tortillas or taco shells

Cook the soy crumbles until brown, then drain. Stir in taco seasoning and water and mix well. Continue heating until thoroughly hot. Serve cup filling in each tortilla or taco shell.

Yields 12 servings

Per cup serving: 46 calories, 6.5 g protein (4 g soy protein), 6 g carbohydrate, 0 g total fat (0 g sat fat), 290 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 1.5 g dietary fiber

*Morningstar Ground Meatless, Green Giant Harvest Burgers for Recipes and Lightlife Gimme Lean are a few of the soy crumble choices.

Jen Scott is author of the successful new site http://www.d-vegetarian.com, dedicated to educating people about the benefits of having a more vegetarian like lifestyle.

For these individuals, contact with nickel can result in dermatological problems that range from a mild skin rash to severe open sores and permanent scaring. In Europe, there are laws governing the use of nickel in jewelry. The European law is known as “The Nickel Directive” and states that no nickel can be used in a material that sits in an open wound, such as after piercing, until healing is complete.

What is a jewelry buyer to do when faced with this information? First of all relax, most people do not have severe reactions to nickel. And jewelers are starting to use alloys that contain less nickel to develop white gold jewelry.

Some nickel-free white gold alloys were originally developed in the 1920s using palladium as the primary bleaching agent. Palladium is part of the platinum group of metals. It is a steel-white metal, does not tarnish in air, and is the least dense and lowest melting of the platinum group metals. Palladium has very good corrosion and tarnish resistance, and it mixes well with gold, offering almost complete homogenization throughout the range of gold-palladium compositions. All these factors make it a good choice for white gold jewelry manufacturing. It also yields alloys with excellent mechanical properties superior in many respects to the nickel-whites which can be difficult to work with and contain pockets of gold and nickel because the two metals don’t like to be mixed. Jewelry made from a palladium/gold alloy will not result in allergic reactions.

You might be asking: “If palladium is so much better than nickel to make white gold, why don’t all jewelers use it?” The answer is cost. Palladium is a bit more expensive to use. The cost of an ounce of palladium is around $300 currently and consumers don’t like paying higher prices for what appears to be the same jewelry product. However, once people know the facts about nickel white gold and the allergic risks it presents many are willing to pay a little more.

Another white metal on the horizon is 950 Palladium. Some jewelry manufacturers are making product from new palladium alloys that can be cast into jewelry. This is a wonderful metal because it is a bright white color, very similar to platinum, but has a much lower price. It is still relatively new so jewelers are still learning how to work best with this metal. Keep your eyes open though, because you will soon be seeing more of this product, especially with the cost of platinum currently above $1,000 an ounce.

Jill Renee, president of Danforth Diamond, a jewelry store offering platinum, white gold and yellow gold jewelry. The Danforth family created the site to help you find the best value in quality jewelry. http://www.danforthdiamond.com/jewelry/index.php

If there was a single thing that business tends to fall victim of, is it how cash flow is managed and controlled within a business. In fact It is believed that most businesses that stopped trading could have survived with their current level of trade had their cash flow been in better shape. Here are some common issues.

Seasonality.

Most business will have busy times and quiet times throughout their year based on the type of business they are in.

However time and time again, I see sales forecasts that are exactly the same month after month which are based on the Company’s base outgoings rather than customer buying trends. In my experience the two don’t always match.

It is also important that you know when the money is going to come into your business and when it isn’t so you can plan for the lean times. It is equally if not more important to do the same with your outgoings. You will pay some bills monthly, but some larger ones are likely to hit you once or twice a year at specific times such as PAYE, taxes accountant fees, insurances etc.

Lean trading periods coinciding with expensive unplanned outgoings are a regular reason for businesses failing. Yet with a little bit of planning and reviewing previous years figures, the peaks and troughs can be levelled off. Write down in your diary or a specific planner when you expect the large bills and review your sales targets to suit actual buying patterns. Put all this information in plain view, so you are constantly reminded. Then if you need to, hold some money back for those leaner times. Easy but effective!

Slow Payment Of Invoices.

Another fact of business in the UK is the slow payment of invoices. Many businesses have failed owing money, but in reality had sufficient money owed to them to stay afloat. Getting paid is very frustrating and is a major factor of business life but there are some things you can do.
Start by creating a culture in your business that states 30 days credit means 30 days, not 31 or a week later and stick to that culture for everyone. It is often those you have a close relationship with or have dealt with for years that can be the slowest payers.

