Stock Market 101

Last week I got into a conversation with one of my peers about the stock market.  The interesting thing about the conversation is that even though I took economics in college and I trade on the market periodically, I had a hard time communicating effectively about what the stock market was and what the three indices represented.  As all of you know, I pride myself on short sweet communication that gets to the point.

That conversation made me sit down and really figure out, how I could communicate clearly about the markets, what they represent, and most of all, do you really need to know what they are to be able to invest?  Let’s start with the last question first.  Most of us will not be too concerned about the overall markets averages.  90% of investors hear about a company and want to invest, so they do.  While the average of the Dow is important for some people, most won’t be too concerned about how the average moves. 

It is important for you to know and understand what the terms that are being used actually mean.  So there are a million (actually, 33,800,000) search results for stock market terms on Google.  So as you can see there is no shortage of ideas and thoughts.  But what I found is that Wikipedia has the most comprehensive information, as long as you have hours to read and click on the links. Over the next few article, I will try to break down some of the most critical aspects of the stock markets, the indexes, and how you as a individual can leverage the information to make educated decisions.

So, the  Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), also referred to as the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is named after Dow and one of his business associates, statistician, Edward Jones. It is an index that shows how 30 large, publicly owned companies based in the United States have traded during a standard trading. The 30 companies are very large, Boeing, ALCOA, and American Express are three of the 30.  For a more detailed list click here.

For the history of Charles Dow and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, click here.

The Industrial portion of the name is largely historical, as many of the modern 30 components have little or nothing to do with traditional heavy industry. The value of the Dow is not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks, but rather the sum of the component prices divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, so as to generate a consistent value for the index.

The Nasdaq Composite is a stock market index of the common stocks and similar securities listed on the NASDAQ stock market, meaning that it has over 3,000 components. It is highly followed in the U.S. as an indicator of the performance of stocks of technology companies and growth companies. Since both U.S. and non-U.S. companies are listed on the NASDAQ stock market, the index is not exclusively a U.S. index.  Companies like Apple and Yahoo are on the NASDAQ, for a full list click here. The index focus is U.S.-based companies although there are a few legacy companies with headquarters in other countries.

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 is the most widely followed index of large-cap American stocks. It is considered a bellwether for the American economy, and is included in the Indes of Leading Indicators. Many mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other funds such as pension funds, are designed to track the performance of the S&P 500 index. Hundreds of billions of US dollars have been invested in this fashion.
So let’s look as some terms often used and associated with the stock markets:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average – This is a compilation of the 30 most traded blue chip stocks. This list is the most widely used for analyzing stock market indexes.  
• NASDAQ – This is a stock exchange consisting primarily of technology companies.
• S&P 500 - Made up of the 500 biggest and most successful U.S. companies.
• Stock – This is the smallest measurable unit of ownership in a company. Shares fall into either the common or preferred categories; companies issue shares of stock in order to raise capital without borrowing money.
• Ask – This is the lowest price that a seller will accept when selling a stock.
• Bear – This refers to an investor who believes the stock market or a particular stock is declining. This is the opposite of a Bull.
• Bid – This is the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay for a stock.
• Broker – A person that buys or sells stocks, bonds, commodities and such in exchange for a fee which is called a commission.
• Bull – An investor who believes the whole market or one individual stock is going to increase in price. This is the opposite of a Bear.

Investing terms – These words and phrases reflect stock market terms for various stock market strategies.   These stock market terms are used to describe specific conditions or analysis.

• Dividend – This is the portion of a company’s profit that is given back to the investors. Such payments are made on either an annual or quarterly basis.
• Book Value - This is the value of a company if assets and common stock equity are added together and all liabilities are subtracted. There is little correlation between the book value and the market value. Book value is used in such fundamental analysis measurements as Price to Book ratio.
• Blue Chip – This term describes a company with a history of strong earning, traditionally increasing dividends and an outstanding balance sheet. Blue Chip stocks include Exxon-Mobile, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart.
• Market Capitalization – A company's market capitalization, also known as its market cap, is calculated by taking the number of outstanding shares of stock multiplied by the current price per share.
• P/E Ratio – This widely used analysis tool of Price to Earnings Ratio measures now you pay for each dollar of corporate earnings. For example, if you have $45 stocks that report a profit of $3 per share, your P/E ratio is 15; $45 per share divided by $3 earnings per share equals 15. In this ratio the lower the P/E ratio, the better.
• Spread: This stock market term reflects the difference between the Ask and the Bid. 
• Yield – This is the percentage of a dividend paid against the stock price.  For example, if you receive a $4 dividend on a $40 per share stock, your yield is 10%.

