Month: March 2018

As we place the final coat of wax on my Home Improvement spec, I’ve jotted down a few quick tips that we like to use and think you could benefit from.

Do whatever you can to make your script stand out. We don’t mean in the quality of your writing. We mean the quality of your presentation. Everyone does the same thing. White title page with three holes and two brads. A reader takes a stack of scripts home. What’s he going to pick to read? Just some bland white page, three hole, two brad script? Or the Lisa Frank notebook that pops against the background of banal presentation? The blue paper cover? The script whose cover has an awesome pencil sketch illustrating the central theme of the story inside? Harry Potter was rescued from the garbage bin because the woman responsible for throwing it out liked the binder clip J.K. Rowling used. We think we all know how that went for her. Stand out. Get your work read.

Do make sure your words stand out. In keeping with the motif of standing out, we have a really clever way of making sure your words pop. Draw a picture. Including a picture can be a great way to get around the unfortunate limitations words can put on us. Let’s face it. Television and film are a visual medium. It worked for Tim Kring when he wrote the pilot for Heroes. (We are in no way suggesting including a picture in your script will make it as brilliantly subversive as Heroes, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.) Be visual. And, hey. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Think how many less pages that is you have to write.

Don’t get hung up on thinking your script is going to be made. Get hung up on thinking your script could be made. When James Cameron wrote Avatar, there was no way to make that movie. So, he stuck it in a drawer until the technology was available. Don’t let someone tell you that you can’t include a million man march in your Hot in Cleveland spec. (Or million woman march as the case may be.) Can we do it now? No. But, ten years from now, that show is going to be starting to run dry on stories. Technology will be incredibly advanced and for all you know a million man march is just what they’re looking for. Write what you want. They’ll figure out a way to make it someday.

So, those are just a few of the things we like to keep in mind when working on a script. Take them or leave them. That reminds me, though, we have one more tip for you.

Take them.

One of the main questions regarding success is this: Which is more essential, book smarts or street smarts? Usually, people grow up with the impression that success is all about completing your education, getting a degree, and seeking a job that ensures a lifetime career. Nevertheless, the past few years have witnessed an absolute craze for business education. Choosing the right business school is a very crucial decision. Remember that your future and your career will be dependent on your business school selection. Business school tuition could be very expensive and must be carefully considered prior to applying. With the constant rise in education costs, a majority of the business school students take help from private loan programs to help fund their education. However, in case of default in loan payments, one may have to look for a debt relief plan. Thus, it’s very essential to know the ways of handling your financial debt from business school.

The appropriate time to start handling your fiscal debt from business school is before you even submit your application form. Education in a business school may cost you over $150,000, and most of the individuals need to borrow a major portion of the cash, if not all of it. Since that’s a huge amount of money, you need to take every possible step for eliminating any other outstanding liabilities that you have, prior to entering your business school. Consider paying off any credit card debt that you’re presently carrying. Once you enter your business school as a debt-free person, you’ll be in a better situation to handle the looming burden of repaying your student loans.

Lead an economical lifestyle

Before you enter a business school, just accept the fact that you’ll be switching from a high-paying job to a more constrained way of life. In order to ease up the shock this conversion may cause for you, start trimming down your unnecessary expenses before you join your business school. Above everything, stop using your credit cards. Instead, whenever you need to get something to eat, or require buying some personal stuff, use cash or debit cards. Once you do so, it’ll help you pay off the debt you’re having, or perhaps even open a savings fund to support you right through your time in business school.

Look for help when you’re hesitant about your monetary decision

When it comes to fund your business school education, you need to take several important decisions. You’ll come across a range of lenders from which to choose, all providing you with different interest rates and repayment opportunities. Look for resources that can help you take the right decisions concerning the amount you need to borrow, who to borrow from, etc. If you opt for a lender with the best rate of interest, it can save you hundreds of dollars when the repayment time arrives.

You may also consider taking up a job in the non-profit sector. In doing so, the government may forgive a part or all of your debts. However, if you don’t, there are several employers who’ll help you in repaying your student loans, or even pay them off for you. While you’re seeking the best job that will help you in paying back your student loans, look for companies that will offer loan compensation as part of your employment package.

One of the highest paid fields you can go into with a business degree is financial advising or planning. Becoming a financial advisor requires you to have skills with people, money, and planning. Financial advisors are responsible for giving their clients advice about investment strategies, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, and retirement, as well as in many other situations that may arise.

