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Part Two of Creating Well-Defined Processes
Series

Part One: http://www.bizmanualz.com/articles/02-08-05_Process_Improvement.html?src=ART83

Next Week: Implementation

Last week, we raised the question: how do you know where to begin? How can you identify a gap in one of your company’s core processes?

The answer: follow the money trail…

But how do you follow the money trail, and what will that mean for your business? To answer this, let’s look at five steps to identify your core processes and any needs for change.

Step 1: Define Your Business Model

The following question might sound very basic, but you should first ask yourself: what business am I in? You’ll ask this because you want to follow the money trail: to identify how exactly you earn revenue and from where that revenue comes. And this also defines your business model, which sets how you make money. By examining your business model (including mission and vision statements), you see not only how you can make money but also how you should make money. In other words, what should be happening in your business to increase revenue – but isn’t and why?

Step 2: Create a Process Map

Once you’ve looked at your business model, continue to follow the money trail and identify your company’s core processes in the cash to cash cycle. By doing this you can see which processes are most critical to the overall success of your business.

Next, connect the core processes in a process map. Link suppliers, inputs, outputs and customers together to see the overall cash conversion cycle. Let’s examine a high level process map.

Here we have the complete business cycle of a typical company using the SIPOC method, which connects Suppliers to Inputs to Processes to Outputs to Customers. To illustrate, a typical process map flows like the following from left to right: a Supplier connects the input purchasing with the Process of inventory and to the Output sales, which is then connected to the Customer. From there, the cycle also flows back from right to left: the Customer connects the Output accounts receivable to the Process of manufacturing to the Input accounts payable and finally to the Supplier.

With this you can see the departments through which cash flows. And once you identify and break down your company’s core processes, you are closer to answering the question: which process do I start to improve?

Step 3: Examine Financial Statements

Now continue along the money trail by looking at your financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Your financial statements indicate where your money is piling up, sort of like a snap shot of what your velocity is currently.

For example, in a manufacturing company, you can determine if there are long wait times between sales or long delivery times – both of which are evident in inventory. And inventory (as seen in your financial statements) also show the effects of time – and whether your process velocity (i.e. a slow process in the conversion cycle that causes long lead and wait times) is causing a pile up in your financial statements. Ask yourself: “are my processes fast enough to make my customers happy?”

Step 4: Set Velocity

Velocity is the speed at which your system is operating currently e.g. goods delivered on time and responsiveness to orders. To design an effective process, you will need to know the set velocity that the organization needs to maintain good customer satisfaction. If your inventory process has a long cycle time, beginning with raw materials and ending with the customer, then this could be an indication of a low velocity. Customers set the pace, and they will tell you if the velocity of product turnaround is sufficient. And so companies need to calculate what that pace is to make customers happy.

Step 5: Determine Leverage

The last element in following the money trail is to review leverage – which process improvement will create the strongest return on investment (ROI)? Keep in mind both time and money, and determine what process inefficiency is consuming all of your cash. Why is that process eating away your money, and should it be? But keep in mind, too, the element of risk: what will happen if I make a change, and what will happen if I make no change?

For gauging your ROI needs, examine the five parts we’ve discussed so far: your business model, process map, your financial statements, velocity and the leverage to make your customers happy.

Answer these five questions, and you should know where to start.

Let’s look at an example in play…

Review a Case Study of Core Business Processes

A manufacturing company interested in ISO 9001 quality was experiencing poor customer service and very low inventory turns, and needed help. The company’s perceived problem was not that they carried too much inventory but, instead, that they had poor customer service and employee performance in processing and fulfilling orders in a timely manner. Because of this, they wanted us to focus on those areas. But with such a pile up of inventory we saw a red flag. And we asked the company: where is the root cause of the problem?

As we took a further look, we immediately saw a connection between poor customer sales service and a large stock of inventory. The company’s manufacturing cycle efficiency was so low that it created a perceived need for higher inventory. And customers weren’t happy because of long wait times to receive the products that they ordered. In other words, customers weren’t getting the velocity that they had expected and wanted.

The company insisted that it needs more inventory to keep customers happy. But this is just another bandage to fix the symptom of the problem and not the root cause.

Inventory is a result of the purchasing, manufacturing and sales cycles. And so we examined the financials, business model and system velocity of the company. From there we created a process map of these three core processes, as well as defined the company’s leverage points that would ensure a healthy ROI for any process changes made. We calculated an improvement of five times in velocity. By removing the inefficiencies out of the system, inventory decreased significantly, turns increased greatly, and customers were happy. We helped reduce the total amount of inventory. And we also helped increase the speed of the inventory cycle by focusing on purchasing, manufacturing and sales.

