Blogging with 6-step plan to attract clients to your business

Blogging will attract potential clients

For your Business Blog you can create a 6-step plan that will turn your blog into an effective tool that will drive potential clients to your business 24/7.

1.Define goals for your blog

Your goal for a business blog could be to become more known to your target market and attract clients to your business. To assist with goal setting, here are a few questions to answer about your business blog:

a) What is your blog’s purpose?

b) What are the goals for your blog?

c) Who is your ideal audience?

d) What is your core message?

2. Pick good blogging software

Blogging software starts with choosing blogging software that’s right for you. There are several choices out there like Typepad, Blogger and WordPress.org, but I prefer to use WordPress on my own domain for its ease of use.

3. Find topics that your target market wants to read about

Do research through online social networks and search engines to find topics. Also check out Technorati.com to find blogs on topics related to your niche market.

4. Always write blog posts that are of interest to your target market.

Once you know who your audience is and what their needs and interests are, it becomes easier to write content that is relevant for your readers. However, it is important to keep your content topical, informative and non-promotional. A blog post should be 400-600 words. Interactive media like images, videos or even polls and surveys will enrich your content.

5. Bring traffic to your blog

To get benefits from blogging, you need to create a strategy to bring traffic to your blog. One traffic strategy that works well for me is to use social media. My blog posts are syndicated to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as to other Social Bookmarking sites by using a WordPress plugin called OnlyWire. See a post I did about using Social Bookmarking for generating traffic and how to automate the process.

6. Convert blog traffic into clients

In addition to bringing traffic to your blog you need to have a procedure in place for turning your blog readers into clients. Remember that you want readers to return to your blog. Make it easy for them by providing RSS or email subscription on your blog. Also use opt-in forms to capture leads (name and email) in order to continue communicating with potential clients. Once they get to know, like and trust you, they won’t think twice to become your clients when you have something good to offer.

Please comment on what else works for your blog and why…

July 24, 2010July 27, 2010 Linky

Project Management Lessons From FIFA World Cup

After all the Soccer excitement from the FIFA World Cup passed and things were returning to normal again in South Africa, I came across this very interesting article by Romin Irani where he shared his views about what the FIFA World Cup 2010 teaches us about Project Management.

For those of you who are soccer supporters and who can appreciate the art of project management, will certainly enjoy his interesting perspectives and comparisons. Here are some highlights:

do not depend on a star performer in your team
an effective technical person does not necessarily make a great (project) manager
there is no substitute for planning
to err is human
address the root cause of the problems and not the symptoms
every-one needs to perform and know their role
past performance is no guarantee of future performance
you need to have luck on your side sometimes
early setbacks can be a blessing in disguise
respect your opponent (competitors)
you need support from all levels
play to your strengths

When I started the series of project management posts relating to the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, I didn’t realise that there would be so many lessons to learn from one of the biggest sport tournaments in existence.

Click here to read the full article on What the FIFA World Cup 2010 teaches us about project management.

To ensure that you don’t miss follow-up project management articles, please subscribe to the Virtual Project Consulting RSS feed.

July 7, 2010 Linky

I Want To Be A Project Manager When I Grow Up Part 2

Take Project Management Out-of-the-box

This post is aimed at existing project managers. There is a growing trend worldwide, where children are encouraged to take their parents in to school to talk about their jobs. I have never been asked to go in to my children’s school!

They have had a policeman in who no doubt talked about road safety and not talking to strangers, they have had a nurse in who talked about healthcare issues and how to look after yourself, and they have had a fireman in to explain about the dangers of fires and what to do if you are in such danger. These are all important and seemingly (to children) exciting jobs. But project management is neither apparently exciting nor does it have a uniform (something I note that the people who have gone in to school have in common).

How do we make some-one with authority, accountability and responsibility for managing a project to achieve specific objectives, sound exciting?

Should we perhaps design a uniform for project managers? We know we are exciting already. We can easily state that “doctors make people better”, that “policemen catch bad people”, but we can’t say: “project managers manage projects” because that doesn’t tell people anything. We all know what it means but my children don’t and my friends don’t know either.

