Tips for Effective Competitive Reconnaissance #outoftheboxclub #elleeyre #swot #businessresources #smallbusiness

Creating solid services and products through competitive reconnaissance.

Being aware of who your customers are resourcing to fulfill their needs is valuable to how you build solutions. Collecting valuable information from public sources, customers and third parties can help a business build comprehensive SWOT analysis. Discovering a companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats allows you to create an edge that separates you from your competitors and  appeal to your prospective consumer.

Collect information legally and ethically.

 Legitimate ways to obtain information on your competitors include:

• Public sources.   You may gather information about your competitors from public sources such as:
  • Newspapers, magazines, other published articles and television programs
  • Advertisements and brochures intended for public distribution
  • Information freely available on the Internet and online research services
  • Public filings made with governmental or regulatory authorities, such as SEC reports, patent filings and litigation records
  • Analyst reports
  • Industry surveys or reports
  • Public presentations given by competitors at trade shows and conferences
  • Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and similar requests from governmental or regulatory agencies
• Conversations with customers. Interviewing customers is essential.  The more you know about your customer the better equipped you are to solve their problems and ease their pain.  Contact customers about products, pricing, and service as long as the information you are requesting is not confidential.
• Hiring third parties to obtain information. You may also choose to use a third party to gather information about your competition. Third parties are subject to legal and ethical methods of gathering information about products and services. Third party research professionals conduct focus groups and interviews with suppliers and customers generally and may reveal the purpose of their research without disclosing your identity.

However you choose to gather information about your competition do so in an legal and ethical manner which represents your intentions for healthy business to business relationships.

Creating a journal of your competition with your evaluations is a valuable tool in creating products and services.  Recognizing not only what your competitors are providing in services, products and prices along with how they are marketing to your customer will give you an inside look into what strategies work and don't work in your market.

According to businessballs.com a simple 2x2 matrix is a useful way of interpreting the SWOT

Strengths andWeaknesses	the internal environment - the situationinside the company or organization	for example, factors relating to products, pricing, costs, profitability, performance, quality, people, skills, adaptability, brands, services, reputation, processes, infrastructure, etc.	factors tend to be in the present
Opportunities andThreats	the external environment - the situationoutside the company or organization	for example, factors relating to markets, sectors, audience, fashion, seasonality, trends, competition, economics, politics, society, culture, technology, environmental, media, law, etc.	factors tend to be in the future

Alan Chapman of businessballs.com also suggests that a SWOT anaylysis can be applied outside of sales and marketing in ways such as:

• a company (its position in the market, commercial viability, etc)
• a method of sales distribution
• a product or brand
• a business idea
• a strategic option, such as entering a new market or launching a new product
• a opportunity to make an acquisition
• a potential partnership
• changing a supplier
• outsourcing a service, activity or resource
• project planning and project management
• an investment opportunity
• personal financial planning
• personal career development - direction, choice, change, etc.
• education and qualifications planning and decision-making
• life-change - downshifting, relocation,
• relationships, perhaps even family planning?..

As you begin to evaluate your opponent, consider that you will attract clients that are similar in thought and practice as you in the beginning so they will tend to agree with what you will like. A simple compare and contrast list is a good place to start as you peruse website and blog material. What do you or don't  you like about what you see and how would you improve on the content, look and feel. Letting go of your original ideas as you receive new information will open you up to additional possibilities which will enhance your buisiness building experience and allow you to deliver content that is important to the customer.

Internet Sources:

http://www.marketingscoop.com/collecting-information.htm

http://www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm#swot-analysis-matrix

5 Effective Strategies for Life that You Can Apply Today #elleeyre #livinglifeempowered

Everyone has a pattern for processing experiences that effect choices and results in life. Gaining a clear understanding of our own patterns helps us to become effective communicators and gives us an advantage in our decision making.  Increasing positive results in life is simple when we have strategies to handle the seemingly random circumstances life brings and enhances our effectiveness in the world.  By applying basic principles of self evaluation and assessment we have the ability to increases our efficiency in processing minor and major events.

