The best career move isn’t always upward. Taking a side trip—a lateral transfer—can prove your commitment while teaching you new skills. Some tips:

• Evaluate the opportunities. When the possibility of a lateral move opens up, take a good look at what you’re likely to learn from it. You don’t want to repeat the same experiences, but expand your skills.

• Compare the job with your goals. Think about where you want to go in your career and what you want to accomplish. If a lateral move takes you closer to your target by teaching new skills or bringing you to the attention of hiher-ups, jump at it.

• Expand your network. The more people you know in your organization and industry, the better positioned you are for success. Consider lateral opportunities for their potential to help you meet leaders and experts you wouldn’t run into otherwise.

• Prove your abilities. Use your sideways move to show you can handle greater responsibility. Volunteer for tough assignments in your new position, and you’ll impress co-workers and managers with your initiative.

• Don’t be forgotten. The danger with a lateral move is that you might fit in so well to your new position that you stall. Stay in touch with your previous managers and colleagues so they remember your willingness to adapt and change.

The Internet is a busy “place,” what with all that data running across the virtual landscape.

Here’s a quick snapshot at what kind of traffic it handles on a daily basis:

• Data. Enough information flows through the Internet in a 24-hour period to fill 168 million DVDs.

• Email. The U.S. Postal Service would need two years to process the 294 billion emails sent daily.

• Blogs. They’re everywhere! Two million blog entries are posted on a typical day.

• Facebook. Approximately 172 million people visit Facebook in a day, spending a total of 4.7 billion minutes, updating 532 million statuses, and uploading 250 million photos.

• Video. Web surfers watch 22 million hours of video on Netflix every day; 864,000 hours worth of video are uploaded to YouTube.

• Music. People listen to 187.6 million hours of music streamed from Pandora in a day; if a time-traveling computer went back to the year 1 A.D. to stream that much, the music would still be coming today.

Recently I read a book by Harry S. Dent called ‘The Great Depression Ahead. Good book. I got some good ideas out of it and it wove a really good story. Personally I like the idea that demographics drive everything in the economy – makes sense to me.

Harry offered up a throw away section about the future of business. He forecast that businesses would cease to be product centric. “I sell plasterboard” or houses or insurance or whatever the product happens to be.

Harry believes that instead, business owners will focus on putting together customer groups that can be sold related products by the one company.

Sounds a lot like what Dan Kennedy and most (good) direct marketers have been saying for years. Pick a market and acquire the customers and find as many ways to monetize them after the first sale as you humanly can.

Say you are a carpenter – someone gets you to build them a pergola. At some point there are other major projects that these customers will need to get done. Could be a new garage or shed, renovations, new kitchen, new bathroom, home maintenance services such as lawn mowing, gardening you name it all of these services you could offer to your customers or else you could work in a joint venture arrangement with other service providers.

This sort of thing can happen regardless of industry. The same could be done for a tailor or a dry cleaner or almost any other business, just as easily.

But the lynch pin of this strategy comes down to one thing: your ability to grow and create a strong relationship with your customers for years on end. In the end that is what is going to determine if your business is loyal and stable.

Even if someone is only satisfied with your service, you can resell to them as long as you build the relationship with them. The strongest base of any customer retention program is a printed monthly newsletter.

Everyone who understands Dent’s view of business realizes two things.

Number one: You need to forge a strong long term bond in order to get sales beyond the first from your customers.

Number two: The best way to do this is with sustained readership in the form of a monthly printed newsletter. For most this takes the form of a 4 page customer newsletter. ‘You’ shows up monthly, they read your newsletter and remember you – repeat purchase from you and refer new customers to you.

Aggregating customers for life is the cheapest way to be in business. It doesn’t have to happen slowly either. It can happen very fast. Getting started is the first step to find out what the payoff of for a newsletter will be, organise a no obligation no cost newsletter suitability audit simply call 1300 120 006 or go to www.newslettermarketingsystems.com.au/get-started

It’s beyond impossible to escape continuous advertising. All of us are exposed to it. It’s all over the place. The most effective businesses are those with highly established brands. In order to achieve successful advertising, brand recognition is very crucial.

I’m not referring to the million-dollar corporate branding where everyone in the planet is aware of your logo, since most likely the case here is that you don’t have the financial capacity to do this and almost certainly it would take several years for people to recognize you. Rather, the branding that I’m referring to is the mental and emotional association shaped every time the general public think or hear about you and your business.

Generally, there needs to be an element that positions you above and beyond your competitors. Who do you happen to be? Do you have a unique selling proposition (USP)? What is your area of specialization? When individuals talk about your business, what could be the initial thing they associate it with? Regardless of the kind of enterprise you may have, determine the factor that separates and generates you as the pro, the in-demand person of authority. What are the things that you can provide that the rivals can’t? Evaluate your strong points. Assess your contenders’ weak spots. By accomplishing this, you will swiftly develop your USP as well as have a far better feeling of your brand.

As soon as you determine your identity, efficiently and incessantly endorse your business to your potential customers. When you outline who you are and develop your label, the main objective is to associate it with your particular expertise, with the intention that when somebody stated your brand, a prospective client would likely say, “He’s the one who specializes in…,” or, “Yup! He’s the ___ guy.”

That which you represent is actually as imperative as what products and services you provide. Advertising has grown into more about interacting with your potential customers and not talking at them. It’s more about relationships and trust building. Be candid about your brand, what you represent, and what you have to offer, else your prospects will realize your fabrications and walk away.

A recent survey by CareerBuilder spotlighted some of the worst mistakes a candidate can make during an interview. Over 3,000 hiring and HR managers named the biggest errors a job-seeker might commit:

• Answering a cell phone or texting during the interview

• Appearing disinterested

• Dressing inappropriately

• Appearing arrogant

• Bad-mouthing current or previous employers

• Chewing gum

And the managers also shared some of their worst experiences with a job candidate:

• One candidate brought a “how to interview” book to the interview.

• Another asked, “What company is this again?”

• A candidate put the interviewer on hold during a phone interview. When she came back on the line, she told the interviewer that she was arranging a date.

• When a candidate interviewing for a security position wasn’t hired on the spot, he painted graffiti on the building.

• A candidate wore a Boy Scout uniform to the interview and never explained why.

• One candidate was arrested by federal authorities during the interview when the background check revealed the person had an outstanding warrant.

• A candidate talked about promptness as one of her strengths—after showing up 10 minutes late.

• Driving to his interview, one candidate passed, cut off, and flipped his middle finger at another driver. You guessed it—the other driver turned out to be his interviewer.

• A candidate referred to himself in the third person.

• Another took off his shoes during the interview.

• One candidate asked for a sip of the interviewer’s coffee.

• And finally, a candidate told the interviewer she wasn’t sure if the job offered was worth “starting the car for.”

An acquaintance who asks for your business card is paying you a professional compliment. Don’t blow the opportunity. Always have a card handy, and follow these tips:

• Set a goal. You’ll be less likely to forget your cards if you have a plan for using them strategically. For instance, you might set a goal of giving out 5 – 10 cards every day.

• Invest in a good design. Make sure your cards look professional and attractive so you’ll enjoy handing them out. This will also serve as a motivation to keep your cards with you.

• Practice your presentation. How are you going to introduce yourself and offer your card? How are you going to make a positive impression?

• Keep your cards neat. Buy a nice business card case instead of jamming cards into your pocket or wallet where they’ll get bent.

• Keep business cards everywhere. Store them in your glove compartment, in your gym bag, in your desk drawer, in your coat pocket, and in your briefcase so you never have to admit, “I don’t have one with me right now.”