Guidance

Marketing to the New Frugal Consumer Mind

Consumers are becoming more aware of their excess spending and are becoming more frugal. The constant reminders of foreclosed homes and empty storefronts have developed cautious spending habits. Frugality is a new trend that many are embracing. It is likely that when the economy is in the upswing this trend will not fade away. Marketing strategies must change to adapt to the new frugal consumers. Businesses will have to focus on how consumers are buying and why they are buying instead of who is buying.

Many consumers are now price driven. They want the lowest price possible and will go almost anywhere to get it. These new low-price soldiers are becoming more common as the economy continues to decline. Typically, these consumers will wait for their favorite brands to go on sale or will buy cheaper off-brands. These consumers are easily attracted to a lower price. If you can deliver the goods for the lowest price, you may be able to attract a large amount of customers.

Online shopping is popular and many consumers use the Internet to bargain shop and find the lowest prices. The Internet provides many price comparison tools allowing customers to buy from the online store with the cheapest price. Consumers also use the Internet to search for local retailer sales. This cuts down on their shopping time and allows them to develop a plan of action to find the cheapest price. You can attract a regular stream of returning customers by offering loyalty discounts and special offers.

Times have changed and frugal shoppers are becoming more common. Understanding why and how people shop will help you adjust your marketing tools to entice these frugal shoppers. Enticing these customers is a new challenge. To most of these consumers, price will be the deciding factor when making a decision on a purchase.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Frugality

Five Ways to Improve Your Customer Service

The number one reason many customers change companies they do business with, is poor customer service. It is important for any business to invest in developing and delivering exceptional customer service. To increase customer satisfaction, develop your customer service policy to include the following methods:

1. If at all possible, have a person answer all calls. Customers do not appreciate an extensive phone tree and would prefer to speak with a real person instead of automated and recorded messages. If you must use voicemail, make sure calls are returned as soon as possible.

2. Emails should be answered within one or two business days. Taking a week to answer an email will leave a customer feeling frustrated and maybe a bit angry.

3. Customers appreciate customer service representatives that provide a first and last name. They also appreciate a person that provides a full name when meeting them in person. If you have direct customer contact, use your full name and maintain eye contact.

4. If you make a commitment to a customer or potential customer, make sure you meet or exceed his or her expectations. Do not promise something you cannot deliver and allow yourself a reasonable amount of time to deliver on your promise.

5. If you miss a deadline or commitment, do not use the excuse that you were short staffed or abnormally busy. These excuses have been over used and are no longer effective. Simply be as honest as you can and apologize for missing the deadline or commitment. Your honesty will go farther than using an excuse that has been over used.

Providing the best customer service possible will help you retain customers and gain new customers. If you receive customer complaints, you should make every effort to correct the problem. If you want to keep customers, you will need to ensure their experience with your company is positive.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Customer service

Maintaining Your Company’s Professional Image

When most people think about professional image, they consider how someone looks and behaves. Few people think of the professional image of their company. The company’s professional image is just as important as the professional image of its employees.

You can use the following three tips to maintain and develop the professional image of your company.

1. Nothing irks a customer more than an unreturned phone call. Your company wide goal should be to return calls within 48 hours, preferably within 24 hours. If you have a small business, you may find it easier to choose one person within your company to monitor voicemails and emails. Also, if someone is out of the office or the office is closed, use the auto-reply feature in your email system and update voicemail greetings.

2. Set up business hours and stick to them as much as possible. Customers like to know when you are open for business and erratic hours may cause them to take their business elsewhere. You can educate customers on your business hours by including the information on your web page and on the voicemail greeting.

3. Pay attention to details especially information posted on your web page. You content and information should look professional. When sending out letters make sure your letterhead is professionally designed. Many businesses cut corners on letterhead and it shows. You are creating a professional image and every aspect of your printed materials should convey this image.

Creating a professional image is only the beginning. You should make every effort to maintain the image. You should set forth guidelines for your employees to follow if they are in a position where they may represent the business in the public arena. You can also establish policies for all employees to follow such as a return phone call policy.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Business

How To Invest and Make Money Off the Internet

The Internet is a wealth of resources. It provides knowledge to the masses on a never before seen scale. It shapes the way we see the world. It moves our daily lives, handles our communication, our businesses and our finances. There is no business that is not influenced by it and no business that doesn’t depend on it. In fact, in the last twenty years the Internet has revolutionized business and made billionaires out of college dropouts.

