How to Move Your Business (Without Losing It)

Peter Aaron faced an unusual problem for a small business owner: too many customers. His difficulty was not with the people themselves but with the fact that they weren't all coming into his bookstore, located for 36 years at Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle.

Instead they were flocking to the many new shops, bars, and restaurants in the upscaled historical neighborhood. And they were hogging all of the parking spots. Aaron's target customers -- thoughtful folks who don't like frantic block-circling in pursuit of a parking space (think Frasier Crane) -- were staying away in droves.

So when his lease expired in 2010, Aaron closed the book on Pioneer Square and moved to the Capitol Hill area, where he found an accommodating new space and, just as important, 85 parking spaces that are either cheap or free.

"Business has been great since the move," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the time. "We were dying in Pioneer Square."

If your business is ailing, or if you just need more space and you're thinking about a move, follow these three steps to make sure your relocation is successful:

1. Do your homework -- and your legwork. Obviously, you need to scout your new location to make sure it's right for your business. This means casing the interior space, as well as staking out the neighborhood to see who's shopping there, when they're shopping, and if they're your sort of customers. Aaron's relocation to Capitol Hill in Seattle has worked not only because there's plenty of parking there, but also because the area attracts all sorts of "alternative" communities, including that offbeat group of people who still enjoy browsing in bookstores.

There are potentially hundreds of factors that will affect your choice of location. Draw up a spreadsheet of all of your criteria and measure every space against it. How expensive is it? Does it have the square-footage you need now and that you might need in the future? Is the neighborhood safe? What's the landlord like? Who are the neighbors? How is the traffic (foot and car)? How close is it to major traffic arteries and public transit? Is there parking? Does it have the Internet bandwidth you need? Are there any economic-development benefits available in the neighborhood? Are there places in the area where your employees can enjoy a decent lunch? You should assess all of these factors and more.

The easy path to a new location is to hire an agent. But you're the one who will spend half (or more) of your waking hours in your new space. You should personally ensure that you'll be happy and financially healthy there. Besides, agents typically work for the property owner, not you, so keep that in mind.

2. Take your time and shop around. Finding a location that meets all of your needs could take months. That's OK. You've got time. Because you'll need time to hammer out a favorable lease. Negotiations are about leverage, and time will give you the leverage you need. (Unless you're, say, moving your auto-salvage yard from the rundown part of town to the more-rundown part of town.)

Don't set your heart on one space. Set your heart on several spaces. For each of them, prepare a request for proposal and send it to the landlord. Tell all of the landlords that you're considering other spaces, so they'll know that they're in competition for your tenancy. To move the process along more quickly, let them know that the first one to deliver a lease you like will get your business.

3. Ease your transition.Once you've settled on a new location, you can make your transition easier with a little bit of -- OK, a lot of -- planning. If your employees are going to help, assign each person an area of responsibility.

One of the most important assets in your old space is your connectivity: phone and Internet. Obviously, it will be just as important in your new space, and you can make sure it's not interrupted by setting up your phone and Internet connections and troubleshooting them weeks before you actually occupy your new location. Yes, you'll spend a little more, but these connections are your lifeline. Consider paying an IT consultant to help you install and/or improve the networks in your new space.

You know the old saying: marry in haste, repent at leisure. The same is true in choosing a new location for your business. So take your time, attend to the details, and, like Seattle bookstore owner Aaron, you'll live happily ever after.

By Tim Devaney and Tom Stein, 

Significance of Professional Marketing

Field business is the acute allotment of business and it transforms all efforts put for business into absolute sales. The cast angel of a artefact depends on the way it is alien and how it was taken by the end users. The business professionals can adviser and ascendancy the advance action of a cast both at retail akin and customer level. From the sales abstracts achieved, the assorted factors that accept afflicted the cast can be identified. The business aggregation is active in the advance of the cast in the bazaar and their achievement will be reflected on the absolute sales. Specially called humans as Cast Ambassadors aswell represent the close in the bazaar and accord a bang to the business activities by way of alluring added consumers to the advance campaigns.

The business aggregation aswell organizes accident business which will be accession way of giving a abrupt accession to the sales activity. There are abundant business casework that action avant-garde methods for sales campaigns and they ensure to accompany the accurate cast to the beginning to allure the absorption of all abeyant consumers. In accession to accouterment able and activating professionals for acreage activities, they advice the companies to authorize a absolute banker arrangement also. They plan, adapt and conduct the sales campaigns in the a lot of able means and the aggregation as able-bodied as the customer is benefited by way of accommodating in these campaigns.

