Action Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

Action Learn Your Affiliate Business

You want to develop your home-based business but feel isolated and unsure? One of the downsides of working for yourself is the loss of social interaction that frequently accompanies working for someone else.

Sometimes the issues involved in building your own business seem overwhelming – computer viruses, accounting, marketing strategies, web development, search engine optimization, privacy legislation, tax returns, anti-spam legislation, skeptical relatives and so the list goes on.

Action learning is one way to overcome this sense of isolation and uncertainty, build confidence and continuously improve your Internet business.

Action learning involves learning through action while collaborating with others on personal and business development. It is based on the principles of collaboration, mutual respect and honesty.

Learning to collaborate

Once we build our own business, we typically develop the competitive mindset that we need to survive. We research the competition, determine where our competitive advantage lies, decide what products and services we will offer at what prices and determine how to position ourselves within the competititve marketplace. It is very easy to isolate ourselves and withdraw from our normal circle of supportive relationships. However, it is possible to develop and maintain new relationships while building your business.

For example, I have three professional women friends who have been meeting monthly for a number of years over coffee by the river. They meet to explore with each other ways to develop themselves and grow their respective businesses.

At each meeting, they focus on a major issue for one person while the other two act as critical friends. Sometimes, they may take in turns within one meeting to offer personal or business issues for discussion. The number of issues covered in a meeting will depend on the available time and the depth of the issues involved. Issues may be personal, relationship, family or business. They recognise that life balance is critical to business success and to their capacity to offer value to their clients/customers.

Supportive challenge through mutual respect

The action learning approach combines support with challenge. The aim is to support each other emotionally while being prepared to challenge each other intellectually.

The challenge comes from asking fresh questions that are designed to unearth fundamental assumptions or beliefs about the nature of the problem being addressed. Often our own false beliefs about ourselves, our business or our competition holds us back from realising personal and business growth.

In our everday life we often experience the separation of support and challenge. Support without challenge can reinforce the status quo and perspectives that are unhelpful or damaging. Challenge without support can be self-serving (building oneself up while taking the other person down)and damaging to the self-esteem of the other person (by reinforcing feelings of inadequacy).

Supportive challenge has as its object, building the self-esteem of the other person while helping them to recognise the limitations of their existing mindset about a problem, person or issue. It is about helping the other person to be the best they are capable of being.

Learning to be honest

A fundamental value of action learning is the willingness to admit what you do not know or understand. This is often difficult in the social and business culture that we have today where knowledge and efficiency are so highly prized. However, honesty is the starting point for real learning.

Honesty requires trust and preparedness to be vulnerable. This is a lot easier if you are sharing with supportive friends. Openness builds if the group meets regularly and each person brings to the meeting the intention of working together to build personal and business effectiveness. Over time, honesty grows, relationships develop and effectiveness builds in all spheres of your lives.

Action learning as mutual coaching

Action learning can be a form of mutual coaching where people agree to take action on insights gained from the meetings. The value of the process is enhanced when each meeting includes a review of progress made since the previous meeting. Reflection on action and outcomes from those actions is fundamental to action learning.

If you engage in action learning you will be supported to go outside your comfort zone and try new things. You will be pleasantly surprised at what you are capable of achieving with the supportive challenge of reflective friends.

Write a Bankable Business Plan – Ten Action Steps

Action Step # 1

Define Your Company: What will you accomplish for others?

Write down all the specific needs your company will satisfy. Potential investors need to know that your business will be meaningful and marketable to people who can use your product or service. So concentrate on the external needs your company will meet. What will your product or service enable people to do better, more cheaply, more safely, or more efficiently? Will your restaurant make people’s palates delirious with new taste sensations? Will your new mouse trap help people capture mice without feeling sick to their stomachs? Will your new bubble gum scented bubble bath revolutionize the way children agree to take nightly baths?

Think of all the positive benefits your company will provide. Write them down. Admire them. Absorb them into your consciousness. Believe in them. These are the primary motivators that readers of your business plan will respect and value.

Action Step # 2

Identify Your Company’s Initial Needs: What will you require to get started?

Whether you want to buy an existing company with 300 employees or you can start your business by only adding an extra phone line to your home office desk, you need to make a list of the materials you’ll need. Some may be tangible, such as five hundred file folders and a large cabinet in which to store them all. Other requirements may be intangible, such as time to create a product design or to do market research on potential customers. You may need to hire an assistant to develop a retrievable filing system for the five hundred folders, or hire a consultant to set up a computer system that’s beyond your technical skills.

If you’re going to build a better mousetrap, you may have constructed a prototype out of used toothpaste tubes and bent paperclips at home, but you’ll need a sturdier, more attractive model to show potential investors. What exactly will your mousetrap look like? What materials will you need? Do you require money for research and development to improve on your original toothpaste tube and paper clip construction? Do you need to hire an engineer to draw up accurate manufacturing designs? Should you patent your invention? Will you need to investigate federal safety standards for mousetraps?

Next, do your homework. Call a real estate broker and look at actual retail spaces in the neighborhood where you’d like to open your restaurant. Make a chart of the most expensive and least expensive sites by location and square footage. Then estimate how much space you require and how much money you’ll need to allow for rent.

Make a list of all the tangible and intangible resources you need to get your business going. The total estimated price of all of these items will become your start-up cost whether you’re buying highly sophisticated computers or simply installing a new telephone line on your desk. If there’s any item in your estimates that seems unreasonably high, research other alternatives. But keep in mind that it’s better to include every element you truly need along with a reasonable estimate of the cost of each item, so you don’t run out of money or default on your loans. Be honest and conservative in your estimates, but also be optimistic.

Action Step # 3

Choose A Winning Strategy: How will you distinguish your product or service from others?

Although there are millions of types of businesses, there are actually only a few basic strategies that can be applied to make any enterprise successful. The first step in selecting an effective strategy is to identify a competitive advantage for your product or service. How will you establish that your product or service is better, cheaper, more delicious, or more convenient? How can you make your company more noticeable than your competitors? What restraints in your business or its industry might determine which strategy you choose?

Your competitive advantage may include designing special features not found in rival products. It may entail superior service characteristics such as speedier delivery, a lower price, or more attentive sales people. Perhaps you’re establishing an image or brand of exceptional quality or reputation. Does your product or service bestow a certain status on its users? Does it create more profits or other benefits for your customers’ own endeavors?

Perhaps you want to position your mousetrap for a primarily upscale market because the best design requires titanium and manufacturing costs will be so expensive only rich people will be able to afford your product. But maybe the mousetrap is so fantastically effective that wealthy people will want hundreds of them around their vast country homes and polo pony barns.

You must have a reason why your business will succeed. This is the competitive advantage your product or service will deliver. Once you’ve established the competitive advantage, you will be able to select the best strategy to reach your goal.

