Auditioning and What You Can Expect (Part I)

My Experiences

Once in an all-day workshop on the subject of industrials, we were afforded the opportunity to audition for a casting director who normally casts for corporate videos. It was a mock audition situation and she told us that she would do something in this acting class that we are almost never fortunate enough to experience in the real world of auditioning. She said that she would tell us all after we auditioned, who would have gotten the job and why.

There were eight of us altogether and she told us that one of the women in the class would have gotten the job. She told us that the imaginary customer wanted to make an in-store video that spoke to women. She said that the customer made this change at the last minute. While in the beginning it could have been the right part for a woman or a man, they now decided that they only wanted a woman. The customer also made a request that the woman be a brunette, as she didn't want a blond, because probably she was reminded of someone with blond hair with whom she had a bad experience in the past on a video.

Lastly she said that if there had been no restrictions and if she, the casting director had to present the best candidate for that job, then she would have chosen...me! Once again I was flattered and it made me feel good.

On a side note, I really feel that corporate videos or industrials are my strong point. I also believe I know my type: the lawyer, doctor, businessman, detective, father, husband and feel pretty natural in roles like that.

Now all I have to say is, this is all great stuff in acting and audition class, but show me the money!!! When I look at my results, I have gotten the best feedback on those types of auditions, which I think is fine, since I'm really just starting out. I have absolutely nothing against being cast for what I am most suited for or because of what I look like or for my experience. Some actors say they want to have the possibility to play roles that are different from what they are really like. Ultimately, that could be what I want to, but I'm not sure yet. What I am sure about, however, is that I want to work! So if the easiest way for me to get work is to get cast in roles that are most like me, then great! I'm not going to complain. I'll continue studying and hopefully one day I'll be cast in other types of roles, if that's what I want.

One more tidbit

Something else I remember was a piece of advice that a noted casting director gave us in a seminar. She told us that when you leave an audition, take the copy and throw it in the trash. She herself said that she probably shouldn't be telling us that, but she said that the chances that you will get the part are often times so slim, that you should just forget about it until they call you back, if they ever do. So don't call to see if you got the part, don't pester the casting director, as they hate that, just move on with your life and if they want you, they will let you know.

In the next article, I'll give you some more information on this subject including how to handle rejection, how to analyze your results and some wise words from a noted casting director!

Anthony Smith left a successful corporate career as a senior manager in Nike and Levi's after 15 years to follow his dream of becoming an entrepreneur, writer, motivational speaker and actor. While enjoying success in his "new" life, Anthony shares his business insight and acting experience with young actors. Aside from acting work, he has created http://www.actingcareerstartup.com and his first book, Acting Career Start-Up: Four Key Factors For Success will hit the U.S. market in April 2007.

Auditing & Assurance Services: A Systematic Approach with ACL CD and OLC Card

Messier employs the new audit approach currently being used by auditing professionals. This new approach is a direct result of the demands of Sarbanes-Oxley, which has changed the way auditors do their jobs. The new auditing approach emphasizes understanding the entity (i.e., the organization or business being audited) and its environment (i.e. industry), and then assessing the business risks faced by the entity and how management controls those risks. This new audit process focuses on business processes instead of accounting cycles. This unique and innovative approach has been developed in response to changing market dynamics. The systematic approach, referred to in the subtitle of the text, reflects the early introduction of three basic concepts that underlie the audit process: materiality, audit risk, and evidence; this allows Messier to build upon this model in subsequent chapters. These are central to everything an auditor does and a unique feature of Messier. As such, this approach helps students develop auditor judgment, a vital skill in today’s auditing environment.

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Church Audits - Selecting a Qualified Auditor While Keeping Cost Low

A Church may require an audit for many reasons such as 1) to obtain a bank loan 2) a requirement from a regulatory body 3) to ensure that good stewardship is being used in the handling and accounting of the funds 4) to protect the persons elected or hired to offices of financial responsibility from unwarranted charges of careless or improper handling of funds 5) and to build the trust and confidence of the financial supporters of the church that there is proper accounting of their money - trust and confidence leads to improved patterns of financial support.

When you have decided to hire the services of an accountant it is important that you ensure that you hire a qualified, skilled professional. This article will address the qualifications you should look for in your accountant as well as ways to keep cost low. When it is time to hire the services of an accountant it is important to ensure that you know the level of services needed (as this greatly impacts cost) and it is also important to assess the qualifications of the accountant selected. Providing audit request timely will also keep cost down.