Short and Sweet

Short and Sweet

So we talked about how important short and sweet messages are to our employees. It is crucial that your team get your messages and understand them fully.


Steps to ensuring your emails are connecting with your team:

Outline your email messages to ensure you hit each priority
Start with the outline and then expand on each one with 3 additional thoughts (more than 3 and your team will not be able to stay focused)
Send more messages that are short and your team will be so much more responsive.
Use bullet points for simplification. Look at the example below:

EXAMPLE:

Team we need to accomplish several things today. As you know from our last two emails we must ensure that the role out of the new process is successful. First please ensure that ll your team is in the office tomorrow by seven in the morning. Second make sure that your team has read the instructions and understands their roles and how important it is that each person is able to do their job perfectly. Finally, have your team leads gather their teams at the end of the training to recap their progress and determine if there are any best practices that need to be implemented across other team. Thanks

SIMPLIFIED EXAMPLE:

• Team we need to accomplish several things today:
• Please have your team in the office by 7:00 a.m. 
• Please make sure each member of your team has read their roles and responsibilities 
• Please have an end of day meeting to ensure that best practices are shared 

See the difference between the “readability” of the two. The bullets stick out, the numbers are easier on the one email stick out more clearly, and the email itself appears to be shorter. The word count is almost exact. Try it on your next email. If you have ever thought that your team might not be reading or understanding your messages you might need this help and just not know it.


While we are on this topic, let me quickly mention something that we have not talked about yet. Self Analysis is critical for a successful leaders. We all have faults!! You have them. If you are aware of your faults then you are one step closer to “perfection” (tongue in cheek since none of us are perfect) but if you don’t constantly analyze all aspects of your sales management (and your life) then you are not getting better every day!


OK, so now we have seen how Simple is so much better. What about the Sweet? The sweet comes from the fact that if you have anything (I mean anything) negative to say to a person or a team, you need to do it voice to voice or face to face. DO NOT HIDE BEHIND AN EMAIL when delivering a negative message. Trust me, your team and your employees will appreciate your clarity live rather than on an email. In the next few days we are going to talk about several topics, if you have suggestions or questions, please post them so we can address them.


Have an incredible day!!!! Every leader makes a difference, is your one worth following?

Sales Management in 2011

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about sales and sales management.  As everyone knows, how we get to the next level is much different now than even two years ago.
Our sales teams are smarter, our technology is better, and much of our consumer intelligence is almost immediate.
Over the next several articles I will talk about how I have adjusted my sales management techniques, and more importantly how my communication has changed.  
THEY CAN SEE YOUR FROWN IN YOUR EMAIL
Creating an environment for all sales teams, it is critical (as you know) that your messages be direct, short, and positive for the most part.  I laugh every time I get an email as I try to imagine in my head, “what did the persons face look like when they sent that message”.  How many of you have received an email, called the person to clarify and realize that your interpretation of the message was wrong?
In today’s sales environment, it is critical that you follow a few important steps:

• Keep your message short and sweet  (3 short messages are better than 1 long email)
• Use the subject line to let the team know what the message is about (so they can prioritize their reading)
• Use Bullet points and numbering if instructions need to be followed
• If it is a critical email, have someone proof read it.  Or, send it to yourself to see what it looks like when you see it the second time
• Set the tone up front.  Most sales teams like to be recognized for what they are doing right before you ask them for more
• Be consistent.  If your team knows that you are going to send messages at a certain time each day, you will ensure that your messages are read and responded to timely.  

Sales management today is very different.  Results are instant, communication is instant, feedback must be instant.  25 years ago, we used inter-office mail and phones.  Then fax machines became a given and our communication patterns changed.
Well now with Social Media our communications are on warp speed.  
Join us over the next few articles as we discuss:

• How to deliver a new message
• How to create excitement every day for your team
• How to ensure everyone on your team is productive
• How to create “anxious tension”
• Celebrate Good Times (come on) threw that in for you music aficionados

I hope you enjoy this series, but I have an ask of you.  If any of you have ideas, suggestions or questions, please email them to me.  Click here to email me an idea or topic you would like to discuss.

NEW HIRE ORIENTATION

I Don’t Need to Know That -- NEW HIRE ORIENTATION

I was laughing the other day at how some companies do orientations.  They believe that it is mission critical to tell the new employee how the company started in 1865.  Now you may work for one of those companies and if you do, there obviously is a reason they set up the introduction to their company the way they do.

My opinion is that new employees are working TODAY, not in the past.  They want to know what is in it for them in the future.  So, that is where we should be as well.  As you think about the journey of a new employee.  They interview, they start and based on the beginning, it determines the end.  What I mean by that is we should not have anything in our introduction to the employee that does not help them become successful.

