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Completing your education from an Ivy League college can definitely be one of your biggest fortes and provide you a lifestyle that you have always dreamt off. But getting admission in the university you are looking for may not be a cakewalk for you and you have to take the proper guidance from an education consultancy that you can trust. Jen Next Mentors are one such place where all your education and immigration needs can be well-taken care off. Some of the most important pointers that an education consultant should keep in mind before planning their education overseas are mentioned below:

Evaluating the profile: It is very important and the foremost step in the whole process in which the client’s requirements and needs are discussed along with where they stand at the present if looking for the completion of their studies from a reputed foreign university.
Choosing the right university: You cannot just think and get the admissions in your desired university, there is a lot of homework that one needs to do. The education experts help you in shortlisting the universities that offer the course you want to go for keeping in mind the eligibility criteria.
Your financial documents: The counselors help in preparing the financial documents that include your academic transcripts and scorecards and are genuinely important to take the process forward.
The SOPs and LORs: The team of the education consultants provides editing services the supporting documents in the form of SOPs, LORs, and the university essays etc that provide the support for selections and scholarship.
The application filling: The education consultants help you file your application and then apply to the colleges of your choice. For more clarity, contact India’s leading education consultants, Jen Next Mentors.
The Queries and Resolutions: The experts take the charge of handling every query and question that arises in a student’s mind and guides throughout the journey.
Visa counseling: Visa counseling is extremely important to crack the VISA interviews and is done in the most accurate way and guidance.
The University interviews: The counselors prepare you for the interviews, building your confidence and potential and assure your chances of selection in the final processing and getting a chance to complete your studies from the desired university.
It is very disheartening to know a lot of aspirants fail to even complete the application process because they do not have proper knowledge regarding the move. This can be made easy by the help of Jen Next Mentors, India’s Leading Overseas Education Consultants and the guidance they provide in the way throughout dealing with all the pre and post education consultancy and immigration needs.

I have seen many times that people easily get confused when it comes to the differentiating between a coach, consultant and mentor. I was having a conversation with someone who has been all these for me at one point or another, but I couldn’t clearly distinguish when was which.

So, I wanted to address this question and get some clarity. A lot of my guests, over 45 on the show so far, are either consultants, coaches or mentors in some respect. I asked this question to many of them and figured out some similarities and difference that will help you differentiate between the three.

And the bigger question is why would we need to?

That is because each of these have a different impact in your life and having that clarity will help you better understand the type of impact and results you want to create and as a result the type of help you want to invite in your life. We will look at each one of them separately and look at an example for each to help us understand their roles better.

Coach:
Coaching is characterized as working together with people in a sometimes provocative and inventive process that moves them to tap into their own expert potential. A good coach is a master at seeing the blind spots of their clients while he or she may not necessarily be an expert on the topic.

A coach knows how to take a business visionary through a process of revelation through an internal quest that leads to their client achieving external accomplishments. A coach brings an outside-in and more importantly a point of view that is not clouded by the overzealous passion of their client. The advantages of this type of engagement can be measured through how well the client executes on their plans. The result should be, the clients becomes more proficient and their life accelerates.

A coach offers an alternate kind of relationship by and large. There’s a considerable measure of asking and hardly any telling. Let’s take an example of learning how to ride a bicycle. A coach will help you accomplish your objective of riding a bicycle by asking provocative inquiries and shining a spot light on your strengths. They work with you to take advantage of what you definitely know and enable you to get through your restricting beliefs. A mentor will keep running close by you holding the bicycle enduring while you’re learning. A coach may however keep telling you to, “Let go of the bicycle” when they know you’re prepared to ride solo.

Mentor:
A mentor can be considered as a talented and trusted person who can assist you as both guide as well as advisor. The mentor is the educator that offers their experience while bringing the “mentee” up to task. The mentor, who is the more experienced individual looks to improve the less experienced individual, the mentee’s development.

I think mentorship is generally a personal relationship and in most cases without the exchange of money where the mutual benefit comes from the transfer of knowledge and the opportunity to give between two individuals.

So taking the same example, A mentor has been riding a bicycle for a long while and is available to learn the process through questioning and observation. They need to see you be fruitful and will invest their energy in you.

Consultant:
A consultant is a specialist who is approached for expert or specialized counsel or opinions. They are depended on to comprehend the issue and present solutions.