The Branch Ambassadors will be from altered fields of action and aswell they will be accepting capricious skills. The admiral of Acreage Business will baddest them on the base of the company's objectives. They will be motivated to advance the cast and the business aggregation will plan with them consistently to accomplish the objectives. Since their efforts are cogent in the business action they are motivated abundantly and paid liberally. It is acute that the business aggregation should accept bright compassionate about the brands they are announcement and in case they actualize a amiss consequence that may advance to astringent and continued abiding consequences.

By way of selecting the appropriate cadre and training them perfectly, business can be fabricated 100% able and error-free. The business cadre accept to accept aplomb in the artefact he is affairs and he should accept complete abstruse ability about the product. He accept to be able of allowance the doubts of a abeyant client after giving allowance for any suspicion. He accept to allocution acutely but, precisely. Over talking aswell will actualize abrogating impression. The business agencies accumulate their own database of personnel.

10 Ways Your Small Business Is Being Ripped Off

Giving Rip-Offs the Kiss-Off

Shady credit card processors. Fly-by-night Web marketing "experts." Useless extended warranties. Bogus travel expenses.

These and other classic rip-offs have one thing in common: They cost small businesses billions of dollars a year -- and they probably cost your business more than you realize. Even when they're legal -- and most of them are -- they're like a lead weight dragging down your company's bottom line.

To help you fight back, we've called out the 10 worst offenders when it comes to typical small business rip-offs. Some of them may be familiar to you, but others probably aren't. The bad news is that we can guarantee you're losing money on these scams. The good news is that we'll show you how to fix these problems, and save big bucks in the process.

1. Picking the Wrong Credit Card Processor

Accepting credit cards from your customers doesn't involve black magic or goat's blood. It just feels that way.

That's because the credit card processing game is fiendishly complex. It involves hundreds of companies, issuing banks, and processing networks -- some of them legitimate and honest, others fly-by-night. According to one study, only 21 percent of retailers said they understood their payment processors' fees.

Protect yourself by learning how credit card processors operate and what to expect from them. FeeFighters.org publishes the best guide we've seen on the topic; read it before you sign a deal with any processor. Another site, the Merchant Bill of Rights, is also packed with great information.

2. Leasing a Credit Card Payment Terminal

If you're a brick-and-mortar retailer, you'll need a terminal, or point of sale, system to accept credit cards. Most payment processors are happy to lease this hardware for a monthly fee.

It's a great option -- if you enjoy getting robbed blind.

Do the math: A typical terminal lease fee may cost you $20 a month and run for 48 months. That's nearly $1,000 in lease payments for something you can buy for less than $200. Plus, when you own the hardware, you can switch to a new credit card processor whenever you want -- a big plus in a market where so many retailers are unhappy with their credit card processors.

3. Buying an Extended Warranty

Whether your company is purchasing a PC or a paper shredder, you're likely to get a high-pressure sales pitch for an extended warranty or service plan. More often than not, these plans are a rip-off.

Here's the truth: Retailers, distributors, and consultants often make more from selling extended warranties than they do from selling the actual products. If a product is going to break, it's more likely to break either right away, when it's still covered by the manufacturer's warranty, or after the extended warranty expires. And other plans refuse to cover accidental damage or certain types of repairs.

If you really want some extra insurance on an item like a laptop or a smartphone, first check whether your company credit card offers an extended warranty on purchases -- many of them do. Also, consider a third-party service like the highly regarded SquareTrade, which offers extended warranties on tech items for less than you'll pay at most retailers.

4. Buying Identity Theft Insurance

There's only one way to benefit from identity theft insurance: Avoid it like the plague.

Sure, identity theft costs small businesses up to $8 billion a year, and the problem is getting worse. But the typical identity theft policy is so riddled with gotchas and loopholes that the coverage is unlikely to ever pay for itself.

You're far better off taking active steps to protect your company's private information, monitor your credit reports and bank accounts, and secure your business data. You may also benefit from the anti-fraud protection that most credit card companies already provide their customers -- at no extra charge.

5. Hiring a Shady Online Marketing 'Consultant'

When a small business wants to get found online, it may hire a search engine optimization or search engine marketing consultant to do the job. That's why search marketing is now a $20 billion industry -- and why many SEO/SEM "experts" aren't who they claim to be.

The problem: Most small business owners know little about SEO beyond the vague idea that it's important and they need it. That sets them up for all kinds of trickery and lots of technobabble -- none of it terribly useful for marketing their businesses online.

