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The goal in a real-estate-2″target=”_self”title=”Real Estate” >real estate negotiation is to reach a good agreement – one in which the underlying interests of both buyer and seller are met. The results of a poor agreement often return to haunt the parties after closing. Many of our real estate clients have been experienced negotiators in other industries, and we have learned from their skill and experience. Review these recipes“target=”_self”title=”cooking-tips-recipes” >tips as you prepare for the purchase of your home.

What do you want to achieve in the negotiation?

The first step in getting what you need is simply to let the seller know – in a clear and reasoned way. For most people, the highest priority is the price they will pay for the property. The best way to establish this is by a market analysis of the neighborhood. Consider the amenities of the property in relation to the neighborhood environment. Establish a range of value. Knowing your range allows you to balance the price with other needs. Your interests might include:

1) Paying the lowest price possible.

2) Setting a closing date that meets your time frame.

3) Settling any repair issues fairly.

4) Having your concerns heard and addressed.

5) Locking in an acceptable mortgage loan rate.

6) Clearing any title or survey issues that come up.

7) Completing your relocation and job change process.

Getting your family settled into a home and neighborhood.

9) Forging a good working relationship with the seller.

1) Having no future problems after closing.

Is an adversarial or cooperative approach more effective?

Effective negotiation does not result from stubborn demands. There is nothing more destructive to the negotiation process than combative behavior. Professional negotiators try to preserve the relationship between the principals. The goal is to avoid an impasse in which neither seller’s nor buyer’s goals are met. In many cases, the contract negotiation process begins with some initial distrust between buyer and seller. Effective negotiators move in the direction of trust as quickly as possible.

In preparing your offer, let the marketplace establish your price, while remaining very complimentary of their home. Buyers sometimes submit a letter to the seller pointing out deficiencies and explaining why their house is not worth what they are asking. This will always backfire and start the negotiation off with a defensive seller. Sellers have an emotional attachment to their home, and will have a strong negative reaction to a critical buyer.

How do you handle an adversarial strategy by a seller or agent?

You may find that you have to work with a combative seller or agent. Their strategy may include: defensive arguments, emotional statements, snide remarks, threats to terminate, ego involvement, and stated positioning. Creative solutions are difficult to find in this environment. Good control over your own emotions is critical when working with a combative style negotiator. Here are some pointers:

1) Do not argue. Arguing will position them more strongly and drag the negotiation off course.

2) Do not respond emotionally. An angry or defensive response will escalate the negotiation into a no-win battle.

3) Do not accept or reject their arguments. Listen and show that you understand their points.

4) Accept the fact that strong emotions are present. Strong emotions arouse fear and anger in others. They may be a negotiation tactic.

5) Avoid an “us-against-them” strategy. Attach cover memos to your responses in order to communicate with the seller and break down barriers.

6) Show that your proposals were not been made unreasonably. Firmly anchor pricing, repair requests and other points to outside data.

7) Be careful not to allow hazy proposals to stand. Put everything in writing. An emotional negotiator will often produce an unclear agreement.

Make your offer as attractive to the seller as possible. Look for ways to meet their underlying interests.

9) Offer some wins on some of the terms. Face saving is important. Do not try to win every point.

1) Keep your long term goals in mind. The seller may have a beautiful home that meets your needs.

Is every point in the contact negotiable?

Yes. However, one of the most effective ways to come to an agreement is to rely on accepted norms when possible. For example, it is common practice in our area for the seller to pay for the title policy, and buyer to purchase the survey. Using consistent standards reduces the need to haggle over every point. However, every term in a contract can be used to help structure the deal. By trading off, both parties can come closer to getting what they need.

How do you move in the direction of “trust”?

Keep in mind that contract negotiation is a sensitive area, and anxiety can be high. All parties are under pressure, with future plans at stake. It is possible that the buyer or seller may have had a previous bad experience. Acting with integrity does not mean that all cards have to be put on the table. It is not proper to discuss your personal strategy or needs. A high level of trust raises the level of cooperation between the parties and forwards the negotiation. The seller will be much more cooperative if the he feels that the buyer and agent are acting with integrity. Here are ways to develop trust:

1) Listen and understand what the seller has to say.

2) Express appreciation for the seller’s home, gardens, decorating.

