Business Career Center.com

Being a parent is hard enough, but when you try to combine that with attending business school it can seem simply overwhelming. Nevertheless, many successful parents and business persons have accomplished this challenging but rewarding combination of tasks. How do they do it? Stay organized, keep a clear head, remain calm at all times, and follow the following three tried and true tips:

• Select the appropriate school for you. School location will have to play a big factor in your choice of campus, of course. You want to remain local and never be too far from your home or your child’s school. At the same time, you’ll need to select a school that offers a major in the field you are interested in. It is tricky to find the right school, but remember that your time is very valuable, so, where possible, reduce the commuting time as much as you can.

• Research the resources for parents available from your school. Many schools offer such resources as financial planning, day care, health insurance for dependent children, and even student housing. Take advantage of all that is offered!

• Having excellent time management skills is crucial to mastering the school/parenting combination. You need to get our whole family on a schedule they can stick to and also have workable back-up plans for when things don’t go your way. Children should go to bed at the same time each night, allowing you time for homework. You should serve dinner at the same time each evening as well, enabling children to have the security of a predictable mealtime.

No one will ever tell you parenting is going to be easy. And certainly no one will ever tell you that business school is a breeze! But if you stay focused you can accomplish both of these incredibly rewarding tasks and come out of it better for your efforts. Just believe in yourself and keep these three tips in mind.

Change is nothing new to business. It happens every day, in every country, in every business around the world. But when change starts to affect your career, you have to ask yourself tough questions such as the following:

• How can I keep up with the ongoing trends in my industry?
• What are the new skills I need to learn to stay current?
• How have new methods of communication affected my relationships with associates?

In business administration, these issues are always at the forefront, but staying current with them is not so difficult! Just make it a point to read the latest magazines or web sites that deal with your industry and its concerns, and participate in the occasional professional development program. If you are not used to team work, there are classes and programs that can not only help you with it, but help you feel proficient enough to lead a team yourself. Out of touch with globalization? Your business may be willing to send you to a conference where you can bone up on the latest information about the global marketplace. So don’t worry: if you feel the world is changing too fast, there are many folks out there whose careers are dedicated to keeping your career on the fast track!

In the current economy, finding that lucrative first job that will lead to a rewarding career isn’t easy. When you entered business school it probably all seemed like it would be a snap, but now . . . not so much. Regardless, the last thing you want to do is panic. Just because you have graduated, doesn’t mean you have to grab the first job that comes along. To find the best entry-level job, don’t be passive and wait for the dream job to come to you as a newspaper advertisement or online listing. Instead, be active and go out in search of openings for some of the best entry-level jobs out there today.

But what are the jobs that, these days, can lead to something better? They are not always what you might think! The key to remember is that no matter how much schooling you have had, it could be foolish to think that you must get a job that is high paying from the beginning. The most important thing is that is pay a median income and offer plenty of opportunity for advancement. Below, see some of today’s most lucrative, and most available, entry-level careers, along with their average salaries:

• Environmental engineer   $68, 628
• Network systems analyst $61,949
• Market research analyst   $58,423
• Advertising Copywriter  $53,288
• Lobbyist  $66,929

Increasing productivity is essential to those who would hope to foster long and prosperous careers in business administration. In order to do so, two essential points in the productivity chain must be addressed.

1. First of all, business managers must identify their most relevant assets. If your work is in a labor-heavy industry, perhaps work hours will be most important. If your company produces products, perhaps materials will be the measurable factor. Either way, it is crucial that all assets not be weighted the same when assessing increases or decreases in hours worked, materials used, and other assets and resources. Take the time to identify those most important assets.
2. Secondly, those in business administration must take care to benchmark their company’s operational output. Benchmarking enables managers to compare their company with those that are ranked highest in the industry and determine how much and what type of progress is needed.

If business administrators and other managers pay close attention to these and other important aspects of measuring productivity, that productivity can not help but increase. Improvement, after all, is only a matter of setting goals and reaching them step by step!

