In the book Women and Small Business author gives all the guidelines and tools need to start, operate and succeed in a business of their own. In the mentioned book she tried in the fist part to explain how has changed the role of women in the world along centuries. In the second part she researched all neccesary abbilities of women who like to start up their own business,make differences among women and men owners and gave advices to them.Additionaly, she made some very important questions which need answers for all prospective owners,as following:
What is my reason for starting a business? What type of business can I start? What skills, interests, and personal qualities will I bring to the business? What are my strengths and weaknesses as a business owner? What fears must I overcome?
In the third part she gave Case study based on MS Project which could be on a special use for their business ideas from the very beginning to their realisation in praxis.This information will help them form some opinions about the overall climate and how their idea might fare given current conditions. As they become more convinced of its potential, they can delve deeper into specifics that will ultimately become part of a formal business plan. Everything they discover will contribute to their idea's potential for success Dr Mirjana Radovic pointed that ideas are the currency of entrepreneurs and therefore they must play with many ideas and see which ones bring money and success. The reality is that some businesses may not be profitable enough to provide a living. Other business ideas simply aren't marketable in some trade area or there might be too much competition already. They may or may not have enough capital to get the business off the ground or to secure adequate business financing. So this book provides the tools with which to make decision whether or not to open own small business.
In the fourth part of the study she presented the latest results of researching related to women leaders and their position in the business world,i.e. how does people look at ( divided into sex,ages and level of education) women leaders and if they trust them.She compared results of one of the latest researching in the USA with the results in Serbia and Montenegro.Her scientific task was to make some conclusions and to point out some special characteristics of Balkan region .In the fifth part of the book she wrote about some limitation in achiving business success-Enterprenurial Phobia,Intuition and Managers desease among women.Finally,she gave some key points of her researching work and presented conclusion with the stress on the future position of women engagement in the business, where was long domination of men.
Dr Radovic has spent over twenty years as a scientist.She has been a professor,a researcher and an author of eight books devoted to business management and enerprenuarship.Also,Dr.Radovic has written numerous articles ,reviews and essays in a number of professional journals and popular magazines. A native of Belgrade, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Belgrade University, Faculty of Economics. In 1982, she earned her Master?s Degree in Theoretical Economy and eventually a PhD in Economics from Belgrade University. She guest lectured at a number of universities, foundations and institutes in Moscow, The Hague, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, St Paul, Atlanta, Portland, and New Orleans. She won a scholarship from the United Nations twice - to attend Lomonosow University (Russia) and Kerala University (India).This year she got invitation to teach students in Japan and India.Currenty ,she is adjunct professor at F.Dickinson University,NJ.Lacrosse University,MO and Akamai University,Hawaii.
¶ 9:30 PM 0 comments
A home business is the most economical way to be your own boss. You dont have to rent office space, theres no commute, and your expenses are tax deductible. Still, you will have to get the word out about your business if you want customers. Here are some ways to save money.
Business cards are a must, but many people dont get them right away because of the cost. What they dont realize is that there are ways to get them very inexpensively! If you have a word processing or desktop publishing program on your computer, you can make your own. Many programs have templates for business cards, and some even have pre-designed ones that you can simply customize with your own information. You can find printable sheets of business cards at your local discount store or specialty paper store. If you arent inclined to make your own or want a more professional look, VistaPrint has a low cost introductory offer. You get 250 customized business cards for the price of shipping and handling. Once you have your cards, leave them everywhere!
Offline advertising is another scary budget item, but there are ways to save money. A good, low cost way to advertise offline is in local classified-only publications. Classifieds in this type of paper are usually cheap, and they can be quite effective depending on the type of business you are in. Another inexpensive idea is flyers. If you have a computer they are a cinch to design and print yourself. Then you can put them on bulletin boards or hand them out personally.