Action Step # 4

Analyze Your Potential Markets: Who will want your product or service?

To determine your targeted market, write down the demographics of the people who will use your product or service. How old are they? What do they do for a living? Will mostly women use your service? Is your product or service attractive to a particular ethnic or economic group of people? Will only wealthy people be able to afford it? Does your ideal customer live in a certain type of neighborhood, such as a suburb with grass lawns, in order to use your lawn mower? Answering these questions about the demographics of your prime market will help you establish the clear characteristics of the people you need to reach.

If you’re selling soap, you may believe that every dirty body needs your product, but you can’t start with the entire world as your initial market. Even if you’ve developed such a ubiquitous item as soap, you need to identify a smaller, more targeted customer group first, such as children under eight for the bubble gum scented bubble bath. If your soap only works with pumped well water without fluoride, you must acknowledge that your intended market has geographical limits as well.

Establishing the size of your potential market is important, too. This will be easier once you’ve completed the demographic analysis. Then you’ll be able to research the numbers: How many car mechanics, house painters or bathroom contractors are there in any given community? How many children in the United States are currently under the age of eight? How much soap will they use in a month or a year? How many other soap manufacturers already have a share of the market? How big are your potential competitors? And where do you find the answers to all of these questions?

Identifying your market is one of the great satisfactions of starting your own business. You’re thinking about the actual people who will use your product or service and how pleased they will be buying it as you are selling it.

Action Step # 5

Develop a Strong Marketing Campaign: How will you reach your customers and what will you say?

Entrepreneurs, especially inventors, often believe that their business concept is so spectacular that promoting their product or service won’t be necessary. Sort of a “build it and they will come” attitude, especially if what you’re building is the proverbial better mousetrap. One of the most common flaws I see in plans is the entrepreneur’s failure to describe exactly how customers will be reached and how products will be presented to them. Potential investors, staff, and partners won’t be convinced that your idea can succeed until you’ve established well-researched and effective methods of contacting your customers – and the assurance that once you’ve reached them, you can convince them to buy your product or service.

Marketing describes the way you will position your product or service within your target market and how you will let your potential customers know about your company. Positioning your company means concentrating on the competitive advantages you have identified: will your product or service distinguish itself by its superior quality, its revolutionary features or its ability to make your customers happier than they’ve ever been in their lives? Marketing helps you focus on identifying your competitive advantage so you can position your product or service. It also establishes the best ways to reach your potential customers and what to say to them.

When you have the right marketing campaign in place, you have an operating plan to gain market share, generate revenue, and bring your financial projections into reality.

Action Step # 6

Build A Dynamic Sales Effort: How will you attract customers?

The word “sales” covers all the issues related to making contact with your actual customers once you’ve established how to reach them through your marketing campaign. How will you train your sales staff to approach potential customers? Will you divide up your sales staff so some become experts in selling your bubble gum scented bubble bath to small, independent retail toy stores? Will other salespeople concentrate on developing relationships with major manufacturers so your product could be sold in tandem through their national distribution outlets? Will you have a sales force expert in buying television slots on Saturday morning cartoon shows or placing ads on the backs of kid-oriented cereal boxes?

What advertising and promotional efforts will you employ – two for the price of one specials or free coupons inside those same kid-oriented cereal boxes? Where can you locate lists of the greatest concentrations of children under the age of eight or whatever group constitutes your market?

In planning your sales activities, you will also need to answer questions such as: Is it ethical to contact your colleagues and clients from your former job as a door-to-door soap salesperson to tell them about your new business. Will you be the only salesperson in the beginning stages of your company? When will you know it’s time to hire more sales staff? How do you convince your clients that your sales staff will take care of them as well as you did? What will your basic sales philosophy be – building long-term relationships with a few major clients or developing a clientele of many short-term customers?

You will also need to consider how you will compensate your sales staff – with a base salary plus a commission? Will you hire full time staff with full benefits, or part time staff without benefits. How will you motivate your staff to do the best sales job possible?

Knowledge of your competitive advantage is just as important in designing a dynamic sales effort as it is in developing an effective marketing campaign. You’ll need to think about what product or service qualities will be the most compelling to your prospective customers. Then you’ll have to devise convincing language that clearly communicates this competitive advantage to your sales staff who will in turn use it when talking to your customers. In my experience, the most important element of an effective sales effort is having a sales staff that thoroughly understands your business and the needs or your potential customers. Therefore, your sales plan must address the issue of how you will create a sales staff that is as knowledgeable about your business as it is about your potential customers.

Action Step # 7

Design Your Company: How will you hire and organize your workforce?

By the time you’ve reached this stage of thinking about your potential business concept, you’ll probably have a good idea of the number of people you’ll need and the skills they’ll require to get your enterprise up and running. Keep in mind that your initial plans will undoubtedly change as your business grows. You may need to hire more managers to supervise your expanding staff or to set up new departments to meet new customer demands. Projected growth and expansion for your company should be mentioned in your business plan, but it’s not the primary focus. For now you want to secure help in getting started and convince your funding sources that you will become profitable.

Investors will want to know if you’re capable of running the business. Do you need to bring in experienced managers right away? Will you keep some of the existing employees or hire all new people? And where do you find these potential employees?

Funding sources will also want to know if any of your partners expect to work along side of you or if their obligations are only financial.

Your plan will need to specify the key management jobs and roles. Positions such as president, vice presidents, chief financial officer, and managers of departments will need to be defined along with stating who reports to whom. You may hope to run your company as one big happy family – and it may work out that way – but organizations require formal structure and investors will expect to see these issues addressed in your plan.

And as soon as you have employees, you need to consider how you will handle their salaries and wages, their insurance and retirement benefits, as well as analyzing the extent of your knowledge of tax related issues. As you think about hiring personnel and organizing your workforce, you must also confront your desire and ability to be a good boss. If you haven’t contemplated this aspect of your commitment to owning your own business, now is the time to give it serious consideration.

Action Step # 8

Target Your Funding Sources: Where will you find your financing?

As your business concept begins to take shape, you can begin to home in on the most likely financing sources. Issues such as the size of your business, the industry it is in, whether you are starting a new business or buying an existing one, and whether you can provide collateral to a lender are among the issues that must be considered in creating a target list of funding sources. Banks and other funding sources don’t lend money because people with interesting business ideas are nice. They follow specific guidelines, such as the RMA database, which are designed to insure that they will make money by investing in or lending to your business.

For the vast majority of entrepreneurs, the well-known, high profile means of raising money, such as through venture capital companies or by going public, are not viable options. Your own credit, credit rating, and business history are key factors in obtaining financing for your venture through Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed loans and other bank credit. Your ability to tap into your personal network of friends, family, and professional contacts is crucial to raising money beyond what your own personal funds or credit can provide. In all of these cases, there are important considerations such as the potential impact on relationships when family and friends become investors.

