People do business with those they like and trust, and networking is a great way to develop business relationships. However, professional communities are large, vast, and diverse, so it is important to strategize your relationship building initiatives effectively.

Here's a few considerations to enhance your networking efforts:

1) Plan effectively: Who are you trying to reach? Think about it carefully, and choose events you will attend that will likely have that type of person you are trying to target. Are you trying to target professionals that work in a certain company size or a certain industry? 

2) Brand Yourself: What sets you apart from your competition? Whether you represent yourself as a job seeker or you represent a company in your networking efforts, you should be ready to articulate this in a moment's notice. In addition, your branding should be reflected on your business card. 

Boost your success in your business today through using videos in your marketing.

Why should you invest in video marketing? Videos allow you to add more personalization to your message. Unlike print advertising, you are able to add more expression in your campaigns and demonstrate how your product works. Video marketing is also a great way to educate customers about a new product. Also, it is a great medium to improve your customers' perceptions of what you offer if your offering is complex.

How do I get started?

If you pay attention when you walk into a company when applying for employment, perhaps on your second walk through interview, within minutes you'll be able to tell if the employees are happy and well treated, at least on an elementary level. It's all about how the employee's engage together, their warmth, the comfortable sense of a shared purpose, a general feeling of teamwork. What does this work atmosphere represent? Studies have shown that happy employees equal high performance and higher profits.

Today, employee engagement is a major priority for business leaders who understand that having a high performing workforce is crucial for growth and even survival. These executives are aware that highly engaged employees increase productivity and innovation and at the same time reduce costs relating to hiring and retention in competitive talent market segments.

Behaviors and Attitudes Matter
Successful companies and executives instinctively recognize that employee behaviors and attitudes matter. Unfortunately, most of the efforts to gauge these vital organizational characteristics aren't up to par. There are innovative strategies that can help companies extensively assess employee mindsets which are essential to high performance. Top performing companies recognize that a highly engaged workforce can increase innovation, productivity, and bottom-line performance while reducing costs related to hiring and retention in highly competitive talent markets. While the majority of executives see a need to strengthen employee engagement, most haven't developed a tangible way to tackle this goal. On the other hand, a growing number of the corporate leaders worldwide are saying that they are gaining a competitive advantage over others by establishing metrics and strategies to successfully quantify and enhance the impact of their workforce's engagement.

Social Support 
Strong social support correlates with a surprising level of exceptional outcomes. As an example, studies carried out by Timothy Smith, Julianne Holt Lusted, Timothy and Bradley Layton reveals that high levels of social support foresee longevity as efficiently as regular exercise, and minimal social support is as destructive as heart disease. The benefits of social support aren't just physical. It was also found to be one of the best predictors for elevated levels of happiness during times of high stress.

Positive Teams are Productive Teams
Sure, perks like flexible schedules, free day care, gyms, insurance and a company car are attractive draws, but research has shown that a company built on positive attitudes and interaction excelled when it came to production. A report published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science found that a positive workplace means happy productive employees and profits for all. In such a workplace, employees and executive's alike inspire each other to work, treat each other with respect and gratitude, maintain responsibility for each other and understand the purpose of the work they're doing. They also skip the blame game and forgive mistakes.

None of the information above is rocket science, as a matter of fact, it comes down to simple common sense. And yet, like all simple truths, it's worth repeating because it's so important. You can't expect to retain talent if the work atmosphere is stifling, cold and repressive. Nurturing happy employees is what 21st century leadership is all about.

As a Managing Director of Health Innovators, Michael prides himself in sparking innovation through collaboration and education. Health Innovators currently offers networking events for healthcare professionals in the Greater Boston area, as well as change management and small business consulting services for companies throughout the US. Please find more information about Health Innovators at http://www.healthinno.com.

Currently, Michael is also looking for collaboration opportunities to advance his career. Michael likes to help companies with their finance, operations, and marketing challenges. Michael can be reached at [email protected].

Currently, poor diets are the result of 14% of deaths and about $ healthcare costs in the US. Furthermore, poor eating habits result in considerable expenses not related to healthcare, including lost productivity at work.

How can this all be changed? Healthy eating needs to be relevant to consumers. Currently, many supermarkets do very little to reduce healthcare costs.

