March 16th, 2010 by sugig

Here’s the question for the day. If you managed a business and needed to hire people you could depend on to help make you successful, would you prefer someone with a poor education who demanded a high salary, or would you prefer someone with a better education who would work for a lower wage? A question similar to this was posed to me (as part of a group discussion) by John Sculley, past CEO of PepsiCo and Apple Computer.

We were sailing on the same ship together with a final destination of Bombay, India. From Bombay, my wife and I were flying back to the U.S., and Sculley was going on to Bangalore to have a firsthand look at the outsource-phone-center capital of the world. He explained that there were five reasons why American companies should outsource to India, and low wages was down at the bottom on that list. Here’s Sculley’s five reasons to outsource.

1. A better educated pool of people from which to hire. This is especially true for engineering and technical jobs since five of the six best scientific schools on earth are in India.

2. Eliminates office politics. There seems to be something in the culture of India, probably related to Hinduism, that inhibits people from the backstabbing ploys like credit stealing and rumor mongering which you see so often in the American workplace.

3. Outsourcing breaks the tyranny of the Human Resource department. (I loved this reason in particular. You’d need to have firsthand experience in an American corporation to fully appreciate this).

4. Prevents union and other organized labor problems.

5. Low wages. Scully said that this advantage is only temporary. With American wages declining and Indian wages rising rapidly, wage parity will be achieved, probably within ten years.

John Sculley was of the opinion that outsourcing to India is so beneficial to the productivity of an American company that any CEO would be remiss for not, at least, considering this option. And in his book, “The Earth is Flat,” writer and thinker, Thomas Friedman, claimed that the Intel Corporation has positioned itself to thrive for another 50 years without hiring any American workers. That’s not to say that Intel won’t hire Americans if they have the education and work ethic, but Intel is not willing to tie itself down to an all-American workforce. I know that other major corporations have a similar mind-set, even though they want to stay under the radar for PR reasons.

American patriots want you to believe that all of this is driven by the rise of China and India as economic powers. What nobody talks about is the fact that for the first time in modern world history the next generation of Americans will NOT be better educated than the generation previous to them. Within the developed world, the unbroken record of each generation improving on what they inherited that record has now been broken in the United States of America. Corporation heads are not stupid. They know this and acknowledge it even if the politicians avoid it.

It’s another election year. Here’s a tip for evaluating candidates. If a politician tells us that they will keep American jobs from going overseas, he or she is delusional. And if a politician says that they will bring outsourced jobs back from overseas, they are telling you an outright lie.

March 8th, 2010 by sugig

When you’ve been injured in a car wreck that wasn’t your fault, you’ve got a lot of things on your mind, most of them unpleasant. Such as dealing with your pain, the hassle of missing work, the need for medical treatment. What happens to my damaged vehicle? Who’ll take my kids to school while I’m in the hospital?

It can be overwhelming. So the last thing you need to worry about is being grilled by an insurance adjustor. Unfortunately, it happens a lot. The more severe the wreck, the more urgently the insurance company wants to get a recorded statement. And here’s the kicker: The at-fault adjustor is not a neutral party. The adjustor is actively trying to trip you up, so that their insurance company will not have to pay!

Many times, an adjustor will imply or tell you outright that you must give a recorded statement. They’ll say that in order to “set up their file”, you’re required to talk to them. If you refuse, they threaten that you won’t be able to make a claim later!

This is not true! You are not required to talk to the insurance company for the driver who caused your wreck. Furthermore, it is a bad idea to do so, at least before you’ve talked with an attorney experienced at handling auto injury cases.

Remember, the insurance company for the driver who caused your injuries does not want to pay you anything. They are not in your corner. Talk to an experienced lawyer first, before you say anything to the other driver’s adjustor or investigator.

February 17th, 2010 by sugig

Home ownership has its advantages and disadvantages, but the security of knowing you own your home and no one can give you notice to leave is very assuring. The peace of mind you have in being a home owner makes everyday life a lot easier.

In today’s economy getting a first time buyer mortgage may be easier than it has been in recent years. The FHA First Time Home Buyer Program may be the perfect solution for you. This program offers assistance on qualifying for the loan and can help with the down payment and closing costs.

If you have not found the home you want to buy, your first task will be to choose a real estate agent.Talk to several agents, explaining what you are looking for and choose the one you feel the most comfortable with.You do not have to work with an agent, but it will make your hunt for the perfect home a little easier.

