A few years ago I left the forces after serving a full 22 years. I joined the Army straight after leaving school; it still seems like yesterday when I walked into the careers office in Barnsley as a spotty eek. After numerous test, medicals and a 2 day assessment I was told I was going to be a vehicle mechanic ‘B’ in the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), a right mouthful when I was full of beer and attempting to chat up a young filly. Funnily enough when I enrolled in the REME I was not told I would be spending the first year after basic training in a technical school, if I had known this prior I would defiantly have tried something else.

During my career I became knowledgeable in a host of subjects, some unmentionable, the ones that are printable include; vehicle engineering, health and safety, human resources, general management. During my career I worked in some fantastically well organised, well managed places and unfortunately some not so good places. This leads me to the question; can a business really learn from the military?

Since leaving the forces I have been involved in a few business ventures, generally poor unsuccessful ones. Looking back I honestly believe if the management of these businesses employed a more military type attitude they would have not failed so easily. So what do I mean by a military type attitude? I certainly do not mean acting like the cast of Bad Lads Army.

This is what I mean:

In normal business life the main motivator is money or the fear of the boot. This is probably why so many people nowadays change job so frequently. These should not be the only motivation tools a company employ. The Army uses the best motivation tool there is ‘Time Off’. Of course having your workforce at home most of the time is counter productive.

In the early 90’s I managed a small vehicle workshop in Berlin. I had one military worker and one civilian. During the quiet periods I would call for the dice to be brought out, sometimes as early as 8am. The dice were thrown by all of us, the lowest combined score from 2 throws meant that person had to man the telephone all day, whilst the winners disappeared either home or to the local golf course. This management tactic as well as others ensured I had a happy workforce, production statistics don’t lie they showed an overall output increase. Other methods in different places included production meetings in the local pub, rewarding my hardest worker by giving him 5 days off; this certainly spurred the rest of the lads on and a host of other methods.

Of course there were times when I worked with unmotivated, self opinionated, lazy soldiers, on these occasions I adopted a sterner approach.

I then look at the majority of workers in everyday business life; I see they are generally unmotivated, unless they are self employed. I wonder if this is because they are not well managed. My guess would be they are not managed at all. My cousin works in a very busy establishment as soon as his boss leaves the office, everyone logs on to EBay. How counter productive is that?

To conclude in my opinion many lessons can be learned from the British military in how to manage and run organisations. I should send my article to the BBC maybe they will run a programme on it, now that would be funny.

About the author - Peter Arkwright recently retired from the military, he is now the Managing Director of www.bizseller4u.com
A new portal that allows people to list their Business for Sale

This article is free for republishing
 

For a successful business, it is very necessary to advertise various products and services that are provided so that the customers can have a look at these products and then choose according to their tastes and preferences. By advertising, the business unit gains popularity and the overall growth is dependant on it as it contributes in increasing the level of profit.

Nowadays, advertising for real estate is also on the forefront as if you have a property to give it on rent but you are not finding an appropriate way to find a genuine buyer, you can advertise about your real estate and can find a large number of buyers that would be interested in taking your property at rent and paying you a handsome rental. Moreover, renting needs a lot of courage as it might be possible that the tenant might not pay the rent on time or keep your property with care.

Therefore, advertising your rental property is the best option to go with. These advertisements are easily accessible by various people and this helps in the marketing of property rentals. You can also take the services of a rental agency that will help you in getting a good tenant for your real estate. These rental agencies are gaining wide popularity because they attract a lot of people by their special renting schemes.

The best way to advertise your property for rent is to put your property�s specifications and details on your Local Flyer 20 or more zones and on national rental website as this will contribute in attracting a large number of buyers across the country and the rental for your property will have a larger market and thereby helping tremendously in increasing the value and interest of your property,

You can also go with the option of advertising or putting up a notice on your community�s board that will highlight your proposal of renting property at exclusive prices. One can also go with the option of increasing the visibility of the rental property notice at schools, colleges and offices.

In addition, when you will find a potential tenant, don�t make hasty decisions and check the important details about the renter as if there will be a bad tenant, you will have to face severe problems.

Also, it is necessary to make the tenant acquainted with rules and regulations beforehand and a rental agreement should be duly signed. Last but not the least, while advertising; make sure that you don�t miss to mention that you need potential and trustworthy tenants for your property

Have you heard the expression: “You have to spend money to make money!”? Anyone who has ever owned a business knows that this saying is true. If you are going to create a work from home venture, you will confront this concept while you are developing your strategy for home business success. Advertising will be one of the major financial challenges that you will encounter.