Here's our advice: Never, ever, accept an unsolicited offer of SEO services. If you do need SEO help, seek out a consultant on your own, do a thorough background check, and get multiple references from reputable businesses. While you're at it, spend some time learning the basics of SEO and online marketing. These days, it's the kind of knowledge that every small business owner needs to have anyway.

6. (Over)Using Inkjet Printers

Back in 2008, a test by PCWorld found that some inkjet printers force users to replace "empty" black ink cartridges when they're still nearly half full. Combine that with printer ink that costs the equivalent of nearly $5,000 per gallon, and you've got the makings of a royal rip-off.

These printers and their pricey ink cartridges are a necessary evil when your company needs to print photos, presentations, or graphics. But if you're cranking out plain old text files on the office inkjet, you're throwing away hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year.

The alternative: an entry-level laser printer. Depending on the model you purchase and the cost of replacement toner, laser-printed pages can cost anywhere from one-third to one-sixth as much as those printed on an inkjet. Laser printers also generally have higher duty cycles, making them more suitable for daily, constant use.

Don't give up on that inkjet -- it does some things really well. But when you can buy a quality, business-class laser printer for less than $300 these days, why not have the best of both worlds?

7. Buying Low-Deductible Insurance

Nobody likes to pay an insurance deductible. But it sure beats getting ripped off with sky-high premiums, doesn't it?

Your business will pay more -- often a lot more -- for a property insurance policy with, say, a $100 deductible versus one with a $1,000 deductible. A typical policyholder will go years without filing a claim, so if they chose the lower deductible, the higher premiums will more than eat up that $900 difference.

That doesn't mean it's always a good idea to pick the highest deductible. Look at the difference in the premium, research the likelihood that you'll file a claim, and run some rough cost-benefit calculations. Then make an informed decision.

8. Employee Expense Account Abuse

Padding an expense report is a crime. But it's also ubiquitous -- over four times more likely than other types of financial fraud.

But let's be honest. You don't really want to throw your employees in jail for padding their expense reports. You just want them to stop, and help them make the right decisions.

There are lots of ways to avoid expense account rip-offs, such as putting in place written policies, formal reviews, and the use of corporate charge cards. Some of the best tools, however, are online expense-management products such as Concurand Certify, which make it easy for even small businesses to track and manage employee expenses.

Whatever you do, make sure your employees know your expense policies, as well as the consequences for violating them. When everybody knows the rules, they're far more likely to play by them.

9. Overpaying for Mobile Service

Wireless service providers are notorious for nickel-and-diming their customers. That includes all kinds of taxes, fees, and surcharges that tack about 14.5 percent onto the average bill. Multiply that by the number of employees at your company, and you've got the makings of a huge rip-off. Even worse, you're likely chained to a plan that offers either too much or too little coverage for your needs, meaning you're either overpaying for your plan or getting stiffed by overage charges.

There are lots of ways to ensure that you don't pay too much for your employees' mobile service, but two of them are especially helpful. First, all of the major providers offer discounts to employees of companies that use their service. That could save up to 20 percent a month -- big money if you subsidize employees' mobile plans.

Second, check out services like BillShrink and Validas, which will actually analyze your company's monthly mobile bills and recommend the least expensive service option based on your needs. It takes just a few minutes, and it could save you thousands of dollars a year in mobile-service costs.

10. Business Travel Rip-Offs

U.S. companies now spend more than $200 billion a year on business travel. Too much of that is wasted on a wide variety of rip-offs, including the following:

• - insane hotel room telephone charges
• - minibars and food trays that charge you for even touching them
• - airline fees that can add up to 50 percent of the cost of your ticket
• - the rental-car damage waiver very few business travelers will ever need, especially given that coverage is most likely available from your own insurance or your credit card

There are probably as many of these scams as there are business travelers to fall for them. The irony is that low-cost airlines and hotel chains are often less likely to stick you with crazy fees and hidden surcharges, making them even better options for business travelers.

And whatever you do, don't even think of asking a hotel to accept a UPS package for you.

-- Matthew McKenzie

Create Effective Low-Cost Advertising

Every business buyer wish to advertise, but abounding are put off by the abstraction commercial is big-ticket and that bargain commercial methods don't work. It is accurate you do allegation to absorb some money on advertising, but it isn't accurate you allegation to acquire a huge account to actualize a acknowledged commercial campaign. It's aswell a actuality able commercial doesn't amount you money, but makes you money. Able commercial brings a acknowledgment on investment, so it doesn't amount how abundant money you absorb as continued as you get that money aback additional something extra.