Financial advising is a unique occupation because people who work as advisors often started out working in another career. Many gain life experience and financial knowledge before shifting their business career goals and starting to advise others. Just because some financial planners break into the profession based on their life skills alone doesn’t mean that you can’t study at one of the best business schools in order to start a career as a financial planner earlier in life. There are several steps you must take to work towards your goal of becoming a financial planner.

As with many other careers in business, you must first complete a degree program in order to obtain a bachelor’s degree. The business major you choose can vary because the certification you need to become a financial advisor is available to a wide variety of students. A degree in mathematics, accounting, economics, or finance would be the most beneficial though and will also look the best on your resume.

The next step you must take is to get some work experience. You can do an internship during your time at one of the best business colleges to increase your exposure to the field, but working in financial advising to gain experience is important too. Some of your possible job opportunities include working at a bank to expose you to many different clients or at a small company where you can be mentored one-on-one by a member of the financial team. You could also look into the training programs offered by many large corporations. They help you gain work experience while also helping you prepare for the licensing exams you must take.

Once you been working for long enough or have completed a preparatory program, you can get licensed as a financial advisor. Which type of licensing you choose to apply for depends on what kind of work you want to do. The following are some of the types of licenses you can obtain:

Certified Financial Planner: You must have a four-year college degree and three years of work experience before taking preparation courses for this type of license. You then must successfully complete and pass a ten-hour long exam over a period of two days.

Chartered Financial Analyst: You must also have a bachelor’s degree for this exam, as well as four years of work experience. You have to take three six-hour-long tests to get the certification.

Registered Investment Advisor: This certification is intended for anyone who gets paid to advise clients. Depending on the amount of money you’ll deal with, you’ll either have to register with the securities agency in the state in you live or with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a business owner, you already know that there are only 24 hours in the day, and in order to be sure you’re truly making the most out of your day, it is very important to pick and choose your activities that are going to best help you reach your goals.

It’s very easy to work hard all day, but if you’re working on the wrong things, you’re not going to get anywhere. Running around in a circle is exhausting.

Remember…

Doing the right things is: effectiveness

Doing things right is: efficiency

For example, you can efficiently send out 1,000 direct mail letters a month. However, this may not be the right thing to do to grow your business. It’s vital for you to know exactly which things are the most effective for growing your business.

Always strive for effectiveness first. Then, be sure you’re doing those activities, in the most efficient way.

Here are three things to keep in mind:

1. Think Marketing System, Rather Than Marketing Tactic

It is very easy to hear a few marketing tips and ideas, and then try to simulate them. However, your business can’t grow with a few tips alone.

It is not random ideas that you do every now and then that will grow your business. You need an effective and consistent system. An effective marketing system is comprised of a number of different components that must be worked on, tested, improved and fine-tuned.

2. Continuous Evaluation

Zig Ziglar, nationally renowned motivational speaker, once told a story that really hit home.

A child stood and watched her mother prepare the annual holiday ham. The mother carefully cut each end of the ham before placing it in the pan. The child asked, “Mother, why do you always cut the ends off the ham?” The mother replied, “Well, that’s the way my mother always did it.”

So, the child called her grandmother and asked, “Grandma, why do you always cut the ends off the ham?” The grandmother replied, “Because that’s the way my mother always did it.”

Finally, the child called her great-grandmother and asked, “Great-Grandma, why did you always cut the ends off the ham?”

The great-grandmother replied, “Because the ham was way too big to fit in my small baking pan!!”

So, what’s the moral of this story? Obviously, the mother and the grandmother were performing a system (cutting the ends off the ham), just because that’s the way they thought it had to be done. Whereas, the only reason the great-grandmother was doing it, was because the ham couldn’t fit in her pan!

Are you always running ads that generate no response? Stop. There’s a better way. Have you been attending many networking parties, but have yet to find a prospect for your business? Again, stop. Something needs to be adjusted in your networking system.

You get the idea. Continuously reevaluate your time and the results you’re getting from that time. If it is not bringing in what you expect, that system needs to be improved or eliminated.

3. Consumable Goods and Services

Take a good look at your business. Let’s say you do time management seminars. Once you do a seminar at a particular business, how often can you go back and do another? Or, if you organize homes, is that one organizing service the only item that customer can buy from you?

Many businesses have consumable goods and services all figured out. For instance, a fast food restaurant generally doesn’t make just one sale from any one customer. Just in the past month, my husband and I have eaten at Wendy’s about 4 times. In the last year, we’ve probably visited almost 50 times!

But there is a way to be sure you turn your business into a consumable goods business.

For example, if you do organizing services, could you also sell books and organizers? If you do time management seminars, can you also do space management seminars? The main idea is that you come up with a variety of solutions to sell to each customer, over and over again.