When you have completed this process of identifying the likely potential funding sources and writing a bankable business plan that addresses their needs and answers their questions (even before they ask them!), you will have greatly increased the likelihood of obtaining the financing you need.

Action Step # 9

Explain Your Financial Data: How will you convince others to invest in your endeavor?

The accuracy of your financial figures and projections is absolutely critical in convincing investors, loan sources and partners that your business concept is worthy of support. The data must also be scrupulously honest and extremely clear. Since banks and many other funding sources will compare your projections to industry averages in the Risk Management Association (RMA) data, I’ve stressed throughout my book how you can use the RMA figures to test your projections before the bank does. Your numbers will be more credible if they compare reasonably to the industry averages.

The actual number crunching portion of your business plan is the place to discuss how and why you need certain equipment, time or talent, how much these items will cost, when you expect to turn a profit, and how much return and other benefits your investors will receive.

More new businesses fail because they simply run out of cash reserves than for any other reason. Investors lose confidence in the entrepreneur and the business and become reluctant to invest more when projections are not met. Had the projections been less optimistic and the investors asked to invest more in the beginning, they probably would have done so. In most cases, proper planning and more accurate projections could have avoided this problem completely.

Your business plan should clearly state the amount of funds you need, how soon you require them, and how long before you start repaying investors. You should also explain what type of financing you hope to acquire, either equity (such as through the sale of ownership shares in your company) or debt (such as loans to the company).

If you’re planning to buy an existing business or already own a business you would like to improve or expand, you will also need to provide a detailed historical financial summary of how well – or poorly – the business has done in the past. This analysis should also include a comparison of this venture’s financial performance compared to the industry standards.

Action Step # 10

Present Yourself in the Best Light: What are your qualifications for bringing your plan to fruition?

The talents, experience and enthusiasm you bring to your enterprise are unique. They provide some of the most compelling reasons for others to finance your concept. Keep in mind that investors invest in people more than ideas. Even if your potential business has many competitors or is not on the cutting edge of an industry, the qualifications and commitment you demonstrate in your plan can convince others to proffer their support.

Your resume will be included in the separate appendix of exhibits at the end of the plan, so this is not the place to list every job you’ve ever had or the fact that you were an art history major in college, especially if these experiences have no direct bearing on your ability to start your own business. But it is the place to emphasize qualifying skills that may not be readily apparent from your resume.

But don’t overlook the impact being some part of your background that might even seem unrelated to your new venture. For example, having been a pilot may demonstrate that you know how to supervise a crew of people working together to make a group experience if not comfortable, at least safe. You have undoubtedly handled dissatisfied or enraged customers. Even that BA degree in art history may enable you to make your products or store more appealing to the eye.

Your unique qualifications will separate you from all the other people who have sought venture capital for similar ideas. Boasting about these skills is not hubris; it indicates that you have a highly honed business savvy.

Astrology in Action – Pluto

Every newspaper and magazine worth its salt has an Astrology section for they know their readers will look at their STARS even if they don’t believe them…

Making Astrology work for you can bring love, money, happiness, satisfaction and pleasure, how can we make it work in our everyday life to bring us the things we desire? It’s a lot easier than you think for once you understand the basics the rest takes care of itself. The Sun moves into each sign once a month – changing the energy, focus and offering hope. The Moon zaps through all the signs in a month – changing your mood every 2ndor 3rdday, the rest of the planets move through the signs and houses at different speeds, some staying longer than others, with the planet Pluto taking the longest, currently in the sign of Capricorn. Pluto has always been associated with death and re-birth, transformation and conversion. I don’t know about you but going through any kind of ‘transformation’ is not as easy as it sounds – neither is any kind of ‘death and re-birth’ it’s all too painful…

Personally, I look upon Pluto as the God of Wealth, of hidden treasures and inner resources and the easiest way to use this ‘power’ is to understand the houses he visits for when he enter a sign or ‘touches’ one of your natal planets contained in that sign or house he brings change, he transforms, he converts. To give you an example I have Mercury at 5 degrees Capricorn (Transiting Pluto is ‘playing’ with my Mercury – too long a conversation to say what this means suffice to say ‘something’ is happening). The house Pluto visits has this to say to you:

Transiting Pluto into your 1st: when you look back at this time in your life, you’ll recognise it as a period of major transformation, perhaps the most important one in your life. It won’t happen all at once, slowly but surely your life is being altered, you may not realise the extent and importance of this time until you are much older and wiser but and here is the big but -this is a time of major transformation to your life. Try to recognise the need for change, and be willing to let it happen. You’ll feel drained of confidence and energy, and may become disillusioned, learn to relax and deal with things as they come; most of all, accept change. Your life is being redirected; read the signposts. The First House is about identity. It describes your personality, how you see yourself and how others see you! It can also describe your physical appearance, the self, your inner motivation, your physical appearance and soul purpose, along with your initial approach to life.

Transiting Pluto into your 2nd: Another long-term transit transforming many levels of your life – where you find yourself involved with something you said you would never do! You may even discover a secret admirer for there are changes in your love life and love of life – you’ve never dreamed of, all without too much effort on your part!Keep in mind during this transit your emotions and values are in the process of change and when this period is over you’ll be a new personality – wearing new clothes – possessing new values. The way you feel about love and relationships, for instance, will be completely different! Your taste is undergoing a change, from the way you dress, to the music you listen to; from your taste in interior decorating to your ideas about love, where your values, emotions and your love life are being tested to the full now. The Second House is about your talents, it describes what you value ranging from physical possessions and money, to personal self esteem and talents. Other keywords include: resources, both personal and financial, values and attitudes, possessions, self-esteem, acquisitions.

Transiting Pluto into the 3rd: Keep a note pad or diary with you because you’ll be doing everything ‘backwards’ where your memory lets you down, where mental tension and confusion reign supreme!Learn to relax, study meditation, and get involved with yoga and its principles – particularly those exercises involving deep breathing. Mental power struggles and coercion by those who want to control your thinking are all likely. Financial problems can arise – travelling is less safe and you should keep away from dangerous neighbourhoods! Positively: Your mental attitude alters constructively as a result of this period, don’t try to force your ideas onto others, and resist the attempts of others to control you mentally. This is the perfect time to write a book, or to do something creative with your hands, like sculpture, playing piano, guitar, anything for as soon as you have an outlet which is constructive and free-flowing, you’ll be rid of any tension and stress. Think positive thoughts, because those thoughts will become real. This is a good time for self-improvement at all levels. The Third House is about communication. It also refers to early learning, siblings, immediate environment and short journeys. Keywords include: mental processes and communication, active search for knowledge, early learning, siblings, short journeys, telepathy and mental energy.

