Entrepreneurs: Simple Answers to the Big Questions

    Is great customer service worth the cost? How much should you pay yourself? Do you need a building? Take it or leave it, you’ll find here answers to these questions and more; the universal questions of startup and small business owners.   How much money should I have available when I start a business? As much as possible. Many entrepreneurs and business gurus will tell you that you should have enough money to sustain your business for a year without profit. If you want to be on the safe side, try 2 or 3 years worth of secured working capital. That may be out of the question, which is why many business owners just have to pray that revenue overwhelms cost sooner, rather than later.   Should I bootstrap my business? If you have the means, you’re ultimately better off bootstrapping because this means you won’t be indebted …

6 Common Email Templates for Professionals

    A personalized message is always the best way to connect with people, whether they are colleagues, friends, or customers. But if you’re short on time, or not sure what to say, these prepared templates are a great way to get the message across quickly and clearly.   Thank You for Your Business Thank you for choosing (your business)! You are not just a number. We greatly value our customers, and we hope to continue to fulfill your needs for as long as you’re with us. We appreciate your business very much. Come visit us again soon!   Delayed Response I apologize for my delayed response. I hope that you don’t take my tardiness as disrespect because I’m glad that you have reached out. Thanks for taking the time to contact me.   Angry Customer Thank you for getting in touch with us, (customer’s name). I regret very much …

4 Extraordinary Stories of Great Customer Service

    These are exceptional examples that give us a standard which anyone who works in customer service can strive to achieve. Though we may not be able to make such extraordinary gestures towards our customers every day, of course, these examples show that great customer service can have a powerful effect.   Banker Gives Away $400 of Her Own Money This is an old story. On a Friday like any other, a man was scrambling to get to his bank on time so that he could withdraw money that he would need imminently. His situation was dire because he had just learned that his mother had died, and he needed to get on a plane as soon as possible. As the bank was about to close, the branch manager showed remarkable generosity out of concern for the man’s terrible circumstances. She withdrew $400 from the ATM out of her …

5 Products that Your Business Can Learn From

    One of the best ways to dial-in your product is to learn from those who have already discovered ways to be successful. The products you’ll see here have capitalized on established marketing psychology, provided solutions for the needs of our modern world, and created unique innovations to win over large numbers of consumers. There are valuable lessons to be learned from each one that you can apply to the products of your own business.   Etsy.com Etsy is a useful example to all businesses, primarily for one reason: It is an excellent example of finding a differentiator and making it work for you. Etsy is one of Amazon’s many competitors, but it is one of the top competitors because it employs some of the best bits of Amazon, such as quick, seamless purchasing and a responsive UI, while offering customers a flavor all its own. People go to …

Facts About Phone Numbers

A Little History & Fun Facts About Phone Numbers

They used to start with letters. Up until about the 1950s, phone numbers were alphanumeric, eventually settling on a 2-letter, 5-number system that usually identified the region of the phone number and also aimed to make it more memorable. This system had to be done away with for a few reasons, one of which was due to the confusion that arose from telling someone letters that sounded like other letters, causing people to get the wrong number. Another reason was simply because you just couldn’t make as many combinations using the letters, as you could by using digits—then they had to add even more digits with the introduction of area codes. The most expensive phone number. (866) 666-6666 currently belongs to a limousine service in New York City, and to register this sought-after number must not have been any small feat. Not long ago, the cellphone number 666-6666 (area code …

How to Speak Professionally on the Phone

For most of us, there’s not much science to it; we pick up the phone, we start talking. Even if you have a naturally soothing voice that reassures and delights everyone who hears it, you can still benefit from the techniques and suggestions below, for not only the tone that you use, but also for your choice of words—and even your timing. Tone Even & Calm If you can manage to keep your voice calm, clear, and even at all times, this is at the core of achieving a professional tone and attitude. It’s what people expect from someone who is representing a business. Additionally, keeping an even tone of voice is one of your best weapons for handling a customer who is upset. Polite & Patient, yet Confident It’s basically the Holy Grail for a customer support representative: The ability to be always polite to the customer, no matter …

5 Ways You Can Stand Out from Your Competitors

  Do you have a lot of competitors, and are having trouble setting your business apart from the rest? Your potential customers are waiting to see some selling point that defines you as the better choice of all the options for your product or service. There are a few key strategies that you can use to start gaining the advantage over your competitors. 1. Superior Customer Service Excellent customer support cannot be over-emphasized, and it is exactly the thing that turns out to be the Achilles’ heel of many businesses. The unfortunate tendency is to provide customer service that is barely sufficient, only to show that you have some level of support to appease your customers, and this is 180 degrees wrong. It cannot be a peripheral aspect of your business to which you don’t devote much attention; people will give you their business over a competitor, solely for your …

Use a Secret Shopper to Learn About Your Business

Remember secret shoppers? It used to be a lot more commonplace than it seems to be now, but this was, and still is, a great way to gain insight into how your business is performing overall. It can still be useful to your business today, for finding out what you are doing well, and where you are falling short. How to be a secret shopper. A secret shopper, or mystery shopper, basically impersonates a customer who is shopping at your business and doing some reconnaissance, unbeknownst to the employees. It’s not likely that you’ll be able to play this role yourself, as the owner, because obviously you would be recognized. That’s why you’ll probably have to commission someone whom the staff cannot identify, possibly hiring a person who is unaffiliated with your company, who can then report back to you. What can be gained from secret shopping? Overall Experience The …

7 Encouraging Facts About Being an Entrepreneur

    There’s no doubt about it, running a small business is no walk in the park. While it has its challenges, there are also personal, as well as practical benefits to being a business owner. Here are a few of them.   1. You can take it as far as you want. You have the power and the freedom to run your business as effectively as you want; the sky really is the limit. The point here is that you can build a business that is as professional, as grand, as specific as you want it to be. The only limitations you have are the ones you set for yourself. You set the tone, you establish the parameters, and you stop exactly where you decide you want to stop.   2. Power to change things as needed. If you see something about your business that isn’t being done the …

5 Things You Never Knew PayPal Could Do

    Everybody knows that PayPal is a tool that many businesses can’t do without. What’s more is that the company has grown to such a degree that it has a hand in all sorts of different areas of commerce and industry. PayPal is involved with charitable giving, open source projects, international payment management, and they even provide business loans. Below are a few of the things that the company has to offer, which most PayPal users probably aren’t aware of.   1. Mass Payments Sometimes you have to pay a lot of people at the same time, and PayPal actually has a pretty good solution for this. For things like survey incentives, scheduled disbursements, or employee benefits, it makes it a lot easier to have some kind of program that will send out the payments efficiently, and all in one shot. All you need to do with PayPal is …