JAMES PLOTI

"Who do You Consider Your Mentor?" When interviewers ask you this question, they want to find out if there is anyone in your professional history who has made a difference in your life? They don't really care what the person taught you, but the question is asked in order to discover whether or not you can connect with your bosses and learn from their experience. What is a Mentor? When you are asked, "Who is your mentor?", really you are being asked "Do you have anyone from whom you have learned a lot?" A mentor is someone who offers advice and counsel, and who lends you his or her resources to help you advance in your professional or personal life. A mentor can be someone as important as the CEO of a big company, or it could be the neighbor next door who teaches you simple life lessons while helping you fix your bike. As long as the person offered you advice that made a difference in your life, that person could very well be conside...

Land Can Be Deceptively Complicated On the surface, it seems like such a simple creature – but there can be A LOT of potential problems lurking beneath the surface of any piece of land. I wouldn’t necessarily say all these issues are  common , but the fact is – any one of these things could potentially be a deal killer if not addressed properly. When you take it all into consideration, it adds up to a sizable list of things that ought to be investigated as part of your due diligence process. Don’t get me wrong, land is a rock-solid investment . It’s just a matter of knowing what to watch out for, and under what circumstances you should re-adjust your offer price (or walk away from the deal altogether). 1. What is the Zoning on the Property? First and foremost, it is vitally important to understand what a property can be used for, and what the highest and best use of the property is. With a simple phone call to your local planning & zoning department, most offi...

For many entrepreneurs, making their first sale is a monumental task. A million questions pop up, such as: How can I make my product stand out from those of my competitors? What types of questions should I ask? How do I handle objections? How should I ask for the order? For the answers to these and other sales challenges, we've interviewed five internationally known authors of sales books and audio tapes to share their sales secrets. Here are their 25 secrets for sales success. 25 Super Sales Secrets ·          Brian Tracy:  Sales Tips for First-Time Entrepreneurs ·          Linda Richardson:  Sales Presentation Success ·          Shari Posey:  Preparations and Guarantees ·          Bob Bly:  Sales Materials That Shine ·          Barry F...

10 top tips for answering telephone calls professionally Web inquiries , emails, social media and live chat facilities all have their place, but the telephone is still the preferred communication tool of choice for many when it comes to business. With this in mind, here’s our tips on getting   call answering right first time … The first one is probably the most obvious but   answer the call quickly . Nothing says unprofessional like leaving a caller hanging on a ringing line. They have made the move to call your business over the others listed on Google (and probably cost you a ‘click’ in the process!) so reward them by answering their call quickly. Answering the phone ‘with a smile on your face’   might sound cheesy but it really works. It doesn’t matter if you are having a bad day, are half way through a complicated spreadsheet or half way out of the door on the way home. Your caller takes priority. Warm and enthusiastic is suddenly the order of the day. A...

11 Best Practice Tips for Professional Text Messaging With the overwhelming number of communication channels available to businesses, figuring out the  best  way to reach clients can be tricky. While you want to make sure your customers get the message, you also don’t want to annoy them with too much contact. So as more and more companies begin to reach out using text, we asked Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question: “For those of you who use text messaging to reach clients/customers, what is one best practice you can share with others? “ Here’s what YEC community members had to say: 1. Keep Them Short “Text messaging is effective, but only if it’s brief. No one likes having to read a text message that’s more than a sentence or two.” ~   Andrew Schrage ,   2. Offer Another Level of Service “Since we ship physical products, we use text messaging to alert customers about when their order is shipped and when it’s gone ...