Below is an explanation of the three levels of services provided by an auditor; as well as some important factors to consider when selecting an auditor. Auditors provide three types of services listed below. If applying for a loan you should have your auditor communicate with the lending institution to ensure that you get the right level of service required for the loan. The three types of services are:

1) Audit - provides the highest level of assurance on the financial statements. It includes a review of internal controls if relied upon, testing of selected transactions and communication with third parties such as customers, vendors and banks.

2) Review - provides a lower level of assurance than an audit. It consists of discussions with management and analytical procedures applied to financial data. The accountants' report provides limited assurance.

3) Compilation - consists of preparing financial statements from information provided by the company. The accountants report states that they have not performed an audit or review and that no assurance is being provided. A compilation is the lowest in cost and at times all a bank requires.

Some key items to consider when selecting your church auditor are:

Ensure the auditor is licensed. When engaging an auditor you may wish to verify with the appropriate State regulatory authority that the provider holds a valid, up-to-date license or certificate to perform auditing services

Ensure the auditor is experienced with the unique requirements of church accounting. Ask the auditor for references from other churches that they have audited.

Ensure the auditor is reliable and timely. Ask the auditor or his references about estimated time of completion for the audit. If applying for a loan timeliness is of the utmost importance.

Ensure the auditor is independent. The auditor should not have any financial interest in the church that would affect their ability to render an objective, unbiased opinion.

Suzette Porter is a Certified Public Accountant with nearly 15 years experience with church and other non profit organizations. She is a partner with Business and Accounting Solutions, a Florida based firm that provides cost effective church audit, reviews and compilations nationwide. For more information contact us at http://www.BusinessandAccountingSolutions.com or 1-866-678-6588.

Suzette Porter, CPA http://www.BusinessandAccountingSolutions.com Sporter@BASPartners.com

How a Forensic Mortgage Audit Helps You

Many American homeowners are facing losing their homes due to economic factors beyond their control, or life circumstances which pull them into a financial vortex that is impossible for them to solve alone. Worse yet, it is reported that up to 85% of home loans have errors which entitle the home owner to receive a monetary reward from the lender, and rarely any of them know about it. The problem is how to get the loan companies to pay you what you are due.

What good would a forensic mortgage audit do for you?

With much of the mortgage industry lacking any quality control whatsoever, an extremely high percentage of loans have procedural flaws in them, or violated the customers right to disclosure and inquiry in some way or another. What this means for you is that when you get your mortgage audited, you will find out just how your mortgage company exploited your lack of knowledge regarding the mortgage and how they may have violated your rights doing so.

Who can benefit from a forensic mortgage audit?

Anyone who is seeking a mortgage modification will benefit from a forensic mortgage audit because they will have a much higher likelihood of receiving their mortgage modification they have requested once the errors the mortgage company made in completing the loan are revealed. The lender would much rather grant the modification than confront the wrong they have done with the loan.

Finally, a second group of people who will benefit from the audit is anyone who is losing their home. Most of these people have the money to pay for the audit, even though it is guaranteed free if it does not reveal any wrong doing, by taking the money they would normally pay on their home and allocating that for the audit. They stand to benefit by receiving money back for the wrong doing by the lender. Most homeowners are unaware that they are due the money and the lender will not tell them, that is for sure!

The author enjoys writing articles about forensic mortgage audits and how to prevent foreclosure. Click on the links above to learn more about these topics!

How to Perfect Your Telecom Audit Process

A Telecom audit is an important process for any organization. Human error, failure to pay close attention to details, constraint of time in checking long telecom bills, and insufficient knowledge of new technology and regulations - these mistakes can take a toll on the revenue of a company. Avoiding all these potential problems is an integral part of the expense management of an organization. Many small losses can add up to a huge amount. In order to curb this waste, organizations can either use an automated telecom audit tool, a Telecom Management professional, or a combination of the two.

Telecom audit is a process that helps to detect and reveal even the smallest errors that waste money. Thus, it provides an opportunity not only to recover lost revenue, but also ensures that errors are not repeated.

Telecom audit ideally has three stages:

Acquiring Documents to Create an Inventory Database

The first stage involves the collection of telecom invoices. These invoices show the costs over time and the customer records. Telecom audit companies at times use software in this stage that both acts as a database and helps in analyzing trends.

Depending on the size of your company, just collecting these invoices could be a very time-consuming job. Start with the local phone bills and work outward. The long distance bills may be on the same invoice or billed separately. Wireless services can be billed as a group or individual accounts. Check to see if each bill matches with a known phone. For Internet service bills, they may be on a separate bill or, if the local provider offers broadband with local service, they may be with the local phone invoice.

