BiggerPockets

Fixed Rate Loan

Thursday, October 29

Ken Garratt is Marketing & Sales Manager and he writes for www.fundingapproval.com

I need Hard Money now!

Saturday, October 24

Ken Garratt is Marketing & Sales Manager and he writes for www.fundingapproval.com

Google then decide

Friday, October 09

Hiring for Todays Economy

Thursday, October 08

How do you hire a new staff member? We have a process that has been successful that I wanted to share with everyone. Hiring today has become more challenging with the high rate of unemployment. Due to the high unemployment you will get dozens of applicants and in some cases over 100 applications per job posting. So, how do you go through all the resumes to find the best candidate? When we are ready to hire a new employee we put together an ad for Craigslist.com We chose Craigslist first because it is a free advertisement. We start with a brief yet informative job description listing the title, description, duties, requirements, education, and benefits. We describe several requirements for replying to our ad. First they need to attach a cover letter and resume and copy and paste it into the body of the email. It is amazing to me how many people do not follow this simple request. I need this because some of the attachments will not open for me. This also tells me can they follow directions. This will eliminate 10 – 30 % of the applicants. Do not list the name of your company or any contact information. Use the auto reply provided by Craigslist. If you choose to list company info you will get more calls than you may want at this time.

After reviewing the responses send out a reply email (we reply with an email account that is not connected with our business) with about 15 specific job interview questions we ask that the applicant answers all the questions with a colored font such as green or red. Always put a deadline reply by Friday October 9 by noon. At this time we let them know that we will look through the responses and will call to set a phone interview with the chosen applicants by Tuesday October 13th. This way the applicant will know by Tuesday if they are still a contender without you having to call them back.

Once we select the applicants that we liked we call to schedule a phone interview. In today’s economy most employees will need to have excellent phone skills. If your opening requires phone use we will call the applicant if they answer we will schedule a return call date and time or leave them a message to call back with preselected available days and times. Why do we do this? We want them to call us back we will not answer the call this will prompt the applicant to leave a message for me to return the call. This tells us if they are comfortable leaving a phone message and how do they sound? Do they sound enthused and excited or do they mumble and you cannot understand what they said? It’s amazing how many people do not know how to leave a message for someone. If they sound great call them back and conduct a phone interview. At this time we give them a link to our website and ask them to review it prior to our phone interview.

A key tip: always GOOGLE the applicant’s name. You can learn a lot about someone on the web.

If the phone interview goes great then we schedule an in person interview. Remember to ask them questions about your website this will tell you if they looked into your company. If they did not review your company they probably are not interested in your business. Depending on the position we may have up to three personal interviews before making an offer. We have found that we learn who can follow directions and most importantly will they be on time. With each step we lose 10 -22% of the applicants. Again this says a lot about the applicant.

By the time we have our first in person interview we have narrowed the applicants down to the top 10% professional applicants that would be a great team player.

Ken Garratt writes for FundingApproval.com when Banks say, "NO" give us a call.

Public Relations Marketing

Monday, September 28

Excerpt from On Target: The Book on Marketing Plans by Tim Berry and Doug Wilson

Public Relations involves a variety of programs designed to maintain or enhance a company's image and the products and services it offers. Successful implementation of an effective public relations strategy can be a critical component to a marketing plan.

A public relations (PR) strategy may play a key role in an organization's promotional strategy. A planned approach to leveraging public relations opportunities can be just as important as advertising and sales promotions. Public relations is one of the most effective methods to communicate and relate to the market. It is powerful and, once things are in motion, it is the most cost effective of all promotional activities. In some cases, it is free.

The success of well executed PR plans can be seen through several organizations that have made it a central focus of their promotional strategy. Paul Newman's Salad Dressing, The Body Shop, and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream have positioned their organizations through effective PR strategies. Intel, Sprint and Microsoft have leveraged public relations to introduce and promote new products and services.

Similar to the foundational goals of marketing, effective public relations seeks to communicate information to:

• Launch new products and services.
• Reposition a product or service.
• Create or increase interest in a product, service, or brand.
• Influence specific target groups.
• Defend products or services that have suffered from negative press or perception.
• Enhance the firm's overall image.
• The result of an effective public relations strategy is to generate additional revenue through greater awareness and information for the products and services an organization offers.

Goals and Objectives

Good strategy begins with identifying your goals and stating your objectives. What are the goals and objectives behind your public relations strategy and can they be measured and quantified?

Each of these areas may reflect the goals your public relations campaign may seek to accomplish.

Press relations
Communicating news and information of interest about organizations in the most positive light.

Product and service promotion
Sponsoring various efforts to publicize specific products or services.

Firm communications
Promoting a better and more attractive understanding of the organization with internal and external communications.

Lobbying
Communicating with key individuals to positively influence legislation and regulation.

Internal feedback
Advising decision makers within the organization regarding the public's perception and advising actions to be taken to change negative opinions.

Ken markets for FundingApproval.com for more information on biz plans visit
http://www.fundingapproval.com/businessplans

The Essential contents of a business plan

Friday, September 25

Excerpt from On Target: The Book on Marketing Plans by Tim Berry and Doug Wilson

Every marketing plan has to fit the needs and situation. Even so, there are standard components you just can't do without. A marketing plan should always have a situation analysis, marketing strategy, sales forecast, and expense budget.

• Situation Analysis: Normally this will include a market analysis, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and a competitive analysis. The market analysis will include market forecast, segmentation, customer information, and market needs analysis.

   

• Marketing Strategy: This should include at least a mission statement, objectives, and focused strategy including market segment focus and product positioning.

   

• Sales Forecast: This would include enough detail to track sales month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales by product, by region or market segment, by channels, by manager responsibilities, and other elements. The forecast alone is a bare minimum.

   

• Expense Budget: This ought to include enough detail to track expenses month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales tactics, programs, management responsibilities, promotion, and other elements. The expense budget is a bare minimum.

   

Are They Enough?
These minimum requirements above are not the ideal, just the minimum. In most cases you'll begin a marketing plan with an Executive Summary, and you'll also follow those essentials just described with a review of organizational impact, risks and contingencies, and pending issues.

Include a Specific Action Plan
You should also remember that planning is about the results, not the plan itself. A marketing plan must be measured by the results it produces. The implementation of your plan is much more important than its brilliant ideas or massive market research. You can influence implementation by building a plan full of specific, measurable and concrete plans that can be tracked and followed up. Plan-vs.-actual analysis is critical to the eventual results, and you should build it into your plan.

Ken markets for FundingApproval.com for more information on biz plans visit
http://www.fundingapproval.com/businessplans