More Bottom Life Profits by Hiring a Specialist to Evaluate Your Annuity Business

While watching golf on TV the other day I was inspired by the name on the hat that Phil Michelson wore. I Googled them and found out they were business consultants. Their expertise was consulting with medium to large companies to evaluate their business practices and to locate bottom line methods to increase profit. I thought how in the world did I miss this for my little annuity business.

I hired a business consultant to look at all aspects of my business and help me make better business decisions so I can be just like GM, Boeing and United Airlines. The overall cost was a little more than $5,000 and I spent about 2 days answering questions and filling out questionnaires. All the information was entered into their computer and it must have cranked on it for at least a day. The report was mind-blowing; things I had never even considered were introduced to me.

They had evaluated all my expenses and the bottom line were these ideas.

o Send E cards and save on postage.

o Buy all my stationary in bulk based on a 12 month need.

o Use only ATMs that have no fees.

o Cancel magazine subscriptions and use the internet for my news.

o Cancel my whole life insurance policy and replace it with term.

o Make my 2 employees coshare their health insurance cost.

o Cut back on Starbucks and make coffee at the office, quit going out to the coffee shop.

o Buy copy paper in bulk one pallet at a time and make the stationary company store it for me until I need it

I read all 99 of their suggestions and thought… not no, but Hell No!

Who wants to live like that? Who wants to be that extreme. What should I do if I want to have a better bottom line? It was very easy, see only 10 more people in a year and this will result in 1 ½ more annuity sales. Based on my average care size of $77,000 this would provide an additional $10,000 to my bottom line. Only 10 more new seen a year! How simple is that?

Here is my plan for expense reduction….DON’T! Life is way to short for this type of bottom line drive.

When your whole focus is on reduction and not sales you become very negative and not proactive. We are annuity salesmen and we need to be active and proactive.

One terrific tax benefit I did receive from my consultant, I got to write off his consulting fee. My attitude is that it is much simpler to sell than to reduce.

How to Make Money With Affiliate Business Programs

There are thousands of affiliate business programs on the internet today that offer wonderfully lucrative opportunities. The majority of business opportunities require zero overhead and once set up, will generate income with little or no maintenance on your part.

Affiliate Businesses makes income through affiliate programs that are simple in concept and work much the same way that word of mouth advertising does. Basically, when you refer a customer through your web site, you are recommending that product or service to your clients. If they sign up or purchase that product or service, you get paid a referral fee or commission. It is that simple.

Using affiliate business programs are a fantastic way to get your name out there as well. It is also considerably less expensive and less time consuming than some traditional advertising. Offering your own affiliate business opportunity program to your existing customers and clients can increase your revenue. Paying a referral fee to an already happy customer will generate leads for you.

Most affiliate business programs require you to be a member or subscriber to their site. This type of registration is usually free to you. Affiliates often will offer free newsletters or information to their subscribing members that may help you in the process of referring people to them. Free programmed links and free email tags are often offered to help with your affiliate business as well.

Adding a link to your existing site to another web site is easy and often a matter of simple copy and paste. Almost all emails have signature lines and a link can be added here as well. Everyone who sees your web site or email will see the link and this increases your ability to earn referrals. Conversely, if you were offering a referral program, this same system will get your name out there to people you ordinarily would not be able to contact.

These are affiliate associate program companies that have dozens to hundreds of different affiliate programs to choose from. The advantage to getting affiliated through these companies is that you are paid one check (usually monthly) for all the companies you are affiliated with. If you sign up for affiliate merchant programs that are not using a backend provider (the name for these affiliate program companies) you will get a check from each one individually. Another advantage is you can choose from hundreds of affiliate business programs without searching all over the net. They are all listed in one place. You can check out the most popular backend providers below.

If you have a successful product or service, offering a referral or affiliate associate program is one of the best advertisements online. Not only are you assured your customers are happy with your services and products, otherwise why would they refer you, but you are getting leads straight from these satisfied customers. Positive feedback of this kind is worth its weight in gold.