Create a Gap Analysis

And so with this example, we can now answer our original question: where do you start? As we’ve discussed, follow the money trail through the five key steps: define your business model, create a process map, examine financial statements, set velocity and determine leverage. But what pulls it all together?

We pull all of this together with a Gap Analysis. An operations assessment (also called an audit) results in a Gap Analysis and this report of gaps, or inefficiencies, found in the system shows you where to start to achieve your target. A Gap Analysis helps you identify your core processes and performance metrics in order for you to achieve your objectives.

Look Ahead

Next time, we will look at a process map more in-depth. We’ve identified where to start, but we will learn how to create a process map - one of the most important documents you need for your organization’s success.

About the Author: Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com?src=ART84

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Link development can be an absolute nightmare. It takes up most of a marketer’s time and the yield isn’t always what we originally hoped. Worrying about PR, one way inbound links, triangle linking, where to find quality sites to exchange with, it’s all just a huge headache. To be honest, there’s no real way to wash your hands of it, unless you have a huge budget for purchasing text links or to hire someone to do your linking for you. So here are 13 ways to increase your linking luck. They require a little bit of effort, but executed properly, these steps will only bring your site success.

1. Create a page or series of pages on which you will post the links you are reciprocating. It is important to make sure these pages are a valuable resource to anyone who actually visits them. Try to avoid the use of the word “link” or phrase “link exchange” in your body text, title or file names. Use “resource” instead. Allow visitors to these pages to suggest additions without using link exchange language like “submit site”.

2. Keep your outgoing links relevant, but don’t be too specific. For example, http://www.realestatelicense.com - this is a real estate license school, so we would list resources for real estate, real estate training, post secondaries, trade schools, education, careers, mortgages, architecture, interior design, contractors, etc. It is important to keep your entire web site’s keyword density to a decent level and this includes not just the keywords you are targeting, but keywords that relate to the theme of your site. keeping your site’s keyword density to a good level is the reason why you should only list related web sites. Dedicating a page on http://www.realestatelicense.com to baking will bring down that site’s keyword density.

3. Keep an eye on your link to text ratio. Write paragraphs for each link page explaining what types of sites visitors will find on this page, how you hope this will help your visitors and that they can suggest additions if they know of any. You can also add comments to each link you have on the site. Too many links and not enough text will tell search engines that this page is a link page and is only there for search engine optimization purposes. Search engines like real resource pages, that are there for the use of your site’s visitors.

4. Don’t worry too much about PR - search trends are beginning to show that PR is less and less important. As I’ve said in previous articles, just like the saying “no publicity is bad publicity”, no inbound link is a bad one, the more links you have, the more your site will be seen, plain and simple. Relevancy is the new PR. Keep your outbounds relevant and useful, regardless of PR, and you’ll do fine.

5. Submit your site to directories, including industry and geographically specific. This is a universally known tactic, but most people just do it once.

You’ve got to search every once in a while to find new directories, search engines and other people’s resource pages. They pop up daily, keeping on top of it will be the most beneficial thing you can do for your site.

6. Join link exchange networks. There are a few out there that are quite valuable and well done, like http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/ and even some of the less valuable ones will send you a decent link opportunity every now and again.

7. Talk to the people in your geographic area. If your store is in a mall, ask the other stores in your mall to exchange links. If you’re in an office building, ask all the other businesses in the building. Look through your chamber of commerce web site, or local business directory. Remember, relevancy includes geography. http://www.realestatelicense.com can exchange with sites related to the keywords I listed in step 1 as well as sites in and around their area of California.

8. Ask any clients with businesses to link to your site. Offer them a discount on further purchases for the duration of time they keep your link up. Not only does this produce a one-way incoming link to your site, but it also promotes repeat business.

9. Ask every site you come across that you like or find useful for a link exchange.

10. Participate in forums, such as http://scamcops.abalone.ca/forums/ and use your signature to link to your site.

11.Triangle linking, though hard work, can be very beneficial. Triangle linking is the process of creating one way links between three sites. Eg. Site 1 agrees to link to site 2 if site 2 links to site 3 and site 3 links back to site 1.

12. Write articles and submit them to places such as articlecity.com and goarticles.com. Make them valuable articles that people will actually read, and they’ll get picked up by more places. Make sure your Author’s bio has a link to your web site.

13. Create a “Link to Us” page and allow visitors who find your site a great resource to link to you on their own. Avoid banner links or button links and stick to text links. Relevant anchor text is as important as the link itself.