Benefits must be communicated of why someone should buy a healthier alternative. How can this be accomplished? Stores can offer samples of healthy recipes and nutritious store brand products. I'm sure many of you enjoy going to warehouse clubs such as Sam's Club or Costco, but what if they only offered healthy foods and recipes on their sample carts? This simple practice can be copied to all supermarkets. In turn, employees providing these samples can market an in-store nutritionist service if available, and hopefully engage people in the benefits of routinely eating the sample they are providing. Engaging signage nothing health benefits can also yield results. Running buy an unhealthy product and get a similar healthy product free can encourage people to try certain healthier products, but the benefits of buying the better quality free item should be clearly communicated.

Having a strong lineup store brand of natural and organic foods. Not only supermarkets have an opportunity to engage their customers in choosing healthier foods through store brands, they have the opportunity to improve their margins and customer loyalty dramatically. Trader Joe's continually grows their business by offering store brands that are superior to many national and store brands at other stores. Furthermore, their competitors usually charge far more money for the same products since many of these products are only carried as national brand products at other stores. Since store brands normally carry higher profit margins, it is not far fetched that stores can at least price natural and organic versions of certain products at or slightly below lower quality national brand equivalents.

As Marcus Lemonis says on his television show "The Profit" which features struggling businesses that he tries to turn around, great businesses succeed or fail on a combination of people, process, and product. When you look at many businesses, they usually have a great product, but in most cases the business process is deficient. Therefore, business leaders regardless of business size need to focus more on business process improvement.

All business processes need to be efficient and effective, which means that customers requirements are fulfilled utilizing the least amount of resources possible. Processes that do not meet this criteria need to be identified for improvement. 

Here's what business process improvement can do for your company:

• Reduce the time it takes to introduce a new product or service
• Improve cost, quality, timeliness, and productivity
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Increase knowledge sharing, which enables companies to improve their future capabilities
• Improve revenue streams
• Increased visibility throughout 
• Reduce complexity of business processes to improve agility throughout organization
• Manage risks more effectively 
• Improve regulatory compliance measures
  

Now, how does Business Process Improvement work? It requires following these steps:

• Align Business Processes with Strategy
  
• Discover & Model Processes
• Measure Processes
• Analyze & Benchmark Processes
• Harvest Policies & Regulations
• Improve Processes
• Manage Any Culture Changes
• Manage the Governance related to Decision Making
• Deploy your Product

Conducting business process improvement initiatives in a team setting allows you to incorporate a wider variety of viewpoints into your initiatives to improve your business results. In addition, connecting with other business leaders to solve business problems in a group setting can be very effective. Research indicates that annual revenue growth in businesses with executives who participate in a monthly business mastermind group outperform the annual revenue growth rate of  companies in the S&P 500. 

Mr. Krieger is currently the managing director of Health Innovators, an organization the prides itself in sparking innovation in the healthcare industry through networking and collaboration. The organization holds periodic meetings in the Greater Boston area that focuses on specific topics of interest to healthcare professionals. The group is currently launching a healthcare business leader mastermind group this is led by a business coach to help business leaders within the healthcare industry achieve greater success. For more information, please email the organization at [email protected].

Remember how fear radiated throughout the stock market back in March 2009? I remembered it. Also, remember how people on CNBC were explaining how the Dow will go down to 5000 when it was 6700. 

We are on the cusp of this same situation now, but at this time it is in the commodity sector, most particularly in oil-related stocks. At the moment, the price of oil is hovering around $45 per barrel, which translates into 0.4% of the world's oil production is unprofitable. However, should oil continue its price declines, more production will turn unprofitable, which will spark the need for oil producers to suspend production. In turn, the suspension of production will only service to support oil prices.

Another reason that makes oil-related investments a good option is oil service companies is cutting exploration project budgets. Most recently, Royal Dutch Shell announced that they will be cutting their 2015-2017 operating budget by $15 billion dollars. Conoco, another oil producer, pledged $11.5 billion budget cut to their capital expenditures.  What does this mean? This is just taking long term supply out of the market, which only increases "reward" for those who are holding oil service investments at the moment.