Online, there are many places to advertise. The trick is identifying your target market and getting your message to them. If you are advertising to the wrong people, you are just wasting your money. Find sites that do not offer the same product or service as you, but something else that would interest your target market. For example, if you are selling educational toys, you would want to advertise on a site that offers products or resources for parents, but probably not a site about car parts. Shopping around is also a must. Find several possible sites, check their prices and research the sites popularity. If you have the Google Toolbar, you can simply go to a site and its pagerank will be displayed in your browser. This tells you the "importance" of the page, based on how many other sites have links to it on their site. You should try to stay with sites with a pagerank of at least 3, the higher the better; however, the sites with higher pageranks usually charge more for advertising.
There is also pay-per-click advertising, in which you bid the amount you are willing to pay for visitors to be sent to your site. The best thing about this type of advertising is that you only pay for the traffic you receive. There are many different pay-per-click programs available. Some are presented in search engines, others sign up other sites to display the ads. Just do a search for pay-per-click and you will find lots of programs to choose from.
Link exchanges are a good way to get your site seen for free. You simply find other sites that would be of interest to your target audience, and contact the site owner to find out if he or she would be interested in trading links. If so, you place their link on your website, and they do the same for you.
Something you can do online or off is donate prizes to be given away. All sorts of organizations hold raffles, and they usually accept donations to give away as prizes. Your business name and donated prize will be on the website or raffle ticket for all to see. The winner will receive one of your fine products or services, which they will surely tell their friends about. Dont forget to include a business card, catalog, or brochure with the prize so that they can come back for more!
These are just a few ideas to help you get the word out about your business without spending a fortune. You can also post tidbits about your business on online forums, and of course talk about it every chance you get. And always remember to provide good customer service. The best advertising of all is word of mouth from happy customers, and that doesnt cost a dime.
Kristy Pruitt is the owner of http://www.tbadeals.us, a resource site for work at home moms.
¶ 3:30 PM 0 comments
Finding tools or strategies that will help a company grow is of interest to just about every business owner and operator. Were all on the lookout for the newest approach, for that proverbial magic pill that will give us a leg up on the competition.
Fred Reichheld, in his book The Ultimate Question, believes that he has uncovered that very magic pill. In his view, the answer to a single question - How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? - is the only thing that business operators need to know from their customers. The result, marketed as the Net Promoter Score (NPS), has received a lot of attention in recent months.
The premise of NPS is simplicity itself. Responses to the likelihood to recommend question are solicited on a 0-10 scale, with 0 meaning the least likely to recommend and 10 meaning the most likely to recommend. Responses are then grouped in the following manner:
Customers with responses of 9-10 are categorized as Promoters. Customers with responses of 7-8 are categorized as Neutral or Passive. Customers with responses of 0-6 are categorized as Detractors.
The theory is that "Promoters" are satisfied and loyal customers who will keep buying from a company, and are most likely to suggest that friends and acquaintances do the same. "Passives" are somewhat satisfied but generally unenthusiastic customers who arent particularly motivated to offer a referral, either positive or negative. "Detractors" are dissatisfied customers, quite possibly trapped in a bad relationship, probably seeking alternatives and assumed to be unafraid, perhaps even eager, to share their experience with others.
Reichheld has devised a simple mathematical formula to summarize scores he takes the percentage of customers who are Promoters, and subtracts the percentage of customers who are Detractors. (Note that Neutral customers are assigned a value of zero and left out of the equation.) The result is the Net Promoter Score, which the author claims is the only metric a company needs to predict growth.
Among the attractive aspects of NPS is that its simple, easy to understand and can be disseminated across an organization with relative ease. Common sense tells us that if a high percentage of customers indicate an unhesitating propensity to recommend a company or product, that companys sales force enjoys a built-in extension of its efforts. And, in todays complex business world, being able to rally the troops around a single metric is appealing to any executive.
But, many critics have argued, is NPS really the only metric a company needs to predict growth? Further, given the means by which NPS is gathered and calculated, is it even an accurate metric? And whether it is or not, predicting growth is one thing, but does NPS hold any promise for driving growth?
Additionally, while a handful of B2B companies have recently adopted the NPS concept, available evidence suggests that the majority of companies who have embraced it are in the consumer products arena. Given the lack of any sort of appreciable history to date, on what basis can the assumption be made that NPS is likely to work in the far more complex business-to-business marketplace? After all, word of mouth referrals may have much more relevance in the rental car or financial services businesses, than in a highly specialized, technology driven industry whose products are far less likely to be discussed among family and friends over a cup of coffee.
