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Visual aids make complicated data easier to understand. Excel's pie charts, bar graphs, line charts and other built-in charts help your data jump off the page. But to get the most from Excel's chart feature, you must go beyond the basic Chart Wizard offerings. This document gives you five...

I just came across this hilarious story on Brand Autopsy about Campbell-Mithum, an ad agency in Minneapolis. The firm had a dilemma–it couldn’t explain to its clients why its services are indispensable or how it can improve their branding and marketing efforts. Why? Because they didn’t know...

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool for organizing and presenting information. But, as with any tool, it has the potential for misuse. Who hasn't sat through a badly constructed, poorly delivered presentation? This list will help you avoid some of the most commonly made PowerPoint blunders. Security...

Overview: Sometimes all you want from a table is a bare-bones grid. But when a document calls for a little more polish and design appeal, put these tricks to work and turn those grids into sharp-looking tables. Word provides a tremendous assortment of options that let you take a plain table and...

Sure, you know you can't Google porn at work and that you have limited privacy rights (Read: virtually none) when it comes to company-owned computers and phones. But can senior management intrude too much on employees' work lives? Do off-duty employees have privacy rights? Nolo, the legal...

Wal-Mart's "Personal Sustainability Project" for employees, as reported in this NYT article, is fantastic. We all need to cultivate a sense of self-improvement — we can improve our mind and body — and I love how Wal-Mart is investing in programs to encourage this thinking among their massive...

I just came across this hilarious story on Brand Autopsy about Campbell-Mithum, an ad agency in Minneapolis. The firm had a dilemma–it couldn’t explain to its clients why its services are indispensable or how it can improve their branding and marketing efforts. Why? Because they didn’t know...

B2B sales typically involve multiple decision-makers, scores of “influencers”” and a complex buying process. To make the sale, you’ll need a roadmap and a rule book, and the only way to get that info is to extract it from your initial customer contacts through persistent questioning. However, if...

It’s easy to make fun of Ron Popeil. Since the days of the Veg-o-matic food slicer, Ron’s “but wait, there’s more” patter has been fodder for endless satire (like the infamous Bass-O-Matic.) However, even though Ron’s carnival selling style is as obsolete as an 8-track tape, he’s still a role...

Return on Sales (ROS) indicates a company’s operating profit (or loss) for a particular period—usually one year. Essentially the formula is profit divided by sale revenue, expressed as a percentage. ROS is a useful measure of a company’s operational efficiency as well as its profitability. It...

If you are a manager or a supervisor with a team working for you, you will surely need to delegate from time to time. It’s a key skill to develop for several reasons. Delegation shouldn’t be about giving tasks to others because you don’t want to do them yourself. And it’s not only about getting...

After PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak wrote a screed about the evils of using AutoReply, the folks over at LifeHacker set up a poll asking readers whether they used the feature when they were away on vacation or otherwise unable to answer email. Surprisingly, over a third claimed that they...

From Henry Ford’s assembly line to Apple’s iPod, every great innovation started with a great idea. But in the business world, it’s a lot easier to say "no" to new ideas than it is to dedicate time, money, and resources to developing them. That’s why idea-friendly companies like Toyota, Yahoo...

n the never-ending quest to analyze our way to intelligence, we business people tend to measure a lot of things. (We then call these measurements metrics in order to lend an air of importance.) And while the Internet media and advertising industries have ample data, they have it notably tough...

If you are considering exhibiting at a trade show, be sure you obtain proper exhibition support to get the best return on your investment. In most cases you will require professional help to design an appropriate stand, though this might not be necessary if you use a standard shell scheme or...

Funny enough, NASA has piles of research on how plants are amazingly capable of pulling all sorts of pollutants from indoor airspaces. It’s also been shown that pristine office environments make employees more productive. So get more plants in your office — they’ll lend vibrancy to your space...

Product publications can be a useful sales tool for communicating with customers. From flyers and data sheets, to detailed brochures and catalogs, each type of publication has a unique role in the sales and marketing process. This article gives an overview of the various forms of product...

Spending hours a day sitting on your butt is not a great way to remain healthy or—more importantly—look good naked. But immobility is usually necessary in order to be productive at work. Here are a few ideas to get around this conundrum: teadmill.jpgTreadmill Desk: You’ll need a cool boss and...

A brand is a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product—or set of products—from others. To retain competitive advantage, you must proactively manage your brand; once it is established and successful, it can be profitable to extend a brand in a new direction. Brands can...

Encouraging repeat sales from existing customers is a key aim for any business. Finding new customers is an expensive and often lengthy process, so for some companies, repeat sales from existing customers will be the biggest revenue-generating source of income and profits. Establishing a...