Transiting Pluto into the 4th: This period is where your emotional nature and relationships are transformed – the decks are being cleared for a new stage of growth in your life. During this process, some deep, powerful and probably long repressed emotions rise to the surface! You’ll wonder where they came from and surprised at their intensity but it’s important to allow these feelings to’ just happen’ know it or not, their effect will be prove therapeutic in the long run. No matter whether you’re male or female your relationships with women will be intense and offer a ‘renewal’. Your mother or parent of the opposite sex will become particularly important at this time (remember this transit lasts a long time). Your home, lifestyle and long-term future are undergoing a major renovation/ renewal – you may relocate! This is a time when deep changes of a positive nature transform your life where large-scale forces beyond your personal control may cause family, financial and domestic affairs to change. Your home, perhaps your whole environment, will be altered in some way and on a positive note financially and emotionally, this can be an extremely important time for you. The Fourth House is about home and family. It describes your roots, your heritage and your private life. Other keywords include: home life, roots, family and relations, psychological foundations, biological inheritance, place of abode and opposite sex parent.

Transiting Pluto into the 5th: Becoming intensely /obsessively involved in whatever you’re doing, attempting to fix ‘anything’ that is or, isn’t broken whether it’s a machine, a situation or relationship! Power is the keyword to this transit, where you’ll come into contact with someone using his or her POWER, or more probably, abusing the power they have! You could, of course, merely come into contact with persons or situations that embody plutonian energies – now there’s a whole area of research alone! Your creative life will come in ‘violent’ outbursts of emotional fervour formulating ideas in art – be it painting, music or literature – seeming to come from the back of beyond or the recesses of your childhood! This can be an enormously inspirational or even disturbing transit, with all those ideas swirling around in your INNER MIND creating all kinds of weird and wonderful repercussions – this is a good time to make changes for the good of all! As this transit unfolds you’ll find new friends along the way or, on the other hand find you couldn’t care less, preferring to go your own way – either way, this transit certainly changes the love of life, your love life and your persona in general. The Fifth House is about creativity. This can include artistic pursuits, hobbies; recreation, children and lovers.

Other keywords include: Creative self-expression, love affairs, procreation and children, leisure, hobbies, games and sports, self-fulfillment, joy and bliss.

Transiting Pluto into 6th: Some people say you’re obsessive, others say you’re ‘Phobic’ whatever it is, one thing’s for sure – when it comes to health and diet, you just can’t be too careful! It’s like you have x-ray eyes and can see all the antibodies and disease-harbouring bacteria floating around the body! Thoughts will come quickly, be ready for them with pen and paper, for they are fleeting and if you don’t write them down there’ll be no lasting success. Keep a note pad or diary with you at all times and you may forget things. If facing exams your memory will tend to let you down thereby creating mental tension, creating stress, creating illness, creating. You’ll be subject to mental power struggles and coercion by those who want to control your thinking! Financial problems can arise and travelling is less safe than usual so drive your car in a safe manner at all times! When you have a constructive outlet and it is free flowing, you’ll be rid yourself of the tension and stress that usually ‘bugs’ this transit (lasting a long time in some cases). Even if you’re not professionally involved in some artistic field, find some outlet for your creativity – “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. ” The Sixth House is about day-to-day life. It is about work, health, the service you give and your habits. It also relates to small animals. Keywords include: health, daily routine, working environment, skills, pets, animals and service…

Transiting Pluto into the 7th: At this time, your emotions and values are in the process of change and when this period is over you’ll be a completely new person with the way you feel about love and relationships to be completely different, for there’ll certainly be changes in your love life (love of life) that you’d never dreamt of. While it’s all in the process of happening, you’re not quite sure what you want so relax and let it unfold. You want to be in control, and can be quite obsessed with a relationship, or just love, the problem is, you can’t control other people’s feelings! Don’t waste your energy on someone who treats you badly, because real love is someone caring for you as much as you care for them and doing it openly. If you’re ‘on your own’ (even within a relationship) and it’s just all too hard, with all the heartache and effort involved, hang in there! You’ll recognise it when it happens, although you may have trouble believing it at the moment, don’t try to force emotional relationships at this time and keep away from people who are heavily coercive or manipulative and if you find yourself obsessively attracted to someone be warned the person you’re attracted to might be a ‘criminal’ type (and there are many types of criminals). Scream loudly if you sense situations where real sexual harassment might occur. Guard your property against thieves, and be ready to resist financial extortion. The Seventh House is about partnerships. This can be partnership in business, marriage or a committed relationship. Including business partnerships, marriage, long-term associations, open enemies, the anima and animus, the relationship between you and your ‘other’ you. Simply put: this is the house of attraction – and we all ‘attract’ whatever we dwell upon – think and act positive and you’ll attract the same – think and act negatively – what you can you expect?

Transiting Pluto into the 8th: This will prove a time of inner and outer change – your life is in a constant state of slow evolution that is entirely natural. This is a radical transition period; where the changes you go through become obvious to everyone and you have to gracefully (remember this word and where it comes from) allow certain parts of your life to fade into the past – to let go – to let die.

If you have an active, ongoing lifestyle, this should be no problem – if you are rigid and emotionally set in your ways you’re in for a shock or two (liking this transit to the mid-life crisis) a landmark stage in your life – you should be able to adjust for it doesn’t happen overnight! You’ll feel a sense of upheaval to your innermost feelings that you’re being forced into new directions against your will – this is just part of a life cycle, whatever your feelings of loss, be positive for you’ll soon discover that there’s a whole new world out there to conquer. The past is not lost, only a memorable part and foundation for the rest of your life to come -allow yourself and other people the opportunity to grow and change in the normal way – don’t cling to the psychological props of the past, but face each new day as the adventure in living that it is! The Eighth House is about the support you receive from other people. It is the house of regeneration, and covers death, sex, legal matters, and metaphysics. Other keywords include: Transformation and regeneration, resources of others, sexuality, death, transmutation and the battles of life we all face. No matter what sign rules the 8ththere’s always a Scorpio feel to this sector and a Pluto expression. “Where there’s death there’s life – look for it…

Transiting Pluto into 9th: The occult, and things to do with magic and mystery, learning something new, even a “peak experience” or ‘spiritual conversion’! If planning any kind of travelling, you could come into unexpected difficulties with strangers or strange (foreign) places so check all travel plans carefully. You’ll have big expectations now and if you don’t put yourself out on a limb, you’ll miss out on making considerable headway! Don’t push your ideas onto others who may not be ready for them, or care for them for you can see the ‘big picture’ others may not! Use strictly honest methods; avoid dealings with corrupt people and situations that could bring you into conflict with the authorities! Travelling either in reality, or in spirit, you’ll have insights into the future, seeing things to come not only for yourself but for loved ones, tell them; even if they laugh – for you’ll have the last laugh if you present your thoughts or insights in a logical, down to earth, practical manner remember good things are coming your way along with many opportunities for spiritual growth – don’t blow it in being arrogant, egotistical or big headed and actually achieve your goals, ideals and objectives. The Ninth House is about higher learning. It covers academic subjects, law, religion, publishing, foreign culture, sport, overseas travel and philosophy. Keywords include: Philosophy, religion, higher education, distant travel, cultural learning, publishing, your life’s ‘journey’ and ageless Wisdom.