What if you are the happy customer? Referring people to a place where you have received good value and good customer service is easy. If you are looking to make money by becoming an affiliate, it is as easy as finding out if the places you already go on the internet have affiliate programs. Odds are, they do. You are also not limited to how many affiliations you can have. A few referrals a month can add up to substantial revenue for you in no time.

Some businesses that have built their clientele on affiliate associate programs of this kind are Amazon.com and Paypal. These businesses all started small and relied on consistent word of mouth advertising and affiliate programs. One key to their monumental and international success is great customer services coupled with great affiliate programs.

For example, say you recommend a book on sales to your consulting clients. Providing a link to that book to the Amazon.com web site will help your clients not only receive the information you find helpful to them, but you will receive a commission on every book that is sold through your site. Do you offer a product or service to other businesses? PayPal has a great affiliate program for business referrals.

As you can see, affiliate programs allow you to offer your clientele additional services. This can help your overall customer satisfaction and will help you build your own business as well. Offering your own affiliate program can increase not only your revenue, but your services as well.

Web Design – Engineer Your Business

When it comes to web design for your business website, what picture do you conjure up in your mind? Talented artistic people working hard to create a visual masterpiece, using sophisticated graphic design software? Well, you’re not entirely wrong, only about 99% off.

Most people think of “web design” as almost a synonym for “graphic design”. This is really a very unfortunate association, mainly because it lowers your expectations, and grossly understates what you should expect from your business website. Now consider the expression “structural design”. Conjures up a completely different perspective, doesn’t it? The fact of the matter is that you need a structural designer for your online business presence far more than you need a pretty face for it, in the same way that you need an architect and structural engineer to design your business office, and a business manager to build your business, far more than you need a painter to make it look good, or an advertising business to help create a positive public perception.

Every aspect of your business is important in some way or other, it’s just that some aspects are more important. The problem of course is that you would never build your business premises from cardboard and then just paint it nicely so that it looks great from the front. Of course, the first customer that walked in would balk at the lack of depth of your business, and walk very quickly back out again.

It is exactly the same when building your online business presence. Absolutely, your business website should look great. After all, if it is not attractive and professional, people are going to be just as wary of dealing with you. That said, your website needs robust and solid structural design if you want potential customers to come in, look around, pick up and test your merchandise, have a cup of coffee, chat to your salesman, and make an informed and satisfactory purchase.

The days of an online brochure with a nice contact form and slick design doing the job for you are long gone. For someone to buy your business, they want to query your product database for the perfect product option. They want to search your store for relevant advice and product information, chat to other people in the market and interact with you as the business proprietor. If opening the door makes your business premises fall down, that’s as far as anybody will get.

So what does that mean when selecting a “web designer”? Simply, it means don’t look at how pretty their work is as 100% of your decision criteria — you are not looking for a graphic designer. These are some of the things a “web structural designer” should be able to bring to an effective online business:

* A solid foundation — your business website should at a minimum include an easy-to-use content management system and database.

* User registration and management facilities — if you don’t know who your customers are, you cannot communicate regularly with them

* Product database — this is your storeroom, without which you simply have nice pictures on a cardboard cutout as your product display.

* E-commerce capabilities — your customers should be able to buy from you online as easily as they can offline, otherwise they may as well visit a store close to them.

* Customer communication tools — newsletter functionality, online surveys and feedback forms are all effective and important ways of making the one-way internet medium into a two-way communication environment.

* Automated online promotion capabilities — this is a newer feature that most probably would not think of. The tasks associated with submitting your pages to search engines, optimizing your urls to be search-engine friendly, and many other SEO tweaks are increasingly time-consuming aspects of keeping business websites up to date. Many of these tasks, such as Google Sitemaps submission, url creation based on the title and content of the page, and relevant meta tag generation, to name a few, can all be automated into the design of your website’s core programming. Including them up front will save you countless hours and money trying to accomplish these tasks manually.