And finally, be patient. Obtaining a lot of incoming links all at once can raise some flags in search engine algorithms. A well conducted link development campaign takes time but is well worth it. The pay-off can turn your new business into a massive success and can mean the difference between flipping burgers for operating capital, or sipping Mai-Tais in Bora Bora while all your worker bees back home keep things going. Trust me, Tahiti’s worth the wait.

About the Author: Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, a search engine optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney’s articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/

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Silent songs through the night.
Musical rhythm that echoes your mind.
Beauty and kindness at your sight
Could this be LOVE?

Different emotions clogged your heart.
Only thy face runs through your mind.
Awaiting for her lovely voice.
Could this be LOVE?

Moments like time flies,
Heartfelt tickles your senses.
Taken by the arrow of Eros

I wonder how this could be Love.
For mere feelings
like thief in the night.
This must be LOVE.

About the Author: I am a graduate of Angelicum College.

I am fond of Harry Potter books and Lord of the Rings.

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Can the Internet foster intelligent conversation and help to form new ideas and moral beliefs?

A weird thing happened yesterday as I walked through my university campus. A young man approached me from a political organization that obviously was canvassing for new members. This is nothing new as there are always people attacking me for one cause or another. I am very interested in the ways in which life and human society works especially in the realm of spirituality and morality. However, I have to admit that I’ve never really gotten much out of politics, or economics which politics seems to be mainly focused on. For some reason I got into a conversation with this fellow and the resulting experience affected me profoundly.

I don’t know if his political group is relevant to this article but I will mention it is based around a U.S. Democrat named Lyndon Larouche. The guy was telling me in detail about how the present world economy based around George Bush’s American system is destined for failure and causing much trouble in the world. This I agreed with wholeheartedly as I can’t condone or imagine spending huge amounts of energy on killing people in a war as being a positive act.

He also mentioned one of my favorite human rights activists: Martin Luther King Jr. The guy was saying that under current conditions the ruling fascist ‘Empire’ is suppressing individual thought and creativity and that the masses of the world had become mindless cattle. He said that the key to evolving a new morally upstanding world society we will need individuals to once again think for themselves and change the current economic structures that control life on earth. He used a lot of big economic-type terminology so some of what he said went over my head, but I generally took the guy to be a nice, intelligent person who believed passionately about what he did. He gave the impression that people like King are the great transformers of beliefs in society, and that only truly awakened souls will be happy when they die.

I try not to take myself or life on Earth too seriously as this has caused many problems for me in the past. However, I do think that life and love are very important ideas to focus on when one is growing spiritually. I decided to sign the group’s list and get a little bit more information so as to really make up my opinion about these matters that I know so little about (economics and politics). Here is where the story goes strange. I wrote down my name and my email address and the fellow asked if I’d put down my phone number as well. I said that as I am a writer I don’t like being interrupted by the phone ringing and that I’d rather communicate via the Internet.

This is when the trouble began.

The man was visibly upset and said that the Internet was not a good place for people to exchange ideas and have conversations. I laughed and replied that the Internet is very young and how could he judge it so harshly in such a black and white manner? He ironically sounded a little like the fascists that he disliked so much when he retorted that no great ideas had ever come from people on the Internet, and for that matter, a ‘real’ conversation between people had to be conducted face to face. Well, I could have mentioned that on the telephone you cannot ’see’ anyone’s face, but I thought I’d try to explain my position on the matter a bit more positively.

I told him that the Internet was just a simple tool of communication that was bringing individuals closer together. You can see someone across the world with a web cam whilst hearing his or her voice perfectly. I then mentioned that the Internet was doing exactly what he felt was necessary for society to flourish in the future; it is giving voice to individuals’ ideas like never before in human history. The guy was then really starting to lose his cool and was getting quite upset. I then thought I’d mention the idea that the Web was dissolving the concept of national borders as anyone could talk to anybody else freely with the simple realization that all people are the same. People are no longer forced to think of other nationalities as separate ‘types’ of people that one should steer away from.

By this time the guy had become very irate and said vehemently that there is nothing wrong with having separate nations. He then contradicted himself and agreed with me by saying that the ‘Empire’ only wanted to ‘divide and conquer’ and split countries into even smaller entities that could then be taken over. I replied softly that that process inevitably produced more unnecessary borders between fellow humans.

The main point that stuck with me after the conversation ended was the fact that it was the mentioning of the Internet as a positive medium for communication and enlightenment that so severely upset the guy. I guess no matter how knowledgeable about the world and sure of yourself that you are, if there are things that you are still unaware of, or in this case close-minded to because of some irrational fear; like a link that snaps in a chain, so will your peace and calm will be shattered by ignorance and anger.

Spirituality and morality can be discussed on many different mediums…Politics and economics must be the same.

