Endorse Provides Targeting and Analytics for Coupon Users |  |
- Endorse Provides Targeting and Analytics for Coupon Users
- Five Ways to Sabotage Your Liability Protection After Incorporation
- Managing Employees and Co-Workers in Cyberspace
- How To Communicate With A Client After You’ve Dropped The Ball
- Business Blogger Test-Drives Nexus 7
| Endorse Provides Targeting and Analytics for Coupon Users Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT Consumers have been using coupons for years, but with all of today's online and mobile technology, there has to be an easier way for consumers to get discounts. And for brands, there has to be a better way to target discounts and offers to their best customers.
Endorse is an online and mobile couponing service that offers consumers between 10 and 100% off their favorite products and brands. For businesses, this service can provide detailed information about the consumers that select and use discounts when buying their products, so that they can better tailor future offers to their target market. Traditionally, consumers have always had to go through newspapers or ads and clip coupons, which they then hand to a cashier who puts them in their cash drawer. This process does not give the company any information about the consumers who use their coupons other than how many. With Endorse, brands can view detailed data about where the purchases were made and aggregate demographics data about its users. The app actually works a little bit different than coupons. When consumers go to a store, they can open up the mobile app and view discounts on various items. Then they make their purchases and take a photo of the receipt. Endorse tracks the items that should be discounted and then credits the consumer's account with the appropriate amount of funds. Endorse reimburses consumers for their discounts once their account reaches $25. In addition, Endorse connects with Facebook, so brands can use those targeting tools to better reach their target market while also learning about their customers. So for brands that want to entice consumers with discounts, but don't have the funds to send out mailers or purchase ads in newspapers, Endorse allows you to not only target the consumers who are more likely to buy your products and use your discounts, but to save money and continue to learn more about your consumers and which promotions can make your company the most money. From Small Business Trends |
| Five Ways to Sabotage Your Liability Protection After Incorporation Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT Many new business owners understand that incorporating or forming a Limited Liability Company (LLC) helps shield a business owner against being held personally responsible for their company's liabilities and debts. This is known as the corporate shield or corporate veil as it separates your personal assets from those of the business.
However, did you know that even after incorporating or forming an LLC, you can still be personally liable? Liability protection is not absolute and there are several instances where a business owner can be personally liable in business despite the fact he or she created a business entity. Here are five of the most common ways this can happen: 1. Negligence and Personal Liability In many situations, the limited liability protection from an LLC or corporation will not shield you from being liable for your own personal negligence. A person is typically liable for his or her own personal conduct when that conduct injures someone else. For example, if an electrician installs some wiring in a customer's home and forgets to cap a live wire, the electrician can be personally liable if someone gets electrocuted. Likewise, if you're driving to a client meeting in a company car and are negligent and hit someone, you can be personally liable for any injuries and damages. 2. Fraud If you make untrue claims about a product or service, this is considered fraud. For example, if you're marketing a milkshake supplement and guarantee that customers will shed 20 pounds per month just by drinking it, this could be a clear case of misrepresentation or fraud. If you claim that your glass container is BPA-free (when actually it does contain BPA), this also is fraud. In such cases, both the manufacturer as well as the company selling the product may be liable. 3. Personal Guarantee on Business Loans When you first start your business, many third parties and creditors won't be willing to do business with your LLC or Corp, as the entity is brand new and probably does not have a lot of assets or hasn't built its own credit history yet. As a result, a bank or landlord may require the business owner or LLC member to "personally guarantee" a loan or lease. If you sign such an agreement, then you will be personally liable for those specific obligations. 4. "Piercing the Corporate Veil" Many new business owners form an LLC or Corporation and then continue to operate their business as if that business entity didn't exist. It's very important that you follow through with all corporate formalities required for your LLC or corporation. For example:
You've got to make sure that your corporation or LLC remains in good standing. Why? Because if your business happens to be sued and the plaintiff shows you haven't maintained your LLC/Inc to the letter of the law, your corporate veil is pierced and you can be personally liable again. 5. Conducting Business Out of State If you'll be conducting business in a state other than the state where you formed your corporation or LLC, you will need to obtain authority to do so. In most cases, this entails qualifying as a Foreign Corporation or LLC within the state that you will be doing business. Specific licenses and permits may also be required for certain types of businesses as well. For example, let's say you run a small software development company based in Nevada and your company serves clients located outside Nevada. At this point your company is most likely not considered to be operating out of state. However, once you open a small development office with a few employees in California, your business will probably be considered to be doing business in California and you will have to file a Statement and Designation by Foreign Corporation form with California. As a small business owner, your schedule is invariably busy. However, being mindful of this list can help you keep your LLC or corporation's limited liability protection intact. Stay informed about your state's ongoing compliance requirements and get your paperwork in on time. Don't engage in any fraud and consult a lawyer if you have any specific questions or concerns. A little proactive maintenance will help ensure your LLC or corporation remains in good standing and continues to shield your personal assets for years to come. Sabotage Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Managing Employees and Co-Workers in Cyberspace Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT Managing your employees can be difficult enough when they're right in your office and you've all got constant access to each other. You can meet face to face and connect with your workers right then and there, and you have a better grasp on the "people" side of your business.
