Can’t Airline Customers Get a Little Love?
My opinion is that the United States long ago became a culture in which burdensome business practices underscore a stark, uncaring, cavalier attitude toward our citizens. Today’s news brings, yet again, a call for Federal legislation that prevents airline passengers from being stuck inside planes for more than three hours on the tarmac. This is in reaction to a Continental Express flight (2816) which kept its customers on board for six hours. Instead of moving quickly to give their customers a little love, Continental first pointed its finger to Express Jet Airlines. Express Jet Airlines pointed its finger, in turn, to the Rochester airport.
Finger pointing to wiggle out of responsibility for treating customers decently has long been a theme in American businesses. We’ve been through the “trapped on the tarmac” routine before - two years ago the hue and cry for Federal legislation arose when passengers on a JetBlue flight waited an interminable eleven hours on the ground at JFK. Two years later, it’s happened again for a long enough period of time to get media exposure.
Frankly, if businesses would decide to take responsibility for treating customers with care, politeness, and concern there wouldn’t be such pressure to legislate things like how long passengers must sit on a plane before the business that took their money treated them like humans instead of cogs in a machine. Lest I be thought of as coming down too heavy on businesses, however, let me quickly point out that our government engages in the same reactive posturing. Also in today’s news? A call for “tighter airspace rules” around New York City after a small plane crashed into a helicopter carrying Italian tourists. The story created yet another merry-go-round of opinions and finger-pointing. Read more
Google and Future of Information and Copyright
On Wednesday, news broke of Google finally receiving a patent for their “graphical user interface.” The patent, five years in the making, puzzled just about everyone; how could something so simple require a patent? A day earlier, stories swirled of a popular Apple app developer who had his application rejected by the company because a feature in his product was too similar to their ubiquitous “chat bubbles,” which Apple claimed they have trademarked. The common thread between the stories is the topic of intellectual property rights, which has become increasingly popular in wake of the rise of social media.
With the help of Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and more, information can spread across the world in a matter of minutes. We can access these programs from our phones, computers and iPods and know what’s going on before it even reaches the mainstream media. With all of these different methods, it’s easy for the true source to be lost in the shuffle. People can claim ownership of something, and the owner may never find out. The opportunity for someone to start a blog and essentially aggregate content from just about anywhere has troubled the news industry especially.
Any Good Ideas? Lets discuss them
So you think you’re ready to tackle your own business? You seem to have everything under control and on par, but what’s your business idea? Where is your mind-set? Are you thinking on your customer’s expectations? What are about your demographics? Sometimes you may find that you are your own biggest fan. Now that may not be so bad, as long as you aren’t your only fan!
Now that you’re ready, what is your next step? Most new comers have problems with that next phase as well so don’t be discouraged. I want to take a minute to give you a few tips on how to create wonderful business ideas that will assist in getting you off the ground and running.
Get Feedback: One of the steps taken when you visit us at The Corporate Company, is we get to serve as your feedback! Your ideas need objectivity and our strategy experts ask all the right questions; the pros and the cons with hopes of spurring the right patterns of thought that specifically affect your customer as well as your operation.
Get Great Holiday Sales With Liquidation Jewelry
The holidays are closing in. If you are trying to make some extra money on holiday sales the key may be in knowing what to resell.
Liquidation Jewelry
The first thing to think of is how much people love jewelry, especially women. There are a few reasons that jewelry is so popular. The first is because it is something that can be shown off all the time. It’s not some one-time gift that people only see during the holidays, but you can show it off and brag about it all year round.
Essentially, jewelry translates to a present that was picked out specifically for someone and was a personal gesture towards them, since it is worn on the body.
But, what kind of jewelry should you sell? There are a few options.
Economy
The first types of jewelry you should look at are the lower end items. This is not to say that people are trying to be cheap and buy low cost items for their loved ones, but unfortunately this year has been a little painful economically for some people. They are going to have to purchase items in the lower price ranges because they can’t afford anything higher in price.
Liquidation New Years Goods
If you make a good portion of your money on online seasonal sales or even with a flea market booth that changes by the season, you are likely only focused on Christmas, Hanukkah and the other December holidays right now. While this is smart, as people are doing all of their holiday shopping still, you need to plan a head a bit to make sure you are ready for the next rush – New Year’s Eve.
This year, people are really going to be looking forward to a new year. 2008 has been a rough one with the failing economy and economic pain and strain for almost everyone. The idea of moving into a new year is a feeling of clearing the slate for many. It’s a chance to start over, put the old year behind us and enjoy a new year. This is going to drive a lot of people to really try to do the New Year right.