So how do you actualize a bargain yet able commercial campaign?

One of the aboriginal things you can do is overlook spending money on actual big ads abounding with colour. There's a acceptance ample colourful advertisements are added able than smaller, apparent ones, if that just isn't true. In abounding cases, the bi-weekly or annual wants you to run a large, colourful ad because they allegation you added for it, and so accomplish added money. But it doesn't amount how ample the ad in actuality is, because it will not accompany in any business if it isn't advised and accounting in the appropriate way.

A acceptable assumption to chase is to overlook aggravating to accomplish a auction anon from your advertising, and move to a lead-generation model. You do this by giving abroad something in acknowledgment for the acquaintance data of your prospect, abnormally an email address. After that you can advertise to them over a continued aeon of time. Application email is abnormally able for this, mainly because it's so cheap, but you can get some abundant after-effects by application absolute mail and postcards.

Once you move to this blazon of advertising, you'll acquisition anon you can cut your ad costs because the ad can be adequately baby and doesn't allegation to acquire abundant colour at all. In fact, a simple atramentous and white advertisement can plan best if demography the advance bearing approach. All you allegation is some simple argument alms some chargeless advice such as a album or report, and again put your abounding affairs bulletin in the address instead of aggravating to do it all in your ad.

And because your ad costs are abate by application this method, you can run added ads. A able address is to actualize an able ad alms the chargeless information, and again run it several times. In fact, already you acquisition an ad that does work, you can run it indefinitely, and that agency even added accumulation because you don't acquire to accumulate creating new ads.

Another simple way to cut your ad costs even added is to artlessly debris to pay the prices the bi-weekly or annual is asking. Everything is accessible to negotiation, and you'll generally acquisition a bi-weekly will acquire a lower action for the commercial space, abnormally as they attempt to get advertisers during the recession.

The acceptable affair about application these techniques is that a lot of businesses will not use them, and if you do, not alone do you get cheaper advertising, you aswell get added able advertising. And that brings in added customers, and eventually added revenue, which can alone be a acceptable thing

CRM Success by the Numbers - Part 8: Golden Years

As your CRM implementation ‘grows up,’ there are a whole lot more numbers that become important. You have to keep your system healthy as it becomes more ‘mature. You certainly don't want your CRM getting 'age spots'… or losing its 'vision.'

As your implementation reaches a ripe old age, which can be as early as 3 to 5 years after the rollout (CRM ‘years’ are a bit like ‘dog’ years that way) you have to make sure it gets a regular physical to keep it in shape and make sure it doesn't lose its ‘muscle.’ You should run all the necessary tests to make sure it is still providing the firm and attorneys with value and ROI.

Here are a few numbers that can help to identify this value:

• Numbers of relationships identified for business development
• Numbers of records categorized to help with targeted marketing
• Reductions in the amount of bounced e-mail communications
• Reduction in the cost of returned mail
• Numbers of key contacts added to mailing or event lists
• Numbers of industry codes added to key contacts

All of these things can help the firm save billable time and money and enhance marketing and business development. The return you will receive on any of these can allow the system to pay for itself in time. In fact, if your CRM system is doing even a few of these things – and none of the attorneys are actively campaigning to toss it out the window – it’s definitely ‘golden.’

Some Very Worrying Facts About SMB Customer Service

Travelling back to Paris recently, I experienced the full range of “customer experiences” – as I inevitably always do – and it is interesting to compare the declining standards of customer service in the UK with the almost non-existent standards in France. In fact my perception is that North America is suffering from the same maliase.

Maybe someone should share with these companies what I am about to share with you …

Did you know that one unhappy customer tells 10 to 15 others about their experience? If it’s really bad they’ll tell the whole world.

For every complaint that could be made, around 20 people don’t bother. This means 20 lost opportunities.

If you handle a complaint badly or with a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude or, worse still, if you hide behind the ‘rule book’, you will lose that customer for good.

You can’t afford to lose even 50 cents because this will mount up according to something known as the “multiplier effect”

The Income Multiplier Effect:

Example:
A potential customer goes into a leisure center which was built last year. The center is trying to build up its customer base. It employs 50 staff, part time and full time, who haven’t received much training in customer service and complaint handling.

The customer asks about booking a gym session for later that day. He doesn’t receive a positive reply and the receptionist’s attitude is very much ‘take it or leave it.’ He shrugs and walks away.