3) Respond within a reasonable time to counter offers.

4) Reassure the seller of your ability to close.

5) Reveal some personal information about yourselves.

Finding common ground with the seller can be a very powerful tool in the event of multiple offers. Sellers often choose their contract for personal reasons. For example, the buyers reminded them of their own family when they moved in with young children. Or, they were of the same religion. Or, the new owners would care for their gardens or feed the birds.

How much leverage do you have?

A crucial part of your strategy in a negotiation is an accurate perception of the real estate market. You must know the underlying market condition. If you are in a sellers’ market you must act quickly, and be willing to present an offer at the top of the range. This is most important if the home is in a hot area and has strong appeal. If the seller has multiple offers, you must make your very best offer up front.

In a buyers’ market your prospective home may have been on the market for months. There may be a small buyer pool for the home because of economic conditions or due to repair or updating needs. In this case you have a lot more leverage than you would with a new listing. Some knowledge of the sellers’ needs may help you improve your leverage. If you can meet some of their needs you have gained leverage for a lower price.

It is important to make your offer as straightforward as possible. Contingencies will reduce your leverage for a lower price in a buyer’s market, or for any consideration in a seller’s market. Be proactive about showing the seller your desire and ability to close. Here are some possible contract contingencies:

1) Contingent on sale of your home: Usually, the seller will not accept a contingency to find a buyer for your home. It is more likely to be accepted if your home is under contract. Attach a copy of the contract and status report.

2) Contingent on inspections: In our area this is covered by an option period. Keep the option time within accepted norms. This contingency can be removed to strengthen your offer, if you are already knowledgeable about the property condition.

3) Contingent on financing: Strengthen your offer by obtaining credit approval. An approval letter with your offer improves your leverage, and is crucial in multiple offers. If you are making a cash offer, get a letter from your banker stating that the resources are available.

How much under list price should you offer?

Unless there is a strong seller’s market, buyers usually offer less than list price. Establish your price by a market analysis. It is usually counter-productive to offer so low that the seller will automatically reject the offer. This will set a negative tone from the beginning. In a recent deal the seller responded to a low offer with an above-list-price counter.

How are multiple offers handled?

The listing agent and seller will decide how they will handle multiple offers. They may disclose to all parties, or disclose to none, that multiple offers have been received. By informing the parties that there are multiple offers, the seller is not “shopping your contract.” Shopping occurs when the seller discloses the terms of an offer to induce a buyer to submit a better offer. This can have a negative result by creating distrust of the process by all parties, and possible loss of the buyers. The standard procedure is to notify each potential buyer that there are multiple offers, and give each a chance to raise his offer by a certain time. When all are received, the seller will review the offers and choose one to work with.

We all know the expression “you only get one chance to make a first impression,” well it holds true when it comes to presenting your product to your customer.

For starters, the last thing you want to do when a customer walks into your office is present the first product that pops into your head.

Before you present a product to your customer, you must first find out exactly what it is your customer wants and needs.

The first thing you want to do is introduce yourself to your customer. Offer them a seat and make them feel as comfortable as possible.

Get to know your customer, talk about non-business subjects, this will take some of the pressure off of the both of you and make it easier to talk to one another.

Once you believe that you and your customer have found a comfort level, begin to evaluate your customer’s needs.

Start by asking questions to find out his reasons for coming in to see you. Find out what products he currently has and uses. And how much he pays for them. Find out all you can about the company he obtained his products from, and what he thought of the customer service he was provided with.

It is important to know these things for reasons of comparison.

Once you have evaluated your customer and have a pretty good idea of what his needs are, get ready to present the products you have, that you believe to be an ideal match to his needs.

But before you make your presentation, make sure that you are prepared. Have all the materials you need to make your presentation a solid one at your finger recipes“target=”_self”title=”cooking-tips-recipes” >tips. Such materials would include, brochures and literature, not only to give to your customer, but to go over with your customer. Unfold the brochure in front of him as you discuss the product. Literature is also a good way to be prepared in case you are hit with a question you can’t answer, this will be a good resource for reference.

The point that I am trying to make is; Present to your customer a product you believe they will need. Your presentation should be based on the information that you have gathered from your customer during your sales session.