About the Author: Jesse S. Somer, M6.Net (http://www.m6.net), Jesse S. Somer is an individual soul who may not know a lot, but knows that the Internet could be a great factor in the process of bringing humanity together into one big family here on Earth.

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What if your sales increased from $100,000 to $110,000 per day and your profit increased from $10,000 to $11,000 – did you improve by 10%? The answer might shock you…

You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 895 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest.

Part One of Creating Well-Defined Processes Series

What if your sales increased from $100,000 to $110,000 per day and your profit increased from $10,000 to $11,000 – did you improve by 10%? The answer might shock you…

Because the answer is no. No improvement occurred. In fact, your process deteriorated. Sure, revenue increased, but is this really an improvement? Let’s take a look at the problem in this table.

Let’s examine the before and the after scenario. Say, in the before picture, you have sales of $100,000, fixed costs of $20,000 and variable costs of $70,000. Total expenses amount to $90,000, giving you a gross profit of $10,000. In the after picture, sales increase to $110,000, while variable costs rise to $77,000 in addition to $2,000 in Extra Expenses – which give you total expenses of $99,000 and a gross profit of $11,000. In the after picture, remember though, fixed costs are fixed, and do not change with additional revenue. So you should get more than 10% (11.8% to be exact) profit from 10% growth.

Extra Expenses Prevent Process Improvement

Here we have the before and the after scenario. You can see that fixed costs are fixed, and do not change with additional revenue. So you should get more than 10% (11.8% to be exact) profit from 10% growth.

And notice that in order to maintain a 10% profit we have to spend $2,000 in Extra Expenses. These Extra Expenses represent your process inefficiencies. These expenses could be sales discounts, travel, overtime, or something else. The names don’t really matter. What does matter is that we are not improving.

Process Evolution Enables Improvement

Improvement results from process evolution, not from an increase in scale. What’s the difference? Scale increases when we hire another person, increase expenses, or purchase more assets in order to acquire or service more business. Process evolution occurs when we change the process and as a result can release hidden capacity and service more business without adding any costs - and this is a form of efficiency. You can measure efficiency with the formula:

Efficiency = Output / Costs

But process evolution is about more than just changing costs. It is about changing time, increasing process velocity, and getting more output from the costs you already have. Cutting costs, by itself, does not evolve a process. In fact, reducing costs, without properly understanding how those costs relate to the process, can actually decrease process evolution (devolution). Let’s review an example…

A Cost Reduction and Procedures Training Case Study

A company decreases costs by switching suppliers and using cheaper materials for their manufacturing process. Now the purchasing department is happy they are saving money. The bottom line is starting to look better as profits initially increase.

And so this improved the process, right? Well…

But then complaints start rolling in from the field. Products are breaking down faster. Technical support costs rise, and customers start reducing their orders. Not only do profits evaporate, but customer goodwill does too. To offset this, your first reaction might be to switch back to the old supplier. This is much easier and it fixes the immediate problem, but it won’t recapture the lost sales, customers and damage to the company’s reputation.

But, again, you need to focus on the most important issue. There is a limit to the amount of costs one can reduce in any process – zero. You can’t reduce costs below zero. On the other hand, there is no limit to the process potential we can achieve. Process evolution concerns the numerator (the output), not the denominator (the costs) in the efficiency equation above.

Change in Process Evolution = New Output / Old Output
(Assuming costs are held constant)

By focusing on process evolution instead of costs we can continue to increase our output forever. We just have to make sure that the output increases faster than the costs. Then what we have is incremental improvement. But what procedure can use to achieve this?

Process Training

It’s all about collecting feedback to set the right priorities for your change process. You need feedback to drive the change process. The more feedback you get the better you will be able to evolve your process. So let’s take a look at what your change process needs to include.

1.Feedback Records with Deficiency Notations
2.Trend Analysis
3.Corrective Action Process and Criteria for action
4.Audit Process
5.Management Review Process

And then ask yourself the following questions about your change process:

•Are process feedback records created?
•Have the feedback records been analyzed for process deficiencies?
•Are the deficiencies analyzed for statistical significance?
•Are the deficiencies of statistical significance written up for corrective action?
•Is corrective/preventive action implemented?
•Is there an objective review of all processes to ensure the change process is working?
•Does management review all findings to ensure the change process is working — and that processes are evolving to meet or exceed organizational requirements?

Next Week: Business Modeling

With these thoughts in mind, you can see how important it is to first define continuous improvement and note how it can actually affect your business. But you can’t gather feedback from all processes at once. If you did, that would generate a process overload. So where do you start?