Having a strategy for handling events on constructive autopilot is powerful.  To create change in our lives these strategies are essential.  Much of how we respond, or react, to life comes from the experiences we have had in our families. Parents teach their children through the example of the way they handle situations and how they behave in their varying relationships. As children grow into adulthood they often find that the ways they handle relationships with people, as well as health, education, and world are a result of autopilot connections from problem to solution that were modeled by their parents, teachers, and friends. When there is a breakdown in the effectiveness of these automatic responses it is essential that we recognize our limitations and learn effective decision making skills.

New science has taken us far beyond the traditional decision making process. Gone are the days of where the only information we had to resolve lack of effective thinking and feeling was through psychoanalysis by a professional or through mind and mood altering medications. Today, new thought has made available solutions that are self-responsible and non-evasive. We understand behavioral pattern, the power of the imagination, and the importance of being self aware.  The new information tells us that we have the power to effect great change by simple changing our mind about situations and how we feel about them. New science has brought ancient healing methods to us in a way that we are taught to trust through the application of the scientific process. 

The final element that ignites change through these methods is human will.  We have become a society of immediate results, fast food, and conveniences that make the mastery of the mind, emotions, and body appear to be complicated and difficult. It is so much easier to pop a pill or blame someone else than it is to assess ones own self and create effective positive change. Yet we are bewildered and surprised when events repeat themselves.  It can easily be compared to the surprise one might experience when they realize they have reached an unhealthy weight when they have not practiced habits that reveal healthy results.

Five efective strategies that you can apply today include:

1. Simple awareness of thoughts and emotions.
2. Mapping behavior and desired behavior provides you with a clear picture from which you can create your strategy. 
3. Taking inventory of recent events with the thoughts, feelings and actions took in relationship to these events increases awareness of patterned behavior. 
4. Creating a list that compares and contrasts the results of these thoughts, feelings and actions into two columns, working and not working, builds awareness of how your behavior affects the results of these choices. 
5. Defining the desired results and allowing the experience to flow through your imagination as if it is already so provides a foundation for clear and clean intention in integrity to your desired outcome.  If you have never experienced similar circumstances that resulted in the desired state then use your imagination to model your ideal outcome, mapping it over to your life.  

It may appear that this strategy is simple seeming to minimize your current situation. However, by defining periods of time for which to see measurable results soon what seemed overwhelming is eaten away one day at a time.

 

Friday Faves and Raves #elleeyre #bbcworldwide #elvis

This weeks Faves and Raves goes out to Elvis fans everywhere. Elvis lives in a parallel universe. Finally credible sources confirm long lived convictions that the King of Rock and Roll is yet living. 

Elle

Friday Faves and Raves #elleeyre #wiseguys #craigshoemaker

This weeks Friday Faves and Raves is inspired by girls night out at the Wiseguys Comedy Club. This " Machine Gun" bit sent me on a trip down memory lane to the teasing I got from my brother that girls can't make sound effects. I was scarred for life after he told me that my bombs sounded like toilets flushing. Thanks brother.

Enjoy the walk down memory lane as you take a peek at this hillarious bit by Craig Shoemaker.