You could be the greatest presenter of products in the world, but if you are presenting products that customers don’t need, you’ll never sell a thing.

So be sure to evaluate your customers before you start presenting your products.

Since Dating and Relationships are such a large, important part of everyday life, this article strives to help clear up myths from facts and present an overview of surrounding issues.
Show Off – If you have a great body you’re trying to show off and young physical appearance, yet worry because you still seem to have difficulty finding dates and establishing relationships, here are some pointers. Turn off the “ME” focus. Others tend to see that as boorish and think you only care about yourself, not others and certainly not them. Instead, turn the focus on outside interests that the other person can relate to, even if it has to be the weather. For help, tune in to an online news source like CNN or subscribe to a national or other major newspaper or magazine like Newsweek or head to the public library for the latest news briefs.
Online dating might be a good outlet for you, to as it generally offers a place to list all your great physical qualities as well as outside interests and more, presenting a more rounded dating candidate. Then those who are VERY interested in great abs, youthful appeal, etc. will be able to check you out. And those who are interested in the other interests can focus on those, too.
Sit, Don’t Take a Stand – Instead of voicing your opinions over issues that you pretty well know, cause heated arguments, don’t take a stand. Just sit them out. There’s no shame in passing up an argument. For example, if you both call yourselves “Christians,” yet one of you firmly has a complete set of rules and regulations about what a “Christian” really is, and doesn’t hesitate to voice this, skip over conversations about religion. If you have to, simply say something along the lines of, “This gets us too heated, so let’s pass on if for now and move on to something else.” Agree that it’s okay to disagree. Because it is!
Traditions – Keep up with some old traditions from each family. Alter some; create new ones. The main thing here is to make positive memories that you can share and relive over and over, especially during rough spots when you can’t remember why you are together. Traditions can be like glue and bind you with a common past.
Sex Vs Love – Sex and love are not the same thing. Learn the difference and don’t measure love by your hormones.
Negotiator – Forget “his” and “hers” roles and who “should” do what when…Learn to negotiate. What works one day may not work another when timing is off, kids are on the run and disaster strikes, for instance, when your mother-in-law drops by unexpectedly.
Love and Hate – Love your mate. It is OK to strongly dislike (or “maybe” hate) a behavior, like cracking knuckles or biting nails. But remember to love the person.

The largest auction site on the internet by far is ebay. In this article we’ll take a look at ways you can make money buying and selling on ebay.

In every market, there are always going to be people selling things below their market value… Sometimes way below market value..

On ebay there are huge numbers of people selling things in every category imaginable from cars and computers to real estate and businesses. The easiest way to tap in to these markets is to focus a niche of items you are familiar with.

I have always been in to computers, so my first venture in to ebay money making was to buy and sell computer laptops on ebay. These have a high value and can be shipped relatively cheap.

It is important to keep in mind the price of the item as well as the price of shipping to calculate the total you will be paying for the item.

I spent a few days familiarizing myself with the average sale price for items in the category. Looking at prices and specializing in particular makes and models (I used to buy and sell a lot of Dell, Sony and IBM laptops) is the easiest way to determine a good deal when you see one.

And now.. the secret to finding the best deals..

By far, the best deals I have ever purchased on ebay was from looking at the newly listed “buy it now” items. This can be accomplished by selecting the “Buy it now” checkbox on the left side of the ebay item listing pages and change the sort order to “Newly listed”.

This will show you the most recently buy it now items in the category..

So what’s so important about that? You might ask..

Well, if people (and they do) are trying to get rid of an item and want it to sell fast (which the item does if its a good price) they will list the item as a buy it now at a price thats far below the market average.

This is where studying the market comes in to play. You need to have a good idea of what something in your market is worth. What you could reasonably expect to resell it for.

Once you have accomplished this, you can buy up all the best deals and resell for huge profits.

This method, of course, also applies to ending soonest auctions and sniping. You could just as easily use sniping software to snipe a large number of items, but snipe at very low prices so when you actually win something for very cheap, it will be worthwhile.

This also works great on classified sites such as craigslist.com. You can easily go through all the items in one category and offer about half of what the item would normally go for and if even 1 out of 2 agree, you will get a great deal you can resell for a profit.