Next time we will show you show how when we discuss business modeling. Business modeling prioritizes which core processes you should improve. It tells you which processes are most important to not only achieve your company goals - but also to survive as a profitable business.

About the Author: Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com?src=ART83

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Do you have irregular periods, abdominal pain, excess facial hair, acne, and excess weight? Then better go and check, you might have polycystic ovarian syndrome.

I learned that I have PCOS last year, and since then I thought my life stopped. I am still in my early twenties, but I have high cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides and high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and I gained 30 lbs. I had a lot of unanswered questions then 3 doctors and 7 months later I found the right doctor and I found a good website which helped me and gave me more information about this syndrome. It is a total body endocrine disease. It is unfortunate and confusing that the word “ovary” appears on the name, the abnormalities in the ovary are really more the result of the problem rather than a cause. These days with modern technology and research there are many studies and development so we need not to be afraid if we have this syndrome.

Newer research indicates that the cause of this is an inherited genetic abnormality in which it affects the production of insulin in our body.

Another common feature of PCOS is obesity, most women with this syndrome are significantly overweight. There is no permanent cure for this but there is always treatment. The right exercise, diet and a change of lifestyle can make your life better.

I have now lost a few pounds and with that my BP is starting to be normal and my cholesterol and triglyceride levels have significantly dropped. I am writing this hoping that I will be able to inform and educate women about this syndrome because the earlier you’ll know the lesser complications there will be.

So if you have all the symptoms that I mentioned in the first paragraph then better see an endocrinologist and an OBGYNE.

About the Author: Stormy rain is a certified soul cyster. You can email her if you have more questions or would like to share your experiences regarding PCOS.

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I heard that the Arroyo administration expects at least P 124.7 B in incremental revenues from tax measures and other tariff adjustments this year. This means that this will give an additional of P 161.3 B to our revenue. And for me, it will help in our budget to be used by department of the administration. We need a tight budget and development on our economic problems.

Another P 5 B will be added to the year budget from lifting of the tariff from oil and lateral attrition law. The country’s revenues amount 4.7% of GDP compared to 6.7% of Thailand and 7.1% of Vietnam. The proportion is higher than Indonesia w/c collects about 4.1% of GDP.

It was further announced by President Gloria Macapagal – Arroyo that the fiscal crisis was already finished and w can anticipate a competitive economy. This year, 2005, we have been all witness to the great fight of peso against dollar. The last exchange rate that I heard was P55.68= $1. A reason for this, I must say was the dollar remittances that our brothers abroad (OFW) are sending to their family here in the Philippines. It really helps a lot to make some small relief to economic problems. It is not hidden to us that an additional 2% on tax will be implemented sometimes this year, and a high equivalent of peso comparing to other monetary units will limit the inflation of goods and other staple things on the market. Others are already contented, because finally they can buy imported things. But the families of the OFW are sad, because the equivalent of their dollars in hands turn into an amount of dollars 2 years hence. (The latest peso – dollar exchange rate is the highest since October, 2003). I am really pretty sure that the peso will have more competitive if the people will not hide their dollars, and will not wait until the peso deflates again. I must say that they will just blame their selves if the peso continues to follow the strength of dollar.

I am just thinking a situation on which our economy can really be more competitive. And that is by investing. We all know that many of the investors in the country are foreigners. They are helping on our economy, but the truth is that they are earning because of the Filipino. Our countrymen really work for them. And if the OFW, after returning to their motherland will invest on their own money, he/she with the Filipino can gain money for their own. Widely speaking, Filipino will earn money in their own land. And years after, they do not need to work abroad and be slaves. A lot of people in the whole world think that Filipino are really good and dedicated on their work. An example is in Bangladesh, on which only few are rich and educated. Filipino are being respected because they are the one who run the economy of the Bangladeshis. They are really professionals but are decided to work not for their own country because of the low payment. The government must think, as it is still early, on how they can give jobs for everybody, especially to all graduates. Graduated nurses are going to the United States, Canada and Taiwan because of the dollars they earn, but look on our hospitals, and you can just count the good nurses in hands.

We are exporting the expert doctors and nurses, and the remaining were the second-rated.

The different figures showing Philippine economy strength is not just the basis to say that we are free from poverty. Every student must be educated. The latest survey states that out of 45 countries, the Philippines is one of the least, as 43rd on examinations in terms of education. Only 5% of hundred thousand students pass the Preliminary Tests for High schools. And less and less can speak English. On the squatter areas, you can see the people starving on food. Only one of the 10 on the family has job and in just in part-time. So, how can you say that our economy is fighting? I am in favor of imposing that 2% additional tax on goods, so that a little bit will be added to our revenue. But that is unfair, because there is still an exemption. I have read that the BIG 3 (Shell, Caltex, Petron) are exempted to pay the tax, because they cannot control the inflation of prices in the World Market. They just always say that they are “lugi” and do only small profit on their business. I do not believe on them. How many cars and buses do we have in the Philippines? The government should not exempt these shrewd companies who just think for their own sake.