Doing the New Year right generally means having a party to count down the seconds until 2008 is gone and the next year has begun. So, how does this come into play for your business? If you can get your hands on liquidation and cheap wholesale New Year’s items, people will come to you when they need those supplies for their New Year’s festivities.
Liquidation Holiday Goods for Holiday Sales
When it comes to running a business, have you considered the idea of running a business for just a season? There are some businesses you can do that with and one of them needs to get going right now. It’s a Holiday business.
Whether you are running a flea market booth, an online shop or just selling on eBay, the holidays are coming and people love to decorate and buy for them.
The catch this year is the economy. While people still want to do things like they normally do, they may be a little more worried about their financial situation this time around. This means they are holding back on the money they had to spend for the things they would have splurged on a year ago.
This is where your business can come in. If you can offer things at a lower price than people would normally be able to get them, they may well be willing to make a purchase from you so they can enjoy the holidays like they wanted to.
Why You Should Have It In Writing
There is an old saying in the West that says that if the preacher talks too much about stealing, better sneak out a little early, race home and lock the cellar!
The same holds for the good old boy that says, Ah, we don’t need to have a contract. You can trust me. The most innocent reasons for putting something in writing are that frankly each of us forgets, changes our minds or some folk just plain lie!
Robert Ringer famously said in the 70’s, If you have it in writing, you have a prayer. If you don’t have it in writing you just have air! Sadly, old Bobby was right more times than wrong.
A Contract is a meeting of the minds. When two people finally have that, it means that they think the same thing, or at least at that moment in time they think that they think the same thought! So a good thought is to write that good thought down in black and white so both parties can look at it. When you both see it in those bold letters and it is really what you both were thinking, then you really do have a contract. The final touch is when each of you put your John Hancock’s on the dotted line.
Advantages of Investing in a Franchised Business
1. Tried and True
When you invest in an already created business model, you can have confidence the business will be successful if you work hard and follow the franchisor’s instructions. Franchised businesses typically have a proven track record of success and can support nationwide expansion.
2. Trusted Brand
Another big advantage of owning your own franchise business is that you are investing in an already recognizable brand. Unlike other small business owners who have to build recognition and a reputation, your business is likely to already be nationally known and recognized.
3. Higher Success Rate
Less than 5% of franchised businesses fail every year in the U.S. This is drastically lower than the percent of regular small business ventures that fail. For this reason alone, purchasing a franchised business is one of the most secure investments you can make.
Nothing Happens Until Something Moves
“Nothing happens until something moves.”-Albert Einstein
You must take action to be successful in your life and especially in your business, that is if you want to see results. What kind of action should you take and when?
First: You need a clear vision of what you want to achieve and affirm it in your thoughts as a belief -knowledge that you can have it. This sets off a process which inevitably brings your intention into the physical world. This process is beyond our control, and is all to do with the way we, and the universe we inhabit, are set up. It might seem, on the surface, that we are all individuals, isolated from each other and standing alone in a huge, complex and hostile universe. But the reality is that we are not separate - all the great teachers throughout history have said this -. There is only one intelligence - we can call it the Universal Mind - and we are manifestations of that intelligence. Our minds are to the Universal Mind as a drop of water is to the ocean - they are made of the same stuff. Our subconscious mind is where everything happens.
In The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy explores how everything is possible to us through this part of our mind, and this is so because our subconscious mind is open at both ends. On one side, it is open to the conscious, thinking, directing mind; on the other side, it is open to the Universal Mind. Our conscious mind’s job is to think, and our subconscious mind’s job is to actualize those thoughts - to bring them into reality. It does this by accessing the Universal Mind. Our thoughts and our beliefs, then, are the key to creating our experience of life.
The Customer Isn’t Always No. 1
Customers expect small businesses to provide the best customer service. However, by holding on to the old customer service strategy that the customer is No. 1, many small businesses have failed potentially loyal customers and watched their sales stagnate, retention erode, and repeat business dwindle. What small businesses need is a fresh approach. They need to realize that it’s their own employees who should be treated as No. 1.
Who knows how to handle customers better than your frontline employees? They regularly see and hear customer complaints and, if you listen to them, they usually have the best solutions.
To deliver a world-class customer service experience, businesses need to build their approach and strategies around those who execute it. It can be as simple as listening to employee suggestions and incorporating them into the larger picture. If you want to take it a step further, give them the power to think independently to instantly solve customer problems.