So in conclusion, using sniping software as well as monitoring the newly listed buy it now items in a category you are familiar with, you can purchase items as discounted rates to resell back to ebay or local classifieds for a profit. This is a very good business to have with minimal investment (buy what you want to resell).

Drop shipping is also another great way to make money on ebay. You can purchase items at wholesale prices and have warehouses ship directly to your customer and keep the profit. Please follow the link in my author biography to read more about wholesale dropshipping.

I just joined StumbleUpon a few weeks ago. Thought StumbleUpon was only some kind of community for websurfers. However, this week, I saw a lot of traffics from StumbleUpon in Google Analystic. I did some researches online, then I finally realized we could get much more free traffics from StumbleUpon.

What exactly is StumbleUpon? StumbleUpon is a little different from the social bookmarking websites like Digg and Del.ico.us. However, all these three system are working excellently on getting big traffic to your websites. StumbleUpon has now over a million users, it brings you lower traffic than Digg or Del.ico.us, but which still means a lot. Webmasters will never refuse more traffic. More details of StumbleUpon and how it works could be found out directly from their About Page.

So now, let’s see how could we get more traffic from StumbleUpon.

* Getting involved in the community : Yes! Just do what other Stumblers are doing in StumbleUpon, let’s add more friends and rate more websites! Rating websites is just like the way in Digg, the more you rate, the bigger quantity of StumbleUpon users who have the same interests as you will come across your website. Getting more friends will increase the chance, that your newly added web pages will be shown to more people.

* Content is the king : No matter what kind of way we are working on to get more traffic, the contents on our websites are the key feature. Only the interesting and useful contents will get more and stably increasing traffic. So, if we want to get more traffic from StumbleUpon, we need to do the same things: Write good articles, choose attractive titles, add more tags, and so on.

* stumbleXchange, an useful tool : Read more here to get involved in this great system. You could build up your SU networks easily in stumbleXchange. I think, the biggest reason ZoIMarketing is getting more and more traffic from SU is, I spend a few minutes everyday in stumbleXchange.

We all know, traffic means everything to our websites. Wish you could find something you need in this article!

As part of a balanced diet, a treat for your cat is complementary to regular meals. Serve a treat that is both nutritious and will enhance his good health. It is also a good way to help you build a solid relationship with your cat or kitten. As you are playing with your cat, you may introduce a trat for your cat, as a reward, if he finds you while playing hide-and-seek for example. And with patience, you may even teach him a few tricks and develop certain abilities you did not even dream of.

The most common treat for your cat includes a variety of bite size shape foods. Dry or moist, chicken, seafoods, fish, cheeze, meat filledor flavored are readily available on the market. Several companies will even deliver to your door.

Age and health condition are useful references in choosing a cat treat for your animal friend. Prefer a treat for your feline friend that will not have preservatives, artificial colouring and artificial flavour. A treat will help stimulate the appetite of an older cat or develop new tastes for your younger cat or kitten.

Here are some hints in choosing a treat for your cat:

For kittens, remember to moisten their food with warm water. That is until they reach the age of 8 to 9 weeks when their teeth are strong enough to bite into the harder treats. A high protein treat with a very little bit of crunch is recommended for this age group.

A treat for your cat at adult age (6 to 8 years old depending on species) still includes a high protein variety of foods and is very popular. Avoiding sugars, dyes and second grade meats are suggested. Hairball formulas may be of some help for those long-haired cats.

Treats for mature and older cats have to be chosen depending on different health problems they may have been showing in the recent years.This is when you have to pay particular attention to the food content of the treat for your cat. You may want to serve easy-to-digest formula treats, low calories, high fiber content ones. Softer textures can be of interest for your older cat who has teeth and gum problems. You should also include urinary track healthy products, ones to prevent tartar build up, breath freshnening, cleaning teeth agent formulas. No matter what health problem your cat may suffer from, there is always a treat for your cat that will have a soothing effect to help him live alonger, better quality life.

From his early age, it is important to vary your cat`s menu. This will help him adapt to many stressful situations he has to face with or withoutyou. But a treat for your cat is not intended to replace his regular meals. I would call it a deserved snack. Is is part of a fun time, a playing time and sometimes a learning experience for you and your cat.

And remember quality will always be better than quantity !!