Ensure they know the rules apply to them too. Businesses often choose which bills to pay each month based on how much hassle they get. Make your invoices the ones they want to pay. Consider offering a discount for quick payment, such as a percentage for payment within 7 days. You could charge interest for late payment, but this tends to annoy your customers rather than encouraging them to make a quick payment.

Finally factor in late payment into your cash flow planning so that no one payment takes your Business to where it doesn’t want to go. These small culture changes and disciplines can and will make a difference to the smooth running of a major organisation to a one-man enterprise.

Experience tells me that too many business, non-profit
and association managers pursue their goals and objectives
largely without the insights, behavioral strategies and
sheer power public relations can bring to the table.

Here’s what I believe they’re missing, i.e., the essentials
that flow from the fundamental premise of public relations,
namely: people act on their own perception of the facts
before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about
which something can be done. So, when we create, change
or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and
moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors
affect the organization, the public relations mission is
accomplished.

If you are that manager, please recognize that any
organization including your own -MUST take into
account the perceptions held by those external audiences
whose behaviors affect your organization, or the
behaviors flowing from those perceptions can hurt.

My first question for you is, is it just a matter of “hits?”
You know, articles or interviews sold to editors? Is that
all there is to public relations?

Or, could there be more to it? Of course there’s more to it!

Why do you want the “hits” in the first place? What are you
trying to accomplish?

I believe you want the same thing every other buyer of public
relations services wants: to change somebody’s behavior in a
way that really helps your organization reach its objectives.

So, wouldn’t it make more sense to start at the beginning
and save tactics like “publicity hits” for that moment when
you need those “beasts of burden” to do their thing? Namely,
to efficiently carry persuasive messages to a key target
audience of yours?

Sure it would.

So let’s start by taking a close look at those external target
publics. They’re so important because how they think and
behave can actually determine the success or failure of your
operation

Don’t believe it? Look at those audiences whose behaviors
directly affect your organization’s operations, even
those possibly unaware that your organization even exists.
Are they likely to want its services or products?

No.

Look at an external audience where members harbor a serious misconception about the organization. Does this reduce their
desire to work with you?

Yes.

Look at an external audience some of whose members believe
a grossly negative and inaccurate set of facts about the
organization. Will those people be first in line to work with you?

No.

Obviously, what members of a key target audience believes
about your organization matters, and matters a lot!

Why not begin by heading-off such a situation by listing those
outside groups - those target audiences - in order of how much
their behaviors affect your organization?

Start by interacting with those people. Of course, if the
budget will stand it, you could use a survey firm to gather their
feelings, thoughts and perceptions.

Minus such a budget, however, do it yourself. Fortunately,
your public relations colleagues are already in the opinion
monitoring business and can carefully gauge how these
people feel about your organization. When you interact this
way, you get to ask a lot of questions and gather a lot of
information you really need.

What are you hearing? Misconceptions that need straightening
out? Rumors that should not be allowed to exist? Inaccurate
beliefs about your products and services that could drive
people away from you? Do you notice still other perceptions
about you and your organization that need to be altered?

The answers to such questions allow you to create your public
relations goal which will alter, and thus correct, each
misconception, or inaccuracy, or rumor.

You’ve made some real progress by monitoring perceptions
within your key target audience, and you’ve established your
corrective public relations goal.

Now for the strategy that tells you how to reach that goal.
HOW to move forward with your new PR effort is always
challenging, especially when it comes to selecting the right
strategy to tell you how to get where you want to go. There
are just three strategic options available to you when it
comes to handling a perception and opinion challenge.
Change existing perception, create perception where there
may be none, or reinforce it. Since the wrong strategy pick
will taste like too much pepper in your chicken soup, assure
yourself that the new strategy fits comfortably with your
new public relations goal. You don’t want to select
“change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

It’s time to do some more work in the form of “what you
are going to say to your key external audience.” If all goes
well, it will alter people’s inaccurate perceptions about
you and the organization.

However, it must be persuasively written so that it is
perceived as creditable and believable. And it must speak
the truth clearly and with authority.

Your “beasts of burden” show up at this point. In two words,
communications tactics that will carry your newly-minted
message from your computer direct to the attention of those
key target audience members whose behavior you hope to
alter in your direction.

