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Armonk, NY Real Estate News

By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Business Council of Westchester 2013 Mega Mixer Business Expo When: Wednesday, March 13, 2013Hours: 2 to 6pmWhere: Hilton Westchester, 699 Westchester Ave, Rye Brook, NYWho: Anyone who wants to meet the best businesses in Westchester County, NYAdmission: $10, Free Visitor Pass from Performance Development StrategiesWho to Contact: The Business Council – To Exhibit or SponsorContact Information: 914-948-2110 Website Link         The Mega Mixer is the largest trade show and expo in Westchester, NY It's back!  ​The Mega Mixer Business Expo is the largest and most anticipated business trade show in the Hudson Valley. This is an unparalleled opportunity to maximize your business growth in just 4 hours! Plan to be seen by more than 1,800 business professionals.​ More than 1,800 business peopl...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
I recently had the opportunity to talk with a telecommunications expert.  I was questioning the comparable features offered by two different iPhone telecommunications carriers.  During the conversation I pointed out that one carrier had an additional benefit.  With that carrier you are able to use the Internet while on the phone.  The expert quickly shot back something to the effect, “you’re not going to surf the internet while you are driving.”  What?  Who said anything about that?  I had a legitimate reason for wanting this service.  When I am at a remote office I can email something to a client while we are speaking.  I do most of my work out of the office.  I think I had a legitimate need but he was not listening.  He was only trying to steer me.  I will admit that this is an extrem...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
I have been working with two leaders of an organization.  They have related several problems but they all had one source.  We can’t get the right people to work for us.  I spent some time interviewing them as well as a sample of people in their organization.  Wow, what a disconnect.  They are desperately looking for success.  The employees also want the organization to be successful.  That is where the similarity stopped.  This father and son team could not convey the goals of the organization and they were not even communicating completely the upcoming projects.  The staff was frustrated.  The father is totally exhausted because he feels he must do everything himself and he is afraid to hold people accountable.  The son thinks lots of people should just leave.  They can fix this. The f...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
I was recently contacted by a member of a business organization where I am a member.  I am a new member mentor in this organization.   I had already had a meeting to learn about my new member’s business and goals in joining the organization.  About a month later she contacted me.  She said that she was not quite sure she wanted to come to events because she was confused about explaining which business she was in.  Was she unsure or was something else holding her back? It turns out that she is holding back until she gets it perfect.  By the way I have coined that habit as “Getting ready to go to work”.  I cannot start until I get my brochures, business cards, website, 2 sharpened number 2 pencils—you get the idea!  I have heard that 80% of people who say they want to run a business of th...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
  It has been twenty years since Bill Murray played a weather man who continually woke up to Ground Hog day every morning.  First he uses this to his advantage, but then he comes the realization that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place and doing the same things.  Is a similar act playing in your business?  If people do not see the need for change they won’t do it.  They don’t see the need because they are not looking. Here are four reasons why people resist change. ·       The first is FEAR. Fear is internal-- it’s in our head.  It could be fear of failure or fear of a disruption of the status quo.  But although fear is not real it is a crippler of potential.   There’s also an acronym that uses the letters F, E, A, and R that defines what fear is. The acronym st...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
How many times have you heard, “We really need to be holding these people accountable.”  No one disagrees with that.  But how often does it happen?   Many times there is a fear to have a discussion about bad behavior or disappointment so people say nothing.How does that help a manager who is responsible for team performance?  What about an employee who needs to speak up but fears doing so?  The results can be devastating when we fair to have accountability discussions.The book, “Crucial Confrontations”, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzer really talks about this topic.  How do we handle missed commitments, failed promises, and bad behavior with regard to our staff, our boss, our spouse, our children, or any other relationship?The way I see it the decision to ...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Can you really get employees from different generations work together?  As I work with client organizations I constantly hear voices of frustration.  It could involve a catering manager who says “The kids today don’t want to work.  I can’t get any good help.”  It might be a manager of a team of professionals complaining about the unwillingness of the younger members to work endless hours.  Or it can be frustration from an employee who feels he or she can’t compete with the new workers and the new technology. Really, this is nothing new.  In fact it goes back to ancient Greece when Aristotle said, “The young people would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning.” Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.  They we...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Academy for Entrepreneurial Excellence 2013 When: 12 Tuesday Nights beginning February 5, 2013Hours: 6 to 9pmWhere: Westchester Community College  Gateway Center  Room 100 Grasslands Road, ValhallaWho: Established Business OwnersTuition: $850Who to Contact: Academy RegistrarContact Information: donna.levy@sunywcc.edu  Website Link Do You Have a Business That You Want to Bring to the Next Level? It's back! The Academy has been helping business owners get to the next level since 1984.    The Academy is about WORKING ON your business vs. WORKING IN your business. The Academy is about predicting the future of your business by creating it! This program will take you through the process of evaluating your business in all areas and then developing a strategic business plan for the future. Wit...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
I was working with a client who was struggling to grow his business.  He had particular problems with his sales and marketing plans.  He was having a hard time accomplishing the objectives that we have worked on together in his plan.  These were the goals that he had established in previous sessions.  After failing to complete some of the tasks we had outlined from our previous meetings over several weeks, I asked him these questions, “Why did you set these goals and if was important why  have you not begun to execute on what you set out to do?” I did not get a direct answer.  In fact, he could not answer the question directly and told me he would need to think about it.  Well, the following session I asked the questions again and he was still unable to come up with an answer.  We left ...
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By Debbie Gartner, The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers
(The Flooring Girl)
If I think back to one year ago today, I was starting to wonder if my new wordpress blog (TheFlooringGirl.com) was even worth it.  I did a bunch of work to it during December, but it was the holidays, so traffic to the site was low and there was no way to tell if I was even going in the right direction.   When December finished, I had a whopping 235 unique visitors for the month.  Well fast forward about 1 year later and I'm now getting around 13,000 unique visitors a month (a bit lower this month due to the holidays and being offline for 24 hrs as we switched hosting companies).  But, overall, some pretty strong results. (and even stronger when you consider the phone calls...leading to about 5 appointments/week for the combo of my efforts across Active Rain, The Flooring Girl and my ol...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Well, it’s that time of year again.  Everyone is talking about setting their goals for 2013.  I have written some posts on this and many others have done so as well.  It is on everyone’s mind.  Now, instead of planning what you will do, let’s concentrate on things you should not be doing.  I think it was Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. If any of you have ever done an assessment with a coach or you have had a developmental assessment for you job you probably saw a section on the worksheet that is titled “I will stop doing…”  Attitudes, behaviors, and activities can account for our success or failure.  We should be measuring the results of our activities to see if they are moving in the direction of our goals.  So...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Do you know that most salespeople start the sales process by asking a closing question?  For example, this may have happened to you the last time you went shopping for a big ticket item such as a new car.  Did you ever look at a car and have the salesperson approach you with this question:  “What would it take to have you drive home in this new car today?” The salesperson wants you to say yes.  However, an experienced salesperson will tell you that you shouldn’t ask a closing question until you are sure that the answer will be “Yes!”  This means that you first need to determine your prospect’s wants and needs. I don’t know the exact statistics but I have heard that the vast majority of sales people do not take the time to ask questions of their prospects before asking for the sale. Let’...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Recently I had a conversation with a colleague who told me that this year had not been going as he expected.  When I asked him how it compares to his plan he told me he had no plan.   Your business can't go according to plan if you have no plan. What did you do this past year?  Write it down.  What worked well and what didn’t.  What do you want to achieve in 2013?  More new customers per month?  Higher average per customer sale? Better customer service ratings? No matter what it is you are shooting for, goal setting is one of the most important things that you will do now for the New Year. So here are some ideas to help you get there. Keep your Goals Challenging but Realistic. Any goal that you set for your company should be challenging, but don’t overdo it. For example, if you had an ...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
“Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”   -- Ralph Waldo Emerson   Worry is a state of mind.  Be alert to what your mind is thinking.  The way to undermine worry is to stop feeding your mind with worrisome thoughts.  The way to defeat worry is action.  Start by focusing on areas of your life that you can control and give yourself permission not to worry about areas of your life that you cannot control.  Remember that fears are thoughts.  Replace those fearful thoughts with positive thinking. When things don’t go the way we want and we feel powerless to change th...
