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From 1994 to 1998 I spent my time as a Combat Engineer in the Marine Corps. In the Marines, combat engineers get to play with all the fun stuff…explosives – C4, TNT, Dynamite, and any other type of substance that would go BOOM.

The reason I tell you this is because, as a Combat Engineer we had a saying. “P equals plenty.” In reality, P actually equaled pounds of explosives to be used for any specific mission. Taking down trees, creating large trenches, or dropping a bridge, all had their separate equations, and all gave us P.

But in our world, there could be no “fudge factor.” We could not risk having enough explosives to do the job, so our equations were built in such a way that would allow for an extra pound or two to assure the tree fell, the hole was deep enough, or the bridge was destroyed.

In any business, the same should apply to customer acquisition. Anything you do should always have a built in factor of excess that will provide you with just a bit more business than you can handle.

P should always equal plenty.

Let’s be honest, any time there is no patient in your chair, you aren’t making any money. When the hygiene chair is empty, no income. And when no new patients are coming in, your future production, and income are in jeopardy.

So why would you settle for “just enough” marketing?

Many dentists rely on one source of marketing to achieve their desired new patient flow. They have a newsletter, or one postcard campaign, or a TV commercial, but not all three.

One of our clients had a great television commercial as his only source of new patients. It was pulling good numbers (9-12 new patients) each month, and was the sole marketing strategy of the practice.

The practice was good, full schedule, plenty of patients, until… The cable company moved all the channels around. Now, instead of placement on a channel between two large networks, the commercial aired on a channel high up in the listings. Nobody even clicked past it anymore, let alone viewed it.

With “just enough” marketing, that is the problem, you have no backup plan. Nothing to assure your new patient flow, should your current new patient source dry up.

In other words, make sure, if your suspenders fall off, your belt keeps your pants up.

When you find a successful marketing strategy, keep doing it! But also, you should be testing other strategies so you can diversify your source of new patients. Then, when one well dries up (and it will) you have another to drink from.

When I suggest this to some dentists, I get a simple nod of the head, but I know they won’t take action. Other dentists simply try one thing and give up, and even give me the following line: “If I find something that works, I’ll have too many new patients to handle.”

Don’t shake your head, you’ve thought about it. What if one month you had double the amount of new patients you currently get, maybe even triple. More than you could ever imagine. Does it scare you?

Are you afraid of having too many patients?

Too many new patients, is there even such a thing? I’ll tell you right now, I have a few clients that have run into that recently that are finding out what a joy it is to have that problem. In fact, when you think about it, why would you settle for “just enough” new patients to fill the current schedule?

On that note, let’s take a look at what happens when you have too many new patients:

1. You have to hire an associate and more staff.
2. You have to add square footage to the practice, change buildings, or add a second building.
3. You have no holes in the schedule book for new patients
4. You are booked solid for weeks (except planned breaks and emergencies)
5. Other dentists are constantly bugging you to find out your secrets to a booming practice.
6. Your practice makes too much money
7. You make too much money.

Yikes! All those horrible problems. What would anyone ever do if they had too many patients?

Well, the simple answer is: schedule them out further. One week, two weeks, three weeks. I have a client right now that is 2 months out on the schedule, and new patients don’t mind booking him. See, having a good long line of patients waiting to see you is a good thing.

Let’s face it, a good restaurant without a line really isn’t that great.

The most sought after establishments actually use this to their advantage. By having an overflow of customers, it makes the business look established, and, more importantly, not desperate. If you’re good enough to have a waiting list, that’s a value builder in itself.

If people want to see you, they will wait. Unless they are in pain (emergency appointments) they won’t mind a month or so until they see you.

If patients call and don’t want to wait that long, and they don’t see the value in your practice, you can refer them to a friend across the street. Both the patient and the other dentist will appreciate the referral. It’s better to have a call come in with no openings, than to have openings with no calls coming in.

And talk about a lack of desperation. Patients are now desperate to see you, not the other way around. What would you rather have, a patient that puts up a fuss because your schedule is full, or one that is willing to wait a little while to see you? My suggestion, refer the fussy patient to someone with an empty schedule.

You can uphold the quality of care you’ve always provided, deal with patients who want to see you, grow your practice to levels larger than you’ve imagined, and build a “brand” as the most sought after dentist in the area.