And then theres the biggest question of all.
Is NPS the most accurate way to predict customer behaviour? Interestingly, Mr. Reichheld himself acknowledges that it is not.
All of which leads to the following discussion.
NPS Do The Numbers Really Deliver?
First off, let us acknowledge at the outset that just as Mr. Reichheld is in the business of selling customer satisfaction surveys, so are we. The primary differences between us are that we conduct surveys in a very different manner than Mr. Reichheld is used to (or even familiar with, I would wager), and we only conduct surveys. We leave books and consultative promotion to others.
We set out over 18 years ago to develop a B2B customer satisfaction survey that would outperform the conventional survey methods of the day paper, telephone and (for a spell) web. In the subsequent years, we have developed a survey process that is widely recognized as second to none in terms of response rate, candid replies, and highly actionable data. Today that process, known around the world as the InfoQuest Business Process Review, has been used to conduct over 82,000 surveys in 59 countries and 21 languages. That is pointed out merely to help establish that weve been around long enough to have learned a few things.
The foundation of NPS is the claim that it is the only metric a company needs to predict growth. We are struck by the carefully chosen language employed there, noting that the emphasis is on predict, as opposed to drive or cause. While there is a strong temptation to join the raging debate, and doubt, over whether NPS is causal in its effects on revenue change, or merely correlated, we believe there are other issues that warrant scrutiny. Lets take a look at them one at a time.
Does NPS Explore Customer Needs in Adequate Depth? InfoQuest surveys are comprised of anywhere from 36-60 questions. In our methodology, a series of satisfaction questions are posed to each participant, the responses to which establish basic performance benchmarks in 8-12 key customer touch points. An additional series of statements, to which respondents express levels of agreement, operate as drill-downs to provide insight into what can or should be to done to improve customer satisfaction in those areas.
The final question in every survey is always, On an overall basis, how satisfied are you with our company?, which we have found is the single most reliable metric for reflecting customer satisfaction, and which we have been able to quantify as the single most accurate predictor of future revenue behaviour. Well touch on that shortly.
The reason for posing the overall satisfaction question last is that doing so produces the most considered and consequently, most accurate response to that critical question. By first walking a participant through the various touch points that comprise the overall business relationship, we enable responses to the overall satisfaction question which take into account the complexities of the entire relationship. Confirming the need for that approach, tests in which the overall satisfaction question has been posed first, instead of last, have produced a 25%-30% increase in scores.
The resulting question is, can a single metric, posed on a stand-alone basis, accurately reflect customer sentiments on any topic? When considering whether one might recommend a brand of toothpaste, a fast food chain, or a particular airline, perhaps it can. But in the B2B environment, where relationships are driven by a far greater number of factors, it is absolutely vital to identify and measure satisfaction with each of the elements that comprise the overall business relationship. Performance in such areas as quotation procedures, delivery schedules, sales performance and design input, to name just a few, significantly impact and contribute to overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. In other words, a customers willingness to recommend a company or product is not a freestanding outcome; rather it is a product of many different factors.
Mr. Reichheld asserts that NPS is the only metric needed to predict growth, but he falls far short of proving, or even claiming, that it can help achieve growth. The reason is clear. When relying on a single metric, the unavoidable trade-off is to sacrifice the ability to produce change. You may learn that a high percentage of customers would be unlikely to recommend your product or company, but what good is that knowledge if you cant do anything with it? Being told what customers think, but not why they think it, falls into the same general realm as a doctor telling you youre sick, but failing to provide a specific diagnosis or a recommended treatment.
In our view, the clear problem with expecting a single question, or even a short series of questions, to produce an accurate business-to-business response is that the approach lacks depth, frame of reference, or any sort of experiential relevance.
Likely to Recommend vs. Willing to Recommend. NPS utilizes the question, How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? The implied message is, to what degree can we expect you to go out and overtly suggest our company or product to others?