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By Debbie Gartner, The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers
(The Flooring Girl)
Flooded in Armonk NY 10504 - water damaged basements   Did your basement get flooded? Over the winter and early spring, we get a lot of customers calling due to drenched carpets. And, if you don't remove them soon enough, they really start to smell...and if they sit too long they could develop that forbidden word...mold. Yuck!   Sometimes, the water damage is covered by insurance, especially if it was due to an electrical failure or an appliance breaking (e.g. water heater). Usually, the insurance will compensate you for replacement value of what you had. We've had many customers in Armonk who were so disgusted by the smell and ordeal associated with flooded carpets, that sometimes, they just never want to go back to carpet. Instead, they would prefer a water proof solution.   Types of ...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
It is true that you will get more out of the time you have when you learn to get more out of your life.  What do you want?  What are your values?  What do you believe and what are your priorities?  The answer to these questions will determine how you spend your day.  In order to get more out of you time, you need to know what you want to get out of it. There is a difference between spending time and investing time.  According to Webster to spend is to use up, exhaust, or consume.  In other words if you spend you have no return.  On the other hand when you invest you do so with the expectation of obtaining a result which could include a satisfaction, income, achievement, or the like.  Many of us spend far more than we invest.  Most of us spend large amounts of time engaged in frivolous a...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Today, November 24, 2012 is Small Business Saturday.  We hear that small business creates 2 out of 3 new jobs in America.  Since that is the case then why is there so much fear of big business and big box stores and conglomerates destroying small business?  There are many reasons why small businesses create so many jobs and why people prefer to deal with small business.  According American Express and a national survey, 93% of consumers believe that small businesses contribute positively to their community through jobs and taxes. As a small business owner you have many reasons to be proud.  You also have many advantages that the large conglomerates don’t have.  A large organization is like a large ocean liner.  It cannot make sudden moves or go everywhere.  On the other hand a small sa...
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By Debbie Gartner, The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers
(The Flooring Girl)
Flooring Articles - Part 25 This is the 25th installment of my flooring posts.  It's a helpful way to find my higher quality educational posts as well as giving these articles a bit more google juice.   Hardwood Flooring FAQ's These are the most frequently asked questions from my customers about refinishing hardwood floors.   Ebony Hardwood Floors for Westchester County A Dark hardwood flooring is definitely in.  Learn heard about ebony flooring as well as ebony stained florring.   Basement flooding? Looking for a water proof solution? After you've had an encounter with flooding or mold in the basement, many homeowners opt for surfaces that are waterproof so they don't need to deal with this headache again.  This post outlines options that do well with water, as well as those that don't...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Have you ever felt overwhelmed?  Everything seems to go faster, leaving everyone feeling overworked, overloaded, and overwhelmed.   Here are some tips on surviving being overwhelmed. 1. Know Your Purpose. Know your vision, your goals, and your plans because these help you set priorities. Each day, identify the tasks you must accomplish and prioritize them. Also, set aside time to invest in your future. If you have yet to write out your life priorities, then take time to do this. It could be the most important hour that you spend in your life. 2. Say No. Be fiercely protective of your time. Make sure each new commitment adds value for you. Do what is necessary and then stop. Rather than ask yourself, "What can I do?" ask, "What can I not do?" Avoid low value tasks, new projects, and dist...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
Many people are effective at setting goals but not as many people are effective at accomplishing their goals.  It’s important to set goals, but the step that many may miss is the ability to develop the detailed plan needed to achieve the goal. Goals start with dreams.  What are your dreams?  Can you visualize them and verbalize them?  This is important.  In order to create the motivation to achieve your goal you must have a burning desire to reach it.  If you have made goals in the past and have not achieved them one reason may be that you did not have a burning desire, a driving dream to achieve them.  New Year’s resolutions fall into this category many times. When you think about your life, your daily journey, how well do you plan and organize it?  Your life’s journey is the MOST impo...
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