The current situation of project managers

Project managers can be summarised as follows:

We are generally good at what we do
We are generally successful in our endeavours
We are getting better all the time
We do deliver “exciting things”
(We are mostly nice people I‟m sure)

So how can we get “out of that box” and be exciting to the world in general so that they can understand us and appreciate what we do?

Be proud and be happy

All in all we have a lot to be both proud and happy about. The role of a project manager is a great job, whether you intend on pursuing a project management career or whether you intend to move in to a business role within a project based business. Projects should never bore you, they are all different and each day will bring new challenges and interests. You will never stop learning those lessons and building those relationships.

Finally reach out with what you do

Consider doing some or all of the following in order to help yourself (and project management in general) out of the box:

Tell people you are a project manager. Don’t be shy; be brave and come clean about your job, that you should be loud and proud of.
Have that ’elevator’ speech ready when people ask you what you do. But don’t say “I’m a project manager, I manage projects”. I recently asked the question “How would you explain project management to an Alien from outer space” and one of my favourite answers came from Penny Pullman “Getting something new and exciting done with a group of people!”
Speak at non-Project Management events. People like what they hear about projects, project management and project managers.
Network with a broad group of people, again outside project management.
Start some LinkedIn discussions and get some great interaction with people from all over the world.
Twitter and Blog and Facebook and any and every social networking mechanism that works for you.
Offer your services outside of your work, you will find that many volunteer organisations are crying out for your projects skills – even if they don’t know what they are.
And finally why not scare your kids and go to that school or college day and talk about your exciting role of being a project manager. Make sure children know what project management is by the time that they leave school and that they had some exposure to projects being done.

“Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand” Chinese Proverb

Source: “Getting Project Management ‘Out of the Box’” by Peter Taylor, Author of ‘The Lazy Project Manager’.

About the author: Linky Van Der Merwe is a Project Management Consultant and an IT Project Manager with 15 years IT industry experience and 12 years Project Management experience. She consults with small-medium business owners and service professionals about project management processes and tools, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

July 5, 2010July 7, 2010 Linky

I Want To Be A Project Manager When I Grow Up

Recently I came across a good presentation about taking project management ‘out of the box’. What this means, is to spread the word outside our project management community about what a great bunch of people we are and how project management is a valuable skill to pretty much everybody. It is about telling people what you do and what the typical working day of a project manager looks like.

Thinking back at how I ended up becoming a project manager, I remember landing in project management by accident, but staying here on purpose. It is because it is such a good fit for my personal strengths and skills. But I never grew up thinking that I wanted to become a project manager. I didn’t know of the existence of such a career choice and much less of what was expected of such a person. So it is to this day. How many young people, school leavers, know what are the duties and qualities of a good project manager?

Also, project management is not a typical career choice. It is usually part of many advanced management courses that are offered at universities and colleges all over the world. Typically, you would study to become something else. Then by portraying the qualities that would make you fit for an effective and efficient project manager in your industry, often project opportunities would come your way. Before you know it, you would have transformed to become a professional project manager. Read about my journey to project management in my blog: About Project Management Passion.

How important is project management in today’s world?

With one-fifth of the world’s GDP being spent on projects this year clearly business isn’t just about operations anymore. Competitiveness and innovation is what drives projects in this world.

We are part of a dynamic, resourceful and ever evolving world that demands change as part of its survival. And change demands projects and projects demand project managers. So it seems we, the project managers of the world, are pretty important in the scheme of things. Mostly not “life or death” important but still important enough.

Now is the time that it is even more critical to succeed, and succeed with a higher level of certainty than seen before since those projects that will be commissioned in the future, as well as the ones that are allowed to continue in the current climate, will be expected to deliver higher business impact, be under closer scrutiny from senior management and be under far more pressure to succeed.

And guess what, who will be the one that is under the most pressure, the project manager!

To ensure that you don’t miss follow-up project management articles, please subscribe to the Virtual Project Consulting RSS feed.