As you probably have begun to realize, planning a wedding is both exciting and often more than a little nerve-wracking. Preparing for a ceremony as special as a wedding is plenty of cause for excitement and anticipation. However, there is so much to do and, most likely, since you’ll want it to all go perfectly that’s plenty of cause for anxiety and stressed nerves. And when you consider that it isn’t the kind of thing we do on a regular basis, nor something that we normally have any training for, you need to ease up a little on the quest for perfection and try to focus on the excitement.

Your wedding dress is likely to be the most significant component of the wedding ceremony. Everyone’s eyes will be on the bride. Whatever style of wedding you settle on, you’ll find that there’s a lot of traditions that relate to the wedding ceremony – even with some of the more unusual themed weddings. Still, there is room for you to add your own special touches – to make your wedding uniquely your own.

If you’ve never thought about actually designing your own wedding dress, you should give it some thought. If you’ve priced wedding dresses, you’ll be aware that even low-end brands may cost over 5 or 6 hundred dollars. Dresses sold by bridal shops tend to include a lot of overhead and additional costs which you can avoid by designing your own wedding dress. If you have a friend or relative who is well-skilled in sewing, you can save even more money. One of the greatest benefits of designing your own wedding dress is that you will end up with a true one of a kind, a wedding dress no one else owns.

One caution – before you start designing be certain that you have or can find a person with the needed skills to actually create your wedding dress from your designs and ideas. This is not something you can wait until the last minute to do. You’ll need to spend some significant time working with this person – well in advance of the wedding – so make sure of both the person’s skills and availability.

A good place to start generating ideas for your wedding dress design is to consider the theme of the wedding and when and where it’ll be held. Is it going to be a summer wedding? A winter wedding? Will it be outdoors or indoors? Will the reception be indoors or outdoors? What special characteristics does the location have? This is particularly important for an outdoor wedding since the answers can have a significant bearing on the style of wedding dress you design. As an example, an outdoor wedding in Texas in the month of August requires a wedding dress design that will not leave you soaked in perspiration. You should also consider how formal or informal the wedding ceremony itself will be.

If you don’t already have some ideas for a design, a good place to start may be with bridal magazines, wedding dress catalogs and even on-line bridal shops. All these can be good sources for ideas to use in designing your own wedding dress.

Your home may be in good condition and well built, yet simple clutter will create a perception of chaos, confusion, and disorder. The purchase decision is an emotional and intellectual response, based on a level of trust in your home. When buyers see clutter, they assume that the home has been neglected, with more to fix than meets the eye. This perception undermines your home’s market value.

De-cluttering is an essential part of your preparation, and is virtually cost free. This activity is goes hand in hand with moving. Before you put your home on the market, have a garage sale, throw some things out, and box stuff up. Your move will be easier, and you will create an open, spacious, simplified look that buyers love. If you need support, a local home staging service can work with your furniture and create a whole new look. When it comes to selling your home, less is truly more.

1) Front Yard

De-cluttering starts with your front yard. Make sure the yard is mowed and edged, and remove toys, junk piles, empty flower pots, etc.

An evenly cut yard is pleasing to the eye. Fertilize the grass a month or two ahead.

Overgrown, woody shrubs give an old, tired look. Trim or remove them.

Do not allow shrubs to cover windows. They block light on the interior, and give an appearance of crowding on the exterior.

Coil hoses and place any tools inside the garage.

Find a place to store extra cars or boats – other than the front of your house.

De-clutter flower beds. Mulch is inexpensive (about $2. per bag), and does wonders to simplify garden beds, especially in winter when plants are thin. Add flowers on the porch or in beds if weather permits.

Too many flowerpots are distracting – use a few large pots with healthy plants. Never have empty pots or dead plants sitting around.

Dried wreaths may be used on doors in winter, for a simple focal point.

2) Entry
The buyers’ first impression is critical, and shapes their attitude throughout the showing.
Invest in a brand new welcome mat.

Stains, scratches and dirty spots create distractions to the eye, and are a form of clutter. Clean, paint, and eliminate as many of these as possible.

Pay close attention to your front door. Is it dirty, darkened by mildew, or in need of re-finishing? Fresh paint or stain will make a huge difference.

Consider having your whole house power washed to remove stains, spider webs and other clutter.

