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Kiva.org: Solving Global Problems One Click at a Time

By Wayne Silverman in Business

Unlike most charitable organizations Kiva.org doesn’t give away anything to anyone. They exist to create connections between entrepreneurs in impoverished countries and people in the developed world who are willing to lend them money to expand their operations. This is a revolution in lending. No longer is the micro-lending process tied up in bureaucracy (i.e. the United Nations). Kiva makes it simple. If you are willing to lend Kiva has an established way to administer the distribution of your funds to credit worthy borrowers in many impoverished countries all over the world. This isn’t some internet scam…Kiva.org has received positive media coverage from the WSJ and NPR as well as BusinessWeek.

There are various estimates of the size and growth potential of the microfinance industry worldwide. Unfortunately, the demand for micro-credit services among the world’s poorest is still largely unmet. Agencies spend between $800 million-$1 billion per year, but they only manage to reach between 13 and 16 million impoverished people. This represents only 4-10% of the world’s poor. The microfinance industry has grown 25-30% annually over the past five years, and is expected to show continual growth. But, there is a lack of capital available to microfinance institutions. This represents a great opportunity for Western societies to redirect capital for distribution as micro-loans, many of which are repaid at rates of 95% or higher.

What is unique about the Kiva.org story is that Kiva is the first micro-lending Web site designed to connect people with people. Founded in 2004 by Matthew and Jessica Flannery, Kiva’s goal is to reduce poverty in developing countries by giving entrepreneurs the ability to build their businesses through flexible loans with six-to 12-month terms. Kiva allows individuals to act as a “micro VC” by loaning directly to entrepreneurs with feasible business plans. In other words, they have democratized the lending process. They are looking into expanding into the US market but, as I understand it, there are legal roadblocks to their providing micro-loans in the US at the present time.

Making a loan through Kiva is easy, secure and personal. A potential lender simply goes to www.kiva.org, registers in a password-protected section, browses through the business section to review available enterprises in need of funding, learns how much funding the enterprises are requesting, and then chooses one or more businesses to which to loan. Loans are made via PayPal, a globally recognized online payment service. Kiva accepts loans as small as $25 and can integrate funds to customize loan sizes. Lenders can stay abreast of the progress of creditor businesses via a blog-site regularly updated on the Kiva web site. Lenders may correspond with the business owner through a Kiva partner representative in the native country.

If you are wondering how to change the world, Kiva.org gives you a way. Helping people help themselves is a fundamental principle of democratic freedom. What better way to show the world just what we, as Americans, and our capitalist system, is really all about, than by demonstrating it by lending through Kiva. I really believe that Kiva.org has the potential to change the world. Ordinary people helping other ordinary people without the insulation of an entrenched bureaucracy…We no longer need the bureaucrats, the internet provides us with the ability to connect in a way that would have been inconceivable even 5 years ago. People can now unite and work together for real global change without leaving their home office.

The take away from this is: With the power of global communications, and electronic distribution, we can conquer global poverty ourselves, person to person, one click at a time.

Author:  Wayne Silverman lives in Philadelphia with his fiance and a cat named Angela. He works in Public Relations and Advertising for a nationwide franchise company and as a freelance copywriter/editor . He is a popular contributor to several online sites and can be contacted at fractalshift -at- gmail.com

Should You Have Your Own Website? (Take this Quiz!)

By James Kronefield in Business

I have been asked numerous times about the necessity of having a website. After asking the same questions I developed a quiz. Not all questions have the the same value but answer each question honestly before looking at the scoring criteria. (For scoring, go to www.easywebdesignbasics.com and click on the Quiz link.)

Here are the basic questions:

Question 1 - Do you have an interest or hobby that you spend at least two hours a month pursuing?

Question 2 - Are you interested in earning additional income?

Question 3 - Can you spare a couple of hours a week to learn something new?

Question 4 - Do you have a product or service you are currently selling or plan to sell in the near future?

Question 5 - Are you interested in saving time and money?

Question 1 - Do you have an interest or hobby that you spend at least two hours a month pursuing?

Most of us have several interests or hobbies. I like photography, hiking, teaching, learning, video, reading and the list goes on and on. However, there are only a couple of interests that I can actually enjoy regularly due to lack of time. It is the ones that you actually make time for that relate to having a website.

