Hiring an employee can be a big step for many small business owners. It means the end of doing EVERYTHING yourself and passing off some of the work!
In order to make the experience rewarding for both you and your employees there are a few things that every boss and leader should do…
1) Reward people for a job well done. Its frustrating working for someone who enjoys all the financial rewards of the efforts put forth by the entire team, especially if they don't recognize what everyone has accomplished and contributed.
It doesn't take much to acknowledge the effort of your staff. It makes a HUGE difference in the working atmosphere when you take a few moments to acknowledge your team. People like to know that they've done a good job.
2) Always provide a balance between positive and negative comments. Your job as a leader is to recognize the talents of those around you and feed them with the motivation and positive energy to take YOUR ideas to entirely new levels. Help them serve you better by building up their confidence... not tearing it down.
3) Step up and accept responsibility for your projects. At the end of the day if things don't go according to plan, in my opinion, the responsibility falls onto the leader's shoulders. Stand up and accept the responsibility should anything ever go wrong.
If your staff always bear the burden of projects gone bad, it will drag people down and destroy your working environment. Start contributing to the emotional bank account of those around you.
If you acknowledge the behavior you want to see more of, you'll start seeing more of it. Be positive and accept some responsibility when things don't go according to plan.
4) When you have good people it's your responsibility as a leader to hold on to them. People with talent will take your company to entirely new levels but if they keep leaving, the growth of your company will be stinted.
People with skills know that they have options. Hanging the carrot of a potential big pay day will only work for a certain period of time. After a while it wears off and they start looking elsewhere. The last thing you want is for them to end up with your competition.
So the moral of the story is find good people, train them, treat them well, and your business will take off.
Posts tonen met het label business. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label business. Alle posts tonen
vrijdag 18 september 2009
dinsdag 15 september 2009
2 Step Marketing
Do it Right.
I receive postcards all the time. The other day I received a postcard trying to sell me a copy machine. It had tiny, tiny lettering slathered all over the front and a large portion of the back of the card.
It was extremely hard to read, so hard in fact that I threw it away.
Several days later I received a postcard with 32 words on it telling me that I could get complete information on unrestricted long distance telephone service for 5.5 cents a minute with no additional monthly fee by calling the 800 number on the card.
I did call. I got the information, had my questions answered and ordered my long distance service changed.
The company who offered me the long distance service was using a time tested 2 step selling process:
Step 1. Generate a lead - Get me to call their 800 number.
Step 2. Provide the requested information - Provided to me on the phone by one of their sales representatives, who was able to answer my questions and make me feel confident that I could save quite a bit of money on my long distance bill and that the service would be as good or better.
What's So Good About 2 Steps?
It is much easier to create interest (a lead) than it is to get a person through an entire buying process (a sale).
You aren't getting the prospect or existing customer to part with any money just yet.
You can use postcards to inexpensively promote to your target prospects and customers and generate leads (inquiries about your products and services) to then be followed up on and converted to sales.
This 2 step process also helps you to create a list of people who were interested enough in what you offered to contact you.
You can then recontact the one's who you didn't complete a sale with when they first inquired, preferably until they do buy from you.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to get the information you will need to recontact the people who responded to your postcard offering.
Repetitive follow-ups with the people who contacted you will result in increased sales. Make it a company policy to follow up with those people who contacted you about your products and services.
The Most Effective Use of Postcards:
The purpose of your postcard's message is to generate a sufficient level of interest in the mind of your prospect to get him/her to contact you to ask you about your offer.
You are generating interest, not collecting their money (not yet anyway). That is what the 2 step marketing process is about. Generating interested prospects and customers who contact you for more information.
Your message needs 3 parts to be most effective:
1. A clear statement of the biggest benefit of your product or service (in the long distance example, it was cost savings).
2. A good reason for them to contact you NOW.
3. A simple, easy way for them to respond (an 800 number for example).
Your message should be short and to the point. Short messages on postcards produce more leads than long ones.
For example:
Call 800-555-1212 for Your Copy of Our Free Report:
What 99% of Business Owners Don't Know and Will Never Find Out About Using Postcards to Explode Their Profits
Offer ends 5-5-01 (Print a date 3 weeks from your mailing date to create some urgency)
Lots of people will respond to find out what they might not know. Don't forget, they responded, which is least some interest in the information you have created a curiosity about.
This method works and is sure to produce a large number of inquiries if sent to your proper market.
This 2 Step Marketing Process Works.
Use the tips you have read here to create your next postcard's message and see what happens.
You will generate a bunch of leads from people who are truly interested in your products and services.
I receive postcards all the time. The other day I received a postcard trying to sell me a copy machine. It had tiny, tiny lettering slathered all over the front and a large portion of the back of the card.
It was extremely hard to read, so hard in fact that I threw it away.
Several days later I received a postcard with 32 words on it telling me that I could get complete information on unrestricted long distance telephone service for 5.5 cents a minute with no additional monthly fee by calling the 800 number on the card.
I did call. I got the information, had my questions answered and ordered my long distance service changed.
The company who offered me the long distance service was using a time tested 2 step selling process:
Step 1. Generate a lead - Get me to call their 800 number.
Step 2. Provide the requested information - Provided to me on the phone by one of their sales representatives, who was able to answer my questions and make me feel confident that I could save quite a bit of money on my long distance bill and that the service would be as good or better.
What's So Good About 2 Steps?
It is much easier to create interest (a lead) than it is to get a person through an entire buying process (a sale).