Transiting Pluto into the 10th: You’ll find yourself experiencing unforeseen restrictions with elder members of the family, or the law! This is not a good period to express your points of view over to others, especially those who are superior to yourself! At the same time however, you may have to struggle against dishonesty and authority figures against those who are on some kind of power trip! Keep away from corrupt characters, or if dealing with them is unavoidable, remain strictly honest yourself. Eventually (and this transit can last a long time) you’re going to rid yourself of old fears and restrictions, as well as things that were programmed into you when you were very young! It might be difficult to let go – don’t be afraid – a new, freer lifestyle awaits you yet you may have difficulty in reconciling yourself in giving up certain things because they’ve represented security- even if they don’t make you happy! If you’re trying and trying and not getting anywhere, it’s because you can’t go any further in the direction you were headed! Your life is in a state of transition; something that was predicted for you many years ago will begin to happen now, giving you a new lease of life and new confidence in yourself. You’ll discover the patience and ability to organise and be more organised and make a lot of progress professionally. The Tenth House is about your public life. It shows you’re standing in the community, career, and social status and can reflect your attitude to parenting.

Other keywords include: Honour, authority, career and profession, life direction, achievement. Same sex parent!

Transiting Pluto into the 11th:This is a time when you’ll experience or make many changes to your life where everything and everyone becomes fresh and new (different). You’ll become more independent, original and creative. If all goes well, friends and people in general will admire and respect you for your independence and originality – a dream might be realised or dashed! Negatively: there might be some ‘evil’ around you in this period so do not force any kind of issues regarding career or love, otherwise you may have an emotional experience you may not recover from! If life is too unpredictable don’t make radical or drastic changes during Pluto’s entry or exit from this house. This’ll prove a time when upheavals are occurring in the outside world and you’ll want to make personal changes as well. If change is forced upon you, accept it with good grace, and expect future benefits to emerge in the long run. Group relationships and friendships will be altered with new friendships and associates appearing out of nowhere! Basically, you have to adapt to changes now and to make these appropriate to your own personal and long-term development. The Eleventh House is about your friendships and relationships with groups of people. It’s about your hopes and dreams, friends and social acquaintances, groups and organisations and their activities…

Transiting Pluto into the 12th: During this transit, strange forces surface in your emotional life, completely dominating your mood for days, weeks and even months on end! During these times, even you won’t know what’s at the root of it all, all you know is that you’re wrapped in a powerful darkness, for which the best remedy seems to be sleep – of all things! Hang in there for sooner or later you’ll come to realise that life is more exciting than you ever thought possible or even believe! At times you’ll feel low and depressed, moody and irritable for no reason at all, doubting yourself too much. Be careful when near or travelling by water or, listening to others emotional problems, otherwise you may find yourself being involved in something you cannot escape from! Your dreams and fantasies are undergoing a change/ transformation – don’t turn to drugs, alcohol or dangerous psychic practices. This could be a time when you are led to new inspiration, or allow yourself to sink into spiritual confusion! If you have a feeling of loss, be patient and allow new dreams to come into birth. Your dreams will come true, if you go with your feelings and not worry too much about what others think! The Twelfth House is about endings. It is about your hidden strengths and weaknesses. It’s about institutions such as hospitals, jails, libraries and the armed services. Keywords include: fears, hidden enemies, the collective, spirituality, selfless service towards humanity.

When any planet enters your 12th and stays there for any length of time you will discover your guardian angel, your spirit guide, your hidden strength, your inner resources, believe me, this is the house that reveals all there is to reveal – don’t be afraid of it…

Stay tuned for more interesting, inspiring and entertaining snippets from Astrology, Numerology and Tarot.

How To Communicate Your Sales Message So Buyers Take Action Now!

Wouldn’t it be great that every time you made a sales presentation, write a letter, send your sales literature or place an ad that you knew, with some certainty, that you could get your prospects to take action and respond to your offer?

Well, to put it bluntly, it’s not that difficult if you simply apply the basics of marketing. Unfortunately, marketing is one of the least understood and arguably one of the least underutilized, course of action, in business today.

Marketing has and will continue to make the difference between the survival and extinction of a business today. Treading our way into the future with the overwhelming velocity of day-to-day change in this wildly unpredictable changing marketplace, with shorter product life cycles, require businesses, small or large, to have an edge or lose share of market to the competition.

Having the edge today will involve refining your marketing with a holistic approach and razor-sharp strategies that accelerate your business growth. The more I research and study how businesses stay alive and well — the more I am convinced and respect that strategic marketing is the forerunner to optimizing our selling performance.

Think of it this way: Visualize an umbrella – and label it “marketing” and “strategy.” Next, under the umbrella see advertising, branding, public relations, etc. Label those items, “selling” and “tactical processes.”

“Marketing,” — the strategy — is what favorably positions your company products or services in the mind of the customer and is aimed at stimulating a desire and demand on the part of the customer to make a purchase.

“Selling” — the tactical processes — are tools used to educate, inform, influence and persuade purchasing actions from the customer.

Both marketing and selling must lead the customer to action. For example: Advertising is salesmanship in action. Radio, television, newspaper, direct mail (electronic or paper) and magazines should all be constructed in the same demanding way that a salesperson makes a presentation to a prospective customer.

The same skills, habits and attitudes that are required of a salesperson for influencing action, on the part of the customer, should be directly aligned with all your various tactical processes.

For example — The successful salesperson must:

1. Develop and build rapport

2. Understand customer needs

3. Emphasize tangible benefits

4. Skillfully move a customer toward a purchase

5. Keep the prospective customer “engaged” in the purchase process

6. Strategically link a product or services to a customer’s most important needs and issues

7. Detail the product or service to motivate the purchasing action of the customer

Each advertising piece that is used in your marketing arsenal – newspaper ad, magazine ad, direct response mailing, public relations campaign should make a complete and compelling case for your products and services in the same way that a salesperson would do in person.