Source: “Getting Project Management ‘Out of the Box'” by Peter Taylor, Author of ‘The Lazy Project Manager’.

June 21, 2010September 27, 2013 Linky

Project Management Closure: Best Practice for Project Learning

The challenges of project learning

Project Management Closure: Best Practice for Project Learning Audio

Learning from project experience is an essential function that the project manager needs to facilitate during project management closure.

The philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

This is sometimes referred to as Santayana’s Law of Repetitive Consequences; and is nowhere more evident than in project based work. The increasing pace of change in the workplace often makes it difficult to learn from experience as processes and personnel are constantly changing.

I have experienced this fast paced phenomenon while doing project management work for a corporate client recently. Following standard best practice in project management closure, I always schedule a proper project closure workshop at the end of projects. For many of my project teams this was their first experience of doing project reviews of any kind. Yet they derived so much value from revisiting the original project goal and objectives, the scope, milestones and deliverables that were achieved. By the time we discussed Lessons Learned, all team members were actively participating.

Project Reviews

I enjoy these project reviews as it confirms a sense of achievement, pride and satisfaction from project completion for all team members. The lessons learned are then logged and archived with other project documentation for future reference. I usually distribute the project close-out reports with the lessons learned to the wider departmental teams in recognition of the project team’s efforts and to make their colleagues aware of their project achievements.

In my opinion, to successfully learn from project experience requires a regular and consistent approach that can be incorporated into any project management methodology. Here are a few suggestions to help any project team learn from experience:

Establish a venue for sharing lessons-learned: It doesn’t matter whether you call it a post-mortem, a project review, or a project closure workshop, most organizations don’t do them—but they should.
Share what has been learned: Although most organizations don’t bother with a project review, those that do don’t always create an environment that encourages real learning—and even fewer share what was learned.
Don’t make learning the next corporate initiative: It’s natural for organizations to try to formalize the learning process into the next corporate project. The natural learning process should be encouraged and lessons learned can and should even be part of project progress discussions.

Don’t make learning from projects a one-time activity or something to be done when time permits: Project learning should be ongoing and interactive—with all project team members actively participating.

Every organization has different needs. Some rely on their project software and methodology to help facilitate the learning process. I think that’s good, but even organizations that don’t use any specific project management tools need to create an environment where project learning can regularly take place.

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Please click HERE to listen to a recording of this article. If you wish to download a free copy of this audio file, please right click on the link and select “save link as” to save to your desired location.

About the author: Linky Van Der Merwe is a Microsoft Project Management Consultant and an IT Project Manager with 15 years IT industry experience and 12 years Project Management experience. She consults with small-medium business owners and service professionals about project management processes and tools, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

June 10, 2010March 5, 2017 Linky

3 Main Benefits From 2010 Soccer World Cup

The time has arrived for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to start in South Africa. Visitors have arrived from all over the world. There is big excitement among South Africans, even with those who are not soccer fans, because the South Africans like to unite behind their national sport teams!

How will South Africa benefit from hosting the World Cup?

With the FIFA World Cup being hosted in Africa for the first time, the question has always come up everywhere. How will South Africa, and the African continent benefit from hosting the soccer World Cup? To me it seems that the 3 main benefits are:

Job creation: It has been estimated that the 2010 Fifa World Cup will sustain an estimated 695 000 jobs.
Economy boost: An estimated gross impact of R93-billion on South Africa’s economy.
Tourism: A projected 373 000 foreign tourists will visit South Africa during the World Cup, each spending an estimated R30 200 on average per trip.

However, the indirect benefits from improved perceptions abroad could have an even greater, longer-lasting impact, not only on South Africa and its development but on the continent as a whole. A successful soccer World Cup will help change the perceptions that a large number of foreign investors hold of Africa. South Africa will prove once again that it can live up to its commitments and create a better future for all South Africans.

If you are also excited by the soccer World Cup 2010, please visit Total Soccer Fitness for a step-by-step guide to creating your own custom made, soccer conditioning program aimed at players and coaches.
I wish all the visitors to our beautiful country, and especially to Cape Town, a wonderful and memorable stay. Enjoy watching the games and come back to visit us again.