At the end of the day, your business website should look good. Much more importantly, it should be the most structurally sound and efficient aspect of your business if you make full use of it’s potential. Make sure your designer is coming from a systems engineering and programming design perspective, not just a graphic design paradigm, and you’ll have a business website that not only looks good, but also works tirelessly as hard as you do.

Things to Consider Before Becoming Self Employed

The first step in becoming self employed is in deciding what to do. Where do your interests lie and what particular skills and training have you had. Many people use this as an opportunity to re-train and do something completely different with their lives. Maybe even take up a niche or service based business.

Another factor is how much money is there available for investment in the start up, is there finance or support available and how long can you support yourself before you need to make a profit? A franchise can sometimes be a good opportunity at a time like this, as there is already a business plan and corporate strategy in place. The truth is that 80% of new start ups fail in the first two years. 80% of the 20% that make it are franchises, but it is important to take care to choose the right business for you. Some of the answers to these questions may well mean that you have to consider reigning in some of your initial enthusiasm, or perhaps they will mean that you have to really work on putting together a solid business plan to justify getting a business loan.

Choosing what to do and how to start, initially involves identifying a particular interest or skill that you have and then deciding how to market that skill. Sometimes listing those skills and then creating a brand for yourself can be an effective way of marketing yourself and your new business. Putting together good quality stationery, by way of flyers, leaflets, business cards, etc can help in promoting yourself as a professional business rather than as a small scale beginner. It can be a worthwhile investment and the process of putting it all together can also help you to clarify your goals and target market.

Be aware of potential scams. Never send off money to pay for a job and check out what you are looking to get involved in. Get advice. Trust your instinct.

Sometimes looking at small companies that may need part time expertise in your field can be a good way of getting into the market, gaining experience and making connections. They may not want or be able to afford full time staff, but a part time option may be an excellent answer to their problems, whilst getting your foot in some doors and introducing yourself to relevant people.

When you are starting to work from home it is important to create a positive environment for yourself. Take yourself seriously and invest in a proper work station. Several things have to be considered and taken into account. A comfortable office chair is an important investment – you will no doubt be spending a lot of time in it, at least at first. Portable office equipment is useful, as it can be stored away when not being used. A filing system is essential, especially if you are working in different companies or on different projects. Convenient telephone access is vital and a telephone extension socket for your computer.

Keeping motivated can be a challenge as working on your own or from home can be lonely at times. Structure each day. Have a routine where you get up, have a shower, get ready for work and then aim to start by a certain time. Proper breaks for coffee or lunch are important, and be sure to use these breaks to get some fresh air if possible, so that you get out of the office for a little while.

Use contacts from your business life to keep up-dated in what is going on in the wider business world. Think of making use of networking opportunities by joining some of the business clubs and associations, looking out for conferences and using the internet social media connections to let potential clients know about you and what you have to offer.

Self esteem can sometimes be hard to maintain, especially if you were in a high powered job and are now starting out again from scratch. Appreciate that it can take time to define your new role and the boundaries at first may feel a little unsure or uneasy. Working from home as well as running a home can sometimes become hard to separate and it may be important to get help at first to allow you to concentrate on getting the new venture off the ground. Sometimes a supportive partner is available to help. Other times it may be worth paying someone to help with the domestic chores so that you can really focus on what you need to be doing with your time.

Susan Leigh is a Counsellor and Hypnotherapist who works with
- stressed individuals to promote confidence and self belief,
- couples in crisis to help improve communications and understanding
- with business clients to help support the health and motivation levels of individuals and teams

Learning Business: The Truth About Consumers and How to Sell Using a Flattened Industry Concept

The manufacturing, logistics and distribution of a bricks and mortar sales business:

This is a summary of what I learned about business in the 8 years I have been an Entrepreneur, and a Managing Member of a small business that sold office machines, office supplies and installations.