Elle

8 Questions To Enhance Your Child’s Problem Solving Capabilities at Any Age

Recently I engaged in a conversation with one of my children, who recently discovered her mother knows a quite a bit for an adult. She is, after all, a certified teenager, so this is quite a compliment. Whether or not her friends are sincere in their adoration is not as significant as the questions they have been expelling with requests for assistance from their friend's mom who seems to have said something one time that made a difference in one of their lives, which would be me. As I listened to the questions as they came, I recognized something that I freely shared with the group. My observation came from a movie I saw once, some of you might be aware of it, called 300. The scene where the boy, at the ripe age of, I don't know, twelve, is sent into the wilderness wearing what seemed to be a diaper, spear in hand. In hope that her child would return worthy to be called a Spartan, the mother wept as he disappeared into the mist. I recall having a twinge of this feeling as I sent my children to an equally terrifying wilderness called Junior High. It has not escaped my attention that the years between twelve and eighteen are years where children are learning to survive in a less than utopian society and expected to exit with life skills that will lead them to be confident, contributing adults into the world as metaphorical Spartans as some survive others do not.
The epiphany came as I realized these girls had no relational communication skills outside of the high school community standard. I recognized that it was possible that we had done our girls a disservice by throwing them into the wilderness with the boys who are wired as warriors and that they were having difficulty navigating the warrior world in their communication because they were wired differently. What counsel could I give that would make sense in the female brain that would translate in their communication to the male brain, short of, "Women are from Venus and men are from Mars so get over it?" How could I paint a picture that would be simple and easy for them to apply in much of their male, female relationships that would be more effective than, "Men suck?", no offense to my male readers. I am an advocate for self-responsibility and creating clear, working communication from an individual to their world. So naturally, I told the girls it was their fault and to beg for forgiveness for whatever they had done, of course I didn’t say that. I know that you thought I actually did, if only for a second. I explained to them how to remove emotion from the situation while still acknowledging that they dhad feelings and that we would talk about those later. I also ushered this advice as girlfriends, they should always direct gossip back to the source of the concern. Easily translated, don't let them (men) see you flinch and mind your own business.
How do I actually feel about the subject? You don't want to know. I will say however, that I don't know that as a society we are not doing an effective job at giving our children real world communication skills that they can apply after they exit the wilderness of the teen years. This is why I have a job, counseling adults to change self-communication habits that they have been practicing all of their lives and simply are not working for them. Our children do need to know how to filter the input that they receive and manage it correctly so that they can interpret the skills that will actually benefit them in the "real world." Without better interpretation and communication skills, our children cannot filter the thousands upon thousands of bits of data they have coming in and use them effectively. I will be the first to admit that my children are smarter than I was at their age and even still, they understand things that I may never understand. Most parents I talk to admit that kids are prewired for the technological world that they are born into. Having said that, I feel it will take more than simple modeling for our children to learn how to be effective communicators.
If your children are typical, or not, and you realize that they spend less and less time in natural conversation it is important to teach them effective problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills. Children need to know how to interpret their own thoughts, feelings, sensations, and dreams. They need confidence in themselves to make decisions that will bring them to their greatest joy through knowing how to apply what they have learned from these interpretations. Most of all children need to know how to value themselves. By interpreting the information they are getting from their external world effectively they are more apt to recognize how to prioritize that information into belief systems that inform choices in which they feel personal power, accomplishment and connection to others.
There are games that you can create to assist them as small children that will get them thinking critically about all that is going on inside of them. Here are eight questions that will enhance your child’s problem solving capabilities at any age;
1.       How does that feel in your body?
2.       What do you feel about that?
3.       What do you think about that?
4.       How would you like this to turn out?
5.       Can you imagine what that would look like, sound like, and feel like?
6.       Can you see that happening in your mind when you close your eyes?
7.       How did you make that happen in your mind?
8.       Do you think you can make that happen outside of your mind?
Of course, you would pose these questions in a way that your child will understand them. The intention of the exercise is to get the child familiar with checking in with itself, visualize the outcome, and then translate that into actions that get them their desired results. Working with my teenage 'groupies' I have assisted them to recognize the rules that they have made for themselves which are subconsciously being played out in their physical world and taught them how to change their thinking and feeling habits to create change in their results. I thought that teaching them how to drive was nerve wracking. Watching as they work through painful situations as self-responsible adults is much worse. I say that in the spirit of levity because I am so proud of the way they have applied what they know and how much less drama we are experiencing at home because of it.

Till Next Time,
Keep Rockin'
Elle

8 Questions To Enhance Your Child’s Problem Solving Capabilities at Any Age

 

Recently I engaged in a conversation with one of my children, who recently discovered her mother knows a quite a bit for an adult. She is, after all, a certified teenager, so this is quite a compliment. Whether or not her friends are sincere in their adoration is not as significant as the questions they have been expelling with requests for assistance from their friend's mom who seems to have said something one time that made a difference in one of their lives, which would be me. As I listened to the questions as they came, I recognized something that I freely shared with the group. My observation came from a movie I saw once, some of you might be aware of it, called 300. The scene where the boy, at the ripe age of, I don't know, twelve, is sent into the wilderness wearing what seemed to be a diaper, spear in hand. In hope that her child would return worthy to be called a Spartan, the mother wept as he disappeared into the mist. I recall having a twinge of this feeling as I sent my children to an equally terrifying wilderness called Junior High. It has not escaped my attention that the years between twelve and eighteen are years where children are learning to survive in a less than utopian society and expected to exit with life skills that will lead them to be confident, contributing adults into the world as metaphorical Spartans as some survive others do not.

