3 Strategies to Give Positive Customer Service | Getentrepreneurial.com

September 2, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

The relationships you have with your customers are the most important assets you possess. Easy to understand and take care of, right?

But do you?

As I travel, I encounter a great deal of customer service and disservice. I discovered 3 Strategies to Give Positive Customer Service from some positive and negative experiences.

Listen

As my assistant made reservations for my stay, the Marriott property had obviously listened to previous patrons and anticipated my needs. They asked,

–“May we pick him up at the airport?”

–“Will he want a ride to his meeting?”

–“May we return him to the airport?”

It was if they anticipated my every need. “We care” was the message.

15 Critical Habits Of Mentally Strong People | Forbes

September 1, 2015August 31, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We all reach critical points in our lives where our mental toughness is tested. It might be a toxic friend or colleague, a dead-end job, or a struggling relationship.

Whatever the challenge, you have to be strong, see things through a new lens, and take decisive action if you want to move through it successfully.

It sounds easy. We all want good friends, good jobs, and good relationships.

But it isn’t.

It’s hard to be mentally tough, especially when you feel stuck. The ability to break the mold and take a bold new direction requires that extra grit, daring, and spunk that only the mentally toughest people have.

It’s fascinating how mentally tough people set themselves apart from the crowd. Where others see impenetrable barriers, they see challenges to overcome.

When Thomas Edison’s factory burned to the ground in 1914, destroying one-of-a-kind prototypes and causing $23 million in damage, Edison’s response was simple:

“Thank goodness all our mistakes were burned up. Now we can start fresh again.”

Edison’s reaction is the epitome of mental toughness—seeing opportunity and taking action when things look bleak.

There are habits you can develop to improve your mental toughness. In fact, the hallmarks of mentally tough people are actually strategies that you can begin using today.

How to Use Salary Caps to Sustainably Scale Your Small Business | Page19

August 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

How can a small business grow sustainably? Greg Crabtree and Beverly Blair Harzog think that in a growing business, staffing costs can quickly balloon out of control. When small businesses are making the transition to medium-sized businesses, it’s possible to fall into a dangerous feedback loop of borrowing and spending. As you scale your business, your costs grow, and it’s tempting to see breaking even—your previous measure of success—as sufficiently safe growth.

However, medium-sized businesses have vastly larger costs, and can’t afford the breakneck growth speed that smaller, more agile operations can attain. As your costs grow, it’s important to retain control over those which you have the power to influence—and the biggest of these is labor costs.

Authority Marketing: How To Measure Up In Front of Customers | Small Biz Trends

August 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You’re a liar. At least, that’s what you’re afraid people will find out about you.

The smaller your business, the more likely you are to have had this thought at one point: My product/service is just the latest form of snake oil and everyone is about to find out.

First off, take a deep breath.

Dealing with this thought (often referred to as ‘impostor syndrome’) is completely normal. Some of the most talented people in the world have suffered from it. (Tina Fey and Maya Angelou are just a few of the celebrities that have admitted to suffering from impostor syndrome.)

Generally speaking, the harder you’ve had to work in life to succeed, the more likely you are to feel that fear of being exposed as a fraud.

Investigating Applicants Is Not a Luxury | Payroll Link

August 26, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The trend in hiring is toward intensive pre-screening of job applicants. In our mobile society it’s rare to have firsthand knowledge of a new hire. And the days are gone when an employer would dare hire based solely on a grade point average and a transcript from a school or college.

Now an employer needs to know more about an applicant — much more. Otherwise, the employer risks hiring problems.

With fierce competition for a limited number of jobs, applicants may exaggerate and embellish the experience they have — or don’t have. They may also try to hide things like a criminal record or previous termination.

To a busy employer, background checks on applicants can seem like a luxury, a task that requires more resources or time than is available. But failing to do good background checks will hurt your bottom line and dull your competitive edge in these ways:

Why We Can Fix Your Computer – and You Can’t. | THE BETA GENERATION

August 25, 2015August 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’m not here as tech support, but there’s a reason almost every Generation Z participant can do the job of a Baby-Boomers computer engineer: Technology has changed the way we think. Now, I don’t mean to say we each have wires in our brains controlling our thumbs as they type 500 word texts at hyper speed, but the way we think and do things has been forced to evolve as a consequence of the electronic world. We have to be able to think in ways computers can’t. There’s more to it than just the simplicity but I’ve figured out three main things that separate our thinking from other generations and the computers that replace them.

Crowdfunding for Startups: Kickstarter Alternatives | Business News Daily

August 25, 2015August 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Obtaining financing is one of the biggest hurdles most entrepreneurs will have to overcome. If a bank loan won’t cover what you need and you don’t have any connections to investors, it can be tough to know where to begin. Online crowdfunding — raising smaller amounts of money from multiple backers — has become an increasingly common solution to this dilemma because it allows startups to reach out to a large number of potential investors at once.

Although Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two of the most popular crowdfunding platforms, success there isn’t always guaranteed: For every project that meets its goal, there are dozens that just didn’t pick up enough steam to get funded. So, where else can you turn?

Whether you’re looking for a small investment to jump-start your company or a large round of capital to grow it to the next stage, here are 10 sites that can help you raise the money you need.

Questions Every Small Business Must Ask Their Credit Card Processor | Getentrepreneurial

August 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Signing up with a credit card processor is a big step for small businesses. It allows small business owners to accept more forms of payment, which in turn drives revenue by making it easier and more appealing for customers to shop in the store. Before signing an agreement with a credit card merchant service processor, however, it is important to get all of your questions answered so that you know you are putting your business in the best position moving forward.

Start by inquiring about and understanding any contract requirements, as well as any processing rates as they relate to various types of cards. Get these rates for all cards, including corporate and rewards cards, in writing, so there are no surprise increases down the road. In addition, talk to your processor about American Express transactions, as well as the procedures for fee deductions from your account and if they offer next day funding. Finally, research a potential processor and consult other small businesses about their merchant solutions so you do not get stuck in a situation that does more harm than good.

When It Comes To Long-Term Care Insurance, Americans Don’t Get It | Forbes

August 20, 2015August 19, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A newly-released survey shows just how conflicted Americans are about long-term care insurance. And how unrealistic they are about how much long-term care costs and how much insurance they can buy for what they are willing to spend.

The survey, completed in 2014 by the consulting firm RTI International and the survey research firm GfK Research for the US Department of Health and Human Services, found that consumers prize two attributes above all others when they think about long-term care insurance: They want lifetime coverage and low premiums. Their willingness to buy any LTC insurance declines dramatically as premiums rise and the benefit period shrinks.

For instance, fewer than half of those surveyed were willing to spend more than $50-a-month for a long-term care insurance policy that covers $100-a-day for 3 years.

Employers Beware: Your Employee Handbook’s Arbitration Clause May Not be Enforceable | Michel and Associates, P.C.

August 20, 2015August 19, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Upon hiring a new employee, it is a common practice for most employers to provide the new employee with an employee handbook stating the general policies and procedures of the employer. Sometimes employers will have an arbitration clause within the employee handbook, and thereby attempt to impose binding arbitration on the parties for any disputes between the employer and employee. Most employers are also advised to have their new employees sign an acknowledgment which indicates that the employee read the handbook, understands its contents, and agrees to its terms.

Most employers assume, or are told, that receipt of the signed acknowledgment form ensures that the employee is bound by the handbook’s provisions, including the requirement that the employee arbitrate any employment-related disputes. But, according to a recent California Court of Appeal, most employers are wrong. Employers should not rely upon an arbitration clause in a prolix employment handbook unless the handbook is carefully crafted to ensure the arbitration clause’s enforceability.