When oil prices were higher, ISIS battled to capture oil fields and produce oil that would be sold on the black market. While we don't have evidence of this, one must think about the possibility that the activity of ISIS has empowered oil traders to take a negative stance, which will be reversed once 

Many are enjoying the lowest gasoline prices they have seen for some time, but those who are financially savvy enough will invest in oil-related stocks. A great place to start is XLE, which is low cost method to purchase a basket of oil-related stocks.

Now, the biggest shocker of what you may see in the New England Grocery Scene is that Shaw's will become the largest turnaround story you have heard in the next couple years.

Well, I know what you are thinking: their competition getting fiercer than ever, especially with Walmart introducing a program called Savings Catcher that automatically honors their competitors' advertised pricing, and Market Basket opening 5 new stores just months after recovering from its boycott.

However, the bad rap that Shaw's about their ridiculous pricing has progressively been solved over the recent few months. As a bonus, their specials have been second to none, as they have been undercutting their closest competitors for a number of high volume items. As an added bonus, a $5 off any $50 purchase coupon is available to print from recyclebank.com at anytime. As a hidden tip, you can print a second coupon out by hitting the back button after you have printed your first one.

All throughout their grocery aisles, they have great stock up sales, which has yielded some great bargains. Though, one thing is clear: almost everything they still have overpriced can be substituted for an item at a competitive price, or at times a bargain.

Also, a little research showed me that they had a shortage of Cuisinart pans, which was tied to a promotion in which you received a stamp for every $10 in groceries you purchased September through December. Shoppers could redeem their stamps for free cookware, which 60 to 150 stamps were required to get any particular item. As someone who was a Delhaize shareholder, which owns Hannaford, I sold my stock based on this information and the fact that technical indicators were hinting on a possible drop in their stock price.

Especially as a shopper who values good perishable item quality and prices, Shaw's has been turning up the heat. First and foremost, i have seen nothing but the best quality veggies averaging what the competition charges. In particular, I paid a little more for cucumbers and a little less for green peppers as for vegetables that I need for the week. As for fruit, I always get two items of whatever is on sale. I was impressed that blueberries were very fresh for being in the middle of winter, and the only fresh blueberries that I have gotten better than these in recent years were ones that I picked at a local pick your own farm in the summer. In addition, these blueberries were sale priced $.49 under what the leading competitor put them on sale for the following week I bought these. I also bought 2 cantaloupes, which were fresh, and $1 each under a recent sale price of their leading competitor.

Now, on to the deli! Hummus is a staple that I live on, and Shaw's always seems to be running a deal in which you can get hummus at or lower than what you pay at their leading local competitor. This week, it was Tribe hummus at buy 1 @$3.49 get 1 free. But wait, there were $2 off store coupons on 4 of these containers as they were expiring in 3 days, which meant they credited me $1.02 for the 4 that I bought. I bought two more with better expiration dates on them for $3.49 total. 

The seafood that was right next to it was on average what you would pay at other stores and looked good in terms of quality, albeit there was no unadvertised specials, which run unexpectedly quite often in their stores. These specials have netted me bargains on good quality fish, such as $3.99/lb for frozen cod, $4.99/lb for fresh haddock, $3.99/lb for fresh bluefish, and $9.99/lb for fresh scallops within the past months. Unlike other stores, they definitely get rid of their inventory when people can still enjoy what they buy. Also, they have great service when they are out of stock on anything - once they offered me their individually quick frozen cod for $3.49/lb when they had their promotional $4.99/lb frozen cod from the fish display out of stock, plus a raincheck to buy the advertised item. I went back two weeks later to redeem the raincheck and they happened to be out of stock again! No problem, they sold the fresh cod to me at $4.99/lb - definitely that was a loss for them, but they did that to keep me satisfied.

Now, you may argue that their deli is expensive, which in many cases I would agree with you. However, they do have a new deli turkey which is roasted in-store. The clean taste that has just the right amount of moistness tastes better than most store's all natural turkey, and about as healthy as this, while you are skipping the most common preservatives found in other deli meats, including nitrates. While it is tough to compare with other stores, it is well-priced at $7.99 in my store. Also, Van's waffles were 50% off, which made them $2 per box. Paper towels were $2.99 for a package of 6 good quality rolls, which is at least $1 savings over the other store's promotional pricing. 