1. Do your ads (metaphorically) talk to your customers – do they build a rapport?

2. Are your brochures, letters, newsletters, ads and public relations material believable and emotionally peak the curiosity of people to want to learn more?

3. Is your marketing targeted toward perspective customers that have a real need for your products and services – have the money and willing to spend it?

4. Does your marketing materials educate and emphasize all the tangible benefits to keep the prospective customer engaged and motivated to take a purchasing action.

Today is not the time to be timid in your marketing. People need a nudge in making decisions. They want and expect to be told how to take action to obtain your products and services.

Take an assessment of your strategic marketing and selling action mentioned above and in addition see if you are:

1. Educating your customers about the unique advantages your products and services offered:

a). Service guarantees

b). Technical or manufacturing support

c). Warranties

d). Durability and dependability

e). New product developments

f). Upgrades and product enhancements

g). Delivery

2. Asking strategic questions for:

a). Linking products or services to customers needs

b). Providing solutions for their problems

c). Manage customer relationships

d). Keeping your customer and prospective customer engaged in the buying process

3. Active Listening for:

a). Emotional triggers

b). Logical reasoning

4. Handling objections to:

a). Minimizing concerns

b). Overcome obstacles

5. Presenting benefits that:

a). Motivate your customer’s loyalty and purchasing action

b). Advantage your products and services over your competitors

Now is the time to pull out all your marketing materials, ads, sales scripts, brochures, presentation materials, marketing channels, and yes, check your attitudes, habits and skills – it’s time to be innovative, nontraditional and bold in your thinking and business endeavors.

Uber Ordered to Shut Down in India! State Socialism in Action

In a baffling move by the Indian government, Uber, the taxi sharing application which has become a global craze, was ordered to be completely shut down in the country by the 31st of October 2014. While the country is in dire need to attract as much foreign investment as possible, the government is resorting to its decades of socialist policies, making India even more unattractive for international businesses.

Uber is a heavily funded start up company which offers anyone a chance to become a taxi driver and give rides to customers through an easy payment system. The website has revolutionized the taxi business in many parts of the world where people have found the system to be part car-share part money saver.

It has no doubt served as a controversial company which has seen large scale protests from traditional taxi companies and businesses in places such as London, Paris and even San Francisco. When a union of taxi drivers in London tried to ban the website/application, the government refused lest it makes the city look unfriendly towards international businesses. A smart move from a smart city.

Despite all the controversy the company still grew strong with reportedly strong backing from Google and Fidelity ventures. It entered the growing Indian Market soon and grew throughout the urban areas of the huge country. However, like everywhere else, the Taxi drivers were not too happy. In a country with the largest number of poor people on earth and with a high birth rate/low skilled labour class, driving cars, buses, vans and rickshaws is seen as a lifeline by millions of the uneducated. After expanding to over 10 highly populated cities of India and cutting prices by 25% even large and established cab companies and car rentals started to take notice of Uber.

These companies have now taken extreme measures of blocking Uber from operating in India. Complaints were made to the Reserve Bank of India accusing Uber of violating the country’s strict foreign exchange laws due to their payment system.

In a classic move reminiscent of India’s socialist past, the bank has now given Uber till October to shut down! This would prove to be a disastrous move from the central bank at a time when India requires as much investment as possible. A similar case earlier this year made many global retailers rethink about their strategy in India when they understood that the government is following populist/socialist policies in order to gain rural voters.

Time is still with India and the government should rethink its strategy on international companies. International companies only bring in technology, money and new business methods into a country and forces local companies to play catch up and improve their game. Uber would not have ‘destroyed’ India’s taxi drivers but would have forced them to reduce prices and introduce more services which all add up to customer advantages and economic growth.

It would be interesting to see how the Modi government deals with such issues in the next 5 years.

125 Action Statements and Power Phrases

1. If you’re having a tough time getting by on your salary now, how well do you think your family will get by without it?

2. The only thing worse than a home without a mother is a mother without a home, isn’t it?

3. You can say, “I don’t need it”, but can you say “my family won’t need it”?

4. The most valuable asset that a father can leave his children is their mother’s full time care, isn’t it?

5. More good things are lost by indecision than by wrong decision, aren’t they?

6. Someone always pays for life insurance, whether a man buys or not; the question is, who….the man or his family?

7. You say come back in September… But whom should I ask for if you’re not here in September?

8. The difference between an old man and an elderly gentleman can be a decent income can’t it?

9. Wives may not believe in life insurance, but widows always do.

10. Life insurance is a shield to meet the blow that you can’t see coming isn’t it?

11. You would certainly give your life for your children, so why not insure it for them?

12. Have you ever met a widow who said that her husband had too much life insurance?

13. Life insurance is the only plan that will guarantee a known sum at an unknown time.

14. You haven’t needed it (life insurance) yet? Do you carry a spare tyre in your car? Do you own an umbrella? Do you check for the parachute in the aeroplane?

15. The worst time for a wife to become a breadwinner is when she first becomes a widow.

16. If you wouldn’t like to live the rest of your life on the face amount of your present insurance, how do you expect your wife to?

17. Income is provided for a widow or by her isn’t it?

18. Losing a father is bad enough, inheriting a part time mother makes it worse, doesn’t it?

19. You can put me off, but you can’t put my competitors off – death and disability.

20. Life insurance won’t keep people from dying, but it will keep their plans from dying with them.

21. Any partnership that operates without a proper buy/sell agreement is living on borrowed time.

22. It isn’t easy to be old or poor, but it’s a great deal worse to be both.

23. You finish the job if you live; we finish the job for you if you die, become disabled or long term sick.

24. Whatever reason you may have for not starting this plan now will only sound ridiculous to your widow.

25. Just because you stop working doesn’t mean you stop loving your wife, children & grandchildren. That’s why you have permanent life insurance isn’t it?

26. Would you like to buy your parents interest in the company for less then 5 cents in the dollar?

27. Partnerships are like a seesaw. One man gets off the other falls off. Is your business succession plan like that?

28. It’s better to use insurance to protect the partnership because while you will pay $1,000,000 for your partners share you really pay very little for the $1,000,000, don’t you?

29. No person ever dies at the right time, do they?

30. A person needs credit to live, but their family needs cash when they die, don’t they?

31. You may last longer than your money

32. Tell me, how will you treat all your children equally in your will?

33. No debt should last longer than the person who created it, should it?

34. If you buy insurance or not, in the end someone will pay for it.

35. Life insurance is time. The time you might not have. If you need time you need life insurance.

36. Your wife should be left something that will take care of her – not something she will have to take care of, shouldn’t she?

37. Have you a plan to pay for capital gains tax or will you let the family sell assets to cover your oversight?

38. A professional loans their educated brain to create income for their family to live on. Unfortunately the brain is not a going concern. When it terminates, so too does the income it generates.

