Small Business Toolbox

A library of business management info


The Art of Negotiation

Working a big deal? Negotiating benefits with an employee? Trying to bring down the cost of your raw materials? No matter what kind of deal you're involved in, you can improve your negotiation skills so that everyone comes out a winner.
  • Seven Steps for Developing Your Negotiating Skills
    06/12/2008
    Nearly everyone engages in negotiations at work and at home on a daily basis. We negotiate with children over what they wear to school. Managers negotiate with vendors. Workers negotiate vacation schedules. Performance evaluation, counseling and problem-solving usually require some form of negotiation. Indeed, it's characteristic of effective managers that they are persuasive negotiators who obtain commitment rather than simple obedience from their employees.
  • Is it Time to Sell Your Business?
    01/29/2008
    Your business hasn't made the money you thought it would. Or the opposite is true: Your business has been lucrative beyond your wildest dreams and buyers are chomping at the bit to take it off your hands. Maybe you're itching to spend more time with your family and friends and your heart just isn't into it anymore. Perhaps you've hit the age you planned to retire by, so that's that.
  • Communication: How to Fit the Means to the Need
    01/15/2008
    We're told it's poor practice to answer a question with another question. But if someone asks, "What's the best way to communicate in the work setting?" we might legitimately respond with "What do you want to accomplish?" There's no single best way for communicating in business, even though hastily launched e-mail messages sometimes seem to have taken over our communication.
  • The Pluses and Minuses of Outsourcing
    05/04/2007
    Outsourcing is the process of having certain services that could be or have been provided internally performed on a continuing basis by companies or individuals outside your organization. It's long been common in manufacturing for companies to depend on external suppliers to provide them with components made to their specifications. It's likely that what we now call outsourcing began in manufacturing in the manner just described. The label "outsourcing" is appreciably newer than the practice itself.
  • Don't Undercharge for Your Services
    10/09/2006
    During the start-up phase of a business, pricing of products and services is a key issue. In fact, accuracy in pricing is one of the key factors in whether a company will exist through the all-important first few years.
  • The Art of Negotiation
    04/18/2006
    Negotiation is an art. The key to mastering it is using the right negotiation style on the right person. Knowing which style suits which type of customer or client can help you make the sale, close the deal or diffuse a tense conversation.
  • Losing a Large Client
    03/20/2006
    Losing a large client can be scary. Most businesses, however, will face this scenario at one time or another. The key to getting through such a loss is keeping it in perspective and learning the lessons that the experience can teach.
  • Contracts 101
    02/06/2006
    Contract disputes usually happen when the final contract varies from what one or both parties intended. Even when both parties enter into an agreement with the best intentions, the final contract may not accurately or completely represent what they discussed and agreed upon before they wrote the contract.
  • How to Understand and Make Use of Body Language, Part II
    05/03/2004
    This Workshop continues to explain some body language messages to watch for.
  • How to Understand and Make Use of Body Language, Part I
    05/03/2004
    Intensity levels of face-to-face meetings can range from mild to severe -- and often in the heat of the moment participants unwittingly give away their feelings by unconscious displays of body language.
  • Negotiating Success
    04/02/2002
    At the most basic level, all business is negotiation!
  • Are You Listening?
    03/25/2002
    We know that listening is important. So why don't we listen better?
  • How To Reach a True Win-Win Agreement, Part II
    03/22/2002
    In today's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses continues discussing the importance of maintaining a number of issues in a negotiation to achieve a Win-Win Agreement.
  • How To Reach a True Win-Win Agreement, Part I
    03/22/2002
    In today's and next week's Workshops, Jeffrey Moses discusses the basis for achieving a win-win agreement.
  • Power Negotiating: Art and Science
    03/22/2002
    Negotiating is so all-pervasive in business (and in our culture in general) that it should be taught as a course in college, or even high school. Yet it seldom is.