About the author: Linky van der Merwe is a Project Management Consultant and an IT Project Manager with more than 11 years Project Management experience.

She consults with business owners and service professionals about project management tools and processes, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

For an interesting soccer world cup overview, visit South Africa Info.

May 28, 2010May 24, 2016 Linky

2010 FIFA World Cup Aims To Score ‘Green’ Goals

Today I want to share about the success of a FIFA World Cup ‘Green’ Project that was undertaken by the City of Cape Town. If you are a ‘green’ supporter, this would make for an interesting read, even if a bit long. As part of the preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ a greening programme was implemented to make the soccer world cup as environmentally responsible as possible.

The programme, called Green Goal 2010, is supported by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), Norway, Germany and the United Nationals Environment Programme (UNEP) and was arranged by FIFA’s Organising Committee in collaboration with local government.

What is the Green Project all about?

It incorporated measurable, sustainable development principles into every aspect of the event, including energy, waste, water, transport and hospitality.

An action was developed to implement the programme, with indicators, milestones, budgets, potential partners, timelines and targets for 43 projects that formed part of the event.

This was developed after a series of German sponsored workshops and discussion forums with experts, stakeholders and interested parties, and is a collaborative output between the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City.

The action plan focuses on stadium and city-wide greening initiatives, biodiversity awareness raising, landscaping issues, green procurement processes and ratings for the hospitality industry, carbon offset targets, integrated waste management, the new urban park and communication.

Why the Green Project?

The aim was to make 2010 the greenest world cup yet, not only to offset the impact that the event itself will have on the environment (such as greenhouse gas emissions), but to set the standard for future events of this kind.

The Green Goal 2010 action plan identified nine areas with projects for implementation. These are:

Energy conservation and climate change – Minimise the carbon footprint of the 2010 event
1. Determine the carbon footprint of the 2010 event
2. Identify and implement carbon offset project(s) in Cape Town/Western Cape
3. Install energy efficient technologies in stadia and training venues, and at fan parks and Public Viewing Areas (PVAs)
Water – Minimise the use of potable water and promote conservation of water resources
1. Identify alternative sources of water for irrigation of the Green Point Common
2. Install water saving devices in the stadium and at the training venues
  Continue reading

May 20, 2010May 24, 2016 Linky

2010 FIFA World Cup Projects in Cape Town

Some of the biggest projects that were launched in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup were the projects in Cape Town.

Cape Town, the city with a vista of mountains, the ocean and scenic beauty, is committed and excited to be one of the host cities for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. As Cape Town prepares for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, large infrastructure projects within the city included:

demolition and reconstruction of the Green Point Stadium,
expenditures on roads and other transport infrastructure such as rail and airport services.

With the official FIFA slogan in mind: “Using Football to Touch the World”, a business plan was drawn up in preparation for a number of projects. The business plan is based on three strategic pillars:

compliance with FIFA requirements for hosting the games;
optimizing the developmental impact and leaving a legacy, and
maximizing the promotional and positioning opportunities: leverage what the Western Cape has to offer, visually, and in terms of history, arts, culture, music, cuisine, entertainment and activities.

Project: The Green Point Soccer Stadium

Construction of the breathtaking new Cape Town Stadium, located on the Green Point Common between the twin icons of Table Mountain and Robben Island, began in March 2007.

In just 33 months, joint contractors Murray and Roberts and WBHO completed the massive project at a cost of R4.4-billion or approximately US$600-million. The project architects were an association between GMP Architects of Germany and two local firms, Louis Karol and Associates and Point Architects.

Some quick facts about this project:

96,000 cubic metres of concrete were used
The roof has a total weight of 4,700 tons
Some 9,000 glass panels were used to cover 37,000 square metres of roof
500 toilets and 360 urinals
115 entry turnstiles
16 lifts
More than 2,500 workers were employed on site during construction, and almost 1,200 artisans received training from the contractors

All systems of the 68 000-seater have been tested and the brand new stadium is now ready to welcome the world to “the greatest show on earth”.