It is your good fortune that there are scores of such tactics
awaiting your call to arms. You might use a speech to
communicate your message, or letters-to-the-editor, press
releases, emails, brochures or face-to-face meetings, and
many other tactics.

To find out if you’re making any progress towards your
behavioral goal, you will need to REmonitor target audience
members as well as local print and broadcast media.

But now, you’ll be looking for perception and attitude
changes hopefully produced by the combination of your
persuasive messages and carefully targeted communications
tactics. And you’ll be asking lots of questions all over again.

Should you be fortunate enough to note considerable
movement in opinion in your direction, you may consider
your public relations goal as having been achieved.

On the other hand, if little movement is noted, adjustments to
the frequency, quantity and tactics mix should be made. Your
message also should be reviewed for its content and direction,
and tested again for effect with a panel of target group members.

Either way, your public relations program is on track and
preparing to deliver the key target audience behaviors your
operation needs to succeed.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your
ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would
be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR,
Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR,
Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi-
cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press
secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree
from Columbia University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com

COCONUT OIL FOUND BENEFICIAL FOR LACTATING MOTHERS…

The unique composition of human breast milk fat includes the fatty acids, lauric acid and capric acid, which have potent antimicrobial properties. These fatty acids offer the nursing infant protection from viruses such as herpes and HIV, protozoa such as giardia lamblia, and bacteria such as chlamydia and heliocobater.

A study published in 1998 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shown that lactating mothers who eat coconut oil and other coconut products, have significantly increased levels of lauric acid and capric acid in their breast milk. Thus, the milk supply has increased amounts of the protective antimicrobials , which will give even greater protection to the nursing infant.

Pregnant females store fat to assure successful lactation. Any lauric acid and capric acid in the diet becomes part of the adipose stores. The milk fat of a lactating mother is made up of these stores as well as her current diet. If her diet doesn’t contain lauric acid, then generally her milk fat will contain around 3% lauric acid and round 1% capric acid.

When a lactating woman adds foods rich in lauric acid to her diet, the amount of lauric acid available in her breastmilk increases substantially to levels three times the original level and nearly double the amount of capric acid. In countries where coconut oil is a diet staple, levels of lauric acid in the mother’s milk can be as high as 21% and capric acid can be as high as 6% giving her infant even more protection against viruses, bacteria, and protozoa.

Coconut oil can be used instead of butter in cooking and baking. You can stir it into oatmeal or even use it as a spread. Also, this oil’s antimicrobial properties are beneficial for the skin. Pregnant women in many cultures the world over rub cocnut oil on their expanding bellies to keep skin soft and prevent itching.

REFERENCES

Fife, Bruce. The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil

Francois CA, Connor SL, Wander RC, Connor WE. Acute effects of dietary fatty acids on the fatty acids of human milk. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1998;67:301-308.

Bach, A.C., et. al. 1989. Clinical and experimental effects of medium chain triglyceride based fat emulsions-a review. Clin. Nutr. 8:223

About The Author

Cori Young is an herbalist living in the Pacific Northwest.

For more information on healing with herbs, visit her website, Herbal Remedies Info (http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com); cori@herbalremediesinfo.com

Having personally experienced the pleasure of owning rental properties in a college (university) town, there is a wealth of reasons to locate one’s properties in a community that houses a center of higher education. Listed below are just three of the myriad reasons a rental property owner should add college-town rental properties to their portfolio.

1.) Rentals Already Leased -Rentals already leased? What this refers to is the fact that most rental properties that one purchases in a college community are already populated with tenants. This means that the initial cost of getting the property rented or having it set vacant (for a month or two) is NOTHING! The only catch for the new property owner is to make sure that the tenant is a good one; that’s easy enough.

2.) Money in the Air - College and University towns are full of money; government money. Most tenants that are students have plenty of student-loan money and almost always pay their rent on time. As an added bonus, one can locate their rentals near a private university, thus tapping into the government’s money as well as wealthy parents that prefer to send their students to the best educational institutes.

3.) Ample Supply of Tenants - There are often plenty of tenants to go around. Although many colleges house their students on campus, they never come close to housing all of them. Juniors, seniors, and graduate students often represent most of the rental market in these areas (which is good, because they are, in most cases, more mature and responsible).