A consultant is an individual or organization who you contract to support you or your business. They have assets, learning, or experience that can supplement you in your endeavours. They typically don’t work to build up your abilities or skills. Instead of this, they utilize their abilities to help you achieve your desired goals or objectives. With their help, you can get the work done without figuring out how to do it yourself.

A consultant is a specialist in bicycle riding. They’ve effectively aced the bicycle riding process and holds the most proficient approach to do it. They will normally analyze what you’ve been doing so far and help you with the most effective method to get it done, in a step by step manner. They get paid to give you “how to ride a bicycle” answers.

These are the main difference between the 3 that I have learned from the guests on my show. Now of course these are opinions that may be true or not but they provide a great reference point to further this discussion.

Hospitality is one of the most creative sectors that offer enough room for innovation. If you are a part of this industry and especially the food business, it will be imperative to follow the golden rules. Choosing the choicest beverages and highly palatable delicacies happens to be an important task. You need to browse through various options, identify taste patterns, and then prepare your menu with utmost creativity. It goes without saying that these operations demand professional assistance which is the key to achieving unmatched success.

Aspects to consider:

When it comes to launching your dream restaurant, food joint, or eatery, it becomes crucial to opt for the right suggestions. Your associations with a highly proficient Restaurant Management Consultant can be beneficial in ways more than one. Apart from the food, beverage, and desserts, they will also help you walk through some of the other processes. These aspects include:

• The décor
• Food presentation
• Restaurant appearance
• Aesthetics
• Staff behavior
• Hospitality approaches
• Price and costs

Walking you through difficulties:

The aspects mentioned above play pivotal roles in the success of a restaurant. If you want your food joint to reach the summit of success, hiring the best Restaurant Management Consultant will be the best thing to do. From offering new concepts to analyzing the existing processes, a reputed and experienced professional will render comprehensive assistance. Owners will have the opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their place, along with knowing the avenues of improvement.

How can you teach your audience?

Most of the times, food-joint owners and restaurateurs fail to comprehend the importance of professional consultations. It becomes highly crucial to find an answer to the following question. ‘Why do I need to hire consultants in the first place’? Benefits of hiring professionals are many. You just need to identify their advantages and convince your audience about the same!

1. Global F&B consultation:

As a restaurateur, you would love to place your food-joint on the global map. Proficient consultants and experts will help you do so, by offering global F&B solutions. They will identify your resources and try to implement changes within the existing setup.

2. Crucial analysis:

Analyzing the processes and setup is also crucial. You need to understand the strengths and identify the weaknesses of the place. That will help you devise and incorporate crucial strategies.

3. Staff services:

The touch of warmth, a nice gesture, and smiling faces can make the day for your customers. It is right here that staff training emerges as a prime requisite. Your restaurant staff should know how to approach and deal with visitors.

4. Management training:

Critical problems can pop up anytime. Operational hassles are integral parts of the restaurant business, and you need proficient experts by your side. The leading experts will surely come up with the best support in this context.

5. Marketing:

Popularizing your venture is highly important. People won’t come to your place if they don’t know about it. Professional consultations will be must-haves in these cases.

Every now and then, entrepreneurs and small business owners need advice from industry experts. Business consulting is one of the most under-looked services for small businesses that can actually deliver great results. Operating a business for the first time can be very complicated in the beginning, and in most cases, it takes years to learn all the ropes. All of the trial and errors you go through can help with the learning curve, but sometimes it’s at the expense of the entire business.

Why not shorten the learning curve by working with a professional that specializes in small business development? Consulting with an expert can help ensure that your company stays afloat, whether it’s a startup or been around for many years. There’s always something new to learn, especially with the ever-changing world we live in.

The following are five reasons why we believe it’s a good idea to hire business consulting services.

You Can Boost Profits and Reduce Expenses

These are the two most effective ways to maintain a profitable business. It doesn’t matter how much money your company is earning – if the overhead costs are too high, then your profits will always suffer. Sometimes, you need to tweak your methods and add techniques to help drive better results. An expert in business can analyze your company and offer great advice for improving everything from your marketing to your business plan.

You Can Learn the Best Practices

If you are opening an online business for the first time, you’ll quickly learn that it’s a lot different than operating a brick and mortar. Some things are simpler and others are a bit tricky. Working with a business consultant can help clear things up about how things should be ran. It’s information that’s definitely worth knowing for the long-term.