A” Buyer’s Broker” is an agent that works only for the buyer. This is the one you want to work with. A good buyers broker agent will work to help you find your home and guide you through the mortgage process. Give the agent all the information you can to assist them in finding your potential new home. You may be required to sign a Buyer’s Broker agreement. If you do, read it carefully and completely. Sometimes, if you have signed an agreement, you may still be required to pay the fee, if you find your new home on your own.

If you should have your eye on a certain home and there is for sale sign posted, call the agent that is listed on the sign. This agent works for the seller. He/she is referred to as the “listing agent” and their goal to get the best deal for the seller.

A first time buyer will definitely want to be pre-approved for a mortgage. this allows you to know ahead of time what price range of home you can qualify for. For example, if you get pre-qualified for a 100k home, there’s no point in looking at 150k to 200k homes, unless you have a substantial amount of cash available to pay the balance.

When you apply for the mortgage, whether you use a real estate agent or do it yourself, you will be required to provide substantial documentation of your income and expenses. This will include copies of income taxes from recent years and credit reports. The mortgage company can retrieve the credit reports, with your permission.

Title searches, survey’s and appraisals, may be done, but this will be at the direction of the mortgage lender. If there is something you need to do in order to complete the mortgage application, the lender will instruct you. Lenders will also advise you on credit or budget counseling, as they must be able to prove that you will be able to make the required payments on the mortgage.

Your agent will guide you in all steps of the mortgage process and help you to prepare your offer to the seller.

February 16th, 2010 by sugig

Are you in desperate need of an infusion of cash or just looking for ways to supplement an income that just isn’t getting you as far as you’d like? Many feel that finding an idea for a small home based business is too difficult, or they have tried different methods and failed. Actually, it’s easy to learn how to make quick cash. And not all of them will mean a significant investment up front.

Take a few moments and write down what skills you have. Surprisingly, this takes more work than you might think, because we tend to overlook most of our skills, because we just think of them as something we know how to do, not necessarily a skill. A skill does not have to be a trade. So, these are the kinds of things I want you to think about. What are your hobbies? What kind of practical things do you know how do? Maybe things like knowing how to braid hair in a variety of different styles. Maybe you’re something of a handy man. Or perhaps you can decorate cakes, or you know some basics when it comes to maintaining a car.

Once you’ve got your list together, decide whether or not you could teach these skills to someone else. If so, set up a small demonstration and record yourself doing so. Then upload the video to YouTube. Tell your friends about it and ask them to circulate your link. Visit forums and blogs related to your skill and post comments, leaving a link back to your video. Then you want to build yourself a small website. Don’t worry; this is much simpler than it sounds. You can buy a domain name for about ten dollars, and install a blogger platform. I suggest searching for free themes at wordpress.org.

Next step, make some more videos about your subject. Try to offer more info in these videos than you did in your free YouTube video, because here is where you start to monetize things. You can either charge a small fee to download and watch your video, or you can use sites that offer CPA leads in order to access your video. Or you can write a small instructional report and charge for that. Make sure your YouTube video links back to your site, and now want to expand your blog and forum commenting to include a link back to your site.

This is the kind of thing you can scale as well. If you have more than one area where you think you can teach, make a YouTube video and blog for each of them.

February 9th, 2010 by sugig

Promotional products are a great way to acheive brand awareness and keep your company top-of-mind among your customers and prospects.

You may wish to hand out your promotional products during Sales Calls, Trade Shows, Networking Events, included in a Direct Mail campaign or a Media Kit…the possibilities are endless!

What type of promotional products should you use? Well, it’s always cheaper to print in bulk, so you need to GET IT RIGHT. The type of product you use will depend on your industry and the interests of your customers.

As a general rule for most businesses, these are the items I would NOT use:

* Hats and Caps
* Green Bags or Eco Shopping Bags
* Keyrings
* Pillow Alarm Clocks and other small clocks

Most of these items are just too common. For example, everyone has a collection of promotional hats in their garage or storeroom that they never use! Most people already have a clock in their office (plus the time appears on their computer screen!), so those cheap little clocks are likely to be given to the kids or thrown away.

However, an old favorite that DOES work is the pen. The great thing about pens that they RUN OUT, so we always need new ones. The downside to pens is that they go walkabout very easily - the trick is to provide a GOOD QUALITY pen so that the prospect will go out of their way to keep it (and not let others slip it into their pocket).