People think you are so busy because you are a great dentist. That’s true…right? Their perception is your reality.

In reality, I don’t believe there is such a thing as too many patients. If there is, it is simply a short term problem with a built in set of solutions. This is not a problem that instantly sneaks up on you either. It is one that slowly arises over a month or two. You’ll have plenty of chances to take the appropriate steps.

If you can flood your practice like this, why wouldn’t you do it? Your marketing programs have the capabilities, and all the tools are available to you.

I have successful clients that do a patient newsletter, and I have successful clients that do postcards, and we have successful ones doing other things, but the most successful are those that are combining many programs into one mega-marketing program. They call and ask us how to add an associate, they call and tell us they are adding operatories in their building, they call and ask us where to find a new hygienist.

The all-out marketing assault works. It not only provides you with plenty of new patients, but helps build a brand of stability and consistency in your practice. If one strategy falls flat one month, you have the others to keep you going.

In your marketing equation, P should always equal plenty, and by plenty I mean 1 more patient than you can handle. You should never have a hole in the schedule, never have an empty chair, and you should never be waiting for the phone to ring.

James Erickson is the President of EMC Dental Marketing, a resource for turn-key dental marketing programs and dental practice marketing education. Visit http://www.EMCdental.com to receive a free practice building kit sent directly to you.

It’s the last day of school. Buses are lined up to make the last trip from the school for the academic year. Your children are absolutely ecstatic. However, if you are a parent that chooses to work from home, or are considering working from home this summer to eliminate having to pay for child care, you may be a little less than excited. There is no need to fret, though, with a little creativity you can discover easy ideas how to work from home when school is out. As you read this article, you will discover some techniques implemented in many homes during the summer months.

1. If you have a computer, internet access, and a good word processing type of software, there are many easy ideas on how to work from home during summer break. I have discovered one, in particular, that I especially like. That is writing SEO articles for individuals who have a website that needs content. On the most part, this is actually a freelance based type of writing, as you are generally contracted for certain projects by an assortment of clients. The projects are normally issued on a “keyword” basis. This means that the client will want you to write articles that are created based on a specific word or phrase. An example of this would be: “I would like a 500 word article on the keyword/keyword phrase “work from home”.

If you write articles from home, you can work at your own pace, even with the kids running in and out of the house all day, taking care of your chores, and any and/or all obligations that you have, you can still sit down and spend a few minutes throwing together an article! This is great news for the home that is often busy and noisy when the kids are at home. You can find freelance writing jobs by searching the web for “freelance writing” or “freelance writing jobs”. You may also find opportunities in the many free classified ads on the internet, as well as those listed in newspapers in or near your community.

2. Let’s say that you really do not want to be restricted to only writing articles that are based on the specifications put into place by various clients. There comes a time in every writer’s life where they want to write what they want to write. There are plenty opportunities to do this when the kids are home from school, and get paid to do it! If you look into websites like Associated Content, eHow, Constant Content, Helium, and Squidoo, you will find that there are a number of opportunities to write on the topics that you know and are interested in and get paid to do it!

3. There are some cases in which you will want to be creative, but writing for money just is not something for you. However, you want to do something. Have you ever considered creating your own tie dye t-shirts and selling them online, or on popular websites like eBay? You may even consider selling them at local yard sales, charity events, flea markets, and corner markets. The great thing about this type of business is that the kids can help you create the shirts! This is a great idea on how to work from home when school is out!

4. The next way that you can work from home when school is out is to consider joining an affiliate program. There are many different types of programs out there – everything from acne products to selling Zoo Book subscriptions! All you have to do is pick something that you find interest in, do a little research on the internet regarding the affiliate programs that focus on that product, and you are well on your ways to earning a lot of money and being able to successfully work with children at home during summer break!

5. The next way that you can make money while the kids are home from school is by participating in selling products on the ever-popular online auction website, eBay. There are many different items that you can sell on eBay. Going to thrift stores and yard sales and purchasing items to be restored is a great way to start. You may run across a wholesale outlet where you can purchase electronics, health food supplements, DVD’s, and more at a reduced price.

As you can see, there are many different easy ideas how to work from home when school is out. You may have to approach your individual circumstances creatively, but it is possible to conclude a set resolution.

Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people find honest and legitimate work at home and home based business opportunities. Find a legitimate work at home opportunity today at: http://www.HomeNetPro.com

Practicing awareness is not commonly associated with the necessary set of skills for a safe and productive workplace. But a conscious decision to expand your awareness can increase your effectiveness in every area of your life, including your job.

Awareness is a state of mind where you are conscious of and alert to certain facts, circumstances or areas of knowledge that affect you or others in some way. Awareness implies a keen perception and consciousness of your environment and the various elements operating within that environment.

One problem with awareness is that our conscious minds are only capable of holding and processing a limited amount of information at any one time. The amount of stimuli and information available to us at any moment is literally overwhelming. It is necessary, therefore, for our conscious minds to “filter” the massive amounts of information that our senses and mental processes constantly encounter in order to avoid being overloaded.

A part of the brain called the “reticular activating system” is responsible for filtering out non-essential information in our environment while bringing relevant information to our attention. An example of this is hearing your name spoken over the announcement speakers at a crowded and extremely noisy airport. The majority of the “noise” is filtered out and dismissed as meaningless background chatter. When your name is announced, however, your reticular activating system allows you to become conscious and aware of this information because it is important to you.

Another example of this is when people purchase a new car. Oftentimes, in the days and weeks following their purchase, they begin noticing the same model “everywhere,” whereas before their purchase they were unaware of these same cars on the road. This information (i.e., the make and model of their new car) is now “relevant” and subsequently their awareness of this information increased.

Increasing awareness, therefore, begins with making a conscious decision about what types of information are important to us. Once this is established, we are more apt to notice and become consciously aware of relevant information within our environment when it appears.

Awareness can be focused on any area or experience that we determine to be important to us. In safety, for example, an increased awareness of potential hazards and risk factors begins, first, with deciding that our safety and the safety of others is important to us in terms of our priorities and, second, by educating ourselves on the specific hazards and risk factors that exist.

If our goal is to become more aware of our emotional reactions to certain situations, the first step is to decide that these emotional reactions are important to us. From here, we can begin to notice what these reactions feel like in our bodies and how they affect our thought processes so that we can examine them from an objective point of view. The challenge with emotional awareness is that the emotions themselves often have a tendency to make us unconscious of everything else while we are experiencing the emotion. A conscious decision to notice and focus on these reactions is therefore essential to increase our awareness.

Awareness, of course, is only the first step toward positive change. Awareness must be followed by some form of action. Without awareness, however, it is impossible to be effective in the types of actions we take.

Levels of awareness can be compared to a series of concentric circles-the larger the circle, the larger your sphere of awareness. The goal is to expand your awareness to include elements that are important to you.

Let’s do a quick exercise. Stop what you are doing and be as still as possible for one full minute. Listen carefully and try to identify as many sounds as possible. Write down your responses.

Were you aware of these sounds before you did the exercise? Probably not. Most of the time, we “filter out” these sounds because they are not important to us. When we expand our circle of awareness we begin to notice things that we were not aware of beforehand.

Now do the same exercise as above; only this time, instead of listening for sounds, look around and list as many colors as you can find. Again, write down your answers.

Once again, you probably began to “notice” aspects of your environment that were outside of your awareness before you did the exercise. Expanding your awareness is often a choice of what you decide is important to you at the time.

The next time you feel yourself getting angry or stressed out, take a moment to “notice” what is happening in your body. What physical manifestations are happening in your body? (The word “emotion” literally means “outward movement.” – “e” = “outward;” “motion” = “movement.”) For example, is there tension in your stomach? Chest? Neck? Eyebrows? Are there any changes in your breathing?

As you continue to expand your levels of awareness, you will be better equipped to make the positive changes that will increase your effectiveness in achieving the goals you set for yourself. Take some time to determine your priorities and consciously decide to become more aware of things that have an impact on the areas that are important to you. When you make this choice, your awareness will began to expand naturally. And when your awareness expands, your effectiveness on the job will increase as well.

Tim Wright, Ph.D., is a freelance writer and busy internet entrepreneur living in Virginia.

Visit his website at: http://myinternetbusinessnet.com

The Internet has been a place where consumers bought many small items that could be easily packaged and shipped for several years now. Books, small household appliances, hand tools and decorating items for example which are bought online are responsible for many millions of dollars of trade in the United States every year.

