In Start Your Own Consulting Business, the staff at Entrepreneur Press and writer Eileen Figure Sandlin explain how you can start a profitable consulting business, no matter whether your consulting business will focus on HR placement, computer troubleshooting, or anything else you can dream up. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer tips on providing customer service that will help you land new business again and again.
To succeed as a consultant, you must do everything you can to set yourself apart from the competition. You want to give your clients a reason to say, "I'm really glad I chose this consultant." One way to ensure this is to provide the best customer service on the planet.
One great way to do this is by communicating with your client often about whether his or her expectations are being met and if the project is progressing as desired. "At the end of the first month of a project, I always ask my clients whether they think value is being achieved," says California trainer and coach Susan Bock, who is a past president of the Association of Professional Consultants. "I'll give them a full refund and won't proceed any further if I determine it's not possible to deal with their unrealized expectations."
Fred Elbel, a web design and computer consultant in Lakewood, Colorado, takes a different approach to customer service: He actually gives information away free as a way to make a favorable impression. "I give a lot of free advice to customers--in fact, sometimes too much," he admits. "It could be information like how to back up a computer system. But what happens is that clients remember how I helped them, and they'll call me when they don't have the time or skill to tackle other problems."
read more http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233305
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Manchester United's Ryan Giggs confirms retirement from playing ranks
Ryan Giggs has confirmed his
retirement from the playing ranks on the day he was named as new
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal's assistant.
Giggs penned an open letter to United fans explaining his pride at being able to extend his relationship with the club in the coaching ranks after a glittering playing career.
The Wales winger retires after 963 appearances for the club, and more than 1,000 overall when you include his 64 international caps, and he celebrated winning 34 trophies in a golden age at Old Trafford.
read more: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11667/9317728/manchester-uniteds-ryan-giggs-confirms-retirement-from-playing-ranks
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Nadal Battles Past Murray In Rome Reunion
Andy Murray served up a bagel set the last time he faced Rafael Nadal, three years ago in the Tokyo final.
On Friday, Murray picked up where he left off when the pair renewed their rivalry in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but was unable to hold off the seven-time Rome champion in the end. The World No. 1 battled back to win 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, setting a semi-final meeting with 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov.
The seventh-seeded Murray, who had taken just one set off of Nadal in their previous four clay-court meetings, raced out to a 5-0 lead as he converted his two break point chances and saved the three faced. Murray served out the first set after 38 minutes, after Nadal held to avoid his first bagel set since playing Roger Federer at the 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
Nadal saved a break point to open the second set, and finally converted on his fifth opportunity against Murray to take a 2-0 lead - the only break of the 52-minute set. Nadal won 100 per cent of his second serve points and all 12 of his points at the net.
After exchanging breaks to start the third set, Murray broke to go up 4-2 after Nadal had fought back to deuce from triple break point down. The Mallorcan immediately recovered his serve and claimed the decisive break to love, 6-5. He pulled ahead 14-5 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
Nadal had reached the quarter-finals with two battling victories. He prevailed against Gilles Simon in three hours and 19 minutes - the longest best-of-three-set match this season - and came from a set and a break down to defeat Mikhail Youzhny.
This is the first time since 2005 Rome that Nadal has won three straight decisive-set matches on clay in the same tournament.
The Spaniard had rebounded from quarter-final exits in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona to win the Mutua Madrid Open title, needing to rally from down against Kei Nishikori in the final.
"He finished the match incredibly well," said Murray. "The last three games he was physically a little bit stronger than me at the end. Apart from that it was a good match."
source: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/05/20/Rome-Friday-Nadal-Murray.aspx
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Milos Raonic advances to Italian Open quarter-finals
Un uomo deve essere tanto grande da capire quanto รจ piccolo
Canada's Milos Raonic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Italian Open quarter-finals.
Raonic, the No. 8 seed from Thornhill, Ont., won five of the last six points in the first-set tiebreaker. He picked up a break in the second set en route to his first career victory over the 11th-seeded Frenchman.
Tsonga outlasted Raonic in a marathon match at the London Olympics in 2012 and beat him again last year at Indian Wells.
Raonic hit seven aces and saved five break point chances on the red clay courts at the Foro Italico. He'll make his fourth Masters 1000 Series quarter-final appearance of the season Friday against Jeremy Chardy of France.
Chardy, who upset Roger Federer of Switzerland in the second round, advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Croatia's Ivan Dodig. Raonic has yet to reach a semifinal this year.
Also Thursday, the seemingly ageless Tommy Haas upset third-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals. The oldest player in the draw at 36, Haas used his expertise and heavy topspin to give Wawrinka trouble.
Haas hadn't beaten a top-10 player since taking out then No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Miami more than a year ago.
"These things don't happen too often anymore so I still take them and I'm really proud of them," the German said.
Wawrinka cited a back injury that occurred in colder conditions during his opening win over Spanish qualifier Pere Riba.
"I couldn't move too well," he said. "It's really nothing serious. It's just painful and I need some rest — maybe a few days."
In the women's tournament, 11th-seeded Ana Ivanovic took out two-time Rome champion Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-4.
Second-seeded Li Na defeated Australian veteran Sam Stosur 6-3, 6-1 and will next meet 10th-seeded Sara Errani of Italy, who kept the crowd content by beating Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska 6-4, 7-6 (3).