Thinking about all these dynamics, the past few orders that I have done at Shaw's would have cost me more, on average, after all promotional savings and their $5 off a $50 purchase coupon always available on www.recyclebank.com. Since their competitors are generally larger and significantly more busy, it is only a matter of time until people discover that they are not saving as much as they thought by putting up with the bustling crowds at their leading competitors.

Needless to say, Shaw's and its sister banners still needs to disassociate themselves with Supervalu, as Supervalu still provides IT services and all store brand products. Fully disassociating themselves from Supervalu will allow them to further reinvest into improving their stores. While they have made some improvements in their more lucrative Downtown Boston locations, renovating their suburban locations can provide them with some great dividends.

As we have seen recently in the news, the Federal Reserve is starting the process of winding down the quantitative easing process. 

Where have we been with quantitative easing? Quantitative easing was originally enacted in 2008 when the federal funds rate was reduced to nothing through its purchase of Mortgage-backed securities. The purchases reached its peak of $2.1 trillion in June 2010. Then, quantitative easing (QE2) was announced in November 2010, in which the Federal Reserve subsequently purchased $600 billion in Treasury securities. QE3 was then announced in September 2012, which was a program in which the Federal Reserve initiated to purchase $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities.

Now, why is this important? 
The volume of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing pinned interest rates down. This means that mortgage interest rates were held down, along with bank deposit rates. Since bonds and deposit rates became less attractive to investors, the stock market became a more attractive place to invest money.

How do we use this change in environment? 
Gold miners will most likely be the best performing class of stocks through the remainder of the year because of how the dollar (in currency exchange markets) was manipulated upward. Also, the process of these stocks bottoming out in the past few weeks reminds me of how the broader stock market bottomed in late 2008/early 2009. The stock market does look high when you factor in valuations of many companies, but it is important to stay disciplined for your long term goals. While the market uptrend is still intact, it does look like it is in the 8th inning or so. One should realize that the market will likely continue going up as long as quantitative easing continues. Though, a reversal should occur sometime around the spigot shuts off. It is also interesting that many stocks that are considered good indicators of the economy have been missing earnings, which includes Walmart, McDonalds, and Microsoft. 

One must also consider the accuracy of employment reports. The link http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm shows that unemployment is actually around 14%, not the 7.6% is commonly released. 

What does this mean? 
Should the Federal Reserve not change their minds and wind down quantitative easing, bonds will ultimately plummet in price, which increases their yield. Bank rates should increase, which means that it should become easier to earn a rate to break even with inflation. As quantitative easing has propped up the stock market and many companies now have overvalued stocks, the market should decline, or at best stagnate.

Businesses should continue to focus on serving a value-oriented consumer with this change as well. Investments should be made to innovate in an effort to attract new customers, and they should be analyzed carefully to determine the prospect of such investments driving business results.

All are probably wondering where our stock market is headed, and what extraneous factors are weighing on the stock market. Possible clues can be found by examining bullish percent charts of major indices, which can help find major inflection points.

Compare the charts of the Bullish percent index of the S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Index which are respectively listed. 

I'll provide some thoughts down below.

Let's reflect upon what these charts are telling us. In the past 3 years, the S&P 500 Bullish percent index told us the best time to buy was approximately in August 2011 when it hit 25, which is pretty darn good information as that was the approximate time in which you could have bought the index and had limited time (if any) in which your trade would be losing. A moderately good signal was also shown in July 2010 and June 2012 where the bullish percent was hovering around 45, and those times have proven to be a good time to buy in the stock market.

Now, please examine some charts of the Gold Miners, which has been a market full of bearish sentiment lately. The second chart provides a cleaner view of the full year bullish percent for 2011 and 2012.

Now, here is a market that has been rather full of bearish sentiment has of late. What I see that is particularly notable from this chart is that those who bought GDX around September 2011 must be kicking themselves as they paid around $63/share when GDX's bullish percent index was around 75 for an investment that is now worth about $29/share.

Heck, the weekly MACD indicator is also almost crossing over and relative strength is now just over 30. This shows that Gold Miners definitely have some room to run on the upside.

This shows me that the lows being made in gold now are much like the lows made in the broader stock market in late 2008 and early 2009. When the stock market hit those major lows, the bullish percent indicator was 10 and 17 respectively in those months.