Project: Western Cape’s Public Transport System

As part of preparations for 2010, a plan has been implemented for a fully integrated transport solution for Cape Town and the Provincial Government of the Western Cape. The multimillion dollar restructuring will integrate rail, bus and minibus taxi transport. The project involves an intelligent transport system (ITS) encompassing route monitoring, fleet management and passenger information and an integrated fare management system, including an integrated ticketing system.

Cape Town International Airport

Approximately $186 million was invested in the facelift of Cape Town International Airport by 2009. Upgrades included a new terminal, an elevated road, a plaza for public transport, air bridges and a multi-story parking structure.

Project: Tourism

The 2010 FIFA World Cup presented a number of good tourism development opportunities in Cape Town and the surrounding area. These included: A $2.7 million destination tourism marketing strategy, which aims to market Cape Town and the Western Cape as the preferred destination for 2010 Soccer World Cup spectators and participating teams. A $1.4 million Film Strategic Plan involving media workshops and the development of visual archives and information, and development of Cape Town & Western Cape Film Festival. There will also be Customer Service Training for front-office staff, with the development of a Call Centre for information management and customer relations.

If you are also excited by the soccer World Cup 2010, please visit Total Soccer Fitness for a step-by-step guide to creating your own custom made, soccer conditioning program.

The next article is about the Green Project for the City of Cape Town. Not to miss any future posts about the 2010 FIFA World Cup projects, please subscribe and read with Google Reader.

About the author: Linky van der Merwe is a Microsoft Project Management Consultant and an IT Project Manager with more than 11 years Project Management experience.

She consults with business owners and service professionals about project management and project processes, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

May 13, 2010June 17, 2024 Linky

2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19^th soccer World Cup. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. This will be the first time that the tournament is hosted by an African nation.

When the soccer bid was awarded to South Africa on 15 May 2004, it triggered a whole range of projects and programs in preparation for the World Cup 2010. This is the 1st of a series of articles about the projects leading up to the big event, but first some background.

The 30-day count-down to the start of one of the biggest sport events in the world, the 2010 FIFA World Cup has officially started!

Participating Teams

Source: Wikipedia

The following 32 teams qualified for the final tournament.

AFC (4)

CAF (6)

CONCACAF (3)

CONMEBOL (5)

OFC (1)

New Zealand

UEFA (13)

Soccer Venues

Source: Wikipedia

There are 10 venues to be used for the World Cup, but 9 host cities, namely:

Cape Town
Durban
Bloemfontein
Nelspruit
Port Elizabeth
Pretoria
Johannesburg
Rustenberg
Polokwane

World Cup 2010 Stadiums

The final 10 World Cup 2010 Stadiums to be used for the World Cup are:

Green Point Stadium, Cape Town
Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban
Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Nelson Mandela Stadium, Port Elizabeth
Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
Soccer City, Johannesburg
Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg
Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane

About the World Cup 2010 Stadiums

Cape Town Stadium: Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.: A 70.000 seater soccer stadium in Greenpoint.
Durban 2010 Stadium: In Durban, South Africa’s busiest port, the temperatures seldom drop below 16 degrees Celsius. Moses Mabhiba Stadium, a 60 000 seater soccer stadium
2010 Stadium Johannesburg (‘Joburg’): The capital of the Gauteng province is the economical heart of the region and of South Africa. Johannesburg will also be the epicentre of the World Cup Soccer, home to Soccer City, a 94.000 + seater stadium will host the opening and the final of the World Cup Soccer in 2010.
Johannesburg also boasts the 60.000 seater stadium of Ellis Park, renovated for the event.
2010 Stadium in Bloemfontein: Bloemfontein is situated in the Free State province of South Africa, and is home to the constitutional court. The Free State Stadium 40 000 seater for soccer fans.
Nelspruit: Nelspruit is the capital city of South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. From Nelspruit, the Kruger National Park is a stone throw away. A new stadium, the Mbombela Stadium – 40.000 seater
2010 Stadium Polokwane: Polokwane, the capital city of South Africa’s Limpopo province. Peter Mokaba Stadium.
2010 Stadium Port Elizabeth (‘PE’):Port Elizabeth, surrounded by nature and beautiful coastlines, has a lot to offer, from Addo Elephant Park and several game reserves. Brand new soccer stadium is the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
2010 Stadium Pretoria: Pretoria is situated 60 kilometres outside of Johannesburg, and is South Africa’s administrative capital. The 50.000 seater Loftus Versveld stadium is in the heart of the city of Tshwane.
2010 Stadium Rustenburg: Host City Rustenburg lies 100 km north west from Johannesburg, on the foot of the Magaliesberg. The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace has space for 40.000 soccer fans.

