Archive for September, 2008

Customer loyalty programs work big time for big companies but small business owners are often deterred from developing one because of worries about how much it would cost or how difficult it would be to organize and manage. As a matter of fact, the very same principles that keep customers coming back to big companies can be utilized to develop a small business scale loyalty program without a lot of cost and drama.

Make customers feel like ‘members’

Creating a ‘club’ that provides special incentives to members is one of the best ways to retain customers. This approach works because it is based on the primal human need to ‘belong’ to something - especially where belonging also makes us feel we are being treated as special.

Who gets to be a member? A customer loyalty program based on membership should convey a feeling of privilege for those selected so it can’t be open to all and sundry. Customers may qualify for membership either by purchasing their entrée or by dint of their past support and loyalty.

General Nutrition Centers, a specialty retailer of vitamins and supplements, offers a Gold Card membership program that provides discounts on products, personalized mailings and email on health related topics, product news and exclusive offers. GNC found that they could even use their program to actively iron out lows in their sales pattern by offering a special discount on sales made on Tuesday, traditionally their slowest sales day. continue

“What’s your online strategy?” I recently asked a group of business owners this question, and heard everything from “I don’t think I really need a website for my business” to “I’m number one in Google for ‘widget installation’ and my Adwords ROI is over 200 percent” - quite a range of tactics, quite a difference in results. But these business owners all shared one thing in common - not one of them had a complete online strategy.

It’s a pretty good bet that you don’t have one either.

You may already get some good business results online. You may already use some smart online tactics. Congratulations for being ahead of the curve. But you can’t afford to be complacent. The competition is about to get a lot tougher, because every day more of your competitors are using the same online tactics you use.

Not only is your competition getting tougher, but the online environment continues to change. Every day more people use online search as their primary way to find a local business. Search engines like Google constantly adjust the way they rank sites in their search results. Endless new web-based applications are invented that could streamline your business operations. Business owners who stay on top of the changes are rewarded; those who don’t are punished. Which are you? continue

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s about being able to see someone else’s world through your own eyes and identify with the other person’s emotions such as joy, pain, concern and frustration. This is generally based on a similar experience you have experienced in your own life.

Intuition is based on the observations of others you have stored in your subconscious over time. It works well with Empathy and can provide balanced advice about communicating with others– both at work and at home. When this Advisor is in balance, communications run smoothly. When it’s unbalanced, it can hurt or damage relationships.

Dr. Robert Harman was a social scientist who created the mathematical calculation that underlies 6 Advisors. He discovered that a person holds back a reserve of cooperation and productivity by an average of 40%. In other words, you can gain 40% more cooperation and 40% more productivity by actually listening to the person, rather than the chatter in your head.

If you are talking to a prospect, client, employee or family member, are you listening to your internal dialogue? Is it about you or are you hearing them? Are you open and accepting of their situation without judgment? Do you trust the accuracy of you intuition? continue

What happens when an employee with a mental disability misbehaves in the workplace? If the mental disability causes the employee to misbehave and violate workplace conduct rules, can the employer discipline the employee?

The EEOC has tackled this thorny ADA question, and many others, in a new publication titled: ”The Americans With Disabilities Act: Applying Performance And Conduct Standards To Employees With Disabilities.”

An EEOC press release acknowledges that employers struggle greatly with the ADA’s vague proscriptions and mandates. “The EEOC continues to receive numerous questions on these topics from employers and from individuals with disabilities, indicating that there is still a high level of uncertainty about how the ADA affects these fundamental personnel issues. This document will serve a critical need and enhance compliance with the ADA.” The press release can be found here

According to the new guide, the ADA permits employers to apply the same performance standards to all employees, including those with disabilities, and emphasizes that the ADA does not affect an employer’s right to hold all employees to basic conduct standards, notes the press release. “At the same time,” cautions the EEOC, “employers must make reasonable accommodations that enable individuals with disabilities to meet performance and conduct standards.”

For example, the EEOC provides the following hypothetical example: continue

Contractors will find this article which summarizes the requirements and deadlines for mechanic’s liens very useful.

There are three basic requirements to preserve, maintain, and enforce mechanic’s lien rights for California projects. Following is an outline of those three requirements.

Requirement Number 1: Preserving your lien rights by serving a California 20-day preliminary notice

The California 20-Day Preliminary Notice form (aka “preliminary notice”) preserves a lien claimant’s (the person or entity who claims the mechanic’s lien) lien rights on a construction project when the notice is timely served by the lien claimant.

The notice MUST be served by the lien claimant (unless the lien claimant was hired directly by the property owner, in which case the contract between the claimant and the property owner serves as the notice) or the lien claimant will not have any lien rights.

The notice should be served no later than 20 days after the lien claimant first provides any benefit to the property, because the notice preserves lien rights for no more than 20 days prior to the date the notice is served through the completion of the contract.

If this deadline is not met, the preliminary notice should still be served as soon as possible thereafter, as the preliminary notice will still preserve lien rights for all benefits provided starting with the day that fell 20 days prior to the date of service of the preliminary notice. continue

Another overlooked feature in the bank reconciliation module of QuickBooksTM is the “Hide transactions after the statement’s end date” box in the upper right hand corner of the bank reconciliation screen.
So, why would you click that button?
To save you from having to search through transactions not relevant to your current month reconciliation. Often when reconciling it’s already two weeks in to the next fiscal month, which means all the transactions you have entered since the end of your bank statement date are going to show in the reconciliation window, but are not relevant to the bank statement you are reconciling for last fiscal month.
The one caveat to clicking this button is if you have misdated something for your current reconciliation, you may miss it if you hit that button. For example, bank charges for July 31, you dated August 31 when entering them in your bank register. If you are reconciling for July, you may end up entering your July 31 bank charges again because you can’t see them. If you are missing something that you know you entered in to your register, you can always unclick the “Hide” button to find the transaction, change the date on the transaction if necessary, then click it again to finish your reconciliation.
Improvements coming in QuickBooksTM 2009…you will finally be able to sort the checks and payments/deposits and other credits columns, in the bank reconciliation window by date, check, payee, and amount. This is a huge improvement and will make the bank reconciliation process easier and quicker. Stay tuned for more news about QuickBooksTM 2009.
*Please note that all QuickBooksTM Tips are based on QuickBooks for the PC. If you have either the Mac or Online version of QuickBooksTM, these tips may not be applicable.

What better way to celebrate this holiday than making a commitment to improve your organizing or time management skills? After all, if you continue to do what you’ve done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve gotten.

Here are your productivity tips for this month:

1. Make the decision to change. It doesn’t have to be a major change, just one of those things you’ve classified as an ongoing ‘problem’. Identify the behavior and roadblocks and work at eliminating them. Consistently and one at a time.

2. Create order in your workspace AND your routines. Systems provide the big picture and process provides detail and complexity. Identify your systems (or lack of), then put a process to them. Then practice, revise and practice again until it becomes a habit and not seen as ‘something more to do’.

3. Find an accountability coach. Very few of us can work through change alone. Identify what you want to change, create a process around that and then find someone who can help you stay on track….and celebrate your success!