Let’s say that you actually spend an hour a week on gardening. Are you aware of the massive number of people who are also interested in gardening and have websites on this topic? Do you realize the amount of information you can get from fellow gardeners? But most importantly, do you understand how many fellow gardeners would benefit from your expertise?

You need a website to share what you have learned from practical experience. Your website can steer beginners in the right direction to avoid mistakes that you made.

Question 2 - Are you interested in earning additional income?

I haven’t met one person who has said no to this question.

Question 3 - Can you spare a couple of hours a week to learn something new?

Designing a website will require you to learn some new skills. Don’t worry, these are not difficult skills to learn but it will take time. There is a minimal financial investment. You can use free editors and free software to upload your web site. All you would have to pay for is a domain name and hosting. However, if you go with a blog you don’t have to spend any money!

Question 4 - Do you have a product or service you are currently selling or plan to sell in the near future?

If you answered yes to this question and do not have a website, then you need to get started now! Whatever you sell, a website is a great way to advertise. You can target your website to the specific type of client you are looking for. You direct your prospect to your website and let it presell your product.

It does not matter whether you are local or worldwide. Let your website expand your business.

Question 5 - Are you interested in saving time and money?

Whether you use a website to help others or advertise your products and services, you can leverage the Internet to ave you time and earn extra income. Website can save you time by information access. For example, I am asked the same questions over and over and now just send people to a special page where they can find the answers. This save me a lot of time.

You can provide great detail about your products and services for others to read and even buy without taking your time.

As the saying goes, “Saving times saves you money.” You also save money by consolidating resources and increasing you use of free online advertising

To score this quiz, go to www.easywebdesignbasics.com/quiz.

Author:  Are you new in the web design? Let’s James help. Jump start in at http://www.easywebdesignbasics.com/

How to Verify an Expert’s Credentials

By Robert Ambrogi in Business

[editor's note: Though this piece was written primarily for the legal sector, it contains valuable information for anyone trying to verify any expert's opinion.]

Experts, sad to say, are not always honest about their credentials, as several recent news items confirm. Knowing how to verify the background of an expert - whether yours or your opponent’s - could prove critical to your case.

Major legal research services provide many tools for checking an expert’s background, from public records databases to deposition banks. But these major services can be expensive to use and still leave bases uncovered.

At the same time, the Web harbors a variety of resources and tools that contain potentially valuable information but that many lawyers overlook in researching an expert’s background.

Yes, we all now know to check Google, but this article looks at some of the lesser-known - and mostly free - research tools you may be bypassing. Of course, these Web tools are neither foolproof nor exhaustive. No Web site can substitute for using a reputable expert-search service.

WORDS CAN HAUNT YOU

The old adage, “What you say may come back to haunt you,” has never been more true. With millions of people posting to blogs and participating in Internet discussion groups, we are creating permanent records of our words and thoughts - like it or not.

The best tool for searching blogs is Google Blog Search. Like Google’s Web search, it is comprehensive and up to date. You can sort results by date or relevance, and you can search blogs in multiple languages.

A close second for searching blogs is Clusty. Clusty is not a search engine - it does not crawl or index the Web. Rather, it is a metasearch tool that calls on other blog search engines, extracts the relevant information, and then organizes the results into a hierarchical folder structure - which it calls “clusters.” With this unique approach, it provides results that are both comprehensive and usefully organized.

Another source of potentially damaging comments by or about an expert is the Internet’s many news groups and discussion lists. To find postings someone made to one of these, search Google Groups. It hosts a variety of current groups as well as an archive of more than 750 million Usenet postings dating back to 1985.

NETWORKING SITES

Where professionals once networked at cocktail parties and civic events, today you are more likely to find them connecting through any of a number of networking Web sites. The most popular at the moment is LinkedIn where members post information about their careers and their connections and share mutual recommendations. If your expert is listed on LinkedIn, read his profile carefully. How does his listing compare with what he has provided to you? Also, look for references from others and examine his network of connections for any that might help either verify or call into question his background.

Other business networking sites include Ziggs, Ryze, and Orkut. Of course, be sure also to check personal networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

CORPORATE RECORDS

Anyone researching a publicly traded company would know to check the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database. But fewer think to search EDGAR for information about individuals, even though it may contain a wealth of information. Corporate filings can provide information on an individual’s business affiliations, employment arrangements, investments, and more. Even an individual’s education and employment history can sometimes be tracked through EDGAR.