Since so many young people are changing the financial climate so rapidly because of the Internet, it may make you wonder how you can also make money off the Internet. Well, first and foremost is investing. Even though the bottom dropped out, people who know what they are doing have made more money investing since the financial crisis hit than ever before. There is always money to be made in the stock market if you know how.

The most important aspect of making money in investments is to do your research. You have to know what you are investing in and what course you think the stock will take. It may not prove true but you have to have some kind of idea of where you think it should go and how it will go, or you shouldn’t invest money in it. If you are sure about a stock, well as sure as you can be, then you must not hesitate. If you are low on the cash, you could borrow from places like Payday One and wager against the return. It’s a risk but so is all investing. Those who lost their savings in the financial markets forgot that essentially the stock market is a gamble and a wager and never a sure thing. You can’t depend on it, but with the help of the Internet and if you know what you are doing you can get rich from it.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Business, Investment, Stock market

On-line MBA Rankings

How can an MBA boost your career? Several years ago, many viewed a bachelor’s degree as the highest level of education needed for a career in the business world. Today, an MBA will not only boost your career, it also will bring a higher salary in your career.

There are many on-line MBA programs available. Look for a program that would be competitive in today’s economy. Some studies show, that your salary can be based upon the rating of the school from which you received your MBA. Choose your institution wisely when you are deciding on an on-line MBA program.

To get the most for your money and time, look at the site OnlineMBARankings.com which is dedicated to helping prospective students find the prestigious programs that fit the real world business needs.

Having an MBA correlates to significant increases in your lifetime wages and the lifestyle you will have during your career throughout your lifetime. It was found on PayScale.com, that an IT Project Manager who has an MBA earns a salary of $77,422 – $104,807. On average, a Marketing Director earns $87,274 – $140,704 while the average Financial Analyst earns $63,765 – $82,649. This indicates the value of having an MBA degree for your future financial earnings.

A difference between a graduate degree and an undergraduate degree if that in the graduate program, the department is weighed as heavily as the quality of the overall institution. You need to review how the individual departments are viewed by professionals in the field and how the academics of the institution are rated. Also, research how well the faculty is respected in the field of study.

When pursuing an MBA you want to insure that you have quality faculty. You can investigate this by talking to current students or alumni of the institution, meeting the faculty themselves or speaking to professionals in the field of study to determine the faculty that is well respected.

When looking at an MBA program, you want to know the career opportunities that the degree will open up for you. Remember, you are pursuing an MBA degree you want a graduate program that can help you achieve your goal and fit into your lifestyle.

Find out how long it typically takes to complete the MBA program when you are considering your options. Find out their placement rates for their graduates.

Several on-line MBA programs are listed below:

www.GlobeUniversity.edu

www.wharton.upenn.edu

Phoenix.edu/Business

Business Careers:

Accounting

Economics

Finance

Project Management

Real Estate

Small Business Management

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Academic degree, Business finance, Business school, Colleges and Universities, Education, Financial Analyst, Graduate school, Master of Business Administration

Set up a Hairdressing Business

: Image via Wikipedia

If you are a skilled hairdresser and currently work in a salon owned by another person, you may want to think about setting up your own business. Hairdressing can become quite a lucrative profession if sold to the right clients. There will be a few things you need to do before you have your own company, but follow these steps and you’ll be cutting hair under your own name in no time!

One part of the process is to contact the relevant authorities and find out what kind of licenses and legal documents you need to set up your own salon. This will include getting information on regulations of safety and insurance for your business. You will also need to secure a premises from which to operate.

You will also need to think about what will make your business stand out from others. Will your prices be lower or will you provide a service that none of the other places do? Once you have figured out what makes your company unique, you will need to begin marketing that property to potential customers. This may be easier for you if you have some sort of marketing or business degree. If you are thinking about taking up one of these courses, you can use resources like educationforadults.com to find the right course for you.