The foyer should be clear of shoes, coats, or excess items on the walls.

Create a single focal point in the entry with an attractive table or painting.

3) Living Areas
Rooms should be sparsely furnished to appear larger and lighter.

The garage or an off-site storage room can be used to hold extra pieces of furniture.

Move large pieces of equipment – drums, telescopes, exercise equipment, etc. – to the garage or off-site.

Do not allow furniture to block windows, doorways, or traffic patterns through rooms.

Do not allow wires to cross traffic patterns.

Choose one or two elements as the main points of interest in a room – wood floors, a view, a table or piece of furniture, a nicely made bed, etc.

Too many personal collections and photographs are distracting for buyers.

Buyers must be able to imagine their own family in the home.

A few decorative items or photographs on tables are fine, but reduce these to just a few nice pieces.

Remove hunting trophies. They can be overwhelming in a small room, and may bother some buyers.

Large plants often take up too much space. Allow only a few healthy plants in the house.

music“target=”_self”title=”Books-Music ” >Bookshelves add a warm touch to a room, but be sure that they are not overloaded.

Place books so that the backs are even. Lay some books horizontally, and leave open space for art objects.

Open window blinds and leave on a few lamps for pleasant lighting.

4) Kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of the home and plays an important part in attracting the heart of a buyer.

This is an active area that usually needs special attention.

Clean, evenly finished cabinetry is a must. Add new paint or stain, if necessary.

Benjamin Moore Paints has a product called “Howard’s Restore-a-finish” that works wonders on scratched or worn cabinets.

New cabinet pulls are an inexpensive item that can help tie the room together in terms of colors and finishes.

Remove purely functional items – such as baking pans, small appliances, vitamins, phone books, plastic bags, etc.

Do not have notes or photos on the refrigerator.

Clear the counters completely, then add back a few decorator items.

Choose decorative pieces that contribute to a warm, elegant, organized look.

Some suggestions: Flowers, fruit, cookbooks, wine, bowls, antiques, new dish towels, small designer appliances, etc.

Often the area under the sink needs organizing and cleaning.

Never leave trash containers out in the kitchen.

5) Bathrooms
It is important to de-clutter bathrooms to give them a touch of elegance or romance.

Keep in mind that you will give up some privacy during the marketing period.

Start by removing everything from the counters.

Remove any toilet brushes or cleaners that are visible.

Put items that you use daily – toothbrushes, soaps, razors – in a container, and place the container inside in a cabinet.

Decorate with fresh soaps, flowers, bowls, photos, or designer bath items.

Invest in new towels and fold them carefully.

Never leave medicines, money, x rated magazines, jewelry, guns, or personal possessions of this type on display.

6) Bedrooms
Bedrooms should appear restful and serene. Sparsely furnished is best.

Use your best covers, or invest in new ones if yours are worn.

Clear off bedside tables, and add back just a few books or nice items.

Bedside lamps add a warm ambience for showings.

Remove excess paintings or photos from the walls.

In some cases, old curtains do more harm than good. Take them down and clean the windows for a fresh look.

Children’s bedrooms usually need to be simplified. Take down posters and box up toys. Avoid an overcrowded look.

7) Closets
Organize your pantry with everything facing forward. Remove excess food and containers.

Relieve your closets if they are stuffed. Pack items that are not needed.

The laundry room often functions as a spill over room with junk on the shelves. Clear everything out, and have just a few soap boxes visible.

Create a Simple Background
Often sellers have organized their homes to express themselves – their travels, collections, interests, favorite colors and unique tastes. However, when selling a home, the goal is just the opposite. It is to create a clean, simple background that many different buyers would like to move into.

Excess items and clutter confuses and distracts buyers during showings. They should not be required to “look past” your possessions. They are there to see if your house fits them, and their emotional level response is a strong factor in their decision. Warm, clean, simple, spacious, well lighted, neutral – and uncluttered – these are the keys to getting the best price for your home.

Hiring managers often receive hundreds, or even thousands, of applications for a given job. To avoid having your resume sink in a sea of paper or electronic files, it’s essential to write a cover letter that stands out and makes a great first impression.

Here’s how:

Rule #1: Keep Up Appearances
Your resume and cover letter must be aesthetically pleasing and consistent in appearance. This includes formatting with the same heading and fonts in each and using a high-quality printer and paper, if documents are being “snail mailed.”

