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Let us describe branding, its benefits and how properly branding your business can increase your chances of success. In the age of the Internet anyone can set up shop using a cookie cutter website for a few hundred dollars, sometime less. Creating your own brand will set you apart from the rest.Essentially branding involves the image of your business. Branding actually goes beyond image to include style, logos, emblems and the perception of quality you intent to convey to your customers. The image should suggests positive values such as quality products and excellent services as well as reliability and soundness. Branding helps to describe your business and how you differ from your competition. In fact, distinguishing your business from the competition is the primary goal of branding. Once you have distinguished yourself from the pact, advertising and promoting your business can have a better impact by being more targeted and effective.The success of your business can often be based on your ability to create your brand. Proper branding can greatly increase your level of success. Factors including your website, your marketing efforts and other aspects of your business create your company’s identity. Most consumers rely on a corporation’s image when deciding where to spend their money. Purchases often are motivated based on emotions. Irregardless of size or structure, all businesses can usually benefit from the use of a well conceived brand. The very success of smaller businesses, whether brick and mortar or online, may depend upon the use of good branding methods. The brand could be the deal maker. Proper branding suggests experience and professionalism. This can also level the playing field between competing businesses despite size or tenure, particularly when conducting business online.Building a brand enhances the confidence of the online business owner. Branding affects customer trust and loyalty as well. Branding can give a solid, consistent image to your business. It gives your business credibility and can sets proper expectations with your customers. Branding can be incorporated into promotional campaigns using business cards, flyers and newsletter. Branding can also be used on premiums items like t-shirts, ink pens, coffee mugs and other goods. These items increase your brand’s visibility and remind customers of your brand even when not actually conducting business with you. This gives your business brand equity with your customers. Likewise, a brand is considered to be an asset. Successful franchises and existing business are usually sold for a much higher price than generic businesses offering the same products and services. Customers usually think as much about who they are buying from as what they are buying. Combine branding with consistance, good quality products and top notch service and customers will keep coming back for more.Branding is trully your customers’ perception of your business and can be like a promise or a pledge you make to your customers. When you want to create a brand you want the customer to know you are the best, provide quality goods and services and have something more to offer than your competition. Your goals is to create loyalty and trust. To that end, your customers need to be educated on the benefits of your products and services. This step is critical in establishing your brand. It is helpful to identify the features of your products and what benefits they provide. The features that offer the greatest benefits should be emphasized and the subject of your marketing campaigns.It is important to know what the customers think about your business. Customers may have negative feelings about your business because of bad experiences with your website, your customer service or your products. Other customers may fear making purchases online.Using surveys and questionnaires can identify exactly what is good or bad about your operation and can provide a clear understanding of your business from the customer’s point of view. You can learn what your reputation is with the consumer and what they feel about the quality and value of your products. Their experience dealing with customer service, your website and other issues could be disclosed by the surveys or solicited comments.Creating a brand based on customer input can be very beneficial. This is especially true if you implement changes based on customer feedback. The customer then gets a sense of ownership. It also demostrate empathy on the part of the business owner, giving your business a more human quality though all dealings may have been handled electronically. It is natural to stick with a company and products when you are satisfied and pleased. This results in repeat business and a better chance for overall success. Your customer base can be considered as your target audience when it comes to branding your business. If you do not know and understand the audience you are targeting then you can not brand your products and services based on their needs and wishes. Your audience is the targeted customers you are hoping to reach to purchase your products and services. To define your target audience you may need to look at factors such as gender, age, geographical regions, income and demographics. The age of an audience must be considered when branding your business. A younger crowd may want to see a brand that is vibrant, hip and current. When your audience is older they may be looking for a brand displaying status, sophistication, and professionalism. Gender of an audience is an issue if you are selling clothing, hats, jewelry or other such items. Income is something to think about when considering an audience and developing a brand. You cannot sell very expensive luxury items to a working class audience. People with high incomes do not usually consider purchasing cheap goods.There are many things about your audience that you must know when creating a brand. If you do not have a clear understanding of your target audience then you will likely fail. It is important to define your audience as narrowly as possible. The more you can narrow down your audience the more your brand will separate you from the competition. This means you will have less competition and a greater share of the customer’s dollars coming to you.Branding for your targeted audience will allow you to be more successful and develop longer lasting relationships with your customers. Targeting the wrong audience can spell disaster for your business.When ever possible, brand your business to better reach your target audience and to create your own special niche.

