More than 37 million Americans live in poverty, and the vast majority of them are in line for extra help under the giant stimulus package coming out of Congress. Millions more could be kept from slipping into poverty by the economic lifeline.People who get food stamps — 30 million and growing — will get more. People drawing unemployment checks — 4.8 million and growing — would get an extra $25, and keep those checks coming longer. People who get Supplemental Security Income — 7 million poor Americans who are elderly, blind or disabled — would get one-time extra payments of $250.If we can just help 1 percent become self-sustaining that will be some help considering the very little the stimulus plan will do.SummaryMake A Difference Ministries is a not-for-profit humanitarian program that serves all of Johnson County, Cleburne TX. MADM goal is to help unemployed families in Johnson County and expand to help others nationally by soliciting, collecting, and packaging food for distribution through a network of service agencies and programs that serve our target population groups. Our services include food box programs, alternative job fairs, utility assistance, and a youth job shadowing program that provides opportunities for self-sufficiency activities for "at risk" youth.Unemployment rates continue to rise and now millions of families are without sustainable income. Our client base is low-mid income people, mainly families, who need emergency help to put food on the table. Nearly half of those served by the program are children. MADM facility where we store donated clothes for distribution will host our first alternative Job Fair. The program is, soliciting food donations, vendors, and door prizes. In addition, we are offering an alternative from traditional job fairs to bringing in net-workers, small business owners to mentors others how to use one’s skill or talent to make a living.Alternative Job Fairs provide the opportunity to connect face-to-face with recruiters who would appreciate training and mentoring prospects.Our services will improve the ability of families to care for children and achieve goals of self-sufficiency. MADM services, now, are a small investment in comparison to cost of ignoring the problem of unemployment, hunger, in the country and the influence it has on a number of health, mental health and crime issues.MissionThe mission of MADM is to help as many families as possible by soliciting, collecting, packaging food for distribution through a network of agencies and programs, as well as provide opportunities for self sufficiency. Our services include food box programs, alternative job fairs, and children's programs.ObjectivesThis new initiative is designed to create an Alternative Job Fair that will serve all of Johnson County, Cleburne TX and expand nationally. Our objectives are:• Effectively organize our first alternative job fair with a network of vendors, volunteers, as a pilot event before expansion.• Establish donation network of local growers, retailers, wholesalers, and processors in Johnson County and provide utility assistance.• Establish youth program that will employ "at risk" youth.• Collect over four million pounds of food the first year of operation. Increase collection amount by 20% each year.• Effectively distribute the food to low-income families that make up over 20% of Johnson County.• Acquire $500,000 of start-up funding through corporate, private charities and government financial support.• Raise an additional $100,000 in fundraising activity.Strategy and SummaryMADM will focus on establishing an effective system for organizing alternative job fairs, collection network with retailers, wholesalers, and processors. Another primary goal will be the creation of a youth program that will employ "at risk" youth. The program will also start a fundraising campaign with area retail markets, banks and credit unions in order to raise an additional $100,000.MADM will advertise its services to the target populations groups through the agencies that serve these groups on a daily basis.Marketing StrategyMADM program will focus on increasing its visibility in the community. Participating business and food retail stores will carry information about MADM and how programs like this one are helping the community. Award certificates will be distributed to businesses each year and the program will find additional methods to raise the profile of businesses that assist the program.Program brochures will be distributed by local social service programs and agencies that serve the target population groups. In addition, these programs and agencies will serve as advocates of using MADM in response to the need for emergency food.Fundraising StrategyMADM will immediately start a Fundraising campaign that will focus on using the local banks and credit unions to collect donations to help unemployed families. Typically, food drives are started in October and November. MADM will place donation bins in participating banks and credit union. In addition, customers in local retail food stores can donate money to MADM at the checkout stand at participating businesses.Vendors will pay a booth fee and various speakers will pay a registration fee to highlight their business and do presentations. We need your support contact us thru www.kellermakeadifference.webs.com
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Hello all, I just need to write down my business building thoughts...I suggest that you do the same and track your progress whether you use your blog or a notebook, which Im doing as well. Ok so here it goes.During the week of July 27 thru August 2, 2008, to build my business I will:* work on my newsletter (its almost the first of the month) and get it out to all the brides on my list telling them about my upcoming workshops and offer a discount on my services.* find the local networking events and make sure that I RSVP and add them to my calender* mail off postcards to brides telling them about my gown preservation service* further look for venues in which to promote my business.* work with my graphic artist to get some advertising slick done* get the press releases out about the upcoming guests on LE Radio* update my slide picture show showing confirmed guest and upcoming events* look into wholesale offerings from my sistafriends who sale bath and body productsWhat are you doing over the next 7 days to promote your business?