An individuals Likelihood to Recommend is influenced by many factors, including that persons overall predisposition to recommending anything, the potential audience to whom such a recommendation might be made, and even the desire of the person making the recommendation to appear in the know. While many consumer-based product or service discussions can and do occur in casual settings - back yard conversations about a new movie or popular new restaurant may be commonplace - the same cannot be said for discussions about suppliers of control valves or thermoplastic compounds.
Though the difference is subtle, our approach has always been to pose the statement, I would recommend your company to a friend or associate, utilizing a simple, non-subjective four-point response scale ranging from Fully Agree to Fully Disagree. For the B2B respondent, the implied question is not will you go out and actively recommend us, but given the opportunity, do you have adequate faith in our performance to stake your personal credibility on recommending us? Given the difference between a routine consumer purchase and a multi-million dollar manufacturing contract, willingness to recommend is a much more appropriate measure than likelihood to recommend.
Is the NPS Metric Really Accurate? As stated, NPS groups respondents into three broad categories based on responses to a single question, which is answered on a 0-10 scale. Among the questions that must be considered when trying to understand NPS are, where did that scale come from, and is it accurate?
Numeric scales inherently tend to produce patterned and predictable results. Specifically, responses tend to be influenced by deeply ingrained experience with school grading systems wherein any mark below 60-70 was generally considered failing and/or unacceptable. Anecdotal conversations with hundreds of companies over the past ten years have consistently revealed that the majority of 5 point numeric scales seem to consistently generate average responses of just under 4 (or about 75% on the academic scale), while 10 point scales consistently generate average responses of right around 7. Given that history, if a numeric scale has to be used at all (and doing so would not be our choice), we will at least agree that any score of 6 or less (aka Detractors) should probably be viewed as a failing mark.
But, from a revenue perspective, should angry detractors who rate the company a "0" on a scale of 0-10 be weighted the same as uninspired customers who give it a "6"? While both may arguably be viewed as failing marks, there is failure, and then there is monumental failure. Weve all seen the studies that have consistently suggested that a dissatisfied customer will, on average, tell 8-10 other people about their negative experience. Yet is it logical to assume that there is but a single, universal degree of customer dissatisfaction, and that everyone who falls under that definition will behave in the same manner?
In an attempt to answer that question, lets take a look at some numbers.
First, to avoid subjective interpretation and predictable outcomes attendant to alpha and numeric scales, InfoQuest surveys utilize a simple, unambiguous and multi-cultural scale, which is as follows:
Satisfaction Questions Drill-Down Statements
Totally Satisfied Fully Agree Somewhat Satisfied Partially Agree Insufficient Information to Evaluate Insufficient Information to Evaluate Somewhat Dissatisfied Partially Disagree Totally Dissatisfied Fully Disagree
In preparing this discussion, we reviewed the results of our most recent 40,000 sets of B2B customer satisfaction survey responses. We pulled the data for the single statement, I would recommend your company to a friend or associate. The aggregate responses were as follows:
No. Respondents % Respondents Fully Agree 22,225 58% Partially Agree 12,364 32% No Response 2,313 - Partially Disagree 2,538 7% Fully Disagree 1,098 3% Totals 40,538 100%
On a per company basis, looking at the percentage of respondents who Fully Agreed, we found the following:
High Company Score 100%
Low Company Score 3%
Median All Companies 63%
Looking at those numbers, we have concerns about the factual basis on which NPS performance claims are being made. Specifically, in his book, Mr. Reichheld claims that the average NPS score is under 10%, which bears little resemblance to our own numbers.
Admittedly, a direct comparison can only be made with a litany of caveats. We acknowledge that the numbers shown above utilize a different metric, a data collection method that avoids the inaccuracies of telephone and paper surveys, entailed a slightly re-worded question, and was built into a full survey, not presented as a stand-alone. We also have to take into account the fact that The Ultimate Question was just published in 2005, that it was based primarily on B2C data at the time of publication, and (in our view) was lacking in empirical evidence and hard facts.