Understanding a business and all of its facets requires a great deal of “due diligence” however; the most important contribution that I can offer is a reference theory behind an idiom “KISS” (Keep It Simple Stupid) FOCUS. Focus on exactly what it is your business offers. If you sell widgets, you have to buy the materials to manufacture or purchase the widget and then you have to sell the widget.

“Know a little about a lot.”

Trying to take in everything is just too time consuming. Instead we found that networking and being able to locate specific information about a product by understanding exactly what our customer was asking, was more essential than trying to retain it all.

You will never be able to know more about the product or its importance than the consumer already knows. Remember wanting that special toy when you were a kid. You knew all there was to know about that toy. You knew if it was the real one or a fake look-alike and where to get the real one cheapest. The same concept applies here. Your target consumer is also a shopper. A savvy shopper will question you forever about your products, however this is also very time consuming. You may feel that you are offering the best deal in town to the consumer for that item. The long and short of it is, the consumer may take your offer to your competitor only to sell your target consumer for five cents less. Then you did all the home-work and all the leg work for that customer, who just took all of your valuable time and gave your sale to a competitor.

If you sell widgets, know your widget, perform some good due diligence in knowing all there is to know about your widget. Stay informed about your widget’s competitors. Know their widget as well. This cuts to the chase quick. If you aren’t selling the real widget, you’ll need to defend your widget with its price point more frequently. Try not to sell too many types of widgets, the more types of widgets you sell, the more information you will have to retain, hence (“KISS”). This can be a daunting task, as technology is moving at such a fast pace, the new improved widget is two seconds behind. Only stock what you can sell, it is always better to be in demand of something by the consumer than to have a surplus of it. If you are a bricks and mortar, your floor space is expensive real-estate.

Strategy:

Offering a service such as consulting, IT, repair or installations of equipment and combining that service with sales of drop shipments worked best. There is very little need to stock anything and your customers will appreciate someone who they can trust and see. The key to a positive steady cash flow is to sell something to them they truly need. If you sell something that your customer’s need, and sell it at a rock bottom cost such as a 10% markup instead of the standard 35% markup on supplies like paper, ink or toner (under a contract); now you have a built in cash flow and a loyal customer who will build a lasting relationship with you. Offering a quality affordable service will go a long way. Don’t ever under estimate the power of “Word Of Mouth” referrals, this opens several doors and gives you important lead generation. Over time you can increase the prices back to the initial 35% markup as your customer is a creature of habit, most people despise change. Think about switching cellular or television services. Most people hate to switch unless they absolutely will have grass greener on the other side. Your customer will also feel loyal and obligated to use your services. This process will also provide you leverage to reduce prices on any item your client is thinking about ordering in question? (I.e. “If you would like to purchase that item through us, I can offer you a 10% discount today”.) Giving something to your client free occasionally also goes a long way, giving you an excellent PR image.

The Matrix:

It will never hurt to know a little bit about logistics, not the movie, but a grid for distribution. How products are mass produced by major manufacturers and distributed to the markets they target being fed through a supply chain.

The manufacturer designs a prototype and announces a press release. The media then releases news of their product to be made, flooding the stock market with hype. The manufacturers start to rake in the profits before the first one has even been built or sold. Manufacturers then accept bids from major packaging companies. They figure out how they can best fit the product into a box with its 3,000 screws parts and instructions. Then build a machine to package the product on an assembly line, this saves them money on time and labor. The product in the package is then weighed it and sized to fit as many as they can in a cube sized shipping storage unit or truck with pallets and shrink-wrapping, then place the MSRP on the product. Distribution warehouses then stock the products and sell them to vendors, resellers and retail stores. Distributors also arrange for the logistic transportation of that product across the entire United States or world for that matter. From approximately only six (6) locations in the entire USA, the best dispersing method is chosen.

The “end user” is a business in the commercial enterprise industry; midsized/small business or the individual consumer. Once the product is bought by the “end user”, it is now used goods, bought by wholesale as used equipment, auctioned or sold at a yard-sale, donated or trash. Whatever product you may use, or whatever category your business or industry fits into, you are unfortunately a part of the same life cycle.