If the expert works in the securities industry, two databases worth checking are NASD BrokerCheck which provides information on the professional backgrounds of current and former NASD-registered securities firms and brokers, and the National Futures Association’s Background Affiliation Status Information Center (BASIC) which does much the same for registered futures dealers.

HISTORICAL WEB

Web sites change over time. If your expert has a Web site, what it says today may differ from what it said five years ago. The best way to track historical changes in someone’s Web site is through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Here, you can find an archive that captures historical snapshots of sites. While not exhaustive, it is likely to have at least some pages showing earlier versions of a site.

PUBLIC RECORDS

Any number of major research systems sell access to public records. These include LexisNexis , Westlaw, ChoicePoint, and Accurint. But many public records are now available online for little or no cost. A variety of Web sites help direct you to these online sources of public records.

One of the best is Search Systems with links to nearly 40,000 sources of public records on the Web. It includes links to sources throughout the world, although the greatest number of sources are in the U.S. and Canada. Not all sites listed are free, but the site clearly marks those that are not. Among the listings: professional license registrations, corporate records, marriage notices, UCC filings, deed registries, birth and death records, lobbyist listings, physician disciplinary proceedings, and much more.

Other sites that provide directories of public records and information include: Virtual Gumshoe (A good collection of Web resources for public records research), Public Records Online Directory (Links to state and municipal sites, with an emphasis on real estate, tax and vital records sources), Merlin Information Sources (Links to resources for finding public records and public information), Black Book Online (A free public records site targeted at private investigators, skip tracers, government investigators and others. Good collection of links and descriptions.), BRB Publications (provides a fairly comprehensive, state-by-state list of free public records sites, as well as an index of national sites and another for Canada and U.S. territories).

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

Due to privacy concerns, it is difficult to find social security numbers on the Web these days. But you can easily verify that a number is valid and belongs to a living person. Enter a number in The SSN Validator and it will tell you whether the number has been issued, in which state it was issued, when it was issued, and whether any death claims exist against the number. It will not tell you the identity of the holder of the number.

PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS

Various sources allow you to check the credentials of public school teachers. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards maintains a directory of teachers with national board certification.

The best way to find whether one is available for a particular state is to check the Web site of the state’s education department. A directory of state education department sites is maintained by the U.S. Department of Education. Other Web sites provide verification of college-level degrees and attendance for a fee. These include Credentials Inc. and the National Student Clearinghouse. Many schools will confirm degrees directly, although they may require a release.

To check a medical doctor’s license, DocFinder provides a database of license information for participating states. For states not included in the DocFinder database, the site provides links to their own license look-up sites.

Most states now have sites for verifying a lawyer’s bar admission. In Massachusetts, for example, it is at http://massbbo.org/bbolookup.php. You can find these for other states through the state government Web site. A new site, Avvo rates lawyers based on publicly available information and compiles client reviews and disciplinary sanctions.

VITAL RECORDS

Vital records - birth, death and marriage certificates and divorce decrees - are increasingly available free online through state and local government sources. Vital Records Information tells where to find them anywhere in the U.S. It lists sources for each state, territory and county, and most cities and towns, along with contact, fee and ordering information. For records outside the U.S., the site lists links to foreign vital records sites. This straightforward site is designed with a nod towards genealogy, but it is one many lawyers are sure to find useful.

EXPERT WITNESS RULINGS

The Daubert Tracker is a Web site developed specifically to help lawyers track cases involving the admissibility of expert testimony and, in particular, find out how specific experts fared in the courts. Its central feature is a database of all reported cases under Daubert and its progeny, trial and appellate, backed up when available by full-text briefs, transcripts and docket entries. Part of what makes the site unique is that it links cases to experts. Even if the expert is not named in the court decision, the site’s editors track down the expert’s identity.

A year subscription is $295 or you can purchase a two-hour session for $25 or a half-hour for $10. For free, you can search the site’s collection of more than 10,000 briefs and other supporting documents from both appellate and trial courts relating to expert witness testimony. If you find a document you are interested in, you can also view the first 10 percent of it free. If you decide you want to purchase the complete document, the cost is $15 for non-subscribers and $7.50 for subscribers.