You Can Learn What Isn’t Working

Collecting data is important to see what’s working and what isn’t. But simply pouring over the numbers isn’t always enlightening, especially when you’re unsure of what to look for. A consultant knows this and can offer insight into what is and isn’t effective in your business strategies.

You’ve Run Fresh Out of Ideas

Running a small business takes creativity. Without it, it becomes much harder to compete with medium and large size companies. Using business development consulting services means getting access to someone with a fresh perspective, which can be beneficial for reviving your brand. Reputable SEO companies can offer the best strategies for revamping your marketing strategies so you’re online advertising becomes more efficient.

My passions have always been gardening and painting. The two seem to go together and this was born out when starting a business in landscaping. It was natural to paint a picture of the finished design in my head. This led me to undertake counselling for those who could not imagine what a garden should look like. My long-standing interest in the outdoors held me in good stead as my little fingers were always in dirt from the time I could toddle.

Once advertising started and my first consulting job came to me it led to other things. The lady was so impressed with what she was offered that she paid me $400 to draw a plan of it. This was something right up my ally.

Putting my imagination to work the plan was a great success and before long there were some 2-3 per week along with consulting jobs. The main requiring for doing something like this is confidence. If one shows that they know what they are talking about and can satisfy their client with quality work, then it has to be a success.

Of course my enterprising didn’t stop there. The main point of this article is that people need to step out of their comfort zone and use their hobbies and interests to build a business. They have to start from scratch to do it but if they have enough confidence and knowledge they will success.

Mistakes will happen and that is the learning curve one has to go through. Costs of consulting work doesn’t have to be over the top as there is no outlay to doing it. Start small and build up. For consulting my charge was $75 and that is more than affordable when most landscape designers might charge 10 times that much for the same advice.

Norma Holt has knowledge that enables her to understand many issues. Political, social and behavioural problems are usually on her list for discussion as well as anything to do with the Spirit of the Universe and reincarnation, which she experienced. She is happy to hear from any of her readers.

Annetta Powell, Prospecting, Network Marketing, Home base business, business, financial freedom, my video talk, mary kay , cedrick harris, david wood, mlsp, mike dillard, pre paid legal, 5 linx, gain financial freedom

The first thing that you should understand is that there are many MLM compensation plans available. Thus,Guest Posting you need to look at the different plans before deciding on the right one for you. Before joining an MLM company, it is important to understand the compensation plan it has to offer. First and foremost, you need to know the amount you will be paid. This will help to avoid any misunderstandings or confusion. It is advisable that you should first choose the MLM compensation plan, then later find a company using this plan. Going for the plan first is an important strategy that will help in making a wise decision.

There are four popular MLM compensation plans. This article will look at these plans so that you can know what to look for in each of the plan.

Matrix plan: This plan allows you to have a certain number of people in the first level. For example, a 3 by 7 forced matrix plan will allow you to have 3 people at the first level. After sponsoring people, it is important to place the distributers beneath a person in the down line. The distributors will have 3 on the initial level. The benefit of this plan is that it helps your down line to build another down line. It will be possible to help others earn commission, regardless of whether they are sponsoring others or not. This is one important issue that you should look at in MLM compensation plans. You can place a new distributor beneath another person, where they will still get something. However, you will be getting the biggest commission. The disadvantage of this plan is that it encourages laziness. In addition, you can lose cash after building many levels.
Binary plan: This plan limits you to have only 2 individuals in the front level. After sponsoring the 2 individuals, you should place others under them. In this plan, you are paid on the weakest leg. However, the payment depends on the MLM Company. This is an essential thing to look for in the MLM compensation plan. The plan provides a supportive environment where you can help others. The popularity of binary plans has increased. The disadvantage of these plans is that it also encourages laziness.
Breakaway plan: Just as the name suggests, in this plan your distributors usually break down after achieving a certain level. After breaking away, the sales are not considered as yours. You will be provided with a bonus on a quarterly or monthly basis. The disadvantage of this plan is the breaking away, which makes you lose a large part in the down line.
The last plan is the uni-level matrix: This plan allows you to sponsor many people in the front line, but you will be limited in the levels that you will be paid for. For example, if you have 50 levels, you can only get paid for the first 20 levels.

Many MLM compensation plans offer various bonuses. It is important to look at the bonuses that are being offered by the plan. The bonuses include retail, sponsorship, fast start and leadership bonuses.

Slack pricing hype, about Free and paid you can find all it here.“You can use the free version of Slack for as long as you like and there’s no limit to the number of members who can be invited.”