Health care degree training programs allow students to train for an exciting new career in the medical field. Students can gain an education in this field by enrolling with an accredited school or college. Obtaining a certificate or degree in health care can open a world of opportunities for students looking to start a new career. There are a range of degrees to choose from when looking to enter a training program.Students looking to obtain an accredited degree in the field can do so at various levels of education. These levels of degrees available include:AssociatesBachelorsMastersDoctoratesStudents can also earn certificates in certain areas of the field and for continuing education.Health care degree training allows students to gain the education they need to succeed in the industry. Accredited schools and colleges provide students with the chance to specialize in a variety of areas including:Cardiovascular TechnologyHealth InformationHealth EducationHealth SciencesPreventive MedicineHealth ServicesPublic HealthWhen receiving a higher education students can choose the specific area that interests them most.Depending on the level of degree and educational program students will be able to enter a number of exciting careers. Accredited schools and colleges allow students to train for careers working in:HospitalsSchoolsClinicsHome Health Care AgenciesPrisonsPrivate OfficesEmployment placement will depend on the career and education received by each student.Educational training programs offer coursework in a variety of specialized areas. Students looking to enroll in a health care education program can expect to learn:AnatomyChemistryPhysiologyHuman HealthNutritionMedical ChartingOccupational HealthCoursework will vary depending on the level of degree and career each individual student chooses to pursue.Career opportunities in health care are available to students in a number of specialized areas. Some careers that students can pursue are:NurseAdministratorSurgical AssistantPhysician AssistantHealth Services ManagerAnesthesiologistHealth Information TechnicianStudents can find a variety of employment opportunities depending on the level of degree and school of attendance. Those who already hold a degree can enroll in continuing education courses to learn new skills and stay current with advances in the field.With an accredited education in health care students will have the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge needed to enter into their chosen career. The need for professionals in this field is constantly on the rise, causing more students to pursue degrees in this field. Students can find more information about any one of the available degrees by contacting several schools and colleges that offer these programs. Students can be on the path to a new career by requesting more information and enrolling in the school or college that best fits their individual needs and career goals.DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERIC OUTLINE and may or may not depict precise methods, courses and/or focuses related to ANY ONE specific school(s) that may or may not be advertised at PETAP.org.Copyright 2010 – All rights reserved by PETAP.org.

The Costa Rica health care system is well recognized internationally and its quality and affordability are second to none. Though health care in Costa Rica it is widely discussed among interested foreigners, the extent to what makes it so great is relatively unknown; from high quality, broad coverage in the public and private sectors, to the prestigious training of medical staffs, Costa Rica truly has an amazing health care system.Costa Rica’s public health care is recognized as being of the best 20 systems in the world. There are 29 public hospitals and hundreds of clinics scattered around the country. In addition, in locations with out hospitals there are local, top notch doctors. The government run Social Security System (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social – CCSS) sponsors the hospitals and is largely responsible for providing affordable, quality health care to the people. In 2010, a new immigration law implemented mandatory monthly payments to the CCSS by all expatriates. The monthly fees are $55 a month for anyone under 55 and $37 a month for anyone older than 55. In addition, the CCSS covers insured tourists in coordination with their providers in their home countries.Costs on procedures can be 30-70% cheaper that US or European standards depending on a number of factors. Due to the prominence of the Costa Rica health care system and the country’s accessibility, it has become a celebrated destination for medical tourism, particularly for elective surgeries. Any plastic or dental surgery can be completed at US standards, but up to 65% cheaper! All medical tourism is completed through private health care. Even if the surgery is not elective, the private sector provides state-of-the-art facilities and doctors for patients in need. Again, the primary reasons for coming are cost and reliability. Other places in Central and South America not have the proper care available to people in dire need of treatment, which adds to the list of reasons Costa Rica is a medical haven.The three main private hospitals in the Costa Rica health care system are CIMA, Clinica Biblica, and Clinica Catolica. CIMA has a hospital in San Jose and a brand new one in Liberia; they specialize in just about every medical category. Clinica Biblica is situated within metropolitan San Jose; it is prominent in many forms of major surgery, including heart and cancer care. Clinica Catolica is locate in surrounding suburb of San Jose called Guadalupe; it has a great ER and specializes in many zones of medicine, including: audiology, respiratory, nutrition, and mental, to name a few. Access to private health care comes through the government’s provided insurance company, INS. Depending on a multitude of factors, it costs roughly $60-$130 monthly.Pharmacies are all over the country and provide easy access to medication, much of which can be obtained over the counter. Migraine medication, birth control pills, and many other remedies are available at any pharmacy without a prescription. Some stronger painkillers, such as low dosages of codeine, are available over the counter as well. Since there is often someone capable of writing prescriptions at a pharmacy, additional medications can be much more accessible than in other places. Many pharmacies are provided through the public Costa Rica health care system.