I have nothing against promotional coffee mugs. However, remember that most people have a “favorite” mug, so it’s unlikely that your new mug will be kept personally by the customer you give it to - it will probably become part of the general Office Kitchen stock, but that’s OK too! As long someone sees it, I think it’s worthwhile.

Look for innovative items that will be of geniune use to the customer. Ask various local printing companies for their product catalogues and circle items that a person would be likely to keep in on their desk or in a prominent place in the home.

Alternatively, look for something quirky that will be a talking point. Something a person might like to “show off” around the office, due to it’s uniqueness or comic value.

You can also use a quirky catch-phrase or slogan to get the same effect. For example, printing a joke on a ruler is one way of sticking with a basic product but creating a unique point of difference (just remember to keep the jokes clean, unoffensive - and relevent to your industry!)

February 7th, 2010 by sugig

Clichés are not uncommon in any industry, profession or day-to-day life. The business fraternity has one which has outlived the rest, though in this age it sounds more like a joke. Probably you’ve come across this at one time, “The customer is always right.” Does it sound absurd? To people who earn their living off selling and buying goods or services, it isn’t. Customers are the life-blood of any business and to avoid losing any of their number, individual businessmen or companies will do anything to promote their goods or services. Some offer free gifts, others offer different sorts of reward schemes for loyal customers but what really determines whether a business makes money or not is the customer’s satisfaction with the goods or services offered for sale.

For most businesses, delivery of quality products and services is a given, for them the customer is always right. Quality customer service is prioritized and whether a sale is made or not most businesses will treat their customers royally so they can always come another time. Courtesy is highly valued and if a customer offends the management or staff, it’s unlikely that the offended party will explode into a fit of wild rage; instead they resort to gentler means to sort out whatever differences might have cropped up between them.

While quality services boast the sales of any business, the quality of a product or service also contributes to the success of a business, whether it is an individual businessperson or a large international company. Monopoly in today’s world is almost unheard of so businesses must compete against each other to establish themselves on the market and in a bid to outdo each other; they constantly try to improve the quality and performance of their products or services because naturally, consumers tend to favor only the best.

The need to deliver quality products or services has forced businesses to get opinions of the consumers so they can improve their products even more. To meet that need, a lot of survey companies have sprung up to do that job for those who can afford it. The undisputable fact therefore is, quality is very important in the business world and to attract more customers business people continually do all they can to improve, or rather upgrade their products and as some companies declare, if a customer is impressed with a specific product or service they’ve received they’ll definitely tell others about it and in so doing promote the business or company either negatively or positively. All businesses should therefore not consider quality an option but a target they should continually strive to achieve because the world of business is competitive and to win, you must offer the best products or services.

February 1st, 2010 by sugig

When you are in a customer-driven business, customer service becomes the life blood to your success. Coming from a retail background, I have seen what a difference excellent customer service makes. And, while difficult to quantify the term “customer service,” I’ve seen first hand what it is, and can share it with you.

Excellent customer service is never having to say you’re sorry. Where I work, we have a philosophy that we “just say yes.” Is the customer always right? No. But we do whatever we can to say yes to the customer. What does that do for our business? We provide a small oasis in a person’s day where they can actually come in and be treated like a human being. Whether they want a little extra at no cost, or are simply looking for a smiling face that looks like its enjoying their business, customers want to know the place they are spending their money appreciates their business. Just saying yes helps them feel appreciated.

Customer service is caring. You can pretend to enjoy what you’re doing, but before long, the charade will fall victim to the pressure of the job and the irritations that follow a customer driven business. If you are to provide great customer service, you should enjoy what you do - for the most part. Everyone has bad days. But if you’re involved in a business where customer service is important, like what you do. Discerning customers are like children - they can smell a fake a mile away. Care about your job. Do your best. Take poor situations and work to make them better. When a customer sees an employee truly caring about them, they are more likely to return time after time to your business.

Customer service is service. I know that sounds obvious, but how many times have you been to a place and felt like you were inconvenience the person who was serving you? In our business, we make a point to bend over backwards to serve the person who walks through our doors. After all, if I hear a place is famous for “legendary customer service,” I expect them to back up their claims with actions. Service is defined in many ways, but includes things like, “the occupation or condition of a servant,” “an act giving assistance or advantage to another,” and “friendly help; also, professional aid or attention” (yourdictionary.com). Customers expecting good service are simply looking to a fulfillment of that definition.