Startups that have a physical location enjoy this personal aspect, too—you may be doing business internationally, but if your entire team is a paper ball toss away from each other, you'll definitely feel more secure in your management needs. If your company is online, your employees are scattered across the country, or you're starting up and can't secure a physical space for your business, employee management is even harder—that personal element can completely disappear when you aren't actually in the same place at the same time. Thankfully, the Internet has enabled these kinds of location-less businesses to not only start up, but thrive and succeed without additional physical overhead. Managing your employees through virtual-only interaction can be tough to wrap your head around at first, but it can be done, and it can be done very well. Here are some examples I've learned from years of experience using freelancers-as-employees to get my business off the ground. Traditional Management Methods Still WorkYou can set up training videos, corporate seminars, workbooks and manuals for your virtual business just as easily, if not more easily than you can in physical space. If you've spent a lot of time iterating and improving your training resources, they'll effectively bring new hires and shifting employees into the fold quickly and easily. Virtual training materials also drastically decrease production costs since everything is digital, so you can spend more time creating highly-valuable training material and pay for it with the savings you're earning from not printing and publishing it all. Communication is Key: Be Forward and Be OpenIn a virtual work environment, your employees won't have your constant supervision—no eyes peeking over their shoulders, no popping into a cubicle to see how things are going. You can still keep tabs on where your employees are in their workday, though, by adapting those supervision checks to your virtual space. Use your communication outlets effectively and often, and message or email your employees regularly for a "mutual update," where you're not only checking in on what they're up to, but you're initiating an opportunity for them to get your attention and bring you up to speed on their own thoughts and concerns. Communication is a two-way street, so keep your communication lines open. Inspiring Trust Through Assignments and Mini-Deadlines Happy employees are employees that feel like their responsibilities matter, and you can make every assignment count by simply trusting them with it rather than beating them over the head with constant checks and updates. You might be surprised at how differently your employees will interpret your assignments when you say "do this" as opposed to "I need this from you." Simple commands via text or email can make employees think you're upset with them. Identifying your needs and implicitly trusting them to meet them makes your employees feel like they have your complete trust. That sense of trust is improved if you give a realistic, tangible deadline to the assignment to boot. Setting your goalpost or deadline 24 or 48 hours in advance gives your employees the freedom to get it done on their own terms, whether it's at 2pm or 2am. Learn Your Employees' Weaknesses, Help Them Turn Those Into StrengthsIf you have a relatively small but growing base of employees, you can encourage personal growth as a part of growing your business by helping them learn how to do new things and reach outside their comfort zones. Give your employees an opportunity to identify their weaknesses and strengths, then let them build experience in those weak areas through their work for you. Don't just take advantage of what they're already good at: give them an opportunity to impress you, and themselves as well. This is another great trust-building exercise that creates a sense of co-ownership of new achievements and successes between you and your employees. This is hard to scale to a large number of employees, but if you're only dealing with a few individuals, you can create a tight-knit community within your virtual workplace this way. Ultimately, your goals for building trust in a virtual workplace shouldn't be to simply emulate physical workplace procedures and techniques. You should identify the strengths and weaknesses within your company at the individual and the team level. Find interesting, unorthodox ways to address those with the online services and products you use for your everyday operations. Don't ever hesitate to make your virtual workspace a personal space: instead of being stuffy and overly professional, be casual, easy to talk to, and understanding of others. The Internet is a wild place, especially if it's where you work. Don't be afraid to embrace that: be unique, try new things, and let yourself and your employees enjoy the freedoms of working in a digital environment. Team Management Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| How To Communicate With A Client After You’ve Dropped The Ball Posted: 16 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT You have earned the client's business. You're working on their project. And then the bottom falls out: your computer crashes or your files get hacked, your key players leave the company or you just slipped up on the communication and now your client feels ignored and neglected.
What do you? Cut your loses, but fix the problem so that it doesn't happen with the next client? Well, don't write the unhappy client off too quickly. There's a chance that you can salvage the situation. Besides, the greatest measure of our character and tenacity is how we deal when things go wrong. When Things Go Wrong Our fight or flight instincts kick in. You get ready to escape, sometimes, by any means necessary. Have you seen these escape tactics before?