Originally Published at Troop Messenger

“You can use the free version of Slack for as long as you like and there’s no limit to the number of members who can be invited.”

That’s what Slack’s pricing page reads once you get started. In all their PRs and advertisements’,Guest Posting Slack has time and again claimed that their free tier offers an unlimited number of users.

In short, Slack unapologetically mentions that there is no limit. You can add ‘as many people’ as you want to.

But is it really true?

Table of Contents

1. Is Slack Misleading
2. Should you Pay for Slack
3. Tearing Down Slack’s Pricing
4. Freemium Plan
5. Standard Subscription
6. Plus Subscription
7. Enterprise-Grade

Is Slack Misleading people about its Free ‘Unlimited Plan’?
We came across a couple of Slack users who have reported that there’s a limit with a freemium plan, despite what Slack says.

For Example, David Chen, who wanted to build a massive Slack community of 10K+ users, found that the service starts fizzling out around 5000 users, and poops out completely after onboarding 8,500 users.

Quincy Larson added 8462 users to his Slack channel, and after that, the channel stopped accepting new users.

8462 sure is a great number for a medium-sized community – but it’s a limit, which Slack has disguised so far, and done nothing to disclose.

Users hoping to build a 10k+ community through freemium plans should look for a Slack alternative.

This brings us to our next question:

Should you Pay for Slack?
Slack is a great office collaboration tool, without any doubt. For many businesses operating virtually, Slack has offered benefits they can’t live without.

Slack is where work happens. It has the most user-friendly UI and UX, and it is relatively easier to navigate through.

And then, to top it all, Slack offers 1000s of integrations and apps. In a literal sense, it is a process automation heaven. If you implement enough apps, you’ll be able to complete 95% of your work requirements inside Slack.

That’s cool, right?

But here’s the thing – there are as many as 20+ Slack Alternatives that are offering similar features.

Some of these alternatives are cheaper than Slack while some others are more expensive.

Since most of the Slack alternatives are doing pretty much the same job, it is natural to wonder whether or not it is worth paying for Slack?

And that’s the intent behind writing this article. Sit tight and read as we tear-down slack’s pricing plans, and help you make a better decision:

Tearing Down Slack’s Pricing: Freemium Vs Paid Plans
The secret of Slack’s pricing model is very much evident on their pricing page.

Slack Pricing Teardown of Freemium Plan Model :

Ideal For: Individual Use, Small Groups

Pricing: $US0

When a new customer joins Slack, they have multiple options to choose from. It is free as long as you want a Slack Workspace with an unlimited number of people.

In the free slack pricing plans, you don’t have to pay a penny but you are restricted with limited features. Onboarding your team on Slack for free sounds cool. But this freemium plan has limitations:

1. 10k searchable messages:
This may seem enough for very small teams or members who don’t use team chats that often. But even for small-sized teams, the 10k limit is insufficient.

If you’re a team of 10 people, who generate about 2k messages a week, chances are you won’t be able to restore any of the conversations after a month.

Imagine you need to report a document you shared with your colleague for two months, but not being able to refer back to it because you’ve reached the 10k

limit. You’ll have to upgrade to a standard plan to reveal search message history.

2. 1-to-1 video calls:
If your slack workspace works on the freemium plan, forget about conducting team conferences because you cannot do more than 1-to-1 video calls.

You cannot host big meetings or webinars. Now that can be a real bummer!

3. 10 apps & integrations
Integrations make Slack better and more powerful than others. Slack has been constantly adding new tools and with paid plans, you Slack integrates with almost every popular tool.

With Freemium, you’ve access to 10 integrations. If you want to use the 11th app, you’ll have to delete old integration and stay in the limit of 10 apps.

4. Two-factor authentication
Whether you choose a freemium or a paid plan, Slack won’t let it’s users compromise with security. For an added security layer, all Slack users can turn-on 2FA for their Slack account.

This means that if your password is stolen or compromised, you’ll have peace of mind that only you’ll be able to log in again.

Freemium Plan Verdict: If you can compromise with limited searchable messages and limited integrations, Slack can be a great pick for small-sized teams.

Slack Pricing Teardown of Standard Subscription Model

Ideal For: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Global Pricing: $US6.67 per active user per month billed annually. Or $US8 per active user per month billed monthly.