The business world is a tough one. Some say it is cut-throat, others say it’s worse! But there are ways to get ahead. Even in a recession, someone has to be the boss, so let’s look at what it is that successful people do, which the unsuccessful do not.

1. Plan. Seems obvious, right? But how efficiently to do you plan? Do you make daily lists of things to do? Do you break those tasks down into simpler activities? Do you make three-month plans? Quarterly and yearly plans? Planning takes many forms, and you will need to master them all to truly succeed in business.

1. Relax. Do you keep a cool head under pressure? It is essential that you do eat a healthy lunch, do get sleep at night, and do have a fulfilling home life in order to succeed in your profession. Adequate relaxation quiets the mind and allows you to make more rational, well-informed, well-thought-out decisions.

1. Have a Routine. Sure, it is good to be able to improvise, but every day shouldn’t be an exercise in improvisation. Each day should follow a pleasant routine that allows you to both stay in your plan and stay relaxed, while being flexible enough to accommodate any unexpected changes.

With a keen eye on these three tips, you could become the next success story of 2010, so stay focused, and achieve!

Getting up and going to work in the morning just isn’t enough anymore. These days, you have got to have a strategy for how you will plan each day, each week, each month, each quarter, and each year of your emerging career. There is so much competition and—in the current recession—so little opportunity available, that you have simply got to pay attention to every possible chance for advancement and plan to move ahead, step by step.

A strategy like this requires you to do what is called a SWOT analysis. In order to move ahead in a planned manner, according to principles that you have laid out ahead of time, you’ll need to know your:

• strengths
• weaknesses
• opportunities
• threats

Do these four items surprise you? Some business people think they can move ahead based on their strengths alone. You may be highly organized, highly intelligent, well educated, and the top in your field, but if you have not properly analyzed the threats against you, you aren’t seeing the whole picture. It would be a shame to fail in your endeavors simply because you saw your own strengths, but never counted on certain weaknesses holding you back. Then there are opportunities that must not be missed. If you can predict when these crucial times will occur, you can prepare! You can martial your strengths, compensate for your weaknesses, fight off your threats, and focus on your strengths. All the elements of the SWOT analysis contribute to helping you be the best business person, and best career strategizer, you can be.

As we approach 2010 and the start of a new decade, many business men and women are making resolutions to improve their careers in the new year. But how is it that some folks manage to keep their resolutions, using them as guiding principles all year long, and others seem to forget all about them? There are actually techniques for keeping resolutions that will help you keep your career on track and move forward, so let’s learn some of them:

• Always keep your eye on the prize. That means don’t make short-term responses to long-term problems. Don’t sabotage your own career just because someone at the office made it unpleasant for you. Stay focused on what you are trying to achieve, don’t allow emotional concerns to overwhelm you, and only make choices that move you forward!

• Break large goals down into smaller pieces. It is hard to fulfill a grand goal, such as “get a promotion” or “start a new career” without piecing it out into the various mini-steps needed to climb that hill. Give each small piece of the puzzle a timeline of its own, and watch those accomplishments build up until—voila!—you have achieved your highest goal.

• In addition to making the mini-goals, as mentioned above, you must keep track of the accomplishments you make. Keep a notebook or digital document where you notate your various accomplishments. Some of these will be directly goal related. Others may not be, but being able to view all that you have accomplished over the course of a year will build yoru confidence in yourself and encourage you to keep on trying and keep on dreaming!

Interested in small business? If you are looking for the perfect small business to own or work for, you have made an excellent choice. Small businesses can be more personable than corporations at times and can offer more of the “unquantifiable” benefits, such as a sense of giving back to the community, a connection to people, and the satisfaction of seeing the benefits of your work. If you are considering starting a small business, here are a couple of tips that may be able to help you channel all your passions into one profitable, money-making venture that provides satisfaction on a daily basis.

• They say “follow your heart” and, whoever they are, they are right. Your heart may lead you in numerous directions, however! So look at and list the various careers and businesses that could appeal to your various interests. Then break them down into businesses that could be started with the budget you plan to have. If you are unsure, talk to experts in these fields for more specific advice on what it is like to own such a business.