Is there, buried in that mix, an adequate explanation for the tremendous difference in outcomes? Or is the NPS metric grossly understated as a way to create a sense of need for an otherwise unsupported and perhaps unsupportable literary marketing ploy?
See if the next section suggests any answers to those questions.
NPS Right or Wrong, it is Needed? The following question was found on 2 October, 2006, on a blog* authored by Fred Reichheld:
Can a one-question survey predict growth as accurately as a long survey?
This was Mr. Reichhelds response to that question:
If you can convince a customer to spend time answering dozens of questions, you can predict that customers behaviour more accurately than you can with one question. The problem is, most customers in this busy world wont give you that much time witness typical survey response rates from 2% to 20% - and you couldnt afford the surveying and data processing expense if they did.
In B2B the problem is even thornier, because the senior execs who drive purchase decisions are the least likely to tolerate lengthy surveys
* http://netpromoter.typepad.com/fred_reichheld/2006/07/questions_about.html Online at 10/2/2006
Our response? The average InfoQuest response rate over the last 15 years stands at 74% in North America, 70% in Europe, and 72.4% globally. That response rate, built entirely on B2B survey activity, is based on (typically) top revenue accounts, and the senior level decision makers within those accounts. It is also based on the delivery of from 36-60 (or more) questions and statements in each survey.
Which leads to the unavoidable question if a survey entailing dozens of questions will predict customer behaviour more accurately than can be predicted with one question, why would anyone settle for just one?
Quantifying the Outcome - An Alternative
Years ago we developed a statistical model that identified and quantified the correlation between customer satisfaction and revenues. Not referral potential, but actual cash expenditures. Based on the analysis of over 20,000 worldwide customer responses gathered over a three year or greater period of time, and after comparing those results to account based revenue histories over the same period of time, some staggering conclusions were reached. Specifically, over time
A Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 2.6 times the revenue to a company that a Somewhat Satisfied Customer contributes.
Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 14 times the revenue that a Somewhat Dissatisfied Customer contributes.
A Totally Dissatisfied Customer decreases revenue at a rate equal to 1.8 times what a Totally Satisfied Customer contributes to a business. That finding was based on not only loss of existing account revenue, but on the additional impact brought about by negative referrals.
To put that into more user-friendly terms, the chart below shows the relative percentage of revenue contribution, over time, for varying levels of satisfaction. Assuming each of your customers had one dollar to spend on your particular product or service, the chart shows how much of that dollar you can anticipate receiving.
Survey Index Normalized to Simplified Result One Hundred Percent Ratios
Totally Satisfied 100% 1.0
Somewhat Satisfied 38% .4
Somewhat Dissatisfied 7% .1
Totally Dissatisfied -180% (2.0)
Look at those numbers again. A Totally Dissatisfied Customer decreases revenue at a rate equal to twice what a Totally Satisfied customer contributes. In other words, you can have twice as many satisfied customers as dissatisfied customers and still be losing ground.
The culmination of those findings is presented in The Revenue Index, which has been a standard element in the deliverables of InfoQuest since 1996.
NPS theorizes that a detractor effectively negates the impact of a promoter, and that everyone else, classified as passives, represents no impact at all. The Revenue Index, however, has clearly established that totally Dissatisfied customers have far more impact than merely negating Totally Satisfied customers, and that
the rest of your customers, call them the passives, still generate financial impact, albeit limited in nature.
The fundamental difference, of course, is that NPS posits how your customers may discuss your company or product to others. The Revenue Index identifies and quantifies the percentage of existing available revenues you can expect to receive from those customers over time. The difference is undefined theory versus actual cash behaviour.
A final key consideration is that Willingness to Recommend and Overall Satisfaction do not directly correlate to each other, which is a major difference relative to the B2B versus B2C marketplaces. We previously showed an analysis that revealed how 58% of 40,000 respondents Fully Agreed that they would recommend the company being discussed. However, only 39% of those same respondents indicated that, on an overall basis, they were totally satisfied with the same company.