The next thing to collect is voice and data service contracts. These include local and long distance service, wireless phones, telecom equipment and any maintenance service agreements.

Make the time to request your Customer Service Records (CSRs) from your provider. Your providers may take a few weeks to get to your requests, but it's worth the wait. These records contain your unique data that will ultimately be the foundation of your telecom audit. They are written in Universal Service Order Codes (USOC) and they are an itemized listing of all your lines, services, and features.

You should also gather any agreements for Directory Advertising or Yellow Pages. If your company is large, sometimes a publicity or advertising department handles these agreements. The documents are important because they will specify the rates that apply to all advertising, when it was ordered and by whom.

Other documents to get access to are tariffs. Tariffs are the provider's official documents that break down all the rules, service offers, rates, etc. that they offer. You can find these rules on your provider's website. Also gather any tax information that applies to your company. Charities, schools, churches, and some nonprofit organizations may be exempt from state and/or federal taxes.

Analyzing All the Data

The second stage of audit involves the comparison of inventory costs against pricing plans. And the first thing required is an inventory audit. In this section, you look at your organization's inventory of telecom assets. Instead of looking for spot errors, this kind of telecom audit looks for trend information. This data aids the company in deciding whether it needs to expand its telecom resources or to re-deploy its existing resources.

Now a comparison of cost against pricing plans can be made. Here's where a telecom audit firm can be very helpful. They keep a record of current pricing and tariff changes. With the help of these records and databases, the audit firms can provide a cost effective plan for their clients.

Reporting and Recommendations

The third and crucial stage involves reports and recommendations. If you are doing this audit yourself, after looking at all the data, this is where you decide where you might be able to save money. A telecom audit firm will also give you their reports and recommendations at this time. Along with the presentation of their reports and analysis, they also give their suggestions for improvements and savings that have been identified in the process.

They may find errors in you bills and suggest disputing some charges. They may find credits you never received and apply for refunds for you. Today's telecom bills contain many errors that you won't find unless you do an audit.

Since billing errors play havoc on draining the organization's capital, partnering with companies that provide solutions to check such errors is becoming increasingly popular. When using a telecom-auditing firm, there are two ways to approach it. One of them is the "contingency" method, where the telecom audit firms receive a percentage of the money they saved clients. The second can be a "fixed fee" approach. Generally, small and medium firms go for the contingency process, whereas large firms go for the second approach, as it is easier to manage.

No matter which approach a firm takes, one thing that needs to be kept in mind is that telecom audits should be conducted by both big and small businesses to keep a check on their expenses. The telecom audit process is complex and time-consuming, but fortunately, there are companies that provide such services, and instituting a regular telecom audit can ensure cost optimization for any firm, and almost surely improve its bottom line.

With more than twenty years of experience in planning, implementing, managing and consulting on telecommunications projects, Nermine Shaker has generated millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group, a Telecommunications Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com

Are Yearly Market Research and Consumer Audits Necessary?

Financial patterns in your industry assist in maximizing your advertising, sales and telemarketing dollars by revealing any stagnant or active patterns. Options of how to succeed are endless if you find the right goal and plan that will get you the result you want. Is steady growth for your company best, a grand entry or growth slam? How does your company fit in the industry? Is your company/technology/brand coming of age, or has it been around forever?

Spend time researching the industry while asking yourself how it can best be penetrated or saturated. Assess the general and global need to guide in establishing clearly defined achievable goals and objectives. The bull's eye is all in how well your new business development list criteria fit your target market. It is where you will get the biggest bang for your new business budget buck.

When market results show room for substantial growth, invest in clerical services to sample your list for accuracy first. Check the number, make sure the contact exists, the information is correct, and get any information about the person you need to speak to. You are left with a clean list to contact in a systematic, effective manner. This maximizes the list's potential value to you by transforming it from a public directory to a contact list.

Current customer audits are helpful in raising revenue with up selling, cross selling, winning back old customers and referrals. Regular contact to verify customer satisfaction is most effective in ensuring solid growth and prospecting future development opportunities.

If decades pass and your industry has seen no changes or new developments; then No, you don't have to do research, new business development nor audits.

By: Lou Ann Diamond, Market Research Specialist and Professional Telemarketer. For more information view: http://www.choicetreasures.com or contact the author at contact@choicetreasures.com

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