A question I am asked often is should I pay commission, bonus or run campaigns for my telesales or telemarketing team.

Well why not do all 3? They all have their place and they can do different things for you.

“It’ll cost me too much” I hear you cry! Well that depends on how much you award in each category doesn’t it? After all if someone is successful, then you’re happy to pay them an amount up to the margin or profit they are making for you – right?

You want to encourage the top performers don’t you? And you don’t want them wandering off to another job – or worse still your opposition.

I believe elements of commission, bonus and campaigns all have their place in your remuneration system. They each do different things. Let’s start with commission.

The basic model of salary plus some commission is a good one. ‘Commission only’ may appeal to you as that is essentially how those of you running businesses get paid. It would seem perfect. Because if they’re unsuccessful, it will cost you nothing. Only of course it often doesn’t work like that. Instead consider it from another perspective. Who is likely to apply to your ad (or accept a job offer) if this is your offer? In my experience it will often be people eager to get rich quick who believe that they can make lots of money by working for you. If they then find that they can’t, they’ll be off – very quickly as they can’t afford to earn nothing, or an amount insufficient to cover their living costs. They haven’t got time to see ‘how it will work out.’

So if you can pay someone a basic wage which will hopefully go someway to meeting their every day living expenses, they’re likely to feel less pressured and more likely to ‘give it a go.’ However good people will be motivated by the ability to earn good money and enjoy the nice things in life, so commission is one way of them achieving what they want. A commission scheme should be three things;

i. A plan which rewards for the behaviour or results you need
ii. Easy for you to administer
iii. Easy for the phoner to understand.

This third point in particular is often overlooked. Remember “easy for the phoner to understand”. I have come across many schemes that reward for many things many of them not possible to work out until some time later (a multiplier for quarterly profit) for instance. The criteria I use is that it should be possible for a phoner to work out how much they’re going to get from a deal while they’re negotiating it. Otherwise it can’t really motivate them at the time to modify their behaviour in order to get the deal, can it ?

Second – bonuses for telesales or telemarketing personnel. Bonuses are good to run in addition to commission. While your commission scheme pays say a fixed amount for each sale or a percentage of order value, bonuses can be used to fine tune activity. For instance this quarter the bonus might be an additional

Cheap weekend getaway trips are a magnificent way to work the kinks out of your work week; they aren’t long enough to be stressful (unless you have four children) and offer you the chance to unwind. Keep in mind that “unwind” means different things to different people (as you will soon see). Here are my four top cheap weekend getaways in the USA.

Las Vegas. Without a doubt one of the more famous weekend getaways, probably because very few people can handle the City of Sin for more than a few days (my record is four). While Vegas has claimed more money than its visitors would like, there are still many ways to see this city without breaking the bank. My advice is to visit lasvegas.com and search for hotel deals. If you plan on spending more than a few days there, look into to renting a time share from the Grandview; you can secure one for less than five hundred dollars a week. There are also tons of coupon books lining the Strip, and you can score some great deals (free massage, half off burgers, you name it).

Yosemite. Far and away by favorite weekend getaway. Entry into the park costs twenty dollars, and camping is about the same per night. In a weekend you can hike Half Dome, drive up to Glacier Pass, or spend time in Tuolumne Meadows. Make sure to arrive early, as all these activities take up the majority of the day.

Key West, Florida. OK, so the camping isn’t as incredible as Yosemite, but the nightlife is much better. Make sure to hit up the market downtown at sunset. Booze cruises and/or snorkel day trips are relatively cheap (less than fifty bucks) and you can always sit by the beach and contemplate your navel. Word to the wise: there are bars where clothing is optional; be prepared!

Redwood National Park. Located in Northern California, this gem is constantly overlooked by tourists, which makes it that much better. You can camp next to the ocean and the redwoods for fifteen bucks a night, and take a day hike through Fern Canyon, one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on.

There you have it: my four favorite cheap weekend getaway trips in the US.

When you set out to start your own business, you know that you are going to have to take care of a lot of different things from paperwork to securing the money you are going to need to get started. If you are planning to secure a loan or a grant to start your business you are going to have to prepare a solid business plan. The problem with this is that a well thought out business plan can make a novel look like a comic book. In the same way that most editors do not have the time to read every manuscript that comes across their desk, investors lack the time to read every business proposal that they receive. In order to get your plan noticed you are going to need to use an executive summary template.

The executive summary is a highly condensed version of your business plan. This is your chance to present the highlights of your plan to investors in a way that they will be able to read it within a few minutes instead of taking hours to pour over the hundreds of pages of your original plan. You will have space to present your ideas in their best light, show them how you plan to spend their money and how it will help you secure a return on their investment. This summary is designed for the busy investor who simply does not have the time to read the whole plan unless he is already interested in it.

When you are looking for a template you need to make sure that the one you choose follows the most commonly accepted format. When investors start looking at these summaries, the last thing they want is to have to search all over the page to find the relevant information. You are only going to get one chance to make the kind of first impression that is going to secure the funding you need for your business. Read any instructions that come with your template carefully as they can help you to understand what it is going to take to create an eye catching executive summary.

Your summary needs to be clear and concise as the people who will be reading it do not have the time to sift through a bunch of fluff to get to the meat of your proposal. You must get the reader’s attention within the first two paragraphs or you are going to lose their attention. Once their attention starts to wander you have lost them and your summary will probably end up in the trash. You can find an executive summary template online that can be downloaded for free, in fact you can find a wealth of them and you should try several before you decide which one you should use.

When it comes to business plans and their importance, you will find that there are a number of different reasons why business plans are important. Perhaps, the best way to go about understanding those reasons is to closely examine business plans, namely what they are used for. Business plans are used for a number of different things; they serve a number of different purposes. In all honesty, it depends on the type of business that you are interested in developing.

Business plans are used by many to obtaining financing for their up and coming businesses. These potential business owners are ones who have business ideas, but they do not have the financing needed to make their dreams become a reality. Instead of giving up on those dreams, a large number of individuals turn to financial lenders or investors for financial assistance. This is where a business plan comes in. Financial lenders and investors don’t just hand out money to any ole person. They, as you likely expect, want to make sure that they will be getting their money back. The only way to do this is to back a business that is sure to be a success. The only problem is that financial lenders and investors aren’t mind readers; that is why they rely on business plans.

When examining a business plan, a financial lender or investor will likely go over it with a fine tooth comb. In fact, they may even want to keep your business plan for a while, to do a little bit of research. That research will likely help them determine whether or not your business idea could turn into a real, profitable business. If so, there is a good chance that you may get the financing that you need. That is why it is extremely important that you not only have a business plan, but a detailed, professional one. You will often find that your business plan is the deciding factor in whether or not you get the financing that you need.

In addition to using a business plan to obtain business financing, there are many potential business owners who use business plans as guidance. It is no secret that it is difficult to develop a business on a whim. Doing so may mean leaving out important duties or tasks; duties or tasks that may have a significant impact on your business. That is why, if you are interested in starting a business, you are advised to develop yourself a business plan. That business plan will help to make sure that you have all of your bases covered. Having all of your bases covered is one of the many keys to developing a successful and profitable business.

Guidance and financial backing are just a few of the many ways that business plans are used, but they are the two most important and most common uses. Regardless of what you use your business plan for, in the end, you will be glad that you developed one.

This article was authored by Ryan Bessling. This 32 year old, Internet marketer was able to quit his 9-5 “job” because of his The Business Plan Guide. He now wants to help others and show you how he made it in Internet Marketing from creating a great business plan!