If you are also inspired by the soccer World Cup 2010, please visit Total Soccer Fitness for a step-by-step guide to creating your own custom made, soccer conditioning program.

April 30, 2010October 11, 2017 Linky

Change Management Strategies – Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping

3 Key Questions to Ask

During a Change Management initiative, an important aspect of Programme Management is Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping. This is all about: “Who is this change going to affect and how are they going to react, and what do we have to do to support them?”.

How well you listen to and respond to ALL of your stakeholders’ issues is a significant measure of the effectiveness of your management of these relationships. As a project/programme manager of change, it is important to be seen doing stakeholder relationship management.

Leadership skills make a big difference to successfully managing stakeholder relationships. This is where the management of expectations matters. Here are 3 key questions to address in managing expectations in a change management initiative, and specifically in relation to your employees.

1. Do your people really know what is expected of them?

Do your people know how to translate the high level vision and strategy into actionable steps? People are very different in the ways they process information, interpret life, and in the ways they are motivated. Many (probably most) of them are not able to make the leap from hearing and understanding your vision and strategy to translating that into purposeful productive action. This does not mean that they don’t understand it, or agree with it, but it does simply mean that the leap is too great for most people to make – without your practical assistance.

2. Do they know what they can expect from you?

It is extremely important to that they know that you will work with them in “grinding out” in practical, manageable detail what the high level strategy, vision, values things actually mean for them as the “troops” in action.

3. Do they know what is expected of each other?

They also need to know what these actionable steps mean for them in terms of what they can and should expect from each other.

In the end it boils down to effective communications management, as well as following stakeholder management best practices.

Not to miss any of these Change Management and how it relates to Project Management articles, please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting’s RSS feed.

Source: Strategies for managing change by Stephen Warrilow

If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.

April 25, 2010October 11, 2017 Linky

5 Principles Of A Good Change Management Communication Strategy

Communication Strategy- Say what you mean and mean what you say

When change is initiated through projects, a good Communication Strategy is at the heart of any successful change management process. It is important that an effective communication strategy is defined about the reasons, the benefits, the plans and proposed effects of that change. This Communication Strategy should be maintained throughout the duration of the change management programme.

Your communication strategy needs to address the key questions:

What are the objectives?
What are the key messages?
Who are you trying to reach?
What information will be communicated?
When will information be disseminated, and what are the relevant timings?
How much information will be provided, and to what level of detail?
What mechanisms will be used to disseminate information?
How will feedback be encouraged?
What will be done as a result of feedback?

Your communication strategy needs to address the key EMOTIONAL questions

William Bridges focuses on the emotional and psychological impact and aspect of the change through these 3 simple questions:

(1) What is changing? Bridges offers the following guidance – the change leader’s communication statement must:

Clearly express the change leader’s understanding and intention
Link the change to the drivers that make it necessary
Sell the problem before you try to sell the solution
Not use jargon

(2) What will actually be different because of the change? Bridges says: “I go into organizations where a change initiative is well underway, and I ask what will be different when the change is done-and no one can answer the question… a change may seem very important and very real to the leader, but to the people who have to make it work it seems quite abstract and vague until actual differences that it will make begin to become clear. It should be priority to get those differences clear”

(3) Who’s going to lose what? Bridges maintains that the situational changes are not as difficult for companies to make as the psychological transitions of the people impacted by the change. Transition management is all about seeing the situation through the eyes of the other guy. It is a perspective based on empathy. It is a management and communication process that recognizes and affirms people’s realities and works with them to bring them through the transition. Failure to do this, on the part of change leaders, and a denial of the losses and “lettings go” that people are faced with, sows the seeds of mistrust.