WRITINGS

In vetting an expert, it is important to confirm authorship of listed works as well as to search for any unlisted works that could be relevant or embarrassing. Two essential resources to check for published works are the Library of Congress Online Catalog and the records of the U.S. Copyright Office. Of course, it also makes sense to check Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

An increasingly popular resource for scholarly publications is the Social Science Research Network. This international collaborative is home to scholarly research covering more than 400 subject areas. It contains abstracts of more than 150,000 working papers and the full text of well over 100,000 published papers. This makes SSRN an essential source for researching an expert’s published papers.

Another useful source is ISI HighlyCited.com. This site provides profiles and bibliographic information for the most highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories. For listed individuals, the site provides biographical information - including education, faculty and professional posts, memberships and offices, current research interests and personal Web sites - as well as a full listing of publications, including journal articles, books, and conference proceedings.

OTHER

The U.S. government maintains any number of databases that could be relevant to vetting an expert, depending on his field of expertise. One often worth checking is the Excluded Parties List System. It provides information on individuals and companies that are excluded from receiving federal contracts and federal financial assistance.

When it comes to checking someone’s background, more is better. The more sources you use, the more complete your search. The free and low-cost resources described here provide useful supplements to more expensive research services.

Author:  Robert Ambrogi is the editor of BullsEye, a monthly newsletter distributed by IMS Expert Services. IMS Expert Services is the premier expert witness and litigation consultant search firm in the legal industry, focused exclusively on providing custom expert witness searches to attorneys. To read more articles visit our website.

Online Business Ethics

By Ruth Harris in Business

Very simple: Be a source of integrity. Don’t be phony, people will know and not come to visit your site again. Even worse, they will post a bad review somewhere on the web and others will not even come to see for themselves. If you don’t know about something, don’t pretend that you do. Respect your customers, or prospective customers, and offer them something of value. Give good information that will draw your customers’ attention and this will help to build trust. It also gives them a reason to stay or come back again for more. Follow-up with your customers, but don’t be a pest. Basically, don’t spam, don’t steal, and don’t lie.

Just as in an offline business, there are ethics and standards that should be followed. If you are starting an online business, you’ve probably spent some time online already and can see that there are hundreds of thousands of businesses trying to sell their products and information and services to you. Study how they do it. Spend some time visiting the websites of your competitors, much like you would when preparing a business plan for an offline business. Look for and evaluate the following characteristics to determine the integrity of the business as a whole:

What are they selling? When you first come to their index page, can you quickly and easily figure out what they are selling? Is it a real product, an information product, a membership or a service? Do they offer something of real value right off the bat for free such as informative content or a related ebook? If you cannot determine within the first 30 seconds what they are selling or why they are in business, chances are that they are just a hodgepodge of links put together to make the owner affiliate revenue. However, if you do see something of value, stay a bit longer and evaluate further.

Can you contact them directly? Look on the main page. Contact information could be in the top nav bar, on the side nav bar or at the bottom of the page. Also, look for a direct link such as Contact Us. Click this link and see where it takes you. Do they provide a physical address, a contact name or email, and a phone number? These three things are a must for a legitimate business. If an owner is not confident in his business enough to put an address and contact phone number on his site, he must be hiding something. The final test is to send an email to the company and see who responds and how long it takes to get a response. Most one-person web businesses should be able to answer your email within 1-2 business days.

Is the content valuable and correct? One of my biggest pet peeves is spelling and grammar. If the owner has done his research and knows what he is talking about, this should show in the quality of the information on his site. A professional image depends on attention to details. Presentation is everything. If you are going to put out information, it has to be presented in an organized fashion with no mistakes. When I see more than one misspelled word or grammar mistake on a website or page, I move on. If the owner has not proofread his own material or verified the information on his site is correct and presented professionally, I won’t be trusting that his products are much higher in quality.

Is there a free trial or guarantee on the products and services being offered? Those businesses that have developed a quality product or service and are confident in it will not hesitate to put a guarantee on it. They will stand behind it 100%. Even better are those companies that let you try the product or service for free. This way you can test it out to see if it is indeed what you need and meets the quality standards of a legitimate business.

