The Promo Coach

Michigan has made headlines nationwide regarding the depressive setbacks that the state has experienced over several years. A large portion of Michigan’s industry is automotive. The recent cutbacks, layoffs, and early retirement incentives the big-wig auto moguls have issued has trickled into adjacent industries leaving the state in financial trouble on an individual household basis. Of course, we can’t blame the entire state’s depression on white collard businessmen battling unions in the automotive world. Although the media has festered the minds of civilians and points this financial crisis in the direction of the automotive industry, the STATE is responsible for its financial ruins.

In 2007, Michigan Governer Granholm issued No Worker Left Behind. This is a free tuition program formed to get Michigan families the training they need to land good paying jobs.

“The goal of No Worker Left Behind is to double the number of Michiganians trained for family-sustaining jobs in demand in the 21st Century knowledge economy. That is, to train 100,000 people over the next three years.”- State Repesentative
This comprehensive plan focuses on families who are currently unemployed, received layoff notices and any employed family with income of $40,000 or less. Click here for more information.

Have your evaluated your management skills lately? More importantly have you looked at your ability to motivate your employees?

The ability to encourage the people that work for you is an asset. People want to feel appreciated, and they want to know that they are looked upon as individuals not part of a corporate machine. By creating the habit of encouragement you may well be insuring the continued success of your company. (continue reading…)

Have you ever seen management constantly complain about time constraints, budget concerns or even filing paperwork? This may be a boss or it may be you. It seems as if work is never completed in a timely fashion, papers are never filed or filed incorrectly, breaks are abused and 100% employee participation seems scarce. If this is your office, then you need to form a team. If you have a team, then a reconstruction of team management may be worthwhile. A good way to rid the complaints, ease stresses, get organized and save time is to correctly manage a team of competent people who will help you through your daily tasks.

Believe it or not there are team experts who coach individuals and groups on personal and business levels in forming teams, managing teams and boosting team morale. What’s ironic is that most businesses gather a group of individuals and stick the word ‘team’ to the group without establishing what is expected from each party. It seems as if everyone is supposed to ‘just know’ what to do. These circumstances lead to an array of miscommunications and misunderstanding of work assignments which could lead to a plethora of redoing work.

In this case, it may be necessary to seek a third party who has the expertise to help team leaders delegate work responsibly and assist team members to understand their role in the team. Denise O’Berry, Team Doc, is a professional team builder. Her expertise has helped many struggling teams, both small and big businesses, get a handle on issues that spin out of control and maintain a healthy working relationship to help build team morale. Denise’s blog, Team Building Tips is a great source for managers and team leaders. This blog has many articles that I find to be necessary tips that can lead to success.

It has been said that a third party is needed to incorporate your business. Actually, this is a task you can do yourself. You just need to know where to get the information to incorporate. The internet is saturated with companies that charge anywhere from $100 an up to incorporate for you. No lash to these companies. I mean, it’s an easy way to make money from people who’d rather just pay to have someone else do the work or from people who simply ‘don’t know’. A few questions you may want to ask yourself before shedding out loads of cash are; what am I really paying for? What is the filing fee for my state? Without knowing the answers to these questions, you end up paying much more than what’s necessary.

Incorporating in Michigan is fairly simple. The most difficult task of incorporating is determining which form of incorporation to file, whether corporation, limited partnership, limited liability, etc. If you are unsure of what is available to you find definitions in the Business Services section on the Michigan.gov Website. Click here for the link. Before filing any papers, you need to choose a business name. Find out if the name is available. This information can be found in the Business Entity Search . This will tell you whether or not the business name that you’ve chosen to incorporate in the state of Michigan is available. Fill out the incorporation form and drop it in the mail, along with your check for the incorporation (fees are about $50 and up) and the filing fee (starts at $10). Find all fees for each type of incorporation on the form that you are filling out to incorporate. The fee for that corporate entity is located on the last page of the form. If you want to rush the filing, there is an additional fee for this service. Really, it’s a one, two punch deal.

If you are absolutely unsure of what entity to apply for, find a CPA or attorney who can answer any questions you may have or give you more insight on tax regulations for each corporation.

Now that you’re ready for business, treat yourself to a leather business card case to store all your info. Stay prepared!