The Truth About Consumers:

All consumers “end users” buy products for either commercial enterprise business, midsized/ small business or the individual consumer. By comparison shopping, the “end user” searches for a store or business to get a better price. In each market there is a business that uses a 35% markup on any given product they may sell, at any given store. Stores may fluctuate 5%, depending on volume and time on the floor of which they use that 35% to leverage a huge sale. The consumers fight to save maybe $5.00 on a $1,000.00 item. They probably used more gas and electricity, driving and surfing the net to save that $5.00, then to have paid for it in the first place. The end user will spend for shipping, handling and or tax on their already taxed dollar. After they pay for that great deal, wait for the rebate to come in the mail after filling out these four (4) different receipts for rebates with your personal information; that the company will probably say they keep confidential and sell off to a company for your name phone and shipping information.

A savvy large company will often send a letter stating that while transporting all those CONFIDENTIAL documents the diskette somehow was lost, as it fell out of a bag between the facility and being transported to another location. The rebate money sits in a bank, making a mint in compounded interest for sixty (60) days before the stated return date.

Think about paper clips, if you bought only one (1) box, what is the cost? You go to the local stationary shop for that box of paper clips, you thought were a great price at $2.00 for the box of 100 clips. To find out it may have only cost $.35 to package, ship and place that item on the shelf. Now think about that as your project is due for review tomorrow. You impulsively buy the clips, figuring who cares, it’s only some change. You pay for the paper clips on a credit card at 9.9% APR. At the end of the month you wonder why you cannot get ahead.

Consumers are getting smarter and more informed about the products they purchase.

The most effective way we found to profit from our consumers was to have a flattened market approach. Put your business in the center of the circle and sell to all three (3) “vertical markets” instead of one (1) at the cheapest rate price, regardless of market. Use a flat rate percentage for pricing to cover expenses, bank fees and a small profit… Most businesses charge a flat 35% over cost as a conventional bricks and mortar. However we have found that by simply leveraging our price for drop shipped sales to be only 10% above cost; we are able to sell to all three markets without change in our price points. Keeping shipping expenses separate from the product price and not charging anything extra. Some companies will inflate shipping costs, as it is a growing trend. Shipping is usually about the same cost regardless of company. Savvy shoppers will know the difference. Our concept flattens the “vertical market” into a circle cut into markets as thirds and puts your business in the center; your business will have the opportunity to make 35% revenue on its services and a 10% positive residual cash flow. Your automation process and accounting will also be so much easier when you stick to the basics and run with a lean accounting method.

In 2002, Ronald Simons decided to start a business as an entrepreneur around what he knows and loves; computers, the Internet and shopping for the best deal in town. He began to research by questioning friends, surf the Internet, find information on business fundamentals and performing due diligence. What are the best products? Who makes them? Who packages them? Why do people have to pay what they do? The hardest question to answer was: How can I profit from such an exploited and competitive market already? He opened A A A PC TECH in 2003 and became a successful IT and ecommerce internet based drop shipping company. Ronald later grew the company by dispatching sub-contracted Purchasing Agents who also would retain a customer base through contracts of supplies.

Renovating Your Business For Sale

Have you ever purchased a property with the intention of renovating it, only to get most things done but not all of them? Then, as part of the preparation in order to put the property on the market and make it look as appealing as possible – all those last minute, unfinished tasks get done. The ‘improvement’ is finalised – all the things that didn’t quite work are fixed, the tiling is finished, the painting is touched-up, the cracked concrete is repaired etc etc.

This is the ‘manage & maintain’ stage – it means that the initial work is completed and only maintenance is required unless a specific development or improvement opportunity presents itself whereby work starts, finishes and returns back to the ‘manage & maintain’ stage. Many people then regret the need to sell, as the property finally represents what they originally envisioned – but someone else gets the benefit of that expense and labour!

