Business Skills All-in-One For Dummies

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• Introduction 1About This Book 1Foolish Assumptions 1Icons Used in This Book 2Beyond the Book 2Where to Go from Here 3Book 1: Accounting 5Chapter 1: Introducing Financial Statements 7Setting the Stage for Financial Statements 8Income Statement 10Balance Sheet 13Statement of Cash Flows 17A Note about the Statement of Changes in Shareowners’ Equity 20Gleaning Important Information from Financial Statements 20Keeping in Compliance with Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards 24Chapter 2: Reporting Profit or Loss in the Income Statement 31Presenting Typical Income Statements 32Taking Care of Housekeeping Details 36Being an Active Reader 38Deconstructing Profit 40Pinpointing the Assets and Liabilities Used to Record Revenue and Expenses 45Reporting Unusual Gains and Losses 51Watching for Misconceptions and Misleading Reports 53Chapter 3: Reporting Financial Condition in the Balance Sheet 55Expanding the Accounting Equation 56Presenting a Proper Balance Sheet 57Judging Liquidity and Solvency 61Understanding That Transactions Drive the Balance Sheet 64Sizing Up Assets and Liabilities 68Financing a Business: Sources of Cash and Capital 74Recognizing the Hodgepodge of Values Reported in a Balance Sheet 77Chapter 4: Reporting Cash Sources and Uses in the Statement of Cash Flows 79Meeting the Statement of Cash Flows 80Explaining the Variance between Cash Flow and Net Income 84Sailing through the Rest of the Statement of Cash Flows 90Pinning Down Free Cash Flow 94Limitations of the Statement of Cash Flows 95Chapter 5: Reading a Financial Report 97Knowing the Rules of the Game 98Making Investment Choices 99Contrasting Reading Financial Reports of Private versusPublic Businesses 101Using Ratios to Digest Financial Statements 102Frolicking through the Footnotes 117Checking Out the Auditor’s Report 118Book 2: Operations Management 123Chapter 1: Designing Processes to Meet Goals 125Getting Started with Process Improvement 126Planning Operations 126Improving Processes According to a Goal 129Managing Bottlenecks 137Chapter 2: Planning for Successful Operations 141Planning from the Top Down 142Exploring the Components of an Aggregate Plan 145Considering Materials 148Planning for Services 152Applying Information to the Entire Organization 154Chapter 3: Creating a Quality Organization 157Reaching Beyond Traditional Improvement Programs 158Adding to the Tool Box 161Overcoming Obstacles 172Book 3: Decision-Making 175Chapter 1: The Key Ingredients for Effective Decisions 177Distinguishing the Different Kinds of Decisions 177Identifying the Different Decision-Making Styles 179Recognizing the Workplace Environment and Culture as a Force 180Developing the Decision-Maker: To Grow or Not? 188Chapter 2: Walking through the Decision-Making Process 191Clarifying the Purpose of the Decision 192Eliciting All Relevant Info 193Sifting and Sorting Data: Analysis 198Generating Options 205Assessing Immediate and Future Risk 209Mapping the Consequences: Knowing Who Is Affected and How 211Making the Decision 212Communicating the Decision Effectively 213Implementing the Decision 214Decision-Making on Auto-Pilot 218Chapter 3: Becoming a More Effective Decision-Maker 223Upping Your Game: Transitioning from Area-Specific to Strategic Decisions 224Displaying Character through Decision-Making 231Improving Your Decision-Making by Becoming a Better Leader 235Creating Safe and Stable Workplaces 238Book 4: Project Management 243Chapter 1: Achieving Results 245Determining What Makes a Project a Project 245Defining Project Management 250Knowing the Project Manager’s Role 257Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Project Manager? 