Pricing (For Indian Customers): $US2.67 per active user per month billed annually Or $US3.20 per active user per month billed monthly.

If you can spend $US2.67 per active user per month, you can get rid of the above limitations, and enjoy additional features. You can avail benefits like Unlimited message archive, Group calls (up to 15 participants) with screen sharing, Unlimited apps, Guest accounts, and shared channels.

1. Full archive: There’s no 10k messages limit with the Standard plan. Your team’s entire message history is now in one place and the entire conversation is searchable.

2. Unlimited apps: Again, Standard Subscribers of Slack educational pricing can integrate applications beyond the number 10. Integrate Slack with as many as 1000+ tools from different categories and bring all your work into one place. You don’t have to miss out on anything.

3.Google authentication: A standard plan makes it easy for Slack users to log in to their Workspace. Hence, it reduces the password load. Those who use G Suite can have their team members sign in to Slack Workspace using their existing Google sign-on.

4.Guest access: Slack’s Standard pricing plan makes it easy for companies to connect with vendors, retailers, and people from outside the company. Such people can be given guest access and invited to one or multiple Slack channels.

Additional Benefits of Standard Plan:
Custom retention policies
Forward emails into Slack
Priority support
Group voice and video calls
User groups
Custom profiles Screen sharing

Slack Pricing Teardown of Plus Subscription Model
Ideal For: Large-Sized Businesses that require advanced admin control

Global Pricing: $US12.50 per active user per month billed annually.

Pricing (For Indian Customers): $US5 per person per month billed annually. Or $US6 per person per month billed monthly.

Slack has a Plus Plan for large businesses and companies with a requirement of business-level features that can help the teams grow. Apart from all the benefits of a standard subscription, Slack’s Plus users can avail exclusive features like:

Keep a little, keep a lot: With a plus plan, Slack users get the option to customize their archival preferences and message retention. There’s more to control as compared to the standard plan.

Though custom message retention settings, they get a flexible option when it comes to deciding how many messages you want to keep, and how much history you want to delete. There’s also an option to keep a tab of deletion logs and message edit.

1. Data exports: Data export feature is great for companies who have got legal obligations to archive messages, or businesses operating in a regulated industry.

Team admins of leaders, on Slack Plus Plan, can request access to the entire team’s message history. The history can be either direct messages between team members or conversation in the private channels.

2. SSO and provisioning: With Plus plan, you get to Integrate Slack workspace with your existing SAML 2.0 identity provider. This is suitable for companies that wish to ensure secure access to their team.

Apart from SAML, Plus members also have a built-in connection to many SSO providers. There is also an option to use a custom or own SAML solution.

3. 99.99% uptime: With 99.99% uptime, Slack is operational irrespective of the time zone. For the plus subscribers, Slack assures providing a guaranteed uptime, an industry-leading standard of server availability, and a financially backed service level agreement (SLA).

4. 24/7 support: With the standard plan, you get priority support, which means your queries will be catered before the queries made by freemium subscribers.

And with the Plus plan, you can reach the support team anytime, and have access to 24/7 coverage and guaranteed response, in the shortest time possible, from their customer experience team.

Slack Pricing Teardown of Enterprise-Grade Model
Ideal For: Very Large Sized Businesses that require advanced admin control Businesses operating in highly regulated industries Enterprises requiring unlimited workspace with a centralized control

Pricing: There’s no standard or flat rate for slack enterprise grid pricing. It depends on the specific requirements and other factors. You’d need to contact the Slack Sales team to get an estimate.

1. Scale with unlimited workspaces

Considering the nature of large enterprises, a single Slack workspace might be insufficient.

Hence, Slack for business pricing is specially designed to provide multiple teams of an organization with a focused and separate place to work.

Unlimited workspaces in Slack provide teams and their members access to the people, appropriate information and apps which matter the most to their projects.

2. Build bridges between teams

With an Enterprise plan, businesses can centralized control to create communication structures. The structure mirrors the way your organization works.

Channels from different workspaces can be shared when needed, and you can also collaborate with outside vendors whenever required.

3. Find information across your company

As an admin of all workspaces of your organization, you can also enable members of any team or selected workspace to find the data, content, information, and people they need to get work done with.

You can provide them with access to direct messaging, organization-wide search, and announcement channels.

4. Fine-tune your security settings

From a single view and centralized control, the chief administrators of all workspaces can manage security, structure, policy, and compliance for the whole organization.