Initially you will need to purchase some serious equipment like hairdresser chairs, large hairdryers and other units. This will cost money so you may have to think about securing a business loan before you get started. Be sure to check out the loans offered by a number of banks to make sure you get the best deal on interest rates. You will also need to buy other things for your business like cash registers, appointment books and hair and spa care products.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Barber, Business, Cash register

Running Contests for Your Small Business

For the business owner, finding new customers is one of the most important steps in managing the organization. A contest can help you to do just that. There are many ways to increase your business’ customer base but some of the best involve little money and a lot of fun. As you consider all of the options for promoting your business, keep the door open for a few unique opportunities that may be a great way for you to find the right customers.

One of the options you have is to run a contest. You can get a great deal of promotional attention from running a contest that you think your customers will enjoy. Sometimes, the best ways to do this involve a simple giveaway. You may be able to incorporate a game that brings customers in to open a chest to reveal a prize. Choose a contest to give away a product that you sell. Creating the contest is half the battle.

The other half is getting people to learn about it. One of the best ways that you can do this is by creating an affiliate program around your products and services and educating your affiliates about the contest you are running. These people will help to promote your business’ website, products or services. You only have to pay them when they help you to make a sale. This is how many top affiliate programs are run.

As you consider your business as it stands, ask yourself if your old methods of marketing are working. If you need a new method of getting customers, use a contest and incorporate an affiliate program. Top affiliate programs can carry on for years, turning profits for the business time and time again for very little overall cost. That makes sense from any business’s marketing budget. You may make this your primary marketing method.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Affiliate marketing, Business, Customer, Marketing

Tips for Professional Conduct in a Business Setting

Professional conduct in a business environment is an important key towards success. Showing others self comportment in a polite and confident manner without being overly obnoxious or overbearing impresses those who are watching.

Be ethical at all times. Regardless if it’s working with another employee or creating a deal, ethics should be at the top of the list. It shows honesty and a willingness to keep the hands above the table to others, creating an atmosphere of trust.

Act appropriately in the office. Every office atmosphere is different. Be sensitive to the moods and attitudes of others and act accordingly. There is a time to be boorish, and the office is not one of them. To be sure acting out is a form of stress relief. Do it in the appropriate areas outside of work.

Avoid conflicts of interest with the client. The idea is to demonstrate that the employee holds their own employer as an entity who has no interest in anything other than the contracted relationship. Don’t go offering services to the client that will cause a conflict with the employer. It shows a lack of moral conduct on the part of the employee.

Maintain the tightest of confidentiality with the customer. Demonstrate to them that the employee and employer can be trusted with sensitive information. If information that has been supplied is only meant for certain persons, keep it that way. Don’t bandy about or offer information on this latest hot project. It can keep until long after the work has been completed.

Don’t say something can be done when in reality it cannot. There may be an overwhelming urge to show management a capability. What really may happen is that the work is way beyond abilities and will cause the employee to fall flat on their face. This definitely does not look good.

Filed Under: Guidance, Human Resources Tagged With: Employment, Ethics, Human resources

Landing That Perfect Job in the Business World

Whether you have the applicable experience for a particular job in the business world or not has nothing to do with whether you can successfully land said job. In fact, many people end up on top of the application list just because of their savvy know how, leaving those with the most experience in their dust. If you want to land the job of your dreams without having to sacrifice valuable time in a lower paying job in order to benefit from the experience, consider using these tips and tricks of the trade.

Know Your Worth of the Position

Don’t waste energy worrying about the things that you don’t yet know or haven’t yet experienced first hand. Instead, it is important to make sure you focus on the areas you are strong in. A potential employer is more interested in the things you can offer the company than the things that you can’t bring to the table.

Dress to Impress Potential Employers

Don’t settle for just any suit and tie or power dress, instead focus on the type of dress the company you are interviewing with tends to lean towards. If they are more casual, then follow their lead. The trick is to fit in with the environment as much as possible during the interview, as it will help the interviewer to better imagine you as part of the team.

Send a Follow Up

It is always a good idea to follow up with potential employers after an interview. You can do this in the form of a phone call, and email or even a letter but the goal is to express your thanks, your interest and your acclimation to their company. There is nothing wrong with mentioning that you find yourself to be a great candidate and fit for the company.

Filed Under: Guidance Tagged With: Business, Employment, Interview