Why? Because as previously discussed, there are many factors that affect overall satisfaction. In a highly technical manufacturing or service business, it is not uncommon for companies to be valued for their engineering skills, but to be found lacking from an administrative standpoint. Customers may very well be willing to recommend the engineering acumen, but still be open to making a change if a better overall package of service becomes available.
Summary and Conclusions Any tool that will help a company increase customer satisfaction and loyalty is going to be looked upon favourably. If it can establish an initial benchmark, help the company monitor progress over time, and provide an actionable means of better providing for customer needs, it is going to catch the attention of a lot of business operators. Just remember the old adage if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Satisfied and loyal customers are the product of a corporate commitment to excellence, plain and simple. To effectively respond to customer needs and desires requires top-down support, bottom-up commitment, a current, candid and detailed view of customer opinions, and valid metrics. Customer satisfaction is just like any other enterprise or activity; if you cant measure it, you cant manage it.
With very few exceptions, building a satisfied customer base is the product of a company taking a good hard look at itself through the eyes of its customers, and then going out and systematically addressing, and fixing, what it sees. Success is predicated on understanding each of the many dynamics that comprise and contribute to the customer relationship. It is an outcome that is driven, not pulled.
The attraction to NPS is its perceived simplicity; propelled by the claim that it is one metric that tells you everything you need to know. The problem is, there is no single metric that can live up to that claim, and that includes our own. Thats not to suggest that NPS represents anything inimical to the health and well being of any enterprise; merely that it is less than it is being sold as. Might it be useful as one of many tools for monitoring customer sentiments and behaviour? Yes. Is it powerful or accurate enough to be used as the only tool? Absolutely not.
Mr. Reichheld would have us believe that if you concentrate on building a high score to a single metric, everything else will follow. While that makes for attractive theory, the reality is, it just doesnt work that way. Tracking change in an organization is one thing. Driving change is another matter entirely. To bridge the gap between collecting information and actually putting it into play, a customer survey needs to entail several key components.
1) It needs to explore all of the dynamics and touch points that comprise and contribute to the customer relationship. No single question, posed in a vacuum, will produce an accurate set of responses. Customer loyalty and recommendation behaviour are products of satisfaction with the total customer relationship. They are not, and cannot be effectively dealt with, as a free-standing outcome.
2) Information produced by a survey must be actionable, as opposed to merely interesting. Survey data and summary metrics need to be clear, non-subjective and unambiguous. Scales and data collection methods that tend to influence replies or generate predictable outcomes must be avoided. Metrics need to be based on fact, not supposition and theory. Arbitrarily calculated combinations or groupings of responses such as assuming that all detractors are created equal merely produces informational clutter while obscuring the true opinions of individual customer respondents.
3) It needs to utilize metrics that are quantifiable. Among our objections to NPS is the total lack of support data attached to its claims. Rather than, improve this metric and growth rates will increase, focus on tools like the Revenue Index, which provides a reliable measure for predicting and tracking the impact of specific actions and outcomes on revenue contribution.
4) It needs to ultimately provide a clear sense of direction. They key to any survey is not in learning simply what customers think. You need to learn why they think it, and how to most efficiently and effectively change their opinions for the better.
NPS has been heralded by its creator as the proverbial magic pill. It is our belief that no such pill exists. Developing satisfied customers takes dedication, commitment and work, plain and simple. Tracking an arbitrarily derived number is not going to get the job done.
Howard Ploman President InfoQuest International
¶ 8:40 AM 0 comments
I recently finished a 12-week team fitness and weight loss program at my local gym, where I learned many valuable things about fitness training and how it relates to heart health and efficient workouts. I experienced first-hand the necessity of being able to watch your heart rate with an exercise heart rate monitor, while doing various speed and incline intervals on the treadmill to have a more effective workout. A cardio heart rate monitor can tell you your heart rate, cardio training zone, calories burned and give you valuable heart smart knowledge about your bodys fitness.