The same can be done for specific workspaces. In short, the organization admin has complete control of the security and compliance of any or all workspaces.

And If you are looking for a cheaper Slack Alternative…Like I mentioned earlier, there are as many as 20+ Slack Alternatives that are offering similar features.

Some of these alternatives are cheaper than Slack while some others are more expensive. One of the best Slack Alternatives I can recommend is Microsoft Teams and Troop Messenger.

Conclusion:
If you’re looking for a cheaper team communication tool that helps you automate your workflow as well, then Troop Messenger can be a decent choice.

By the way, you can try out Troop Messenger right now. For free! Just sign up and you get to Experience a 30-Day Enterprise Free Trial.

Final Words:
Slack pricing tiers aren’t the best, but with the features and extensive integration it has got to offer, it’d be unfair to say it’s not worth it.

The real power of Slack lies in its integrations and apps. With Slack, you can do so much more. If your work requires team collaboration, you should pay for Slack, because eventually there’s so much for you and your team.

Slack and its integrations will save your team time and increase productivity. So if you are looking to improve the time efficiency and productivity of your team, Slack is the right tool.

And if you’re looking for a communication tool, then you can opt for Troop Messenger, and avail similar benefits.

In general, people are more informed about how to buy a car than to buy health insurance. They make the same mistakes over and over. They just need to understand some basic principles — Some of which are explained in this article.

A good health insurance agent that specializes in health insurance can save you money and help you select the plan that fits you and fits your budget.

It is easy,Guest Posting but most people don’t do it. The secret is to get a health insurance plan while you are young and healthy. (Did I hear you groan?) Health Insurance is usually the last place where a young man looks to spend his money – women are much more interested in safety, security and don’t feel invulnerable to the vagaries of the world.

It isn’t too late. Even if you are older now, and didn’t get the plan you need, you can start right now. (You aren’t likely to get heathier as you age. As we age, we tend to put on weight and as we age, more things tend to go worng.)

If you are the correct weight for your height and you don’t use tobacco, you might get a preferred rate on your plan.

So, it sounds pretty easy. Just get the insurance plan early while you are young and healthy!

Another salient point. Once you have obtained a plan, and have a rating as to your health at that time, that insurance company cannot change it later. So, let’s take an example. Let’s say you get a preferred rate on a plan and two weeks later, you are diagnosed with cancer. THE INSURANCE COMPANY CANNOT CHANGE YOUR RATING based on your health, and it cannot increase your premium. You will carry this preferred rate as long as you stay with that carrier.

Your monthly premium will likely go up each year because, of course, you are a year older. Also, the general population in your area of the state aged. They also might have a higher incidence of disease, so your premium will increase. Remember, though, the amount of your premium increase will likely be less than someone who didn’t get a preferred rate to start with.

What do you do if you have financial trouble?

I would suggest that if you possibly can, keep your plan in force. If you have a preferential rate, don’t lose it by canceling your health insurance – simply change to a less expensive plan with your current carrier.

You might be “forced” into considering an HSA type plan. This type plan is a high deductible health plan that doesn’t have copays for doctors and drugs. You may feel that you are forced to make this decision. Surprisingly, this is the type plan you should have purchased from the start. HSA plans are not only less expensive per month, but your total out-of-pocket expenses, if you are hospitalized, are typically less than copay type plans. In addition, you have the right, but not the obligation, to open a health savings account at your local bank.

The money that you deposit into this savings account is not subject to taxes. The tax savings that you will experience will reduce your overall expense of the health insurance plan. Don’t underestimate the effect that taxes have. For example, as an individual, you can deposit $3,000 into your HSA account for 2009. The average individual is in the 28% tax bracket. Add in the state’s income tax fee, which is usually in the range of 8%, and you have a savings of $.36 of every dollar you deposit into YOUR account. That is $1,080 or $90 per month!

Let’s take an example: You find that you need to have your gall bladder removed. If you have a copay plan, you typically will have a deductible of $2,500. So, you are likely to think that you will have to pay $2,500 to have this procedure done. No, no, my friend. You still have something you may not know about, or forgot about. It is called coinsurance. Coinsurance means that you co-insure the first $10,000 of the expenses with the insurance company. The most common coinsurance proportion is 70/30. That means that you will pay 30% of the first $10,000 and the insurance company will pay 70% of the first $10,000. In other words, you pay $3,000 and the insurance company pays $7,000 of the first $10,000. After that, the insurance company pays 100% — up to the limit of the policy.