5 guiding principles of a good change management communication strategy

So, in summary the 5 guiding principles of a good change management communication strategy are as follows:

Clarity of message – to ensure relevance and recognition
Resonance of message – the emotional tone and delivery of the message
Accurate targeting – to reach the right people with the right message
Timing schedule – to achieve timely targeting of messages
Feedback process – to ensure genuine two way communication

Not to miss any of these Change Management and how it relates to Project Management articles, please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting’s RSS feed.

Source: Strategies for managing change by Stephen Warrilow

If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, please visit www.strategies-for-managing-change to learn how to manage change successfully.

April 16, 2010September 11, 2018 Linky

10 Key Elements To Writing a Project Proposal

How to write a project proposal

Writing a project proposal is certainly one of the key competent areas for a service professional. The project proposal is your sales piece that will ultimately “sell” your services to the prospective client.

How to write a killer project proposal — Gibbon

To be successful, your project proposal should perform the following:

show that you understand what the client is looking for
prove that you are the best person for the tasks at hand
convince the prospect that either they can afford you or they cannot afford not to hire you

To accomplish all this, your project proposal should have the following key elements:

1. Client’s Requirements and Goals

The summary of the client’s requirements and goals is a critical part of your project proposal. Take the time to really understand what your prospect is looking for to ensure a better outcome. Furthermore, by showing how well you’ve paid attention to your prospect’s needs, you’ll set yourself apart from your competitors.

2. Tasks Involved and Your Fee for Each

List down the main tasks you’re going to do, along with the fee you will charge for each. Provide enough detail that anybody will be able to say when you have delivered or completed the task.

For example, if I’m going to write a sales page for a client, I’ll say that it will be at least 1,000 words long, will include graphics, and will be submitted in a HTML file.

3. Breakdown of Each Task with Costs

It’s not enough to simply say what big tasks you will do. Break them down so your prospect appreciates how much work and skill it takes to complete each one.

In my sales page example above, I could specify that writing the sales page includes:

doing market research to better understand my client’s target market and what his competitors are doing
choosing appropriate photographs
design and layout of the sales page into a HTML file

4. Delivery Schedule

Make it clear how long it will take you to complete each task and how milestones should be approved by the client.

5. Work Process

Describe how you usually work with clients. Will you have a meeting after the client approves your proposal? Describe how you will to track all client communication. Be specific now so you and your client won’t be in for surprises later on.

6. Mode of Payment

In this part, specify how you want to get paid. Do you require a deposit or full payment before starting on a project? Describe means of payment for example, electronic bank transfer.

7. Samples or Proof That You Can Do the Job

Make it easy for prospects to decide that you’re suitable for this project. Attach samples of work, or links to samples that show how you’ve completed similar projects in the past.

8. Clear Indication of the Next Steps

Tell your prospect clearly what he should do if he either wants to proceed with the project, or if he has further questions before he can make a decision.

Say something like, “If you need clarification on my proposal, please email your questions to me.”

9. Invoice for First Payment

Obviously, you should include this only if you require a deposit before you start a project.

10. Contact Information

Make sure your project proposals include your name and contact details–including your email address even if you are emailing your proposal. Don’t assume your prospect will simply hit the “reply” button, or take the time to find your contact information if he doesn’t see it right away.

Always ensure that your project will deliver as per client requirements and outline that clearly in your project proposal.

These beautiful photos were taken at Monkey Land in Plettenberg Bay, about 450km from Cape Town, South Africa.

By Linky Van Der Merwe

Click below to download a basic project template and tips for Writing a Winning Project Proposal