Business Skills All-in-one for Dummies

Find workplace success 

There are some things that will never go out of style, and good business skills are one of them. With the help of this informative book, you’ll learn how to wear multiple hats in the workplace no matter what comes your way—without ever breaking a sweat.

Compiled from eight of the best Dummies books on business skills topics, Business Skills All-in-One For Dummies offers everything you need to hone your abilities and translate them into a bigger paycheck. Whether you’re tasked with marketing or accounting responsibilities—or anything in between—this all-encompassing reference makes it easier than ever to tackle your job with confidence.

• Manage a successful operation
• Write more effectively
• Work on the go with Microsoft Office 365
• Deal with marketing, accounting, and projects with ease

If you’ve ever dreamed about being able to juggle all your work responsibilities without ever dropping the ball, the book is for you.

The Experts at Dummies are smart, friendly people who make learning easy by taking a not-so-serious approach to serious stuff.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 1

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 2

Where to Go from Here 3

Book 1: Accounting 5

Chapter 1: Introducing Financial Statements 7

Setting the Stage for Financial Statements 8

Income Statement 10

Balance Sheet 13

Statement of Cash Flows 17

A Note about the Statement of Changes in Shareowners’ Equity 20

Gleaning Important Information from Financial Statements 20

Keeping in Compliance with Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards 24