How much has the centre lost in potential revenue?
• $10.00 primary spend – the price of a gym session
• $10.00 secondary spend – a drink, sandwich, possibly a swim, etc.
• $500.00 potential membership fees.

He will tell at least seven people about his bad experience so $520 x 7 = $3,640 It is easy for a small amount of lost income to multiply to dangerous proportions.

Make It Easy For Your Customers To Complain:

Customers may well want to tell you they’re unhappy about something but they either:
• Feel uncomfortable about doing so
• Don’t know how to
• Don’t have time; it’s easier to let it go

So, give them a choice of mechanisms. For example:
• Simple questionnaires with pre-paid postage
• Telephone help line
• Customer service points
• Exit surveys – face to face questions
• Comment cards

Let them know it’s not a waste of time!

What are you going to do with the information? File it away? Shred it for next year’s Christmas decorations?

One company I know maintains a whiteboard in the reception listing the key comments/complaints made by customers, with a note of the action taken, or to be taken and by whom. Customers really feel they are part of the product and service improvement team.

Customers need to know what’s in it for them if they do complain.

Respond quickly to complaints. If you give a number to ring, make sure someone is always there to answer the phone. Reply within two days if that’s what you promised to do.

Have an “escalation procedure” which allows for the more serious complaints to be dealt with by a senior member of staff. Directors need to be accessible; hiding away simply creates suspicion.

Summary:

Unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while the vendors’ interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency.

Fact: It now costs fifteen times as much to locate and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one. That reason alone, should act as sufficient incentive for us to attempt to build brick walls around the relationship in order to deter predatory competitors – and there are plenty of them out there.

By: Jonathan Farrington 

Changing your life by changing your mind

By Sherry

Most of us feel upset and resentful from time to time, and for some that feeling seems to almost always be with us. The word "resent" means literally to refeel, so those who carry resentments are simply replaying unhappy times in their lives over and over again. One lady I worked with at one time kept saying to me, "But how can I feel happy when my husband is gone." I would usually tell her that she could feel sad that he was no longer with her, but she could begin to let go of the constant feelings of grief. She insisted that wasn't possible. She would tell me that no matter how engrosing whatever she was doing was, she would also be thinking of how much she missed her husband and about all the things she wished she had done differently in her life with him..

It is very difficult to shift our thinking from one channel to another, but it can be done with lots and lots of practice. The process can begin with the realization that no matter how hard we work at it, we can not change reality. My patient's husband was not going to come back, and she would never be able to change the way her life with him had been. By spending so much of her energy resenting the fact that he was gone, she was in effect poisoning the current monments in her life. We talked about the fact that her husband would not have wanted her to think that way, and gradually she began to see that she could begin to shift her thinking to more positive thoughts.

Many people allow their thinking to get stuck in certain tracks, and they come to believe that it is not possible to change this. Their take on life is that they feel what they feel, and there is no way to feel differently. In recent years, science has come a long way toward proving that what we think determines what plays out in our lives. It doesn't do so directly, of course, or we would all be winning the lottery all the time. But when we think we are helpless to change our thinking, we find that is true in our lives. When we begin to think about all the ways we might be able to shift our thought processes, we find we can do that occasionally. Since practice makes perfect, we find that our ability to change our thinking can grow.

To give you an example of how this words, I will tell you that my parents lived through the "great depression" just prior to my birth. It colored their lives and I grew up thinking that no matter how much I had, it was never enough. Eventually I realized that my thoughts were always of scarcity, so scarcity was what I attracted to my life. I worked very hard at shifting my thoughts to abundant thinking. I would get mail from many worthy causes asking for donations. In the past, I always felt that I did not have enough to give funds away. Slowly I sifted my thinking to the realization that I might not have much, but I had more than many others, so I opted to share the little I had. Since I was sending out abundant thoughts into the universe, the abundance in my life grew and grew.

If you have decided you want to learn to control your own thoughts (which will indeed change the way you view life and the people in it) you can begin by taking baby steps and progress from there. Whenever, you find your thinking is going around and around like a hampster on a wheel, tell youself that you would like to change the way you are thinking. The way that works best for me is to ask for help from a power greater than myself. I simply say, "Please help me not think this way." It helps if you have some more positive thoughts available. Think about something for which you are grateful. Think, perhaps, about the reward you will give yourself when you have achieved a change in thinking. Above all else, do not be discouraged when your thoughts shift back into an old rut. Simply allow yourself to be aware that this has happened, and try again. It will work if you work at it.