Marketing is the most important investment that you will experience on the road to prosperity for your home based business. You will be devoting your time, your effort and your capital to creating a successful advertising campaign. There will be expenses because your potential customers will not find you unless you advertise. If your marketing budget is small you need to discover inexpensive methods for attracting people to your home business. Is there any way that you can advertise without getting a second mortgage on your home?

Yes! There are a variety of methods for introducing your home business to potential customers without having to spend a large amount of money. These ideas can be implemented at a small cost if you tackle them one at a time. Depending on your time and budget, pick the best one that will work for you and go with it. Be creative and see if you can come up with other ideas.

---> Business Cards
---> Bumper Stickers
---> T-Shirts
---> Free Newspaper Ads
---> Flyers
---> Word Of Mouth

1) Business Cards

Go down to your local office supply store and invest a few dollars in some blank business cards. Return home, fire up your computer, open Microsoft Paint and create your first advertising tool. Include your home business name, your website address and your contact information. Design a catchy logo for your card. Give them out to everyone you know. Encourage your friends and relatives to pass them out as well. Attach one to all of your correspondence. Be creative and consider other possibilities for circulating your business cards.

2) Bumper Stickers

Go down to your local print store and get an estimate for designing and printing bumper stickers. They are relatively inexpensive. If the cost is too high, create your own through Microsoft Paint or, if you can afford it, invest in a good software program for developing graphics and text. Include your work from home business name and website address. After you're done, find a printer who will produce your stickers at a cost you can afford (any friends or family who know someone?). When you have your bumper stickers in hand pass them out to everyone. Put the first one on your own car.

3) T-Shirts

Create a T-shirt that has your home business name and your website address. If you cannot afford to have it done, develop your own design, print it out on your computer, buy a T-shirt and iron it on. If you have the extra money, create a few for family and friends. Wear your T-shirt everywhere, particularly where you might find your target audience.

4) Free Newspaper Ads

Think about the free publications (Nickel Ads, IGA Shopper etc.) that you find at your local supermarkets, convenience stores or fast food restaurants. Get about three of these newspapers and take them home. Sit down and create an advertisement that describes your home business, gives your website address and mentions your contact information. Thumb through these periodicals and look for a section or heading about placing an ad and follow their directions.

5) Flyers

Turn on your computer and go into Microsoft Works (or your graphics and text software). Using their templates, create a flyer that has all the essential information about your work from home business. Print out as many as you need and start distributing them. Disperse them in your neighborhood, retail establishments, grocery stores, restaurants, local colleges or anywhere else that you can (legally) advertise your home based business.

6) Word Of Mouth

The most powerful (and least expensive) form of advertising is word of mouth. This idea can be better developed after you get the ball rolling for your home business but, it will be the best and cheapest way to market your work from home venture. Once your reputation is established for providing excellent customer service your buyers will spread the good news to friends and family. Provide first rate service to your clients and your free publicity will develop.

Making money online requires a commitment of time, effort and capital for your work from home venture to be successful. You will need to invest your money on advertising for your home business. If your budget is small, these ideas will help elevate your presence for a modest amount. Focus on one or two concepts that will fit into your time, expenses and comfort zone or develop other ideas. The success of your online home enterprise is directly related to the effort that you deliver and the patience that you exhibit. On a small budget, the results may take longer but they will come.

“Nothing can be done except little by little.”

Are you starting a business for the first time? If this is your first foray into business you are much better of finding a concept that already works and improving on it then trying to launch your latest idea.

Look at how the Japanese identified the opportunity in the automotive industry. They imitated and innovated on an existing proven demand and are now the market leaders.

They did not try and create a new market for an unproven idea. They came, copied and improved on an existing concept.

Many of the most successful business men in the world have used already established formulae for making money and just done it slightly better or added a new twist. Adding your own "flavour" and thereby creating your own unique business will still be fun.

Banks are much more likely to look favorably at a proven business model than to back a new and unproven idea. This is probably the reason why when you buy a franchise you can get funding of up to 70%.

Have a look at the successful businesses operating in your local area that are already making money and see how you could do it better. Perhaps by choosing a better location, you might attract many of their existing customers to your business.

Maybe you can offer a higher level of service and charge higher prices thereby attracting the high value customers.

It is much more difficult to launch a brand new concept and create a new market than to create a novel way of supplying existing demand and just improve on the basic delivery.

Once you have experience in running and managing a successful business then perhaps the time might be ripe to test your own ideas.

Does higher reward come with higher risk? Perhaps it is better to set your sights slightly lower and build a foundation that can serve as a platform for more risky ventures?