I must congratulate the Arroyo administration for imposing the tax on cigarettes & on liquors (including the beer and gin) because that gives only “bisyo” to our fathers and kuyas. And instead of treating their money on such nonsense things, why not buy foods for their families. I have also watched on the news that they will again impose another tax, and the latest who will be affected are the texters. It is being reviewed by Senator Dick Gordon and want to use the earning revenue to tighten the education sector. For me, it’s just fine. You think, that for our every text, we can help to a young student and ensure his education. But I must also add, that a higher tax must be implemented to those who uses the MMS cell phones who do nothing but to pass pictures and videos. Only rich people can do that. Am I right? You know, they just pass unwanted pictures of actors and actresses that are naked. And videos who are showing somebody who is in the intercourse of sex. If tax will be imposed, pornography on hand phones will be limited.

About the Author: Frederick Alday is a Communication Student of Batanghas State University, Batangas City. He is a 17-year old and a first year student. You can visit his website @ www.frederickalday.cjb.netFor comments and suggestions asbout this essay, you can email him @ aldayiyan@yahoo.com

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Do you know anybody that you consider to be particularly engaging and lively? Take a moment to picture that person in your mind. What is it about that person that you find most attractive? He or she may have a charming voice and a great laugh, but it is also very likely that you find their face very expressive. That person is probably quick to smile and laugh and seems to always have a twinkle in their eye.

A face that never shows any emotion, and never smiles is not very appealing. No matter how attractive or how plain a person’s facial features may be, a great smile can make that person look beautiful to others. When you smile at other people, they will assume that you are in a good mood and that you are happy to see them. This will make other people more likely to want to spend time with you and to know you better.

Allowing our face to show emotions is actually an advantage in developing relationships. Other people are constantly trying to read and respond to our body language and facial expressions, often on a subconscious level. They are trying to sense whether we really care about them or not, whether we are concerned with what is going on in their lives.

If you are a person who is very emotionally sensitive, this sensitivity can be an asset in forming relationships. Use your sensitivity to show empathy for other people. Don’t suppress your emotions, trying to be “cool”. Don’t waste your sensitive nature being sensitive only to yourself and your own emotions. Imagine being in the shoes of the person you are talking with, and let yourself feel the sadness, happiness, excitement or pride that is present in the story they are telling you.

If we repress all our emotions from showing on our face, people will feel frustrated trying to get a sense of who we really are. When we let our emotions show up on our face, sharing in our conversation partner’s joys and sorrows, worries and frustrations, as well as their hope and excitement, both of us feel less alone. Both people will feel more connected to each other.

Sometimes we worry about our facial expressions. We may sense that our smile looks forced, or makes us look nervous. We may worry that we don’t smile enough, or that we frown too much.

One way you can check on your facial expressions is to have yourself videotaped in conversation with another person.

When you review the tape, does your smile looks forced, or natural? Do you look extremely serious? Are you able to portray a feeling of fun and light-heartedness?

If you are not able to analyze the tape effectively by yourself, have someone else you trust give you some feedback.

If you think your facial expressiveness could be improved, you can practice in front of a mirror. Watch your face as you imagine yourself feeling various positive and negative emotions. Imagine yourself hearing a very funny joke. Or winning the lottery. Or receiving a nice compliment. Meeting your neighbor. Getting a present. Having a secret.

Also imagine yourself experiencing negative situations and watch your facial expressions in the mirror. Exaggerate them. Switch back to imagining positive emotions. Are you normally this expressive? Do you let other people see the real you? Or do you try to hide yourself from everyone? Do you like the person you see in the mirror?

Your smiles and other facial expressions will be more natural and more appealing when you are relaxed, rather than tense. If you get nervous when you are talking with others, you may find it helpful to practice body relaxation techniques until you can easily relax at will. Consciously tell all the muscles in your body to relax, even if you have to give instructions mentally to each part of your body, one section at a time. When you are with other people, let your mental focus be on enjoying the situation you are in, rather than imagining what others are thinking about you, or worrying what you will say next.

Let you emotions come from deep within you, and spread to your face, rather than trying to artificially manufacture facial expressions.

About the Author: This article is taken from the new downloadable book by Royane Real titled “How You Can Have All The Friends You Want - Your Complete Guide to Finding Friends, Making Friends, and Keeping Friends” available at her website at www.royanereal.com

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Oops… one more shot…1 2 3 smile!