• Don’t go in cold! You will want to have some background in whatever you try. Just because you may love model trains is no reason to jump into opening a hobby job. Instead, apprentice yourself to someone who has the type of business you seek, or take an internship in that field. Even one summer’s experience will make a world of difference in terms of getting you started on the right foot!

When you pursue the ideal career in business, make sure that you realize “ideal” means something different to different people. If you love the comforts of home, than a career in international business might be a nightmare for you. Meanwhile, if you love adventure, then the same job could be a dream assignment. Here are two essential points to remember when choosing a career:

• When deciding which career to apply your business degree to, always remember to do what you love. If you love numbers, then becoming an accountant may be very fulfilling for you, but if you only tolerate numbers, if you happen to be good at numbers without actually loving the work, then don’t fall into the work just because it’s easy. Every hear of a mid-life crisis? This is exactly what happens when folks “fall into” their careers instead of consciously choosing them out of a love for the work.

• Make sure that you research your chosen field and have a firm grasp of all the options contained in it. There are myriad sub-fields to nearly any field of study or work, and they themselves contain additional specialties. Having done extensive research will help you to see all the options available to you and select one that keeps you feeling fulfilled for many years to come.

Career planners teach courses all over the world. They are the business coaches, guidance counselors, and teachers who have been always trying to tell us: get organized! Well, now that you are a college graduate and in the market for your first job, first home, and first life of your own, it is time to sit up and listen. At this point, everything old is new again and some of the best advice is going to be nothing new, yet it will ring true in a way it never has. Here are some excellent get-started tips for finding a career that works for you:

• Decide who you are and what you believe. Try to build your career around values that are meaningful to you and the lifestyle you value. Have you always dreamed of making your own hours, traveling, or helping others? Have you always wanted to be wildly rich? Or are your goals more aligned with freedom and creativity? Whatever you want, whoever you are, make sure that the career you seek reinforces that.

• What are you best at? Knowing your best qualities is crucial to finding gainful and lasting employment. Play to your strengths and you will become stronger as your career grows.

• Assess yourself as a whole package. You have core skills (the things you went to college for) and you have additional skills that you have gained through extra-curriculars, elective classes, or just your life experiences. Those are part of the package too. When viewing your competencies, always see yourself as a complete package, not just a graduate of such-and-such college. You are complex, and your chosen career should reflect that!

If you are just getting out of school and eager to begin your business career, why not consider one that appeals to your natural interests? A music management career is one that attracts a lot of young (and not so young!) business majors who enjoy spending evenings out on the town, listening to great bands, and taking in “the scene.” Would you like to be the next music industry pro to discover a hot band? Then the music business might be a great match for you. If you are interested in this challenging but fascinating career field, take a few tips from experts and get off on the good foot:

• Try to select a niche. If you concentrate on “discovering” bands that fit into certain under-developed niches, you could really blaze a trail in that area. Although you may like rock and roll yourself, have you ever considered discovering up-and-coming talent in the field of children’s music? How about religious music? World music? You get the picture! There are so many under-explored fields within music that offer great opportunities to get started.

• Work with musicians that have vision. You may hear a great band, but if their interpersonal dynamics show that they are not businesslike, then don’t work with these folks. As a music manager you want to work with bands that view themselves as businesses and act professionally.

• Solicit demo tapes. Do listen to the demo recordings that are sent to you, but don’t listen to them twice unless you really so the talent. While you must not waste your time on all the wanna-be bands out there, one of them could be the next hit, so invite all comers while only giving each one limited time to impress you.

If you are concerned about advancing yourself in the world of business, try not to become overwhelmed! There is a lot to know about how to get a raise, get promoted, or move to a new level of work. It is, of course, every business person’s goal to move up that corporate ladder, but how is it really done? Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Share your goals with your boss. Your boss should know that you desire to move up. Don’t assume it! Some people are very content at a certain level and don’t seek to impress, so be sure the boss knows you are upwardly mobile and willing to do what it takes.
• Offer help. Find out what types of help the company needs and offer to provide it. Make yourself indispensable!
• Be on a board. Advisory boards help you to establish yourself as a dedicated worker and knowledgeable professional.
• Engage a mentor to help you learn more specific ways of moving up in your profession. Every career has its own tricks for getting ahead, so find someone who knows your work well and can advise you accordingly.