Since a gall bladder operation is at least $10,000, you will have to pay your portion of the coinsurance, 30% or $3,000.

Let’s do the math: You are going to pay $2,500 for the deductible and another $3,000 for the coinsurance. Out-of-pocket expenses in this situation total $5,500. Where do you have that much money put away? It isn’t easy to come up with the money, but you can usually work out a payment plan with the doctors and the hospital. If you don’t have any insurance, this isn’t quite as easy, and they charge you much more for the same procedure.

Now, let’s compare the out of pocket expense for the less expensive HSA plan. Most people who purchase Health Savings Account type plans choose the $2,700 deductible. In addition, they select the 100% coinsurance. That means that the insurance company pays 100% of expenses after the deductible is met. So, if you have that same gall bladder operation, your out-of-pocket expense will be $2,700. That’s it. So you see, your risk is reduced from $5,500 to only $2,700. That is a savings of $2,800 – over 50% savings in the amount YOU have to pay!

There is always a “gold standard” plan in any state. It is the plan that most people purchase. Be wary of insurance companies where the rate is lower than that plan. Lesser known insurance companies may be trying to “buy your business” in your state. They will get you in with a teaser rate. Next year, you are likely to have a gigantic increase in your premium. Why? Because they don’t have a large enough insured base. If a small number of people get dread diseases, it affects the small population of insured people inordinately.

If this happens to you, you would leave and go to another insurance company. You can leave, only if you are still healthy. If your health has changed for the worse during that year, you are stuck with the expensive insurance company. Next year, the healthy people will leave and go find insurance elsewhere. . . only the sick people stay, because they have to. It is an upward spiral of insurance premiums. The insurance company will have to make up their losses by increasing YOUR premium. You don’t want to get caught in this horrible situation.

There are three critical constructs that dynamically improve the ability of your Strategic Plan to deliver business results, taking it from being a plan, to something you can put into place and execute, day-in-and-day-out.

If we (Performance Solutions Technology) were consulting with you today,Guest Posting and looking at your Strategic Plan, we would be emphasizing three important constructs that dramatically improve the ability of your Strategic Plan to deliver business results. They take it from being a plan, to something you can put into place and execute… all year long. Let’s go over what we emphasize:

The Strategic Plan is about “must have” growth – nothing else. Bottom line, all of your strategic goals should be about growth, example: growing sales, growing people’s effectiveness, growing internal efficiencies. Growth is what we are after; not mission statements, not organizational philosophy, not politically correct statements (to insure every group has a line item in the Strategic Plan) – just growth. And not just any growth. Not just nice-to-have growth, “wouldn’t it be nice/good/we really should” growth – you want to keep your Strategic Plan very lean and mean, and limit it to just the areas of growth that will power the business forward. Be thinking in terms of the opportunities given your strengths and the market landscape that are mandatory for the growth of the business.
Aside from tracking financial returns as part of your strategic plan, every goal has to have a plan, represented as initiatives. Every initiative supporting a growth goal has to stand two tests. If your strategic goals and initiatives don’t link to goals and projects in your business operations, they will typically be under-supported in the day-to-day work process and shouldn’t be in your Strategic Plan. This is our working definition for alignment. But what about those tests? 1. The first test we use when looking at initiatives is – “Do they represent a compelling plan for achieving the strategic goal?” They should represent a believe-able, testable, sequence for achieving the strategic objective while minimizing risk of lost time, missed opportunities and incorrect use of resources. Initiatives represent your game plan. How good to you want your plan to be?2. The second initiative test is embraced by the following question, “Is that (initiative) really required to reach the strategic goal?” If the initiative is not critical to reaching your strategic goal, don’t keep it in your plan. Keep your plan light and focused, you want to carry and drive this through-out the year. Sacrifice or trade comprehensive descriptions for targeted, punchy sentence stubs.
Note: All non-critical initiatives should be in your Operations section, not your Strategic Plan. Don’t fill up your Strategic Plan with multiple layers of initiatives, many, if not most, of them should be represented as projects under different business, product and service initiatives in the Operations area of your business in a strategic management software tool like ManagePro.

If a goal isn’t measured, it doesn’t belong in your strategic plan. If you haven’t figured out a meaningful way to measure each strategic goal and supporting initiative – it doesn’t belong in your plan. If you’re not tracking it via your scorecard, don’t keep it. Said another way, if it’s not worth the time to measure and track, it doesn’t belong in your Strategic Plan. It’s that simple. Whether or not a strategic goal is measured and tracked is one of the best for predicting what you will actually execute through the year.