Remember filmstrips, movie reels, overhead projectors and transparencies? These are the “tech tools” that I remember from my school days. Not an interactive anything anywhere. It was simple. Teachers and professors had to decide between blackboards or overheads, black, blue or maybe green ink and that was about it.We’ve come a long way from those days, and in many cases new technologies have quickly replaced the old. There is however a wide variation on how advanced school districts are in terms of their education technology implementations. One thing is clear; no matter how limited resources are, all school districts have formed a set of goals around education technology. If we expect to reach any of these goals, we have to understand the underlying factors that can affect the character and complexity of a problem. These factors will in turn affect how we approach a particular problem and the solutions that are applied to reach our goals.From a 30,000 foot perspective, there are commonly three key components to an education technology solution; Hardware, Software and Training (the often forgotten, but many times most important component).In today’s education tech world, you will not get very far without the three vital components mentioned above. These are however, merely the tools that we will use in reaching our educational goals. If you were to place all of the best hardware, software and training materials in a room, they would not magically yield higher test scores, achievement and graduation rates all by themselves.You might think that what I’ll be saying next will have to do with people and how they can be the difference makers. This of course is true, but the actual focus should be on what these all important people are doing (and unfortunately in many cases not doing) in order to achieve our collective educational goals.Many of us have lost sight on the “education” in education technology. It’s right there in front of our eyes and we still manage forget that this is about properly educating students and enabling them to reach their fullest potential.The following list contains some of the most common pitfalls that we see on a day-to-day basis as education technology integrators. These are the processes and activities that have proven to be inefficient, ineffective or counterproductive to education technology goals.1. Having no goals to begin with – This situation is all too common. A school district is hard-set on implementing and/or upgrading their education technology resources, but nothing is tied back to curriculum goals. The purchase and installation of projectors, interactive whiteboards, response systems, classroom sound systems etc is not the implementation of a solution, it’s simply a purchase. Avoid asking yourself “now what?” once the smoke has cleared. Achieve this by creating a real implementation plan that is tied to long term educational goals and state standards. All of the best education technology hardware manufacturers have researched education requirements in detail and have designed their solutions accordingly in order to help schools reach these goals through the use of their products. Ask your technology provider questions related to your educational goals and only engage with those who understand your goals and can tell you how their products will help you reach them.2. Cookie cutter approach – Let’s outfit every classroom and every teacher with the same exact technology tools. And let’s not stop there, let’s do it all at once so everyone is happy and nobody feels left out. Makes sense – right? Well not exactly. Administrators and Tech Directors don’t want to hear grumblings about inequities or create an environment of haves and have not’s even for a short period of time. This would be disaster – or would it?One of the best examples I can think of is interactive whiteboards or IWB’s. These boards are incredible tools and can greatly enhance a learning environment when implemented properly, but the addition of this technology tool is not always a “no brainer” in all learning environments. Companies like SMART Technologies and Promethean may disagree, but in the end, if the educational goals of their customers are being met, it will be a win-win situation for all involved – especially the kids.This is a trend that is difficult to break. It is fairly easy to understand how this has come about since politics can many times trump logic.Learning activities can vary greatly from room to room and from subject to subject. The learning goals for math will likely vary greatly from the learning goals in science class versus foreign language classes. Science room environments may vary even further based on whether you are dealing with Physics, Chemistry or Biology.The variances can run even deeper based on other district based requirements, room arrangement or teaching style of an individual teacher.Taking a step back to do some real analysis and planning may help you and your schools get on a more accurate track in terms