So it happens in business.

Any business should have a business plan, and part of that would include an exit strategy. The exit strategy may be to merge with another organisation, grow to list on the stock exchange or to sell etc. To ensure a smooth exit, the most effective business strategy is to be at an efficient ‘manage & maintain’ stage from the outset, which of course enables the company to go through relevant business development and improvement continuously, not just at the time of exit.

Of course, at the time of sale the company must be in the most organised, and fortified, position possible to make it as attractive and of the highest value possible. If it is not at an efficient manage & maintain’ stage, there would need to be a great deal of catching up, frantic documentation and throwing together of information under pressure.

I was discussing the sale of an engineering company with the current owner recently. The new (potential) owner had focused on the financial and had undertaken a comprehensive Due Diligence strategy regarding running costs, capital expenditure etc. This necessitated records being dragged out from dusty boxes outlining real costs for purchased items over a long historical period. All very well – and, of course, appropriate.

However when I asked the current owner whether the purchaser had asked for the Safe Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all his equipment, for the flowcharts showing the order and delivery to use of raw materials, the customer contact register or the supplier list, customer history and so on – he gleefully told me that no, the purchaser hadn’t asked for any of this – and that he only had 3 more days before the Due Diligence period lapsed so he wasn’t going to have the time. He thinks he is ‘out of the woods’ regarding provision of this information and that his consulting back to the company over a six month period would compensate for this.

This not only places him at long term risk regarding what has or hasn’t been provided (years later), it also means that he is not in a healthy position to provide it in the first place.

As advocated in the Corporate Fingerprint system, there are four types of records that should be managed, maintained and form the basic culture of every organisation:

  1. The Source
  2. The Client
  3. The Internal Work In Progress
  4. The Archive

In particular, the Source – in this instance, is critical. It should contain all the procedures, SOPs, Registers, Policies, Position Descriptions, organisational charts, marketing material, images etc. It is the ‘how to’ of the business and contribution from all departments should be contained in The Source. Each document should be uniquely identified; it should be able to be found via direct navigation or via a search mechanism and it should be managed as part of the Quality Documentation forming the business culture.

This, in itself, would form a substantial part of the Due Diligence required of any purchaser. The Client information, proof of adherence to quality management, Occupational Health & Safety and Environmental strategies and other information would also be managed via online & physical records.

However, the collation & provision of this information is often, sadly, a last minute throw together and time consuming exercise because it is not maintained as part of the business culture. The business cannot run as efficiently or as effectively without it, and only the new business owner will benefit from the work undertaken, instead of this being an ongoing business benefit.

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Preparation before Hold an Event

For you who want to hold any kinds of events, there are many things that you need to prepare. Trade show exhibits are the important thing that you need to prepare if you want to hold any kinds of events. There are many various events that use the trade show exhibits. Nowadays, there are many companies that offer many types of trade show exhibits. Because of that, you need to be careful in choosing the right company that offer the trade show exhibits. You are able to choose the type of the trade show exhibit that is appropriate for the event that you will hold.

 

Besides the trade show exhibit, you many also need to prepare the table cover. There are many various table covers that are offered in the market. You are able to choose the form and color of the table cover as what you want. The table covers are used for any kinds of events. The table top display is the other thing that you also need to prepare if you want to hold an event. There are many events that need the table to display. The table top displays has the same function from the trade show exhibit but the table top displays are put above the table. Directors chairs is the other thing that you need to prepare too if you want to hold a trade show.

 

Coffee Maker Efficiency

I bought a new coffee maker and I’m in LOVE! It makes great coffee (a requirement for any coffee maker) and clean up is practically non-existent (this is why I’m in love). It makes one cup at a time and when I’m done I throw away the little container the coffee came in. The efficiency and wonderful results have won me over.

What does a coffee maker have to do with business? Well over a cup of dark roast, I thought about how many process or procedures do we have that could be more efficient? From an HR perspective there are a few, use these tips to make your company more efficient.