Know Your Cardio Zones
After completing this fitness program, I learned that it is absolutely necessary to know what heart rate training zone you are working in to improve your workout efficiency -- to get the most benefit in the least amount of time. A heart rate monitor helps you know what cardio zone (Zones 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) you are working in. During class, we spent most of our time working between Zone 2: the "temperate zone," Zone 3: the "aerobic zone," and some time in Zone 4: the "threshold zone." Zone 2 is commonly known as the fat burning zone, where you are exercising comfortably and body fat begins moving out of your cells. Zone 3, typically referred to as the sweat zone, involves exercising at 70%-80% of your mazimum heart rate, burning a combination of fat and carbohydrates and increasing your aerobic capacity.
Beginning to intermediate workouts include work in Zone 2 & 3 for people training to improve their aerobic fitness. Zone 4 is a tougher place to work out, where you go above your "Anaerobic Threshold (AT)." (Your AT is the level of exercise your body can sustain utilizing both fat and carbohydrates as fuel). Finally, Zone 5: the "high zone," uses the highest pecentage of heart beats and calories burned as you become more advanced and get in top physical condition. I could always count on my heart rate monitor to tell me which zone I was in and for how long, including my heart rates and recovery times. After a period of time, I got to know how my bodys heart rate responded while working between these zones, and up to AT and back down.
Know Your Heart Rate - Hands Free
In addition, a heart rate monitor can tell you your heart rate while your hands remain free of the treadmill. While we walked or ran the treadmill, the trainer called out something like OK, now three minutes to the top of Zone 3, or Two minutes recovery time to the bottom of Zone 2, as we lifted 5 to 8 pound weights, or stretched rubber bands in various routines. Its convenient and easy to look at your heart rate monitor while you are in the middle of these routines using your arms and hands for upper body fitness. Our trainer continually stressed to a few in the class that did not yet have heart rate monitors, that the treadmill heart monitor could not be counted on to be accurate. This is especially so while a person is lifting weights at various inclines and speeds while walking or running.
Watch Your Calories Burn!
I enjoyed watching my cardio heart rate monitor tell me the number of calories I was burning while working out, as well as up to about three hours afterward. At the beginning of each treadmill workout, Id punch my heart rate monitor to the calorie display and hit Start. By watching this display continually during my workout, it helped me to know how my bodys heart rate coincided with the number of calories burned. (The calories will naturally burn more slowly in the beginning of your workout). As we warmed up and worked into Zone 3, then up to AT -- it was interesting to watch the number of calories burn so much faster! What was even more fun -- was seeing the number of calories burned at the end of the workout session.
More Efficient Workouts = More Benefits
No matter where you are on your road to lifetime fitness, by working out efficiently you will increase your benefits in a shorter period of time. You can expect to have more energy, feel stronger, and have less stress while learning to use a program tailored to your exercise fitness goals and heart health needs. If you are more fit but looking for improvements, you can still expect to enjoy working out, burn fat more efficiently and train smarter, not harder. Even if you're a serious athlete or marathon runner, you will continually increase your heart monitoring knowledge, and be able to create a precision fitness training program. In my own experience, I decreased my body fat percentage by 5% and decreased my resting pulse rate and recovery times. I learned how my bodys heart rate responded while working between the zones, up to AT and back down. I gained valuable knowledge so I am continually able to increase my fat burning and aerobic capacities, and go to the next level of improvement.
Summary Work Out Smarter!
Once you get a heart rate monitor, youll be hooked! Youll no longer be content to not be able to know your heart rate, training zones or calories burned. Youll realize that by knowing your heart rate, youll get the very most from your bodys fitness capacities and your time spent pursuing your lifetime fitness goals. Today, its all about working smarter, not harder! A heart rate monitor will help you to work out the smart way! Youll gain valuable knowledge about your personal fitness, which helps you reach your fitness goals easier, and faster. Just remember be consistent, and don't give up!
http://www.BestCardioMonitors.com
Debra Shaffer is the owner of http://www.BestCardioMonitors.com. Debra has several online businesses where she enjoys using the written word to give people access to valuable information through online resources. She has also worked in the public relations, journalism and educational fields, and lives with her family in Gilbert, Arizona. Please feel free to email Debra with any questions or comments at sales@bestcardiomonitors.com.
¶ 2:01 AM 0 comments