Years are said to be crazy… funny, weird and cool… as it run fast, we are not aware of seeing the rear view of a simple portrait, full of mysteries and yet the source of our emotions to change the mode of light’s direction.

From our younger years, we are certainly aggressive of doing any thing, or just make a simple obsession that concludes the very best of being a kid. We were not aware of what will happen tomorrow since we care nothing from our context. If there’s an obstruction that hit our back, we just do a single laugh. That’s the trend of being a kid… “Parang hindi na tayo tatanda”.

We have tried to read the unfamiliar phrases on the walls; this is the time when we started to recognize the characters written in every single page of the book. There’s always a second time around when we experienced the first. And the funniest side was…we do counting the numbers in a jump to jump, we were passionate of these things without knowing what is EVEN and what ODD are. But when the times move fast, these numbers are very simple to divide. You can consistently justify what kind of environment do a kid has, “parang laging required gawin ang mga bagay sa simula”. But honestly, we were excited during our younger years because these were the times that we were about to discover the faces of road’s infinity…

All are just typical illustrations of childhood, we were doing the same thing as usual “paulit-ulit na lang” and yet, we were not bored doing the same thing all over again. There’s always an evolution. Every second of a minute and every minute of an hour are known to have a constant change, an innovation for the time, “ang simula ng larawan ng totoong buhay” the PICTURE starts to smile, the picture starts to develop and the pictures starts to divulge real life.

We were dumbfounded that we were more active against other kids. Our first education starts on uncomplicated, “naisip na rin natin kung bakit tayo nag-iisip”. The development of our credibility starts and soon we speculate why being a kid should need to have it understand, it’s simply saying the letters A, B and C and counting the numbers 1, 2 and 3. “Ganito kasaya talaga ang kabataan, alam na natin kung anong larawan ang maaari nating makuhanan”.

Graduation starts after six years, some of us had achieved awards, we start choosing the best secondary school we are about to get in. We won’t ignore the friendship we had from those remarkable years, we treasure the opportunity of having both good and bad times “sa mga kalaro natin noong bata pa tayo”, we have hurt, and we cried and promised not to forget the valuable affiliation during the first developing years of being a human.

We were very glad for we are no longer kids then, this is the time to focus on a simpler life, with expectations and more challenging “buhay hayskul”, the next level of making another perfect shot, the picture which is very confusing with our own hand. We can change the dimension of sunlight with this portrait but we can never change the path of reality.

We are almost on the fence of the other residence, we can easily deal with many things, with people of different faces and attitude, we found real friends and we initially found our true selves too. It was so hard to accept that High School life is just part of the picture of our scrap book. We can make credible things because of our knowledge and maybe because of our power to believe in ourselves. Second Graduation comes; the tears of joy have been witnessed by many eyes, the excitement and undefined feelings of loss and success. “Pero hindi pa tapos ang picture-taking”.

We used to tell our parents of what we really wanted to be… Engineer, Accountant, Architect, Lawyer or a Doctor, but now… “tapos na ang mga ilusyon, dumating na yung time na pumili tayo ng course na gusto natin”. At this moment, we are the voice to give music to a song. We have to decide for ourselves, we should make plans for our own destiny; we should be the one to accomplish the unfinished puzzle of our own identity. There’s always a second chance, there’s always success behind failures and there will always be strength to face the many challenges, College days are the most unforgettable moment of our Academic life, many persons have been met, many experiences have been faced, and many different things have been accomplished.

The Collegiate Graduation has come, “sobrang saya pero siyempre nakakalungkot din, sa dami ba namang paghihirap eh eto na yung result ng lahat ng pinagdaanan natin simula ng tayo ay mag-aral”, we will soon be Engineers and Accountants after months.

After all, we made it through with flying colors. Of course, we are now cited as degree holders. PICTURE TAKINGS are always at stake; this will be the best part of the moment “hindi naman ito ang huling larawan ng paghihirap at mga ngiti ng pagiging isang estudyante”. The Last Picture is not during our last graduation, there will always be another shot of pictures to be taken. Graduation is not the end of the whole thing; this is just the first step of what we are in the future. We are the photographers of our own pictures, the challenges are not yet through because we need to justify what kind of graduates we are, we have to be true Engineers, Accountants or whatever degrees we accomplished for a job.

“Pagkagising mo isang araw matapos ang Graduation… naitanong mo ba sa sarili mo kung saan ka na pupunta ngayon?” This is not a simple question, rather a BIG question that needs an answer. Furthermore, we can not say that life is complete without our friends. Many people were given another chance to give their best, though not provided during their academic years but sometime a great chance to prove their identity in their own fields. If we consider our childhood, we can say that we were restless then, we were not used by many things or by any one. We can easily get in touch with what could be necessary or which needs greater attention.