Oftentimes, when you are involved in managing a business or nonprofit, you will be faced with the need to raise funds. Sometimes the funds must be raised for a charitable event, like the policeman’s ball, sometimes the funds must simply be raised to get your venture off the ground, such as funding a creative project like a feature film or documentary. Either way, any business manager who wants to grow his or her career must know how to fundraise. Here are a few simple tips that will help you make fundraising simple, painless, and profitable.

• Always remind potential donors that what they are doing will change people’s lives, and describe how.
• Do not overwhelm your potential donor with extensive calling or writing. Take a subtle approach that focuses on the recipient of the benefits.
• Know the priorities of any institution that you approach for funding. These are usually publicly posted.
• Go to www.fdncenter.org. There, you can download any foundation’s 990-PF form. This IRS form will tell you who they have given to in the past, thus helping you know if they are a likely donor or not.

There is so much background work that must be done to properly fundraise. Do that homework, know your donors, approach them respectfully, and you will see those dollars come rolling in!

Business careers so often depend on simple gestures and tokens. It seems like the cut-throat business world would overlook such small things, but let’s face it—business is nothing but people building relationships. When building relationships, little gestures of politeness or appreciation really matter. Most folks feel under appreciated and invisible in their work, so when someone takes the time to say thanks, it can make a big difference in their lives. It can also make you stand out as an excellent worker or candidate.

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The art of the thank-you letter is ancient and multifaceted, but did you know these notes are not just sent in return for gifts? A thank-you note is also appropriate after a job interview. It tells the hiring manager he wasn’t just another interview for you in a long string of them. He was special, his job opportunity was special, you remember him, and you hope that he remembers you. Sending a thank you note after a job interview makes you stand out by:

• showing top-tier courtesy
• demonstrating above-average attention to detail
• letting you restate points you made in the interview
• allowing you to bring up any topics you might have forgotten in the interview
• demonstrating your skills as a writer

So don’t forget this small but important courtesy when you are out there pounding the pavement. It could result in a lot of more smiles and friendly handshakes coming your way . . . as well as that dream job.

If you are invited to a fancy soiree over the holidays, or any time, being able to handle yourself in a formal dinner party setting is going to become more than just an exercise in pleasing Aunt Myrtle. It could make or break your business career! Especially for Americans or others who travel to Europe for business, the fine points of fine dining are crucial to know in order to make a great first impression. Basically, knowing which fork to use (or not) will brand you as a sophisticate (or not) immediately. Memorize these few tips and you will get off on the right foot immediately:

• The bread and butter plate is found to the left of the entrée plate. Don’t goof up and use your neighbor’s!
• Never cut your bread with a knife. Tear off a small piece, then dip in olive oil or butter and eat.
• At a cocktail party, always carry your drink in your left hand, leaving your right free for shaking hands.
• If you need to leave the table briefly during the meal, place your napkin on the chair.
• To indicate that you are finished with a meal, place knife and fork side by side, pointing in the same direction. This tells the wait staff to pick up your place setting.

Remember these small aspects of fine dining, and you will fit right in with any formal crowd. You may even impress your colleagues with your subtle sophistication. This is just another one of those areas in life where little things mean a lot!

We all want to be powerful executives. We want the high salaries, the respect, and the opportunity that comes with executive privilege. But there is another side to life too. There is your desire to have dinner with your family, to participate fully in vacations (without your blackberry!) and that all important leisure time. Whether you enjoy reading a good book or taking in a game of golf, you need your leisure time to rest the mind and rejuvinate the soul. Business Week Magazine recently offered its advice to keep any executive balanced as well as successful:

• Know how to measure success: if you know exactly how performance will be assessed on any particular project, you will not waste your time on irrelevant or less important aspects of the work. If you want to be home to find out how your child’s day was and enjoy some private time with your spouse, don’t waste precious time working toward unmeasured or unmeasurable success.
• Cut out interruptions: This applies to every executive’s management of his or her own time, but also to management of the entire office. “Crises” that pop up and throw everyone off their schedules are frequent in many offices, but must end! Such events only build the possibility that the work that was once a “project” that got interrupted by a “crisis” will become delayed, overdue, and soon a crisis of its own.