College towns are great towns for rental properties, but a few precautions should be taken before jumping in. First, investigate the town to make sure that there are enough tenants to go around and that the school is growing; not shrinking. Secondly, colleges and universities that have excellent graduate programs are more preferable, because they get older students that almost always live OFF campus. After satisfying the above two precautions, one is ready to enter the lucrative niche that this article’s title describes.

Many article marketers complain that they don’t have enough TIME in a day to devote to building their web based business with articles. Follow along for some instant article motivation that will change the way you think about writing articles for the web.

A few days ago, some of my network members who took the Article Marketing Survey expressed TIME, specifically not having enough of it in a day, as a hindrance to their article output.

I am well-familiar with this issue, and let me say this:

We always have time for the things we want to do.
If you’re the type who jumps out of bed, hits the shower and puts on a fresh outfit before starting your work day, but I on the other hand loaf around in sweats until 2 pm (this is hypothetical- of course I dress to kill every morning) - does this mean that YOU have the time for a morning dressing routine but I don’t?

No. It means you’ve made putting your freshly showered self into some clean clothes a morning priority, while I have not.

Likewise: If I’ve made article writing a part of my daily ritual, but you haven’t… does that mean I have more time to write articles than you?

No. It means I’ve made articles a priority, while you still have not.

So, the trick, first and foremost, is to set the “article marketing” as a PRIORITY rather than a distant goal that you’re forever procrastinating.

How do you treat the major priorities in your life? You know they must get done, so you fit them in… right?

You don’t *not send your kids off to school each morning* because that isn’t on your priority list. You know that no matter what your day holds or how busy you are, “taking the kids to school” must get done. So you get it done.

Likewise, you can *squeeze in* your article production when you know “it must get done”. How? Write your articles on the fly.

Question: “How do you ’schedule’ your article marketing?”

Answer: You simply *look for the article* in every piece of content you create.

What’s content? Emails you’ve sent colleagues. Your network posts. Your blog entries. That conversation you had with yourself in the shower. That talk you wanted to have with someone who wasn’t there when you called them up.

I typed out a helpful tutorial the other day for a friend who’s updating her website. When I was done, I asked myself, “Where’s the article?”

It was right there, in the tutorial.

So I grabbed it, virtual-sprinted over to EzineArticles.com and pasted it into the submission box. Checked it over to make sure there were no personal references to my friend in there, edited out a few spots that sounded too casual, double checked to ensure “that article tone” was in place, popped in the author bio and hit SUBMIT.

How long did that take, ten extra minutes of my work day?

You can do the same - just slip the article right in.

Every time you create content, ask yourself, “Where’s the article?”

It’s right there!

Want to know what else could be preventing you from submitting more articles?

Your article expectations may be too high.

The Two Most Important Reasons an Internet Marketer Must Write Articles:

1. To generate word matches on the search engines
2. To connect mentally with real live humans who want to view you as a credible source.

(Oh, by the way? If you sell on the internet, you’re an internet marketer. Start thinking of yourself as one. There are many more of us out here!)

The search engines are hungry, so you must keep throwing them little article snacks. These types of articles are just filler, if you will. It helps to stop thinking of them as articles but more like FREE ADS, or mini bites of content. Your mini bite articles should contain lots of buzz words that are part of your target market - because… why? THEY ARE YOUR MARKETING.

There will be times, of course, when you really feel something powerful coming on and that means a more in-depth article. One that maybe you’d like to see picked up on a prestigious website, or you’d feature as the cover story in your ezine. These articles are not the quick-article-in-a-day variety, unless of course you’re the Bionic Article Marketer.

One of my better articles, that definitely took some time to write and many edits, was this one:

11 Reasons Not to Hire a Freelance Copywriter (And Why They’re All Poor Excuses!

Of course I would never expect that an article like this one would fly out of you spontaneously on a daily basis. Rather, in the same way that your brain saves up all those little thoughts over time and then suddenly produces an article masterpiece, you want to save the bigger, better articles for the times when you’d really like to impress someone. Perhaps a future client, business partner, editor of a magazine that you’d like to write for, or some other such individual.

So, to wrap up this article tutorial:

If you want to get in the habit of cranking out articles, wake up tomorrow with a head full of fresh ideas, and set your mind to the task of writing whatever content you plan on creating.

When you’re done, step back and look at your work again

Where’s the article?

THERE IT IS! Go post it. Then move on to your next task.

See how easy that was?

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

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