The epiphany came as I realized these girls had no relational communication skills outside of the high school community standard. I recognized that it was possible that we had done our girls a disservice by throwing them into the wilderness with the boys who are wired as warriors and that they were having difficulty navigating the warrior world in their communication because they were wired differently. What counsel could I give that would make sense in the female brain that would translate in their communication to the male brain, short of, "Women are from Venus and men are from Mars so get over it?" How could I paint a picture that would be simple and easy for them to apply in much of their male, female relationships that would be more effective than, "Men suck?", no offense to my male readers. I am an advocate for self-responsibility and creating clear, working communication from an individual to their world. So naturally, I told the girls it was their fault and to beg for forgiveness for whatever they had done, of course I didn’t say that. I know that you thought I actually did, if only for a second. I explained to them how to remove emotion from the situation while still acknowledging that they dhad feelings and that we would talk about those later. I also ushered this advice as girlfriends, they should always direct gossip back to the source of the concern. Easily translated, don't let them (men) see you flinch and mind your own business.

How do I actually feel about the subject? You don't want to know. I will say however, that I don't know that as a society we are not doing an effective job at giving our children real world communication skills that they can apply after they exit the wilderness of the teen years. This is why I have a job, counseling adults to change self-communication habits that they have been practicing all of their lives and simply are not working for them. Our children do need to know how to filter the input that they receive and manage it correctly so that they can interpret the skills that will actually benefit them in the "real world." Without better interpretation and communication skills, our children cannot filter the thousands upon thousands of bits of data they have coming in and use them effectively. I will be the first to admit that my children are smarter than I was at their age and even still, they understand things that I may never understand. Most parents I talk to admit that kids are prewired for the technological world that they are born into. Having said that, I feel it will take more than simple modeling for our children to learn how to be effective communicators.

If your children are typical, or not, and you realize that they spend less and less time in natural conversation it is important to teach them effective problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills. Children need to know how to interpret their own thoughts, feelings, sensations, and dreams. They need confidence in themselves to make decisions that will bring them to their greatest joy through knowing how to apply what they have learned from these interpretations. Most of all children need to know how to value themselves. By interpreting the information they are getting from their external world effectively they are more apt to recognize how to prioritize that information into belief systems that inform choices in which they feel personal power, accomplishment and connection to others.

There are games that you can create to assist them as small children that will get them thinking critically about all that is going on inside of them. Here are eight questions that will enhance your child’s problem solving capabilities at any age;

1.       How does that feel in your body?

2.       What do you feel about that?

3.       What do you think about that?

4.       How would you like this to turn out?

5.       Can you imagine what that would look like, sound like, and feel like?

6.       Can you see that happening in your mind when you close your eyes?

7.       How did you make that happen in your mind?

8.       Do you think you can make that happen outside of your mind?

Of course, you would pose these questions in a way that your child will understand them. The intention of the exercise is to get the child familiar with checking in with itself, visualize the outcome, and then translate that into actions that get them their desired results. Working with my teenage 'groupies' I have assisted them to recognize the rules that they have made for themselves which are subconsciously being played out in their physical world and taught them how to change their thinking and feeling habits to create change in their results. I thought that teaching them how to drive was nerve wracking. Watching as they work through painful situations as self-responsible adults is much worse. I say that in the spirit of levity because I am so proud of the way they have applied what they know and how much less drama we are experiencing at home because of it.

 

Till Next Time,

Keep Rockin'

Elle

Friday Faves and Raves #elleeyre #square #squareup

This weeks fave is bound to make your life easier. I'm raving about the ease, simplicity, and low cost of using the square to get paid while you're out right from your phone. It's really amazing. It's as easy as one, download the square app, two, register at squareup.com, and three, get paid. Told you that you'd love it. Have fun in the sun on that trip you're going on with all that cash you've made.

https://squareup.com/

Every Day is Christmas. Turning Red to Green. #elleeyre #saltlakecitylocal #saltlakecitybusiness #businesstraining #networkinginsaltlakecity #economicstimulous

As I get caught up in the amusement park that is my mind of ideas I recognize that a few could be turned into money makers. I have a habit of attracting people into my life that are filled with new ideas which become new rides in my mental amusement park. Out of these friends there are few who have the skill, talent or resources for turning their ideas into money. I often thought about how much I would love to get a few of my ideas out of the amusement park and inject some green into my elleconomy.