Health care in America is changing rapidly. Twenty years ago, most people in the United States had idemnity … which meant the insured person could go to any doctor, hospital or health care pro

Health care in America is changing rapidly. Twenty years ago,Guest Posting most people in the United States had idemnity coverage, which meant the insured person could go to any doctor, hospital or health care provider (which would bill for each service given), and the insurance company and the patient would each pay a portion of the bill.

Today, however, more than half of all Americans who have health insurance are enrolled in some kind of managed care plan, an organized method of both providing services and paying for them. Different types of managed care plans work differently and include preferred provider organizations (PPOs), health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and point-of-service (POS) plans.

You may have heard of these terms before. But what do they mean, and what are the differences between them? More importantly, what do these differences mean to you? Even if you don’t get to choose your health plan yourself (for example, your employer may select the plan for your company), you still need to understand the type of protection your health plan provides and what your must do to get the health care that you and your family really need.

Choosing between health plans is not as easy as it once was. And although there is not one “best” plan, there are some plans that will be better for you and your family’s health needs. Plan differ in how much you have to pay and how easy it is to get the services you need. No plan will pay for all the costs associated with your medical care. However, some plans will cover more than others.

Health insurance plans are usually described as either indemnity (fee-for-service) or managed care With any health plan, however, there is a basic premium, which is how much your or your employer pay, usually monthly, to buy health insurance coverage. In addition, there are often other payments you must make, which will vary by plan. In considering any plan, you should try to figure out its total cost to you and your family, especially if someone in the family has a chronic or serious health condition.

With an indemnity plan you can use any medical provider (such as a doctor and hospital). You, or they, send the bill to the insurance company, which pays part of it. Usually you have a deductibel–such as $500–to pay each year before the insurer starts paying.

Once you meet the deductible, most indemnity plans pay a percentage of what they consider the “Usual and Customary” charge for covered services. The insurance company generally pays 80 percent of the Usual and Customary costs and you pay the other 20 percent, which is known as co-insurance. If the health care provider charges more than the Usual and Customary rates, you will have to pay both the co-insurance and the difference.

In addition to idemnity plans, there are basically three types of managed care plans: PPOs, HMOs, and POS plans. Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) are closest to an idemnity plan. A PPO has arrangements with doctors, hospitals and other care providers who have agreed to accept lower fees from the insurer for their services. As a result, your cost sharing should be lower than if you go outside the network. If you go to a doctor within the PPO network, you will pay a copayment (a set amount you pay for certain services–say $10 for a doctor of $5 for a prescription). Your coinsurance will be based on lower charges for PPO members.

If you choose to go to a doctor outside the network, you will have to meet the deductible and pay coinsurance based on higher charges. In addition, you may have to pay the difference between what the provider charges and what the plan will pay.

HMOs are the oldest form of managed care plan. HMOs offer members a range of health benefits, including preventive care, for a set monthly fee. There are many kinds of HMOs. If doctors are employees of the health plan and you visit them at central medical offices or clinics, it is a staff or group HMO. Other HMOs contract with physician groups or individual doctors who have private offices. These are called individual practice associations (IPAs) or networks.

HMOs will give you a list of doctors from which you must choose a primary care doctor. The doctor coordinates your care, which means that generally you must contact him or her to be referred to a specialist. With some HMOs, you will pay nothing when you visit doctors. With other HMOs there may be a copayment, like $5 or $10, for various services.

If you belong to an HMO, the plan only covers the cost of charges for doctors in that HMO. If you go outside the HMO, you will pay the entire bill.

Many HMOs offer an indemnity-type option known as a Point-of-Service Plan or POS. The primary care doctors in a POS plan usually make referrals to other providers in the plan. However, in a POS plan, members can refer themselves outside the plan and still get some coverage.

If the doctor makes a referral out of the network, the plan pays all or most of the bill. If you refer yourself to a provider outside the network and the service is covered by the plan, you will have to pay the coinsurance.

Whatever your choice of plans, medical insurance is rapidly becoming an absolute essential commodity. With the cost of a simple doctor’s visit approaching $65 and with major procedures now costing thousands upon thousands of dollars, you can not afford to be without health insurance for you and your family.