You can also do shopping online by visiting online numbers of online stores and auction sites. In fact you can by products of your favorite in Europe even if you are in other continent like if you are in America. You can do that by searching ‘online shopping united kingdom’. Online stores like ebay allows you to buy products without leaving your home. By just few clicks in the Internet, you can have the products that you want delivered right at your doorstep.

Lots of individuals were a bit slower to buy the big ticket items online. However, That trend does seem to be reversing itself. At present, more and more frequently in the last year people are buying big ticket items like refrigerators, treadmills and even automobiles online. Many of these purchases are made on eBay.

Big ticket electronic equipment leads the pack of the big ticket items that are being bought more and more frequently on the Internet. If ever you want to sale online, greater detail is needed when you list big ticket items for sale on eBay. Very clear pictures and several of them are also necessary in order to create better possibility of selling items.

When individuals are going to spend a large sum of money on an item that they have only read a description of and seen a picture of want, expect and require that the descriptions and the pictures be very clear and very comprehensive. In addition, you will need to answer inquires promptly and in detail.

The trend toward purchasing more expensive items online is a growing trend. The margin of profit is huge and the opportunities are very great. The beautiful part about selling high ticket products on eBay however, can be discovered using simple mathematics.

You can sell 100 products and make a $10 profit on each for a total of $1000 or you can sell 10 high ticket items for $100 profit on each and still make $1000. Less work and more profit!Isn’t it great?!

When you are choosing the products that you will sell on eBay, you might do well to consider selling higher priced products and making more dollars on each sale that you. It is important that you also build reputation online so that you can create loyal customers or client.

Whether you want to buy or purchase products, the Internet provides better avenue for that.

Steve Campbell (MBA, MSc) is a Business Consultant,
Internet Marketer & Entrepreneur. He & his team
produces topical articles, information & newsletters
for his clients such as those at

http://www.ezinemarketingInformationcenter.com/

Do you need help preparing your office for the end of the year? This article is designed to provide you with year-end preparation tips that will save you time and the headaches it can cause. Specifics may vary from person to person; however, the following information includes helpful and important guidelines from which everyone can benefit.

Just about every company faces it every year, and it doesn’t seem to get any easier as each year passes…the annual purging of current years files, transferring them to archive, and making room for next years files. If you have a bad filing system to begin with, this process can be even worse.

The best thing you can do for yourself and your office is to be prepared for the end of the year. Take a proactive approach and don’t wait until the last minute!

To follow are 4 year-end preparation tips that could help avoid some headaches:

Year-End Preparation Tip #1: Make a list.
Instead of diving head-first into the file drawers and haphazardly yanking out all the folders you want to transfer, first write down those files that you will need to move into storage. For instance, if you know you are moving the current year’s customer files to an archive area, put them on the list. Same goes for invoices, or purchase orders or anything else that has to be transferred to storage. Having a written overview to work from will allow you to go about the task of transferring year-end files much more efficiently and productively overall.

Year-End Preparation Tip #2: Invest in some boxes designed for file storage.
Many people simply throw their outdated files into any old box, or worse, they throw them into a corner of a closet. What happens if you need to look something up at a later date? Try corrugated storage files specifically designed for file transferring. These boxes usually come preprinted on the front with grids for identifying the contents, plus, they’re made of sturdy material that will help protect your files.

Year-End Preparation Tip #3: Toss a few things away.
Obviously you have to use proper judgment, but the fact is, not every piece of paper needs to be transferred into storage and saved. The few minutes you’ll spend going through papers and deciding what can be tossed will be well worth the effort because in the long run, you’ll be saving space in your storage area that you might need for future years records. Don’t get carried away, however! Once you start throwing things away, it’s easy to just keep transferring them right into the garbage. You might save time now, but you might regret it later!

Year-End Preparation Tips #4: Allow room for last-minute additions.
When filling your storage files with folders that need to be transferred out of the current file drawer, be careful not to fill each storage box to the very limit. Chances are you’ll come across another folder or two…perhaps a whole bunch of folders…that you missed the first time and that also need to be transferred into storage.