START WITH THE END IN MIND

Every time I do an orientation with a new employee, I take something they said in the interview and I project that into the future as big as it can be.  My role is to then paint a verbal picture so that the new employee can see themselves accomplishing it even bigger than they dreamed they could.  WHY?  Because when they do that, you will have an employee that is focused on not only them, but also ensuring that all they do is for the good of your business.

USE EXAMPLES ON HOW THEY CAN SUCCEED

Every company that I have worked with or for has a set of rules that explain to an associate the things they should not do.  I love when I can convince a company to set up rules an associate should do.  It takes the process and makes everything a positive.  Some examples of the ones I have used in the past:  (now of course labor laws might impact some of these, but go with me on the thought process) 

·         Show up to work 10 minutes early

·         Work 5 minutes longer than your boss

·         Take a lunch break, but never take the entire break

·         Work faster than anyone expects you to

·         Be positive and happy all the time (remind them they have a job and some people don’t)

You get the idea.  No reason to make it all the things people shouldn’t do. 

SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND TIMELINES

So many times, I hear employees say, “I didn’t know that”, “When did they say that”, “If I would have known that, then I would have done it”.  Any time you have expectations or a timeline, put it in writing and have them sign for it.  I know that this sounds elementary, but trust me they will thank you for taking the time to explain and for giving it to them in writing.  One time, I set some expectations, and when they were not done, I approached the 3 people that were in the orientation.  I asked them why they had not done what I had asked, and each one of them told me that when they discussed it, they were not clear what or when I had asked it to be done.  Lesson learned, put it in writing.

MAKE PROMISES ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT

If you are the manager for the new employees, make sure that you have “skin in the game”.  You need to ensure that they know that you are as bought in to their success as they are.  People tend to work much harder for you when they know how much you care.  Teddy Roosevelt said this and it is still accurate today.  Have you ever noticed how much harder you try when you know that someone is counting on you and working just as hard as you are?  Try it; it will make a difference in your life and your business.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Make sure that within the first 5 days that the new employee is on the job that you pull up with them, answer any questions, reinforce any major messages, and give them positive feedback on the awesome job they are doing.  Next we are going to talk about formal performance reviews, and the power they can have when you catch people doing something right.  If you have missed any of our articles, catch up here.

Follow up to Hiring the RIGHT Employees

Follow up to Hiring the RIGHT Employees
We have received several posts and questions from our readers in regard to our last blog.  With all the questions, I wanted to take time in this article to give everyone an idea of my experience and a few “real life” examples.  For the past 21 years, I have been managing people and building teams.  I have led teams from 50 to 700, and had up to 48 direct reports during the last few years of my career.
In addition to the number of associates, I have led teams with local geography and in 5 separate states.  I would estimate that in my career I have interviewed and hired over 500 people.  So, trust me I have made many mistakes to learn from.  
Our desire at is to use our experience to help all business owners as they grow, expand, or start their business.  I don’t think anyone would be interested in making a mistake if they could avoid them.
Especially when it comes to hiring associates, it can be extremely expensive to hire/re-hire over and over.
In my last blog, I mentioned some of the common “errors” that I have made (and I know that when talking with other leaders they have too) was not doing my homework.
In this day and age, it is so simple to open up the internet and Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn potential candidates.  I have failed to do so and after hiring them and being disappointed in attendance, took the time to look them up in Facebook, and low and behold, they were on Facebook, as “party animals”.  No wonder they don’t show up to work, they are too busy updating their Facebook page.  
The most interesting recent hire, was of an executive that I was excited to hire.  They had great experience; they knew the business very well.  But, they were very casual in the interview.  Not only their dress, but also their conversation took on a very casual conversation.  I remember thinking to myself that it the candidate was too presumptuous and acted like a long time friend.  Even with this, I hired the candidate.  Within the first 30 days, I had numerous complaints on dress attire, attitude with clients where I actually had a client call me to tell me that rather than talking to a manager, they were treated in a non-professional “laid back” manner which they did not expect from the position they were speaking to.
Point being, if you are thinking in your head that something is wrong, THERE PROBABLY IS.  Don’t do it.
Are you too Desperate?
Another point, I am not sure if I even touched upon one major issue that faces businesses today, and that is hiring out of desperation.  Too many times in my career, I have been forced to “settle” for someone that I knew was not a perfect fit just because anyone breathing is better than nothing.  BAD DECISION.  Trust me, many times; a vacant spot is a much better performer than the wrong person.  Don’t allow yourself to get or act desperate.  I know if you are like me you are thinking right now, “easy for him to say”.  But I feel that I have made that mistake more than a few times and it bites me every single time.
Never Pigeon-hole yourself:
What do I mean by this?  When interviewing for a leadership role, keep in mind that some people think they may be ready for the job.  The truth is, that many people think they are ready, and they may be, but not right now.  I can think of one of the best people that I have ever hired.  She was an aggressive young candidate, but with limited experience.  She showed so much promise, that I made an offer for a lesser position, she accepted, rapidly moved up and is now a key executive in the organization.  Always keep in mind that people may not be ready for the position you are hiring for, but might be soon.  KEEP YOUR MIND OPENED!!
I think that my biggest point in this follow up is to say this.  Hiring is the single most important duty you will ever have.  I have consulted with companies that have had training and seminars, and they fail to grasp the importance of taking the time to do their homework, hire right the first time, and teach others how to look for great associates.  Usually, when I have conducted seminars for groups, it only takes about 30 minutes to walk through all the steps.  
The time comes in taking each of the steps, putting them into action and applying them to every hiring decision that you make.
If you have any questions, please contact me at my email.

