Eye contact. Always, and I mean always, look your interviewer in eye when answering a question. You don’t have to stare them down like two dogs looking for other to back down, but keep focused on person’s face. I always make lots of eye contact when I talk to people, not just because I want to make sure they are following me and listening, but because you can really read a person by looking into their eyes. This shows sincerity, honesty, friendliness, respect and alertness.

Be prepared. Always carry a few extra copies of your resume, cover letter and letters of reference. Even if company already has a copy of these, bring them anyways. You never know when an interviewer may ask you for your resume because they forgot to bring their copy into room. In addition, make sure you know something about company you’re hoping to work for. Having knowledge of company shows you are serious about working there and have basic research skills.

Use proper language. Never use slang or ‘uh-uh’ and ‘nah’. One of my pet peeves is when people keep grunting out ‘uh-uh’ all time instead of just saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. If you let too many ‘yeas’ and ‘uh-uhs’ into interview, your going to be looked at as a person who doesn’t show respect to superior management or who lacks business etiquette.

If you have a habit of doing this, start catching yourself when you do this. Train yourself to start saying ‘Yes…Certainly…By all means…I’m afraid I can’t…Unfortunately….etc.‘ and soon you’ll be talking like professional.

Look and act professional and you will be treated as such. Show respect and you’ll earn respect. Once you’ve got these basic commons sense tactics down, you are more than 80% there. The rest is just tweaking and practice.

Jeremy Gislason is the Vice President of JobDiscover.com and has over 15 years of business and marketing experience.

But how?

Methods to Design Your News Accounts Payable and Accounting Procedures

•Eliminate Paper. The single biggest cost for any purchasing and payables department is paper, including: purchase orders, purchase order follow-up, small-dollar purchases, delivery tracking & receipts, and vendor payments. Utilizing paperless invoices, Web-based supplier self-servicing, centralized vendor files, automated workflows for electronic or imaged invoices (see ERP below), and payment methods, such as business credit cards, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), can reduce paper handling costs by as much as 90%.

•Integrate ERP Systems. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) automates purchasing and payables functions, which allows a company to get more work done with fewer personnel. Also, electronic invoice matching applications save time in retrieving paperwork. It is estimated that an ERP system can annually save an organization $300 per million in sales.

•Increase Payment Terms. Negotiate payment terms based on receipt of goods or invoice. This can add one week or more to your terms, which can be 25% of 30 day terms. Use EFT for just-in-time payments to maximize your payables terms and minimizing impact to your credit.

•Take Payment Discounts. If you are getting 2%/10 net 30 terms, then consider taking it. This means you are offered a 2% discount if you pay within 10 days, instead of normal 30 day terms. This translates into an 18% return on your capital, and for many organizations this is a good return on your investment.

•Review Purchases. Purchasing is a continuous process that requires continuous review. Consider: transportation charges, expedited fees, odd lot penalties, new pricing, new products, consolidating vendors, new vendors or buying groups, payment terms, and more. Communicate with your suppliers to improve process. And review and monitor everything to account for changes in your environment.

•Communicate with Suppliers. Communicate with your suppliers to improve process. Ask suppliers to submit their invoices electronically. This will save you time, resources and losses due to waste.

•Eliminate Disputes. Disputes with your suppliers are typically result of a problem with your purchasing/receiving process. When disputes occur, review your purchasing procedures to ensure that they are producing correct metrics and that you are not forced to pay for your mistakes.

•Reduce Errors. Overpayments, payments made to wrong vendors, fake invoices, or even late payments represent a common problem for payables. Increasing your focus on error control, along with written procedures and audits, can reduce these errors considerably.

•Train personnel. Provide your accounts payable staff with regular formal training. This will arm them with better knowledge of frauds, negotiating skills, and an understanding of economics of payables – which will result in improved effectiveness.

Accounting Policies and Procedures for Cash in Bank

In past few weeks, we have showed you four parts of your financial statements that will each contribute $250,000 in cash savings. The last hurdle was Accounts Payable, and we sailed through it. And now we have crossed our final goal: $1,000,000!

Time was - and is - key. All you have to do is own it. And, remember, next week we will put together each of four elements of cash to cash cycle, and look at how it affects working capital of your business.