Also, keep it tasteful and save the designer stationery and stylish fonts for writing letters to friends. A professional employment package never sets a casual tone.

Rule #2: Target Your Audience
Always use the hiring manager’s name in the salutation. If the contact’s name isn’t provided in the job posting, a bit of Internet research or a well-structured phone call can produce results. In using the contact’s name, the cover letter is personalized, while also showing your interest in the company. Remember, a letter addressed “Dear Sir or Madam” or worse, “To Whom It May Concern,” has the same impact as one addressed “Dear Occupant.”

Rule #3: Craft a Strong Opening Statement
A dynamic opening paragraph is essential to capture and retain a hiring manager’s interest. For a quick and effective read, it should include a reference to the position sought and a brief statement as to why you are qualified to fill the job. Emphasis should be placed on what you can do for the company, while also providing quantifiable proof.

Rule #4: Showcase Your Accomplishments
Include a bulleted area to emphasize accomplishments pertinent to your targeted job. Not only does this break up large blocks of text that can be daunting to read, but it also draws the eye toward the most important part of the cover letter — what you have to offer.

Rule #5: Create a Proactive Closing
Always initiate further action at the end of a cover letter. A proactive closing indicates that you will call within a few days to see if a time might be scheduled to meet. To wait for a hiring manager to take that first step is to risk losing the opportunity to another candidate. If a job description asks that you not call, however, it’s in your best interest to respect their wishes.

The goal of your cover letter is simple: to convince a hiring manager to read your resume. Follow these simple rules and you’ll be sure to create a compelling letter that will leave a hiring manager wanting more.

The initial web site design brief is the cornerstone to a sound and profitable web site design project. Get it wrong, miss out on the key elements and you could end up at best losing a lot of time and money over the simplest of web site design jobs. At worst you could end up in a dispute with your web site design customer with a few hassles. While most serious web site design companies will draft and present their customer with a proper quote with all the web site design specs and conditions, many feel it is not necessary to have a similar document for smaller web site design projects. This is a mistake because a badly planned small web site design project could end up being a big headache if things get out of control. So getting the initial web site design brief right from the outset is critical.

So what is this initial web site design brief? It is basically what you and your customer agreed to put in the web site design project before you take his or her good money. Very few customers, especially in the discount web site design market, have a well laid out specs sheet of what they require in a web site. More than likely they have an idea, they have seen a few web site designs and they will try their best to explain to you what they want. So far so good and there is nothing wrong with them explaining their web design requirement verbally. The problem comes up when complications arise. If you have a piece of paper or an email that lists the features of the web design, it is easy to go back to it and have a point of reference for future arguments or additional work.

I’d advise every web design company to draft a quote listing the following:
• The aim of the web site being designed. What is the intended purpose of the web site being designed?
• List all the features and functions of the web site as much as you can.
• Describe the visitor’s experience when he or she is on the web site.
• Describe the webmaster’s experience. What functions and info can the webmaster access on the web site? Put down what is required for you to start the web design project, e.g a deposit, the material, photos, texts etc.
• Make it clear how long the web design project will last.
• Put down the cost involved to complete the web design project and the payment terms.
• Do not forget to mention other costs like domain name and hosting.
• Make your term and conditions clear on the quote. No small prints.

I would recommend you draft your own specs based on the customers web design requirement, even if the latter has provided a well documented specs sheet or rfq. By rewriting the brief with the web design requirement you are making sure that you understand every one of the web design features. The devil is in the details. If you have any doubts at this stage, ask the customer. Do not assume anything because once you submit the quote, the customer will assume that you have understood and hold you to it. If there are web design features you feel you cannot deliver, do not hesitate to make this clear to the customer. Although very often you can come to some arrangements, it is preferable to sometimes lose an order than to promise web design features that you cannot deliver.

Most importantly, do not give your customer high expectations if you are not sure about your ability to deliver. It is much better to be conservative about your capabilities while quoting and over achieving than the other way round. Salesmen are generally very good at over selling and promising the sky. Anybody who has worked in bespoke web design production knows that the time spent on a web design project can quickly snowball unless you have a good brief or quote and the project is tightly managed according to the brief.