Hiring the RIGHT Employees for your Business

If you are like most business professionals, you have taken classes or read articles on how to interview potential employees. What I have always found amusing about this is that they never ask what you are like. What type of people do you work best with? What do you want in a an employee? The last time you hired someone that was effective what were they like? The reason I find it amusing is that more than 50% of the reason an employee does not work out is usually YOU.



Don’t take offense in that. But, we all know that if we don’t “connect” with an employee, then training, growth, and development of that employee will be next to impossible. I think about leaders and employees that I have hired in the past. When I try to be something I am not during the interview, I fail miserably. When I interview for what I am, and what I am looking for, then I usually am much more happy.



Interview Derailers (Key indicators that the person you are interviewing is not the best for your organization)

• The person you are interviewing always agrees with you 
• There is no conversation. The interview is just that, an interview where you ask questions and they give you answers. How well do they think and communicate? 
• There is no energy or passion in their voice or eyes. (yes, their eyes should light up when you are talking to them 
• They have done no research on you and your business. There are many online resources to research potential businesses. http://www.google.com/; http://www.linkedin.com/; http://www.yahoo.com/; (if they have not taken the time to look you up, then do they really care?) 

How should you prepare for an interview and what should you ask for prior to and during the interview?


Every new employee is your opportunity to take your business to the next level
Know exactly what you are looking for in an employee. (think of someone you have had work for you in the past that you found success with; think of someone that you have run into that you said, “when I hire someone that is the kind of person I want”.
Review and research past employers they have had. Again, the online resources you have are incredible. Research Facebook, Twitter, Formspring, etc. Keep in mind, what people say and do online are them everyday. You will only see them at their best during the interview.
THIS IS THE BEST THE EMPLOYEE WILL EVER LOOK AND ACT -- Think about that. When a potential candidate walks into an interview, that is the best they are. They will never look better or act better than this. Ask yourself, is 75% of what I see and hear today good enough for me to take my company to the next level.
Keep in mind that there is no greater decision you will make than the people that you surround yourself with. The people you bring on should either compliment you and your leadership, or push you to new highs.

In the next article, I will go over how to on-board a new employee. How you should have clear expectations for the new employee. The importance of setting goals and time-lines from the very first day. Make sure you check back in to our blog at http://abc-allbusiness.blogspot.com/. 

A Businesses Greatest Asset

Have you ever had an opportunity to sit down and list out all your assets?  Most companies have technology assets, inventory, buildings, land and other assets.  One of the greatest assets that you have is your employees.  Without this asset, most of you would not be able to exist the way you do today.

Before we get started let’s define an employee:  www.dictionary.com  defines an employee as “a person working for another person or a business firm for pay”.  As you read this definition is that how you view your employees?  Let’s change the word employee to teammate for the rest of this article.  At All Business Concierge, we view all people that work with us and for us as teammates.  It makes a difference.
While on the surface it may seem so insignificant, I would let you know that our research over the years has shown that people respond and react so much differently to the two phrases. Overall, an employee feels like they have to do something, while a teammate understands that they are critical to the overall success of every task they perform.

Which do you have?
Taking it even further, consider the replacement cost of each of your assets.  Which one do you consider to be the most important?  Imagine the time you have put into your most trusted teammate.  

• Training Hours
• Personal Growth
• Individual time spent
• Investment in intellectual deposits

Your most valuable assets are your people.  Over the next few articles, we are going to dive deeper into how you can truly make sure that your GREATEST ASSET, your employees, feel:

• Valued
• Important to the overall mission of your company
• Feel empowered to lead the business to the next level
• Understand how their role is critical to the overall company
• Develop a sense of “want to help” as opposed to “have to help” attitude
• Ensuring that every teammate you have is your most vocal advocate about your business