Sharon Mann is President of the I Hate Filing Club, a group of office professionals who hate filing but love finding new ways to become more organized. For information about year-end preparation and filing tips, visit http://www.pendaflex.com/enUS/Segments/Pendaflex__Filing.html

800 numbers are powerful marketing tools if implemented correctly. Vanity 800 numbers provide instant brand recognition in the minds of the consumer, since they are essentially mnemonic devices that spell out either the name of a company, product, or service, or some related aspect of it. These numbers also provide a way for customers and potential customers to connect with a business at no cost to them. Imagine if you had to make a long distance call just to learn more information about a product, or simply to receive customer support. You would be less inclined to call a new business, and you may not call a business you had purchased a product from, even if you were experiencing problems with it, which would lead to an overall dissatisfaction with the product and business. Cellular phone carriers provide their customers with numbers to call that do not count against their monthly allotment of minutes for the same reason.

The first 800 numbers were created in 1967 by AT&T as a way to reduce the need for extra human operators, who were becoming overwhelmed by the number of collect calls that they were required to process daily. This service was called INWATS, or Inward Wide Area Telephone Service, and the first business to officially adopt the new system was the Sheraton Hotel Chain in 1970. Roy P. Weber is credited with inventing the modern toll free number system, which he called the Data Base Communication Processing Method. This was slow to catch on, and AT&T did not anticipate that in a few short decades, the toll free number would become an integral part of the marketing strategy for countless new and established businesses.

Some carriers offer the option of 800 numbers with call tracking which allows salespersons and other involved parties to target sales areas geographically and also determine where the highest volume of calls are originating from. If it is determined that a company is a high volume of calls from a specific region, they can increase their marketing efforts in this area in order to generate further business. Conversely, if it appears that calls from certain areas are scarce, marketing efforts to those locations via commercials, radio spots, TV ads, and other marketing methods can be increased. Customer satisfaction and the level of customer support given can also be measured when 800 numbers are used and their usage is recorded.

Dial 800 is a marketing optimization company and service bureau that has the distinction of being one of the worlds leading providers of vanity numbers and toll free phone services.For more information visit http://www.dial800.com

Diesel fuel is one of the most commonly-used industrial fuels and, funnily enough, diesel fires are one of the most common industrial fires. Plenty of businesses that rely on diesel fuel to a large extent keep powder extinguishers handy in order to prevent diesel fires. But the best powder extinguisher in the world won’t help you without a good knowledge of exactly how to fight a diesel fire when the worst does happen.

The key to understanding a diesel fire and how to fight it is this: diesel fuel, when it burns, gives off extremely flammable vapor residue. This residue not only fills up the air with poisonous fumes that can easily overcome an unsuspecting person, but it allows the fire to keep “feeding on itself”. A traditional water extinguisher can put out the flames, yes, but it can’t smother the vapors, which can burst into flames easily anew and make it impossible to effectively fight the fire.

The first step in fighting any diesel fire is to make sure that there’s no additional fuel going to the fire. Since diesel fires commonly occur in diesel fuel lines or storage tanks, this isn’t an idle concern. More likely than not, unless you’re dealing with an actual isolated spill of diesel fuel, your fire is secretly being fed, and you’ve got to prevent this.

As we mentioned, your extinguisher can’t be water or dousing-based. You’ll need an extinguisher that works on a “smothering” principle in order to prevent the flammable vapors from rising (and in the process cutting off your own oxygen.) Powder-based extinguishers are a good choice, as are foam and similar extinguishers with a “smothering” function.

If you manage to get the fire under control, it’s still a good idea to remain in the area for at least an hour afterward in order to make sure that the blaze doesn’t start again. This happens more often than you’d think, due to diesel fuel’s lingering vapors and the possibility that the fire is being fed from an unknown source. Just stay and watch, preferably in an area where you haven’t seen the fire previously and that’s a good distance away from any known storage areas for diesel or other fuels. You don’t want to be watching for further fire outbreaks and find one bursting up under you.

And if you can’t keep the fire under control–know when to quit. The longer diesel fires burn, the more dangerous and heat-intensive they become. If you start to feel yourself getting seriously short of breath, use the powder extinguishers to get to an exit and leave the area, not forgetting, of course, to call fire-fighting professionals as soon as you’re safe. There’s no sense in fighting fire with fire, and neither is there any sense in fighting a diesel fire with your own life.

Powder fire extinguishers of every size with advice, prices and details can be seen at http://www.fireprotectiononline.co.uk/safety/powder-fire-extinguisher/