At one time I was jealous (the wrong kind of green) of those friends who made it look so easy. Instead of getting frustrated (and turning the wrong kind of red) I began to see them not only as friends but also resources of valuable information to assist me with the development the ideas which would stimulate my elleconomy, the lightbulb went on and The Out of the Box Club was born.

The Out of the Box Club is my answer to the problem so many entrepreneur friends were having called "in the red." The club is designed to gather entrepreneural minds together, to teach each other from experience, to lead fellow members to resources and to stimulate innovation and creativity outside the box of traditional business clubs or networking groups. Because innovation breeds relevance in the marketplace and members have access to a creative team it gives them a big business edge to their eneavors. The other half of membership is the valuble information I can offer to assist members to overcome the mental - emotional obsticles that keep people from moving on an idea or progressing through the steps to make it a business. This creates a unique experience for members and is a game changer.

Anyone can join our club and we would be lucky to have you. Introductory classes are held the first Tuesday of each month via Teleconference. For more information please contact me by email, I am looking forward to learning more about you. Open the Box and peek inside your personal stimulous package with The Out of the Box Club today. 

 

Elle

elle@livebig2givebig.com

www.livinglifeempowered.com

 

 

 

 

Effective Strategies for Life that You Can Apply Today #elleeyre #livinglifeempowered #mentalhealth

Everyone has a pattern for processing experiences that effect choices and results in life. Gaining a clear understanding of our own patterns helps us to become effective communicators and gives us an advantage in our decision making.  Increasing positive results in life is simple when we have strategies to handle the seemingly random circumstances life brings and enhances our effectiveness in the world.  By applying basic principles of self evaluation and assessment we have the ability to increases our efficiency in processing minor and major events.

Having a strategy for handling events on constructive autopilot is powerful.  To create change in our lives these strategies are essential.  Much of how we respond, or react, to life comes from the experiences we have had in our families. Parents teach their children through the example of the way they handle situations and how they behave in their varying relationships. As children grow into adulthood they often find that the ways they handle relationships with people, as well as health, education, and world are a result of autopilot connections from problem to solution that were modeled by their parents, teachers, and friends. When there is a breakdown in the effectiveness of these automatic responses it is essential that we recognize our limitations and learn effective decision making skills.

New science has taken us far beyond the traditional decision making process. Gone are the days of where the only information we had to resolve lack of effective thinking and feeling was through psychoanalysis by a professional or through mind and mood altering medications. Today, new thought has made available solutions that are self-responsible and non-evasive. We understand behavioral pattern, the power of the imagination, and the importance of being self aware.  The new information tells us that we have the power to effect great change by simple changing our mind about situations and how we feel about them. New science has brought ancient healing methods to us in a way that we are taught to trust through the application of the scientific process. 

The final element that ignites change through these methods is human will.  We have become a society of immediate results, fast food, and conveniences that make the mastery of the mind, emotions, and body appear to be complicated and difficult. It is so much easier to pop a pill or blame someone else than it is to assess ones own self and create effective positive change. Yet we are bewildered and surprised when events repeat themselves.  It can easily be compared to the surprise one might experience when they realize they have reached an unhealthy weight when they have not practiced habits that reveal healthy results.

Effective strategies that you can apply today include simple awareness of thoughts and emotions. Mapping behavior and desired behavior provides you with a clear picture from which you can create your strategy. Taking inventory of recent events with the thoughts, feelings and actions took in relationship to these events increases awareness of patterned behavior.  Creating a list that compares and contrasts the results of these thoughts, feelings and actions into two columns, working and not working, builds awareness of how your behavior affects the results of these choices. Defining the desired results and allowing the experience to flow through your imagination as if it is already so provides a foundation for clear and clean intention in integrity to your desired outcome.  If you have never experienced similar circumstances that resulted in the desired state then use your imagination to model your ideal outcome, mapping it over to your life.  It may appear that this strategy is simple seeming to minimize your current situation. However, by defining periods of time for which to see measurable results soon what seemed overwhelming is eaten away one day at a time.