How do they advertise? Look at the other links on the website. Visit some of them to see the quality of partners associated with the first business. Do the links take you somewhere valuable and helpful? Is the business partnered with other legitimate businesses? Also, how did you find out about the website in the first place and what in their ad drew you in? Did the ad lie to you? Make sure that when you advertise that you don’t misrepresent what you are offering. In addition, don’t be a spammer. Make sure to develop a double opt-in email list that you can use to send valuable follow up information to your customers. This will help to build loyalty as well as word of mouth referrals. Visit forums and pay-per-click sites to see the companies who are advertising the same products and services that you are to find out what promotion methods they are using. Use them as a starting point and try to set your standards of quality and honesty a step above when developing your ads.

The bottom line is, there is good karma and bad. Even though we all know those people in life whose bad karma hasn’t caught up with them yet, don’t join the crowd. Be a leader, be a source of integrity, and provide a quality product or service that you can stand behind. In the long run, this will help you build a profitable, long-standing business rather than a fly-by-night get rich quick scheme.

Ruth Harris is a real entrepreneur who has helped many others start and promote their online business. Visit http://www.iprofit.viral-business.com to get over 170 best-selling eBooks and software titles with Master Resell Rights and ready made profit-pulling minisites all for one low price.

Becoming the Change You Want to See

By Nicole Young in Business

I am in the business of change. Everything I develop, teach, share and do as a consultant is related to changing skills, strategies or systems in organizations. However, I typically use other terms like “building capacity”, “producing desired results” and “improving organizational effectiveness” to describe my work. These are all ways of saying I help organizations change without scaring people off.

Why would people be scared off? Because change can be very stressful, even when it’s perceived to be positive. For example, 15 of the 43 life events listed on the Stress Scale (Holmes and Rahe, 1967) refer to some type of change (e.g. “Change in responsibilities at work”, “Change in social activities”, “Change in financial state”). Notice how there is no reference to whether the change is positive or negative - just that there has been a change.

Holmes and Rahe found that people who score higher on the stress scale are more likely to develop an illness. It’s no wonder that people avoid change like it is an illness.

So why is change stressful? Change is often unpredictable or driven by external forces. People tend to resist things they didn’t choose or that they have no control over. Change is hard because we don’t always know up front whether it will be positive or negative…so why take the chance? Change also forces people to think and behave differently, which is hard for those of us who are creatures of habit. And sometimes with so many other things happening at once, dealing with “one more thing” just feels impossible.

But change is necessary. Think about how humans have evolved into the highly intelligent, sophisticated beings we are today. I’m sure we didn’t start out that way, just as I’m sure that the human race isn’t done changing. Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

So what does this have to do with your organization? In an environment characterized by constant change - shrinking resources, turnover, new initiatives, emerging needs - people at all levels of your organization must be skilled at managing change in order for the organization to survive. Here are my top ten guidelines for becoming a true survivor:

1. Analyze the need for change. Gather information about factors inside and outside of your organization that create a need for change. Look at trends in fundraising, employee morale, utilization of services, client satisfaction and community needs. If you get in the habit of analyzing the need for change, you’re less likely to have changes forced upon you by someone or something.

2. Involve others in the change process. Lower people’s resistance to change by getting them involved in designing and implementing the change process. It may feel like it takes longer to do this, but you will save time in the long run if you take steps to gain people’s buy-in early on.

3. Create a shared vision. Link the need for change to your organization’s mission, vision and values. Ask yourself, “How will this change enable us to serve our customers better?” Describe what the organization and its people or processes will look like after the change has been made.

4. Create a sense of urgency…which is not the same as crisis or panic. Clearly convey why the change has to happen now versus later - otherwise there is no reason for others to make it a priority.

5. Know when it’s time to let go of the past. History is important, as long as it doesn’t keep you from moving forward. Learn the lessons from past successes and mistakes, and then keep going. Statements such as “It’s always worked this way” or “It’s never worked that way” only keep you and your organization stuck in time while everything else around you is changing.

6. Create an implementation plan. Develop goals, activities, timelines and measures of success. Use the plan as a “road map” to keep everyone headed toward the same destination. Just remember that plans, like people, need to be responsive to change in order to survive.

7. Support people’s efforts to change. Once you’ve gained people’s commitment to implement the desired change, make sure they have the knowledge, skills and institutional support to do it well. Develop clear processes and provide training and ongoing coaching. Otherwise it will be too easy and justifiable for people to say, “I told you so,” and it will be much harder to gain their buy-in the next time around.