Chapter 2: Reporting Profit or Loss in the Income Statement 31

Presenting Typical Income Statements 32

Taking Care of Housekeeping Details 36

Being an Active Reader 38

Deconstructing Profit 40

Pinpointing the Assets and Liabilities Used to Record Revenue and Expenses 45

Reporting Unusual Gains and Losses 51

Watching for Misconceptions and Misleading Reports 53

Chapter 3: Reporting Financial Condition in the Balance Sheet 55

Expanding the Accounting Equation 56

Presenting a Proper Balance Sheet 57

Judging Liquidity and Solvency 61

Understanding That Transactions Drive the Balance Sheet 64

Sizing Up Assets and Liabilities 68

Financing a Business: Sources of Cash and Capital 74

Recognizing the Hodgepodge of Values Reported in a Balance Sheet 77

Chapter 4: Reporting Cash Sources and Uses in the Statement of Cash Flows 79

Meeting the Statement of Cash Flows 80

Explaining the Variance between Cash Flow and Net Income 84

Sailing through the Rest of the Statement of Cash Flows 90

Pinning Down Free Cash Flow 94

Limitations of the Statement of Cash Flows 95

Chapter 5: Reading a Financial Report 97

Knowing the Rules of the Game 98

Making Investment Choices 99

Contrasting Reading Financial Reports of Private versus

Public Businesses 101

Using Ratios to Digest Financial Statements 102

Frolicking through the Footnotes 117

Checking Out the Auditor’s Report 118

Book 2: Operations Management 123

Chapter 1: Designing Processes to Meet Goals 125

Getting Started with Process Improvement 126

Planning Operations 126

Improving Processes According to a Goal 129

Managing Bottlenecks 137

Chapter 2: Planning for Successful Operations 141

Planning from the Top Down 142

Exploring the Components of an Aggregate Plan 145

Considering Materials 148

Planning for Services 152

Applying Information to the Entire Organization 154

Chapter 3: Creating a Quality Organization 157

Reaching Beyond Traditional Improvement Programs 158

Adding to the Tool Box 161

Overcoming Obstacles 172

Book 3: Decision-Making 175

Chapter 1: The Key Ingredients for Effective Decisions 177

Distinguishing the Different Kinds of Decisions 177

Identifying the Different Decision-Making Styles 179

Recognizing the Workplace Environment and Culture as a Force 180

Developing the Decision-Maker: To Grow or Not? 188

Chapter 2: Walking through the Decision-Making Process 191

Clarifying the Purpose of the Decision 192

Eliciting All Relevant Info 193

Sifting and Sorting Data: Analysis 198

Generating Options 205

Assessing Immediate and Future Risk 209

Mapping the Consequences: Knowing Who Is Affected and How 211

Making the Decision 212

Communicating the Decision Effectively 213

Implementing the Decision 214

Decision-Making on Auto-Pilot 218

Chapter 3: Becoming a More Effective Decision-Maker 223

Upping Your Game: Transitioning from Area-Specific to Strategic Decisions 224

Displaying Character through Decision-Making 231

Improving Your Decision-Making by Becoming a Better Leader 235

Creating Safe and Stable Workplaces 238

Book 4: Project Management 243

Chapter 1: Achieving Results 245

Determining What Makes a Project a Project 245

Defining Project Management 250

Knowing the Project Manager’s Role 257

Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Project Manager? 261

Chapter 2: Knowing Your Project’s Audiences 263

Understanding Your Project’s Audiences 264

Developing an Audience List 264

Considering the Drivers, Supporters, and Observers 272

Displaying Your Audience List 278

Confirming Your Audience’s Authority 279

Assessing Your Audience’s Power and Interest 281

Chapter 3: Clarifying Your Project 283

Defining Your Project with a Scope Statement 283

Looking at the Big Picture: Explaining the Need for Your Project 286

Marking Boundaries: Project Constraints 302

Documenting Your Assumptions 305

Presenting Your Scope Statement 306

Chapter 4: Developing a Game Plan 309

Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks 309

Creating and Displaying a WBS 322

Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 332

Documenting Your Planned Project Work 334

Chapter 5: Keeping Everyone Informed 335

Successful Communication Basics 336

Choosing the Appropriate Medium for Project Communication 340

Preparing a Written Project-Progress Report 345

Holding Key Project Meetings 351

Preparing a Project Communications Management Plan 353

Book 5: Linkedin 355

Chapter 1: Looking into LinkedIn 357

Understanding Your New Contact Management and

Networking Toolkit 358

Discovering What You Can Do with LinkedIn 363

Understanding LinkedIn Costs and Benefits 367

Navigating LinkedIn 373

Chapter 2: Signing Up and Creating Your Account 377

Joining LinkedIn 377

Starting to Build Your Network 388

Chapter 3: Growing Your Network 391

Building a Meaningful Network 392

Sending Connection Requests 405

Accepting (or Gracefully Declining) Invitations 412

Chapter 4: Exploring the Power of Recommendations 415

Understanding Recommendations 416

Writing Recommendations 418

Requesting Recommendations 422

Gracefully Declining a Recommendation (or a Request for One) 425

Managing Recommendations 426

Chapter 5: Finding Employees 431

Managing Your Job Listings 432

Screening Candidates with LinkedIn 442

Using Strategies to Find Active or Passive Job Seekers 444

Book 6: Business Writing 445

Chapter 1: Planning Your Message 447

Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle 447

Fine-Tuning Your Plan: Your Goals and Audience 448

Making People Care 457

Choosing Your Written Voice: Tone 461

Using Relationship-Building Techniques 465

Chapter 2: Making Your Writing Work 469

Stepping into a Twenty-First-Century Writing Style 469

Enlivening Your Language 478

Using Reader-Friendly Graphic Techniques 485

Chapter 3: Improving Your Work 491

Changing Hats: Going from Writer to Editor 491

Reviewing the Big and Small Pictures 495

Moving from Passive to Active 505

Sidestepping Jargon, Clichés, and Extra Modifiers 508

Chapter 4: Troubleshooting Your Writing 513

Organizing Your Document 513

Catching Common Mistakes 521

Reviewing and Proofreading: The Final Check 529

Chapter 5: Writing Emails That Get Results 535

Fast-Forwarding Your Agenda In-House and Out-of-House 536

Getting Off to a Great Start 538

Building Messages That Achieve Your Goals 542

Structuring Your Middle Ground 548

Closing Strong 550

Perfecting Your Writing for Email 551

Book 7: Digital Marketing 557

Chapter 1: Understanding the Customer Journey 559

Creating a Customer Avatar 560

Getting Clear on the Value You Provide 566

Knowing the Stages of the Customer Journey 568

Preparing Your Customer Journey Road Map 575

Chapter 2: Crafting Winning Offers 577

Offering Value in Advance 578

Designing an Ungated Offer 579

Designing a Gated Offer 580

Designing Deep-Discount Offers 590

Maximizing Profit 595

Chapter 3: Pursuing Content Marketing Perfection 599

Knowing the Dynamics of Content Marketing 600

Finding Your Path to Perfect Content Marketing 601

Executing Perfect Content Marketing 614

Distributing Content to Attract an Audience 616

Chapter 4: Blogging for Business 621

Establishing a Blog Publishing Process 622

Applying Blog Headline Formulas 631

Auditing a Blog Post 634

Chapter 5: Following Up with Email Marketing 641

Understanding Marketing Emails 642

Sending Broadcast and Triggered Emails 644

Building a Promotional Calendar 646

Creating Email Campaigns 651

Writing and Designing Effective Emails 656

Cuing the Click 660

Getting More Clicks and Opens 660

Ensuring Email Deliverability 663

Index 667

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