End the self-perpetuating inefficient practices that keep your office working against itself every day. If you want to enjoy a balanced life, that means accomplishing your work quickly and efficiently, and that means stop wasting time!

When you are a business unit executive, your primary goal is to improve your company’s competitiveness in a specific market. You will make decisions and select products. You will learn how to accommodate all the customer needs and how to excel over your competitors. You will need to exploit all new opportunities that come your way and you’ll also have to create new opportunities out of thin air!

When you go into business, there are many paths you might take, such as:

• accountant
• financier
• salesperson
• marketing manager
• economist
• entrepreneur

but if you choose to become a business unit executive, others will depend upon you for taking the business to that extra level. You will be a strategist but also a marketer. You will be involved in the fascinating world of consumer psychology as well, which is one of the things that makes this position so incredibly fascinating!

There are hundreds of MBA programs out there, so how do you select one? Well, if you’re smart you’ll wait for BusinessWeek’s biennial Executive MBA rankings. This well-researched ranking system rates 25 programs worldwide. The rankings are done through surveys including over three thousand four hundred EMBA graduates. The survey participants hail from up to 64 different schools. In addition, EMBA directors are polled as to their own rankings for the schools they manage.

Of course, there is no sure-fire way to know if any school is the right one for you until you attend it, but criteria such as a the percentage of graduates starting first jobs with above average salaries will help you see that some schools do tend to offer more of a boost to success than others. Here are the top ten schools as rated by Business Week:

1. Northwestern University
2. University of Pennsylvania
3. University of Chicago
4. University of Michigan
5. UNC Chapel-Hill
6. Emory University
7. International Institute for Management Development
8. University of Southern California
9. Duke University
10. Georgetown University

People with disabilities can have a tough time finding gainful employment in today’s day and age. Whether their disabilities stem from serving in the armed forces, birth defects, traumatic incidents, or any other cause, the effect is the same. Life moves slower for the disabled and transporation is perennially problematic. But today the disabled are opening their own businesses in record numbers. Recent research reports from Rehabilition Services Admninistration show:

• 20 to25% of participating disabled people are interested in starting their own businesses
• At least 50% of disabled business owners receive help in their endeavors through the Disabled Businesspersons Association
• More than half of entrepreneurs with disabilities started their businesses with investments of less than $10,000
• three in five disabled-owned businesses are partnerships of two to three people

With the advantage of online business as well as the benefits of teamwork, disabled people today have more opportunities than ever to open their own businesses, thus create their own jobs. As technology develops, choices abound for the disabled among us, and that can only be good news for the entire community.

If you are interested in starting a small business, but don’t know what that business might be, advice from Entrepreneur magazine may benefit you. This publication puts out an annual “hot list” that analyzes the best markets today in which to grow a small to medium-sized business. In its latest issue, Entrepreneur stated four different strategies that will help any business person to find their target market and identify the best product or service to sell.

• Consider countertrends: Every trend has its countertrend. There are always those who despise the products that large industries try to foist upon the public. For instance, in an era when the fashion industry is pushing “skinny jeans” there could be a big market for more comfortable clothes for larger body types.

• Make your business symbiotic with a larger one, rather than competitive: In a world where there are many lucrative clothing stores online, you might create a business that offers personal shopping services that helps buyers find the best websites and products for their interests. Or you might start a “fashion overhaul” business that helps online shopaholics pare down their overflowing closets into a comprehensive stylistic statement. Don’t compete with the big sellers, instead, work with them.

• Translate goods to new markets. You may be selling the same thing as someone else, but must you sell it to the same people? Cooking classes can be geared toward kids. Creative activities can be geared toward adults that need hobbies. Find new markets for old products, and your business will enjoy a resurgence!