261Chapter 2: Knowing Your Project’s Audiences 263Understanding Your Project’s Audiences 264Developing an Audience List 264Considering the Drivers, Supporters, and Observers 272Displaying Your Audience List 278Confirming Your Audience’s Authority 279Assessing Your Audience’s Power and Interest 281Chapter 3: Clarifying Your Project 283Defining Your Project with a Scope Statement 283Looking at the Big Picture: Explaining the Need for Your Project 286Marking Boundaries: Project Constraints 302Documenting Your Assumptions 305Presenting Your Scope Statement 306Chapter 4: Developing a Game Plan 309Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks 309Creating and Displaying a WBS 322Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 332Documenting Your Planned Project Work 334Chapter 5: Keeping Everyone Informed 335Successful Communication Basics 336Choosing the Appropriate Medium for Project Communication 340Preparing a Written Project-Progress Report 345Holding Key Project Meetings 351Preparing a Project Communications Management Plan 353Book 5: Linkedin 355Chapter 1: Looking into LinkedIn 357Understanding Your New Contact Management andNetworking Toolkit 358Discovering What You Can Do with LinkedIn 363Understanding LinkedIn Costs and Benefits 367Navigating LinkedIn 373Chapter 2: Signing Up and Creating Your Account 377Joining LinkedIn 377Starting to Build Your Network 388Chapter 3: Growing Your Network 391Building a Meaningful Network 392Sending Connection Requests 405Accepting (or Gracefully Declining) Invitations 412Chapter 4: Exploring the Power of Recommendations 415Understanding Recommendations 416Writing Recommendations 418Requesting Recommendations 422Gracefully Declining a Recommendation (or a Request for One) 425Managing Recommendations 426Chapter 5: Finding Employees 431Managing Your Job Listings 432Screening Candidates with LinkedIn 442Using Strategies to Find Active or Passive Job Seekers 444Book 6: Business Writing 445Chapter 1: Planning Your Message 447Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle 447Fine-Tuning Your Plan: Your Goals and Audience 448Making People Care 457Choosing Your Written Voice: Tone 461Using Relationship-Building Techniques 465Chapter 2: Making Your Writing Work 469Stepping into a Twenty-First-Century Writing Style 469Enlivening Your Language 478Using Reader-Friendly Graphic Techniques 485Chapter 3: Improving Your Work 491Changing Hats: Going from Writer to Editor 491Reviewing the Big and Small Pictures 495Moving from Passive to Active 505Sidestepping Jargon, Clichés, and Extra Modifiers 508Chapter 4: Troubleshooting Your Writing 513Organizing Your Document 513Catching Common Mistakes 521Reviewing and Proofreading: The Final Check 529Chapter 5: Writing Emails That Get Results 535Fast-Forwarding Your Agenda In-House and Out-of-House 536Getting Off to a Great Start 538Building Messages That Achieve Your Goals 542Structuring Your Middle Ground 548Closing Strong 550Perfecting Your Writing for Email 551Book 7: Digital Marketing 557Chapter 1: Understanding the Customer Journey 559Creating a Customer Avatar 560Getting Clear on the Value You Provide 566Knowing the Stages of the Customer Journey 568Preparing Your Customer Journey Road Map 575Chapter 2: Crafting Winning Offers 577Offering Value in Advance 578Designing an Ungated Offer 579Designing a Gated Offer 580Designing Deep-Discount Offers 590Maximizing Profit 595Chapter 3: Pursuing Content Marketing Perfection 599Knowing the Dynamics of Content Marketing 600Finding Your Path to Perfect Content Marketing 601Executing Perfect Content Marketing 614Distributing Content to Attract an Audience 616Chapter 4: Blogging for Business 621Establishing a Blog Publishing Process 622Applying Blog Headline Formulas 631Auditing a Blog Post 634Chapter 5: Following Up with Email Marketing 641Understanding Marketing Emails 642Sending Broadcast and Triggered Emails 644Building a Promotional Calendar 646Creating Email Campaigns 651Writing and Designing Effective Emails 656Cuing the Click 660Getting More Clicks and Opens 660Ensuring Email Deliverability 663Index 667