of matching technology tools to actual academic goals. To say that “we’ll figure that out later” adds to the risk that you will leave a critical requirement unaddressed.3. Making all decisions from the Top Down – Not that you would do this, but too many Tech Directors or IT Managers make district wide decisions without gathering any input from the end users of technology. In this case it is of course teachers that would help drive accurate requirements from the bottom up that would complement the decisions being made from above. This will no doubt take more time and effort, but in the end it will likely uncover more detail and accuracy to your requirements that will help minimize risk and decrease the chances that you’ll miss a requirement or waste time and money spent re-working your initial solution with an unplanned “Phase 2″ of your implementation.4. No Training or Professional Development (PD) Plan – You might be lucky enough to have a real go-getter on your staff that takes the ball and runs with it, creating your training program in the process. These self starters do exist, but you can’t count on training and PD taking care of itself. Full adoption and use of new technology tools requires planning AND management of the plan. If done correctly, your educational goals are met and everyone comes out looking and feeling like a champion.5. No metrics – How do you show that your plan has been successful? Part of proper planning is establishing a pre-determined method of measuring success via a set of well chosen metrics. Not everyone loves numbers by nature, but I’m betting that everyone will love them when they definitively show that planning and implementation has led to success.6. Buying solely on price – Hopefully you have not grown completely cynical when it comes to value. If you spend the time talking to your prospective sales people and service providers, you will see a wide range of offerings presented to you. If you want to do what’s best for your schools, you will spend some time calculating the true cost of a solution where the physical hardware is only one component. If you make your decision solely on the price of hardware, you might be doing a great disservice to yourself, your schools, your project team and your students. Some of the most important value differentiators will have to do with service, support, training and professional development. A quality solution provider will not only sell you the hardware, they will pro-actively support it. They will work with you consultatively and open an ongoing dialogue with you and your staff to assist in reaching your goals. Many providers have dedicated Education Consultants on staff that are familiar with state and federal education goals. This further enables you and your team to map education goals to the use of education technology tools in the classroom.7. Thinking your planned solution is “good enough” – This might apply when buying a car or home appliance when added cost is usually associated with “bells and whistles”, but a classroom is not about getting to point A to point B or how white your shirts can be. True adoption of education technology in a classroom can be a tricky goal to meet and adoption must come with real results like increased test scores and graduation rates. If you are heavily constrained by budget, I recommend creating the best solution possible and starting with one room. If you don’t have the funds to complete an entire room, do it in well thought out phases with guidance from your education technology integrator (remember that thing about added value? – A perfect example). If you continue this process over time, you will end up with quality learning environments in every room vs. a watered down “solution” in each room that yields no actual results.8. Thinking you are “done” – This relates directly to #7 above. It’s important to have a mindset of constant improvement. New and improved technology is constantly being developed. This can offer great opportunity, but it can also create confusion. In the ‘one room at a time’ scenario above, it would be of added benefit to re-evaluate your plan as time progresses. This will give you the ability to fine tune your solution over time. For this reason, it will be important to pay attention to feedback from end-users of technology enabled classrooms. There may be a new and improved technology available or you may have realized that you “over-bought” in a particular area and can then adjust your plan accordingly. Ideally, there will be no changes at all and simply a confirmation that your plans and system designs are sound. If you reach the end of an implementation and everything has gone according to plan, you are still far from being done. As with all technology, there are the elements of hardware maintenance, support and an ongoing training/professional development plan. If you have specific plans in place in all of these areas and actively manage to your goals, your chances for success will be greatly improved.