In our society, it seems like many businesses have lost the essence of what good customer service is. Somewhere along the path, we’ve forgotten that a business exists to serve the needs of its customers. A return to solid customer service principles would be a refreshing breeze blown across the business world. it doesn’t have to be rocket science. Remember to make the customer first. Enjoy what you do, and be competent. And keep the definition of “service” at the forefront of what you do. Good customer service will naturally follow these precepts.

January 18th, 2010 by sugig

In a really bad financial condition, we really can not think clearly. The most solution that is taken by many people when they have financial problem is getting a loan (bank loan, credit card loan, easy payday loan or instant payday loan, etc). In this kind of situation, people usually take instant payday loan because instant payday loan is the only loan that is very easy to be applied. Instant payday loan does not require complicated requirements. Their requirements are the simplest among other kind of loans. So instant payday loan is the most popular loan when people face such difficult situation.

Before you decide to take a payday loan, you have to consider whether this is really an emergency or not. Because only payday loan that can help you give a loan in a very emergency situation. You need to consider the bad thing of getting a payday loan. If you can not repay the loan ontime, you better search another type of loan. Because if you are late, you have to pay additional fee and it is very expensive. So you really need to consider it before you take a loan from a payday loan lender. You can think other ways to get a loan.

January 18th, 2010 by sugig

Lately insurance becomes important in our life. Without insurance there is something missing in our life. As an example, if we have a car then if we do not find an auto insurance to our car. Getting an auto insurance for our car is very important. Because with an auto insurance for our car, if something unexpected like an accident happens to our car, then the insurance can take care of it until everything is fine. He auto insurance will fix our car if our car is broken or get damaged. So if you still do not have an insurance for your health, auto, or other thing that you own you can get one to minimize the cost you pay.

There are 2 ways to find an insurance, manually and search it on the internet. If you decide to search it manually, you can open your yellow pages. You can search any insurance from that book. If you decide to search it on the internet, you just simply type and search it on the google. Getting online health insurance and auto insurance on the internet can save much time. Also on the internet you can get free auto insurance quptes and other insurance quotes.

January 17th, 2010 by sugig

Identity theft is a frustrating, expensive, time-consuming thing to fight. There are ways to lessen the chances of becoming a victim of it. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Tearing up documents with your bank account numbers and Social Security number on them is not enough. It is better to shred them or tear them to bits than to just tear them in half, since anyone who is going to go to the trouble of rooting through your garbage would probably put out the extra effort to fit a couple pieces of paper together. It is even better to throw such things in with dirty paper towels, food wrappers and other things that will damage them further than you already have.

Your Social Security number is for you, the government, your bank, your school, your employer, and no one else. The last place it should be is on your checks. This would be an invitation to whoever had access to them to withdraw money from your account. It should not be on your driver’s license either. This will make it harder to remember your license number, but that’s a small price to pay for the security of keeping your Social Security number private. Some states do not permit drivers to use Social Security numbers as license numbers. The only time to carry your Social Security card is when you need to take it somewhere, such as when you start a new job. After your employer copies it, it should be taken back home and put in a safe place.

The bank that issued your credit card should have someone call you at home to ask about any purchases larger than the ones you usually make, such as plane tickets overseas. You should be asked questions to verify your identity, questions that can’t be answered by looking at anything in your wallet. Your mother’s maiden name or the name of the county in which your high school is located would be good questions. If your credit card bank doesn’t have such a practice, suggest it to someone in Customer Service. There are plenty of other choices in credit cards, as anyone with a mailing address knows.

When you need to have a PIN or a password, make it something completely irrelevant to your life. Change it from time to time, and don’t use the same one for everything. If you must write them all down, use your own best judgment about where to keep them safe.

If you ever receive a bank statement that looks like it has been opened or was not completely sealed, call your bank and ask that an identification check be done with anybody who tries to withdraw money from your account. Check the statement very carefully and report anything that seems amiss. After about six months, it should be safe to ask that they stop checking for identification.

You should check your credit history regularly, reporting any errors in it. They need to be corrected before you apply for any loans or insurance, and even if you have no intention of doing either in the near future.

Identity theft is a growing problem. Anything you can do to reduce the chances of it happening to you is worth the effort.