And third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska eliminated Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-1.
The 15th-seeded Haas broke Wawrinka to take a 5-3 lead in the third set with a series of deep spinning shots which eventually prompted Wawrinka to miss a forehand.
Haas then served it out with an ace down the middle on his first match point.
Haas committed just 17 unforced errors to Wawrinka's 40.
Wawrinka has had a solid year by winning the Australian Open and the Monte Carlo Masters but he also had an early exit in last week's Madrid Open — leaving his form in question as he enters Roland Garros in 10 days.
Haas was a Rome finalist in 2002, losing the title match to Andre Agassi.
"He's a really good player," Wawrinka said. "He has a good serve, he can come to the net and he has touch. We all know how he (plays). He's been there for a while."
source: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/milos-raonic-advances-to-italian-open-quarter-finals-1.2643857
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
USTA to build new home for American tennis
The United States Tennis Association is pinning a big chunk of its future on central Florida.
On Wednesday, the non-profit governing body announced a project estimated at nearly $60 miillion in Orlando billed as the new home for American tennis for its 750,000 members. Officials gave an updated estimate of the cost at a news conference.
The 63-acre, 100-plus-court development in the Lake Nona area will house and consolidate the USTA's Community Tennis and Player Development divisions, which are primarily based in New York but also have locations in other parts of the country.
WIN: Djokovic returns from injury with win in Rome
The aim is to establish an A-to-Z pathway for growing the sport from the youngest players to established pros.
"It will have an impact on tennis on every level from recreation up to the professional ranks," USTA board chairman and President Dave Haggerty said. "Virtually every level of tennis can be serviced from this facility."
The project includes tax incentives from state, city and county officials — including a dirt-cheap long-term lease for the land — USTA officials said. It will open in late 2016 or early 2017.
"It's a watershed moment for us," said Patrick McEnroe, who oversees the USTA's player development program for elite juniors and professionals.
MORE: Federer won't change schedule because of growing family
Along with the $500 million expansion project underway at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens that includes adding a retractable roof to Arthur Ashe Stadium, it marks the most ambitious burst of development in USTA history.
Lake Nona eventually will be home to more courts than any other facility in the country and rival the Nick Bollettieri-founded IMG Academy near Tampa.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Pros switch on hi-tech racquets in time for Wimbledon
LONDON (Reuters) - A handful of the world's best tennis players will show up at tournaments within weeks armed with new technology they hope will give them an advantage at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the man behind the 'smart racquets' has told Reuters.
Without identifying the players who would be first to wield the hi-tech weapons, Eric Babolat confirmed "connected racquets", with sensors feeding back information on the players' forehands, backhands and much more besides, would be swung in anger for the first time, after a decade in development.
"It could be any week. We have a lot of players testing. It is going to happen very soon," Babolat told Reuters in an interview at Britain’s National Tennis Centre in south-west London.
"It is a question of days, not months."
Declared legal by the guardians of the sport, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), who adopted a new rule covering the technology at the start of the year, selected Babolat racquets will feature data-collecting sensors in their handles,
"Quite simply, this is information like we have never been able to get before," smiled Babolat, scion of the French tennis manufacturing empire built out of a 19th century family business making sausage skins, surgical sutures and piano strings from animal gut.
"It is information direct from the racquet, from the string bed, and it tells us exactly what is happening, not just a feeling from the player.
"INCREDIBLE TO IMAGINE"
"For me it was incredible, that you can take the number one tennis player in the world (Rafa Nadal) and see that he doesn't really know anything about what is happening in his racquet, apart from his feel. He has no data about anything, and it is incredible to imagine.
"It is like you are a Formula One driver and you don't know how fast you are driving and you don't know..." Babolat trailed off, shaking his head. "It is a bit unbelievable, but it is like that.
"No longer", the CEO and chairman of the French business said.
In essence, the technology-loaded racquets collect data such as shot power and ball impact location along with the number of strokes, the level of spin imparted, total play time, endurance, technique, consistency, energy and rallies.
The information is transmitted through bluetooth to smartphones or tablets where players and coaches can analyse and share their data with other analysts and online communities.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova are the big winners in Madrid
Rafael Nadal picked up his first European clay-court title of the season Sunday after his opponent, Kei Nishikori, retired while trailing in the third set.
The world No. 1 Spaniard raised concerns with his less than dominant play during the recent clay-court tournaments and seemed to be on his way to yet another loss.
But Nishikori, who took a medical time in the second set for treatment on his back and hip, called it a day when trailing 2-6, 6-4, 3-0, to give Nadal his fourth Madrid Open trophy. By reaching the finals, the Japanese star moved up three spots to a career high world No. 9.
With the victory, Nadal became the first repeat winner in Madrid and picked up his 44th career title on clay. But the win is only his second clay-court title of the year on a surface he typically rules.
“I was blocked. There were some moments where, I don’t know, I couldn’t find myself,” Nadal said (via Associated Press). “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to play or I was missing intensity, I was just mentally blocked.”
The Madrid Open win guarantees that he will stay No. 1 in the rankings leading up the French Open that begins May 25.
read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/05/12/rafael-nadal-maria-sharapova-are-the-big-winners-in-madrid/
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