You aren't getting the prospect or existing customer to part with any money just yet.
You can use postcards to inexpensively promote to your target prospects and customers and generate leads (inquiries about your products and services) to then be followed up on and converted to sales.
This 2 step process also helps you to create a list of people who were interested enough in what you offered to contact you.
You can then recontact the one's who you didn't complete a sale with when they first inquired, preferably until they do buy from you.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to get the information you will need to recontact the people who responded to your postcard offering.
Repetitive follow-ups with the people who contacted you will result in increased sales. Make it a company policy to follow up with those people who contacted you about your products and services.
The Most Effective Use of Postcards:
The purpose of your postcard's message is to generate a sufficient level of interest in the mind of your prospect to get him/her to contact you to ask you about your offer.
You are generating interest, not collecting their money (not yet anyway). That is what the 2 step marketing process is about. Generating interested prospects and customers who contact you for more information.
Your message needs 3 parts to be most effective:
1. A clear statement of the biggest benefit of your product or service (in the long distance example, it was cost savings).
2. A good reason for them to contact you NOW.
3. A simple, easy way for them to respond (an 800 number for example).
Your message should be short and to the point. Short messages on postcards produce more leads than long ones.
For example:
Call 800-555-1212 for Your Copy of Our Free Report:
What 99% of Business Owners Don't Know and Will Never Find Out About Using Postcards to Explode Their Profits
Offer ends 5-5-01 (Print a date 3 weeks from your mailing date to create some urgency)
Lots of people will respond to find out what they might not know. Don't forget, they responded, which is least some interest in the information you have created a curiosity about.
This method works and is sure to produce a large number of inquiries if sent to your proper market.
This 2 Step Marketing Process Works.
Use the tips you have read here to create your next postcard's message and see what happens.
You will generate a bunch of leads from people who are truly interested in your products and services.
vrijdag 14 augustus 2009
3 Tips For Choosing A Payment Gateway: Collecting Money Online
As a consumer, when you check out of your local convenience store, you may swipe your credit card through a point-of-sale device and your gas, coffee, and donut are paid. But what if you are the retailer and your business is online? It’s not like you have a card-swiping device at every customer’s PC! There must be a way for you to process that information. Essentially, that is the job that a payment gateway does for online retailers. Roy Banks, president of http://Authorize.net, a leader in the payment gateway industry, describes his company’s function as “the digital version of a hardware point of sale terminal.”
What is a Payment Gateway?
Payment gateways allow online merchants such as eStore owners or auction sellers to accept credit card payments over the internet. They authorize the cardholder’s credit—that is, they check to ensure that the customer has enough money on their credit card to cover the charges. They then place a hold on that amount so the buyer can’t turn around and spend that same money elsewhere before it gets transferred to the retailer’s merchant account. Banks describes this as “the technology…necessary to consummate a payment transaction.”
A Payment Gateway is NOT a Merchant Account.
Many people confuse merchant accounts with payment gateways but they are not the same. Merchant account services act, for the most part, as a liaison between your business bank account and the payment gateway. When a customer orders a product from your online business their card is processed via the payment gateway. The money is then moved over to the merchant account service. The merchant account service then moves those newly captured funds to your business bank account.
3 Tips for choosing a Payment Gateway:
1. Is it PCI-compliant? That means that the company’s security has been audited by a third party and found to be up to industry standards. Since payment gateways store all your customers’ credit card information (sparing you the stress), it also means you can sleep better at night, knowing your customers’ valuable information is safe and sound.
2. Good customer support. ‘Nuf said.
3.Lastly, it is important that the payment gateway you choose be integrated to the third-party solutions you are planning to use. That means things like store front platforms and shopping carts—you want them to be compatible with your gateway.
Payment gateways will not only allow you to collect the monies from your sales, many also offer an array of security features, some of which will help you avoid becoming a victim of fraudulent orders! In the end, they will make your ecommerce business a less-stressful, more pleasant experience—for both you and your customers.
What is a Payment Gateway?
Payment gateways allow online merchants such as eStore owners or auction sellers to accept credit card payments over the internet. They authorize the cardholder’s credit—that is, they check to ensure that the customer has enough money on their credit card to cover the charges. They then place a hold on that amount so the buyer can’t turn around and spend that same money elsewhere before it gets transferred to the retailer’s merchant account. Banks describes this as “the technology…necessary to consummate a payment transaction.”
A Payment Gateway is NOT a Merchant Account.
Many people confuse merchant accounts with payment gateways but they are not the same. Merchant account services act, for the most part, as a liaison between your business bank account and the payment gateway. When a customer orders a product from your online business their card is processed via the payment gateway. The money is then moved over to the merchant account service. The merchant account service then moves those newly captured funds to your business bank account.
3 Tips for choosing a Payment Gateway:
1. Is it PCI-compliant? That means that the company’s security has been audited by a third party and found to be up to industry standards. Since payment gateways store all your customers’ credit card information (sparing you the stress), it also means you can sleep better at night, knowing your customers’ valuable information is safe and sound.
2. Good customer support. ‘Nuf said.
3.Lastly, it is important that the payment gateway you choose be integrated to the third-party solutions you are planning to use. That means things like store front platforms and shopping carts—you want them to be compatible with your gateway.
Payment gateways will not only allow you to collect the monies from your sales, many also offer an array of security features, some of which will help you avoid becoming a victim of fraudulent orders! In the end, they will make your ecommerce business a less-stressful, more pleasant experience—for both you and your customers.
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