You’re the point and because of that, you don’t get to hide. You don't get to wait for somebody else to figure it out — you fix it. But remember, you don't have to do everything, but you do have to set the strategy, and most importantly, set the standard. And that begins with communication. It’s Time For A Series Of Difficult Conversations To be effective as you communicate with your disgruntled client, pay attention to 4 core steps: 1.) Accept the Mistake Investigate the situation — immediately. Get clear about everything that happened, and then get organized. You want to know:
Don't just guess at it; talk to every team member involved — as quickly as possible. Besides, you can only make the best decision once you understand the situation. If you're a one man or one woman show, then you don't have to go far to get the details. But before you react, put yourself in your client's shoes. You know what it feels like to be on the other side of the counter. But when you're the one providing the service or the product, make sure you understand and respect their concerns. This simple decision will temper your communication; it will help you to respond with their interest in mind — and not just to save face. 2.) Automate the Communication Keep the conversation flowing. This is not the time to hide. In fact, the decision to communicate consistently is the difference between creating a loyal customer or an angry, vocal, ex-shopper. When you discover the mistake, be proactive:
After a service provider drops the ball with their client, the number one complaint I hear is that "they won't return my call." Your client wants to hear from you. They want a realistic time frame for when the issue will be resolved. They want a concession for the mistake. They want to be heard. And yes, they may want their money back. The sooner you address the issue by solving the problem or giving a concession that they can live with, the sooner you can move on. We understand that businesses are run by people and sometimes people make mistakes. When your company make the mistake, don't hide — communicate. Do you automatically dump every company that makes a mistake? If you don't, why not? For most, the answer lies in how the company deals with them after the fact. 3.) Advise The Team On How To Handle Their Phone Calls Your team needs to know how to handle that client's phone call. Everybody can't and shouldn't know everything, but you can tell the receptionist to always forward Mr.X's phone call to the following people. Remember, you don't want to leave that client hanging any more. So don't force them to re-explain their story over and over again. You inform your team on the situation and how to move. By having an informed team you can keep from adding insult to injury. 4.) Attack the Situation, Not The Person It's natural to want to protect yourself, but since you made the mistake, then you cannot honor your flight response by running away. Stand and deal directly. You also have to address the fight response; instead of attacking the client — passive aggressively — attack the situation. Take this position:
Then do the work to keep your word. Even if you still loose the client's business, you have found a leak and fixed it so that you don't loose others. With the right kind of communication you can salvage most business relationships. But it takes consistency and sincere concern to turn it around. Businessman Hiding Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Business Blogger Test-Drives Nexus 7 Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT The Nexus 7 creates a more mobile environment for small business. Working while on the go has tremendous value for entrepreneurs, obviously. The new device offers value in terms of time and productivity at a budget price not possible with other tools like the iPad. Here’s what you should know about Google’s Nexus 7 and mobile business technology today. Nexus 7 BasicsBlog from anywhere. Imagine being able to blog from anywhere on a device smaller and more mobile than a laptop or notebook and less expensive than an iPad. One business blogger has been running some tests to see how effective the latest, least expensive tablet is for creating content while on the go. Jim Connolly Dot Com Still not a smartphone. If you’re one of those business owners trying to maximize the functions attainable with your mobile tablet, here’s a look at how the Nexus 7 can even be used to place and receive phone calls, just like a mobile phone. The Droid Guy The Nexus 7 revolution. Google’s flagship mobile device may be the most revolutionary tablet released in recent months. But whether it’s the game changer predicted by some, with unprecedented mobility and affordability, remains to be seen. Here are opinions from some experts. ZDNet Other OptionsMicrosoft competition surfaces. Rumors claim the new Microsoft surface may come in at a price competitive with the already impressive Nexus 7. The rumored pricing, if true, will put even more affordable mobile devices in the hands of users, including small business owners. CNET The iPad mini mystery. One wild card in the future of tablets and other mobile technology for business users is still the anticipated iPad Mini. Questions about the mobility, effectiveness, and price of the device persist. Here’s some of the information collected thus far. 9 to 5 Mac More ReviewsNot just another user experience. You’ll want to read this detailed review of the Nexus 7 if you haven’t tried one out already. Gerrit Vermeulen calls the Nexus 7 an “excellent tablet at an outrageously competitive price.” He advises getting your hands on one, if you have the chance. MyBroadBand Everything’s obsolete. Or at least Amazon’s Kindle Fire and the Apple iPad could be soon. It looks like everybody’s happy with the functionality, mobility, and price of the Nexus 7. The device has opened up a whole new market of users and surely entrepreneurs will be among them. WPTV.com From Small Business Trends |
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