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With the economy bordering on a recession, every company is looking for ways to increase revenues while decreasing costs. Some companies believe one of the easiest ways to do this is to cut their employee training budget. However, businesses interested in long-term viability recognize that to be successful they must continually develop their people, especially their leaders.According to recent research, companies with regular employee training consistently outperform companies who do not train their people.There are many books, seminars and prepackaged programs that claim to help you do this more effectively and efficiently. Most have varying success because they are not customized to meet your company's specific needs. Canned approaches have little lasting effect.Leadership development is not about reading a book or attending a seminar. Sustained development of leaders is a process. It must be tailored to meet your company's specific needs and goals to be successful. Research indicates there are some common criteria among successful leadership development programs. The best ones promote leadership in three phases:Plan for Leadership Development.The first part of planning a leadership program is to examine what you currently have in place.In order to gauge your efforts, answer the following five questions:Does your company have a comprehensive plan for developing people?What are the benefits you would receive from having an effective leadership development program?What are the estimated costs in turnover, lower productivity, and lower morale to not having one now?What would a successful leadership development program look like for your company?How much time, energy, and money are you willing to invest to develop one?The next planning step is to begin identifying characteristics of people who are already successful leaders in your company. Every company has a unique corporate structure and culture that rewards particular characteristics. The key to building a successful program begins with looking at successful people. Think about the people who are or have been most successful at your company and ask:What kind of training experiences have they had?What kind of educational background do your most successful people have?How many years of experience in your line of work do they have?How do they fit in with your corporate culture?How would you describe their personality style?What best motivates them?Practice Leadership Development.Once you have formed an outline of how you want to develop your leaders and what "success" looks like, you must start implementing the program. Start small, with one or two people. This will allow you to work out the bugs inconspicuously. There are different ways to begin the program, but nearly all successful ones have at least two clear parts: specific leadership training and coaching/mentoring. The training can include elements of:Effective business communicationConflict resolution skillsTeam buildingRelating to different personality stylesTime managementDelegation skillsGoal settingCritical coaching skillsOther areas specific to your businessThe second part is coaching or mentoring. All of the top professional and Olympic athletes recognize the importance of a personal coach to help them reach peak performance. A mentor or coach can provide your leaders with the one-on-one attention needed to help take them to the next level quickly.Most organizations use some form of sales to drive their product or services. In many of these businesses the sales team leader is the one who does the coaching or mentoring. The majority of these sales leaders are in a position of leadership because they were good at selling. Unfortunately, there is not a direct correlation between being a good salesman and being a good coach or leader. Many leaders have some natural tendencies: they train others how they were trained, they try to motivate other according to how they are motivated, and they tend to miss-focus their energies.Even the best intentioned sales leaders often display a subtle tendency to focus on two groups of people: the employees who are top performers and those who are under performing. The average performers are usually left to fend for themselves. If sales leaders are aware of this natural tendency, they can usually self-correct it. With some additional coaching, it is easier to help the average performer become a top performer than it is to transform the under performer. When you have developed a comprehensive training program you can strategize about where your investment of time will result in the best ROI.An effective mentor or coach can help decrease learning curves. Many businesses have a learning curve in which people at the front of the curve significantly under perform the people at the top of the curve. For example, if you realize that it takes a new sales associate 12 to 18 months to start really performing, how much would it be worth to your company to dedicate a leader to spending one-on-one time coaching with new sales associates if that coaching could decrease their time to optimal performance from 12-18 months to 6-8 months?Promote Leadership Development.Once you have refined your program by working with a couple of leaders it's time to start promoting the program.Start by making it known during the interview process with potential employees. Many small company's use their leadership development program to draw in high-potential applicants that otherwise would go to larger organizations.Sell your leadership training program to applicants by telling them (and showing them) how invested you are in helping them develop as a leader. The kind of people who do well in small to medium-sized businesses are keenly aware of the importance of self-development. These people will be impressed that you want to make an investment in them.Start highlighting successful characteristics to your current employees and draw attention to the employees that are doing well. Be careful to point out that your goal is for every employee to be their best.Work hard not to create an atmosphere of cut-throat competition where one person can win only when another loses. Show every employee how they can succeed.Use your leaders to coach others and consider bringing in an outside coach to help your leaders coach their employees more effectively.SummaryLeadership training is absolutely critical to the success of business, especially small to medium sized companies. One of the mantras of the 1990's human potential movement was "people are our most valuable asset." There was a lot of verbal acknowledgement of this truth, but not a lot of companies acted on it. Smart companies are beginning to recognize that leadership development and people training is a process, not an event and this process has bottom line results.For companies looking to increase their revenues and cut their costs, leadership development is a must. Over the long run companies who develop their leaders and train their people significantly outperform companies who do not.Trust what you've trainedBy Coach Kevin Faulkner @ The BBC
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As women entrepreneurs, we all know how crucial it is to work on ourselves in the area of personal development.We all see people who are very successful in the same business that we are in, yet we seem to be stuck and struggling. I myself know what this is like. The problem is not the business, but in ourselves.The truth is, all of us need a personal development plan; a plan that we work on day in and day out. While we may not seen results right away, consistent action will bring positive results.Have you ever considered doing a 30 Day Mental Cleanse?You might be asking what are we talking about? Too often we let things into our minds that should not be there and it hinders our progress. The best way to get your mind focused is to clean it up with what it should have. Think of it like rebooting your hard drive.We have found this process to be more effective when people can do this together and share the result. What are you going to get? By joining this 30-day cleanse, we will send you ebook(s) to read and have weekly calls associated with this specific 30-day mental cleanse to assist you along the way. All that is required by you is your commitment to doing the program. If you are ready to become the right kind of person, then complete the form below. You will be sent the full instructions and Michael & Linda will keep in touch with you by email as well as myself and on the weekly calls.If this is something that interests you, go to http://www.30daycleanse.com/All of this personal development training is free and will be a tremendous asset to your personal development plan.Let me know if you join up.I wish you success,Monique540-858-2885Skype: Monique371mentormonique@gmail.com
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