For every step that we encounter, there are people who always there to give support, our friends… “nakakatuwa na minsan makasama mo sila sa isang yugto ng buhay mo”, You can defend your uniqueness and give importance with your existence with them. People are just people… In our own life, we have started it from being an above suspicion one; we are cultured from our preliminary educations, and strengthened by the environment to face the more challenging life.

Now, we can decide by our own, but we can not determine the truth beyond time. Our new destination in the job is another story; this is also a picture of great accomplishments and joys.

There will be no last picture with this life. Family, Friends and God are the pictures that give the exact existence of us… because if you can see THE LAST PICTURE with yourself, you are definitely stop working! “hangga’t may taong naniniwala sa kakayahan mo, may mga bagay na dapat kang paniwalaan”. Our friends are the mirrors of our personality, pictures are said to be worth a thousand smiles…

The question is… have you seen the last picture of yourself? You may answer it sometime but there will be no LAST PICTURE for there will be an opportunity to take another shot all over again…

About the Author: Jojit Larino is currently working at Toshiba Information Equipment (Phils), Inc. as Compensation Analyst. He is the Editor in Chief of IN TOUCH, Toshiba Newsletter and has been a Business Manager and Senior Staff Artist of The Knight Publication in college at Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Calamba and Staff Artist in Saint John Academy in highschool. A student and alumni volunteer for social activities in college, President of the Society of Letran Artists in 2001-2002, officer of Letran Alliance, Student Council and JPIA. He has also received the awards for Poster Making Contests as Regional Champion at Calapan City in 1999 and in Calamba City in 2000, 2nd Placer at Lipa City in 1998 and Intramuros, Manila in the year 1999. He has taken the course of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy and Bachelor of Commerce major in Management Accounting in the same college on 2002 and nominated for 2002 Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines.

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When you move in to a new apartment, the landlord may charge you more than the first month’s rent. Before you sign the lease, make sure you understand exactly what you’re going to be charged, and get it in writing.

Security Deposit: This is mini-landlord insurance. The deposit is equivalent to about one to two month’s rent and can cover anything from a broken window to stained carpet. At the end of your lease, the landlord will conduct an inspection and see whether or not he or she needs to use any of the money on anything damaged beyond the normal “wear and tear” during your stay. State law may only use the security deposit for three purposes: unpaid rent, damages and for cleaning stains or any excessively dirty area. The landlord cannot use it to repaint the apartment to make it look more inviting for the next tenants. (That’s illegal).

Cleaning Fee: Since landlords cannot legally use your security deposit for basic cleaning purposes, some of them choose to include a cleaning fee in your lease.

Last Month of Rent: Some landlords ask for the last month’s rent in advance. This way, if you break your lease without first consulting your landlord, he or she has 30 days to find a new tenant before he or she needs another rent payment. If you’re a good tenant, and don’t break your lease, then you’ll save yourself the trouble of having to worry about getting together your last month of rent. (This can be really helpful when you have to deal with all the costs of moving out!) Unlike the security deposit, this charge is non-refundable.

Pet Deposit: This, too, is a form of mini-landlord insurance typically running somewhere around $300.00. The pet deposit is used to cover any wear and tear caused by your pets. Some landlords also ask for a ‘pet fee’ once a month ($20-$50) to cover the cost and inconvenience of the lovely pooper-scooping duties.

Renter’s Insurance: You aren’t required to get insurance, but it is HIGHLY recommended. It’s incredibly easy for an unusual character to walk through the complex unnoticed. New people are in and out of apartments all the time, so you don’t have the same security that a homeowner does. With that in mind, you ought to invest in Renter’s Insurance as protection against theft, water damage and fire.

Parking: You might not always catch that prime parking space, and depending on where your apartment complex is, this could mean parking on the street. If you’re living in the arts district in Downtown Dallas, you might need to feed the parking meter monster or pay for a secured parking lot. Keep this in mind when you yearn for that artsy loft.

Some states put a limit on the deposits a landlord can ask for. For example, in California the deposits cannot add up to more than two-month’s rent. Check out the landlord/tenant laws to get the scoop on your state’s restrictions.

Regardless of how many of the deposits and fees the landlord asks you for, make sure these are all outlined in the lease. If they are not, make a list of all of the charges, when they were paid, then date it and have the landlord sign it with you. Keep one copy of this list and give one to your landlord to avoid any problems in the future.

About the Author: Since 1989 dan the roommate man has helped 1000’s of people find good roommates. www.roommateexpress.com

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