39. No has always been the first two letters of nothing. I have never liked what nothing implies. Would I be right in assuming that you do not like the meaning of no either?

40. In the final analysis, all you can leave your wife with is “the dignity of choice” isn’t it?

41. If you had a goose that laid golden eggs, would you insure the eggs or the goose that laid them?

42. If you can save as much money in the next five years as you have in the last five years, will you be satisfied?

43. Life insurance? Anybody who doesn’t believe in it ought to have the right to die without it at least once.

44. Sometimes the biggest price in the world is doing nothing. A lot of people do nothing wrong; they just do nothing. That’s what’s wrong.

45. What formula did you use to arrive at the amount of life insurance you have at the moment?

46. What percentage of your income in a lump sum would you like to leave your wife and children?

47. If your partner became permanently disabled or long term sick, how long would you be willing to do 100% of the work for 50% of the profits?

48. If it were free how much insurance would you like?

49. Do you know anyone who has died who had too much insurance?

50. If you were to die because of some one else’s negligence, how much would you want your family to sue for? Should they have any less if you die by other means?

51. Do you have trouble accumulating money and keeping it?

52. What type of lifestyle would you like when you retire? What type of lifestyle will you have if you are forced to retire because of ill health?

53. If you were not here could you pay for all of your children’s higher education or just a percentage of it?

54. What assets would your executor have to sell up to allow your wife and children to keep living in their current lifestyle?

55. Are you aware of your most valuable asset and do you know how much income it is capable of producing in your lifetime?

56. What would happen to your estate if you had died last night?

57. You and your wife together can handle debt, but can she handle debt by herself?

58. Would your executor be embarrassed by the lack of liquidity in your estate?

59. Long term insurance is a good idea in retirement. Just because you retire doesn’t mean you stop loving your family or their need for estate equalisation.

60. Life insurance is like a parachute in an aeroplane. If you ever want it and have not got it, you will never need it again.

61. At no time in life is a wife less able to become a bread winner than when she first becomes a widow.

62. One ordinary father can support four children, but it takes four extraordinary children to support one father

63. A life insurance person brings no financial problem to any prospect, they only bring the solutions.

64. If every wife knew what every widow knows, every husband would be insured for more, wouldn’t they?

65. I can understand your hesitation to pay the $800 premium. You may feel that you are making a mistake. Would you rather make an $800 mistake or a $250,000 mistake?

66. If you suffered a traumatic illness or serious accident would you sooner lose your home or your mortgage?

67. Do you have a family debt extinguishable fund?

68. If you were permanently disabled which assets could your partner sell for full value?

69. Are your debts “good” debt or “bad” debt?

70. “Your price is too high!” Is that if you take the cover, or if you don’t?

71. Do you want your bank to have first call on your estate?

72. If your family was in Financial Free Fall, wouldn’t it be nice to know we could provide the Parachute?

73. If you weren’t here, who would you want to take care of your obligations?

74. Who do you want to inherit your debt?

75. What other assets are instantly created for your family and estate if you die?

76. Tell me what you want to leave out of your debt reduction program. Is it the capital redemption or the promises to your children that their mother may not be able to keep?

77. Which is harder for a widow? Being unprepared or being unfunded?

78. Do you see your family being disadvantaged by the unknown or being disadvantaged by being unfunded?

79. If I could deliver you a guaranteed amount of money for a specified event at an unknown time in the future, would you be interested?

80. We don’t have a choice about good luck or bad luck, do we? It just happens!

81. Your insurance should compensate for an event, not encourage it’s occurrence

82. If life cover was FREE, how much would you want to take?

83. If you became long term sick or permanently disabled, which would you sooner lose, your house or your mortgage?

84. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, how much insurance would you demand of me?

85. You don’t buy insurance because some one may die; you buy it because families and people keep on living, don’t you?

86. If you don’t protect your income, how will you be able to pay for or afford your other insurances?

87. Even if a couple become divorced or separated, the ex-partner will not see another maintenance payment should the income earner die. How will that affect your children?

88. How would your family be affected if you couldn’t work for 2 years?

89. Which is more important to your wife? The size of your overdraft whilst you’re alive and well or getting rid of the overdraft when you are not here or are unwell?

90. Are you leaving your family an asset or the asset and a liability?

91. What is your gross estate value? What is your net estate value?

92. Are you aware that your children stand to lose two parents if your partner is forced to go back to work after the death of a spouse?

93. How big a reduction in your income could you absorb/sustain if you became disabled?

94. If you were totally disabled yesterday how much would you need to clear your debt?

95. If you were totally disabled yesterday how much capital would you need to produce the income you have now?

96. Modern medicine is saving lives, but it is converting death to disability : long-term economic death. As important as you are, do you know anyone who will pay you an income for the rest of your life should you become disabled?

97. This plan will pay 75% of your salary when no one else will

98. Your family’s outcome relies on your income

99. Earned Income is an extremely delicate and easily destructible asset subject to three hazards; death, early retirement and long term disability. It can be compared with a 3-legged stool; if one leg gives way, the whole stool topples over.

100. Saving your life shouldn’t mean losing your savings

101. Income Protection benefits are Dollars of Dignity. They mean not having to beg, diminishing reliance on charity, not having to borrow (if you still can), sending your spouse or partner out to work, asset sell off, capital erosion or life style down grading.

102. Doctor, have you ever heard of a physician being pensioned by his patients when he was laid up from accident or sickness?

103. (I can’t afford it.) If your salary was cut by $10 per week would you quit your job?

104. (See me later). Before we plan a later date Mr. Prospect, wouldn’t it be eminently sensible to see if you qualify first?

105. Of course you are right, you do realize that life insurance can provide capital to earn income from after you have passed away. But what if you are seriously injured and don’t die?

106. Naturally your superannuation will provide you with an income when you retire. But what if you have to retire early?

107. Comparing the number of doctors to the number of undertakers in the phone book, will give you an indication of the number of unwell people requiring attention compared to the lesser number of deaths requiring attention.

108. You are aware that the biggest gamble your partner and family can ever take is on you. Why not minimize the risk with an income protection plan?

109. Would your bank manager pay off your mortgage if you had a heart attack?

110. If a sole proprietor tells you his business will run itself while he is off, then ask him why he is not at the beach or on the golf course every day instead of enjoying himself

111. Life insurance pays when you die. But what happens if you are only 1/2 dead?

112. Can you guarantee immortality?

113. Did you know that insurance can now be paid on diagnosis of specific diseases and insurable conditions?

114. Do you want your family to have to sell their house if you became disabled or long term ill?

115. What happens if your money machine breaks down?

116. People are money machines. They produce income called money. When the machine breaks down is destroyed or fails to operate the income stops.