Still using time cards? Ask your payroll provider if they have a system that integrates with payroll. Your employees would “clock in” and “out” via a computer at your location, a review of hours and send it to payroll. Viola! What used to be a very time consuming process is done online and quickly.

Using a spreadsheet or paper to track time off? Let your payroll program do the work for you. Enter the rules or accruals for vacation, sick, or paid time off (PTO). When someone takes a day or hours note it in payroll and done. Bonus: have the information print on the pay stub and each person will know how much time they have with every pay check.

Do you regularly send emails to the same group of people? Create a group list on your email. This is your own person list – give it a name and include all their emails. Since it is your own list, you can change and update as needed. Now that regular email you won’t miss people, no one will be forgotten and it only took you a moment.

These are just a few to get your thoughts started. Look at all the different processes you manage on a regular basis and ask yourself – How can it be done better? Are there any short cuts to do it faster? If you don’t have the answers, ask those around you.

Barista Training Classes – 5 Things To Look For

The term “barista” hails from the Italian language and refers in that language to a bartender who serves both coffee and alcoholic drinks. However, in North America, the term overwhelmingly refers to those who are adept at operating a commercial espresso machine and hand crafting specialty coffee beverages.

In fact, most coffee house baristas do much more than just make a superior shot of espresso. They now possess a wide-ranging set of skills, including how to make hand-crafted coffee using a French Press, Chemex or Hario V60 dripper, how to care for the espresso equipment, and how do latte art.

Given the dramatic rise in popularity of independent and chain coffee shops and coffee houses in the United States over the past two decades, there is an increasing number of employment opportunities for people to work as baristas.

People are attracted to working in the specialty coffee industry for a number of reasons. Mastery of the ability to serve excellent coffee and espresso drinks takes time and training, so there is understandably a sense of pride that accompanies becoming an accomplished barista. Also, many people enjoy working in and around coffee houses, given the unique ambience and general feel that many of them possess.

If you are considering becoming a professional barista – or if you just want to learn how to make an amazing shot of espresso – you will benefit from getting the proper training in advance.

Here are 5 things to look for in barista training classes:

1. Focuses on a range of required techniques:

Anybody who has ever observed a barista in action may be tempted to underestimate the various feats being performed before their very eyes. A good barista can make it all look so simple. However, there is much to know in order to master the skills of a professional.

Make sure that the barista training class you are considering exposes you to the following skill sets: Espresso history, science and theory, grinder and espresso machine basics, grinder adjustment, proper espresso distribution and dosing, tamping technique, shot timing and extraction, proper milk steaming and texturing, pouring technique, classic drink preparation (espresso, cappuccino, latte, macchiato, Americano, and mocha), latte art, equipment cleaning, and customer service. You should also check to make sure the barista training classes you are considering also cover some of the other coffee brewing methods such as: hand pour-over drip coffee from a Chemex or a Hario V60, a French press, and a vacuum filtration siphon pot.

2. Exposes you to different types of machines and equipment:

As can be imagined, there is a wide range of different types of espresso machines and equipment on the market. A good barista training course will thoroughly explain components and specifications. It will also review how to select the appropriate equipment for different applications. And, it also covers machine cleaning and maintenance techniques.

3. Reviews management-level considerations:

The course should expose you to a general knowledge of coffee shop operations, coffee shop efficiency, coffee sourcing, finding good suppliers, and preserving coffee freshness and quality through proper storage.

4. Small class sizes:

Particularly important is to look for a coffee school that offers small class sizes. Ask about their ratio of instructors to students.

5. Tailored to different student needs and learning styles:

Finally, ask about their teaching philosophy. The coffee school you choose for your training class should be one that places an emphasis on each student’s unique learning style. You need patient instructors who understand that each student has varying levels of background knowledge about the coffee business – and each one takes in information differently. You should avoid schools offering one-size-fits-all teaching styles for your training experience.