Category: Marketing agencies Erandwana

Interviewing Tips for Bringing in the Best

Sometimes growth and development comes from afar in the form of one person’s vision. Take the youngster Ryan Allis who shares his entrepreneurial secrets in a new book called Zero to One Million: How I Built My Company to $1 Million in Sales . . . and How You Can, Too. He also launched an email marketing firm called iContact.

Recently, I sent Ryan some questions to answer for this blog. Here’s part two of our Q&A:

LGL:    You provide a solid list of questions to ask applicants, but what if your entrepreneurial skills don’t include stellar interviewing skills? How can you get around that? What if interviewing is the last thing you want to do?

RA:    If interviewing isn’t your strong point, you must hire a Human Resources Director to screen and possibly interview applicants for your company. Originally, I conducted all employee interviews for building the iContact team. Today, our HR Director screens all applicants, and the manager within a specific department conducts the initial interview. If the manager wishes to submit the applicant as a potential hire, I will then interview them. After the manager ensures that an applicant is qualified and has the necessary experience, I like to interview them to see that they are sane, have a good work ethic, and can communicate well. As the leader of your company, it is your responsibility to grow your team with well-qualified, high-quality people, and you should do whatever it takes to accomplish this goal.

LGL:    You say that the two most important things you look for when hiring are initiative and work ethic. Can you elaborate on each and tell us why?

These are the main things I have learned to look for after conducting many interviews over the past few years. I’ve learned that no matter what someone’s level of experience is, if they have a bias toward action, take initiative, and has a solid work ethic, you will want them to work on your team.

Having a bias toward action and taking the initiative means that a person will never become idle due to indecision. If they see a problem, they will be proactive and figure out a way to solve it, and are always looking for ways to improve the company. Having a good work ethic means that a person is able to see any issues that arise through until a solution is reached. These people will often have to multi-task and work on several different projects at once, and being able to focus to complete the tasks at hand illustrate their strong work ethic. 

Have You Backed Up Your Data Files Today?

“The First Year” has been quiet for the last week, because I lost my hard drive last Tuesday. Did I have all my important files backed up?  No!  Actually, I hadn’t backed up anything for over a week. (Tsk, tsk!)  I was very fortunate that my service tech was able to recover everything that counted.  I did lose one folder, however.  It was an archive file of client work I had done over three years ago.  If I had to lose something, these were probably the least critical. 

I worried for several days about whether my data could even be recovered, then fretted several more before I had use of my computer again.  Lucky for me, the worst I’ve had to do is reload applications I purchased online (i.e., for which I didn’t have application disks), reconfigure network and email connections, and re-establishing preferences. Oh, and there was paying the service bill from the tech. I’m painfully aware of how much worse it could have been.  So, please, go back up your own important data right now!

How to Address a Business Letter

Home » Business Model » How to Address a Business Letter
July 13, 2013 Ervin Quinto Business Model Tags: business, business letter, business model, how to address a business letter
In a previous article we were explaining how to write a business letter, showing you the steps you have to go through. Format, expression, language, content, grammar, forms of address and all other aspects are just as important when you write a business letter. There is a lot hanging in a letter like this because the content usually has to do with measures that have to be taken, with valuable information being passed from person to person, with important business deals and transactions that can affect other people or the businesses themselves. That is why you have to pay close attention to every little detail and know when to censor yourself and when to include additional information.

To help you with one of the aspects which is as complex as it is short, we are going to show you how to address a business letter. One might think that this is the easiest part of the letter, but like with everything else, there are nuances you have to take into account. To begin with, determine whether you’re addressing the letter to a man, to a woman, to a board of directors or to the company in general. There are many formulas that you can employ when you learn how to address a business letter, but you need to use your intuition and several other factors to know which formula is the most appropriate.

To a woman – Addressing your letter to a woman means you have to use a special set of formulas, and you have to take your relations to the person into consideration. First of all you have to think about her title, whether she is a Doctor, whether she is married or not, whether she is a professor, or who knows, the happy recipient of a royal title, such as “Lady”, “Countess”, “Baroness” and so on. For example, you can address your letter in one of the following examples: “Dear Mrs. Smith”, “Dear Dr. Smith”, “Dear Lady Smith” or “Dear Ms. Smith” if she is not married. People, and especially women seem to care about details like this, so you don’t want to give the wrong impression just because you weren’t paying much attention. If the woman you are addressing is working in a company, find out what her title is, so you can include it at the top of the page, before the actual letter begins, and on the envelope. You also need to check and double-check that you are spelling her name correctly, especially if you don’t know her personally. A very formal letter towards a doctor could also begin with “Mrs. Smith M.D.” or “Mary Smith D.O.”; if she is a pastor or reverend, address her thus: “Reverend Mary Smith” or “Pastor Mary Smith”.
To a man – Addressing a letter to a man is fairly simpler and less complicated; generally, you have to respect the same rules as before. Make sure you know how to spell the recipient’s name correctly – this will not only avoid confusion, but it will avoid your making a bad impression on the person you’re writing to. Find out whether they have a royal or business title and include it in the salutation, such as “Dear Mr. Smith” or “Dear Sir Smith”. If you actually have the honor of writing to royalty, your letter should begin with “Your Royal Highness”, “Your Grace”, “Your Majesty”. This however is very unlikely, so let’s skip to another category.
To multiple persons – If you are addressing your letter to a group of people you don’t know, such as a board of directors, or to a company or firm in general, you should start thus: “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Respected Organization”. If you don’t know whether a man or a woman will read your letter, you can say “Dear Sir/Madam” or “Dear Madam/Sir”. When you write a letter to multiple specific persons whose names you know, you can simply list them after the ‘dear’ formula: “Dear Mr. Jones, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Philips”, or writing their titles accordingly: “Dear Mr. Jones, Dr. Smith and Ms. Philips”.
We hope this information will be useful to you in future business transactions and dealings, and that it will help you achieve the status you are looking for without minor or major obstacles. If you pay a little attention to details like these and learn how to address a business letter properly, you can go a long way, and be much more appreciated in your work environment.

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