117. Did you know there are two ways to make money? People at work and money at work. Money at work is a whole lot easier isn’t it?

118. You have an accountant and a solicitor, but do you have anyone whose responsibility it is to deliver money in the event of a death, disability or long-term injury or sickness?

119. If you were not here what percentage of your children’s higher education would you like them to have?

120. What would happen to your estate if you had died last night?

121. Who would you like to serve as guardian and trustee for your children if you and your spouse died?

122. If the entire family dies in a disaster, to whom do your want you estate to pass?

123. “Whatever the dollar’s future value, the man who has one will be better off than the man who doesn’t.”

124. “You say you have trouble living within your income — consider living without your income.”

125. Ask upfront “What has been the major problem you have had with my industry in the past that I would need to be aware of as we build a relationship together?”

Action Learning In The World Of Business

Action learning is a proven tool for realizing individual and organizational change. It combines knowledge that people have been taught with skills people have learned, after from experience. Action learning requires a supportive environment in which to thrive. Once established, it provides a valuable and powerful stimulus for continuous change, enabling organizations to grow and learn dynamically, rather than remaining static or fixed in one set of circumstances or perspectives.

However, it’s also a management development and training tool differed from the conventional approach in tat it focused on developing managerial skills rather than just increasing knowledge. It has been observed that major factors affecting a manager’s job performance were his or her skills- ability to do the job and attitudes- the will to do what is necessary to optimize effectiveness. This approach was designed to help managers as they worked to solve real problems. The learning and therefore the development of managerial skills are directly linked to the learner’s real needs based on actual experience.

Action learning is based on the concept: L = P+Q. Learning [L] comprises programmed knowledge [P] – things that people have been taught or that they have learned through experiences plus Questioning skills [Q]- the ability and willingness to challenge programmed knowledge using the stimulus of real life problems. Hence, people need the programmed knowledge that they have acquired over the years but, in the conditions of rapid change that we live in today, this is not enough for survival. People and especially managers, must also constructively question both themselves and those around them so that they can adapt successfully to the constantly changing world.

The basic idea of action learning is simple. Individuals are put in a supportive environment with a problem to solve and a facilitator who will encourage them to question their programmed knowledge and to test themselves and each other. The process of questioning and testing produces experience. Reflection on experience leads to learning. For instance, a child learns that the stove is hot, not by touching it- test, but through the pain that comes from the burn afterward- reflection. Learning is demonstrated if he or she does not touch the hot stove again.

Towards understanding action learning, there are key approaches and roles people develop by…

* Working on life problems,
* Being empowered to question what is happening,
* Trying out suggested solutions in doing things effectively,
* Stepping back and reflecting on what is happening and why,
* Sharing the experience with others who are also learning by doing.

There are two main models of action learning; which focuses on individual development, and the in-plant or organizational development model, which combines individual development with organizational change. Both methods use the same structure.

* The Problem- This provides the focus for the activity. It’s both the individual and a team problem- project.
* The Client- Is the person who owns the problem. This is someone who knows, cares, and above all can in-plant its solution if they wish to.
* The Action Learning Set- This is the place where participants meet to share their experience. It is the core of the program; the question and confrontation, challenging, and support which take place in the set provide encouragement and stimulus for individuals and groups to carry on.
* The Facilitator- Encourages learning through questioning, mirroring, challenging, and supporting. The facilitator is the gift in the oyster which creates the learning pearl.
* The Sponsor- Is the senior manager responsible for the program.

To harness action learning for individual development, there are several ways in which it can be used to develop individuals, including;

* The Own Job Model- This aims to enable individuals to maximize their personal effectiveness. Individuals take a problem into the action learning set and they meet at regular intervals over an agreed period of time with an external facilitator. The learning focus is on helping participants to develop the expertise they need to solve their own problems.
* The [P] Development [Academic] Model- This approach aims to maximize the learning opportunities presented while acquiring knowledge – programmed knowledge. The model combines the personal effectiveness development aspects of the own job model with the opportunity to acquire new learning. Sets are formed of people who have the same learning goals and have a dual focus, new knowledge coupled with personal learning.
* The In-Plant Action Learning Approach- While individual action learning programs are very powerful in bringing about individual change, they cannot change organizational culture. One approach to change this problem has been to apply the action learning method on an in-plant basis, using problems that exist within the company- real problems which it must solve. The approach uses the typical action learning structure, in which directors and senior managers are cast as clients, middle managers as facilitator, foreman and supervisors as fellows- action learning teams. The whole process is coordinated by external facilitator. Hence all managers and supervisors are involved in a change program at the same time. The main difference is in the application. The in-plant approach applies action learning to the total management structure of a company in a way which involves everybody.

Therefore, action learning relies on the team-working and facilitation processes which encourage questioning, empower participants to try something different, and lead to change. The heart of the action learning process is the group, supported by the facilitator. It provides a safe haven from which individuals can emerge to test themselves and return to share their experience, thereby encouraging and supporting change. Any team-working or problem-solving activity can be turned into an action learning program, through the simple addition of a facilitation process. Any personal development programs can be greatly strengthened by forming action learning sets and providing facilitation. Why not do it and maximize the value of your investment?

Trading in Forex by Using Price Action Trading

When trading in forex, a trader must not be hasty in his or her decisions and he or she must study the different types of strategies that he or she is comfortable with to be able to be successful. Traders usually lose money because of faulty strategies they use or because they do not understand the principles behind the strategies they are using. One of the most effective strategies with a sound principle behind it is forex trading which can even be used by less experienced and even beginner traders.

What is forex trading?

In forex, price action is the movement of the prices of the currencies which can be used to speculate the future movements of the said currency. The fluidity of the major currencies in the forex market makes their behavior impossible to predict if one don’t explore their past price actions. Making a decision will be a lot more easier if a trader will use his or her reasoning that what happened last year with the same environmental factors that can be observed today, will probably repeat itself if no big current events will change the currencies behavior. These charts are the data that are used when trading forex price action.

How to trade using forex trading

When it comes to price action trading as a strategy, the trader do not give too much weight to the fundamental data about the currencies he or she is trading with when making trading decisions. Many forex schools and forex gurus are preaching the importance of the many fundamental factors when it comes to making trading decisions in forex but all these factors can be very difficult to analyze especially for beginners. It may be tempting for the trader who uses price action trading as his or her strategy because of the many websites that releases fundamental data analysis especially in the first parts of the month. Traders who give in to these temptations may lose money especially if they do not have enough experience in making decisions based on fundamental data.

When using price action trading, the past price changes in relation to the prices of the currency now are the most important factor to consider. Even beginners can make use of this strategy by becoming observant with the patterns that come the price factors. Many experts even pitch this strategy to be used by traders who are just starting out.