8. Communicate about the change before, during and after implementation. Provide opportunities for people to give feedback about how the change is going. Give periodic updates about what is working well and what is being continually improved. Share successes to show that people’s efforts are making the desired difference.

9. Institutionalize the change. Once you have determined that the new process, strategy or activity works, make it an everyday part of business. Write up a policy. Train new staff as part of their orientation. Talk about the new way of doing business in staff meetings. Pretty soon, what was once a change will become the norm.

10. Be the change you want to see. Be a spokesperson for the change and keep people focused on the vision. Work with others to find ways to implement the change effectively. Model the attitudes and behaviors that are necessary for the change to happen successfully, and eventually others will follow suit.

Why This Matters for Your Mission: Change is constant and inevitable. If you can embrace this concept, you will see the possibilities that change creates. Instead of being held back by limitations and fear of the “what if’s”, you will be able to plan for and manage change effectively.

Author:  Nicole M. Young is the Owner/Principal Consultant of Optimal Solutions Consulting in California. She helps organizations overcome the everyday challenges that keep them from fulfilling their missions. To learn more, go to www.opti-solutions.com

Leadership - Ten Ways To Be Better At Leading Teams

By Martin Haworth in Business

Leadership is a fascinating art. A balance between getting things done and having enough about you to maximize both the motivation and engagement of all of your people for now and the future.

In any business there is a need to lead teams, unless there is just the one of you. So, being savvy about the clear points that youi need to have in your own skillset are vital.

Here are ten of the best ways to be better at leading teams:-

1. Lead!

With your team, take the initiative, show the passion and get things moving. Take it as your personal focus that will grow this business and show it off!

2. Set an Example

Whatever the team comes up with, be open to. You know you can’t do it all, yet if you veto everything, them they will get cheesed off. Learn communication skills which enquire rather than reject.

3. Behave Yourself

As well as ideas, where changes have to be made, be a part of it. It’s no good saying it’s OK for everyone else except you - you must be in the mix. Model changes in for all to see - and it will rub off.

4. Plan Ahead

Get your Succession Planning right for the future by watching for potential, nurturing new talent. When you are Leading Teams you have the space for this work, if you are realistic enough with what you let go.

5. Accept Feedback

By being open to feedback, others will be too. You will find this hugely empowering for your team members. Let them be creative about you and your learning. Accept you aren’t perfect (by the way - this in itself builds great relationships)

6. Fight for Your Team

You need to be brave for them - they look to you to fly their flag. Can you do that? Can you get really persuasive with your bosses and other stakeholders, to get what your people need to do an excellent job?

7. Let People Go Sometimes

In two circumstances, you need to let people go. When they aren’t performing and when they are ready for the next step. Be the person who delivers this - it might be their first experience of it - and a good thing at that.

8. Have a Sense of Humor

In context, have fun, share jokes and enjoy a happy team! Leading your team means that you are allowed get a bit silly sometimes - yep, you’ve got to be controlled - but when was the last time you all had fun? What memories will you hold?

9. Say No

Be prepared to say no sometimes! It’s OK to do this. Your team will understand as long as it is consistent and fits the overall vision. Even when it doesn’t, they want consistency - so be ready.

10. Be Humble and Proud

Whilst you don’t need to get to emotional about it - subtly admit that you are impressed by your people; that they do you proud. Be like this to them and just as importantly, to others. It will get back to them and this will be an enormous boost for them and for overall team spirit.

Leading great teams need not be complicated and it can be quite fun. It is an interesting responsibility, yet one which so many have and yet just miss the boat. Trying out these little ideas might just be perfect to set you up to win!

Author:  Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, Coaching-Businesses-To-Success.com

Why You Should Treat Your Customers Like Friends

By Mitchell Harper in Business

In this article I’ll share with you a few tips on how you can humanize your interactions with prospects and existing customers using live chat software from your web site. By doing this you’re showing people you have ethics, you’re a real person, and you care about the people you deal with. At the end of the day, your company will be the one that stands out.

If you want to avoid becoming another faceless business in the eyes of your customers then I believe you absolutely must humanize all of your communication systems and processes. Here are some tips to get started:

1. Don’t outsource your support. It may be more expensive in the short term to build up a reliable in-house team, but the long-term benefits will far outweigh the costs.

   Nothing frustrates people more when they contact a company for support only to be greeted by someone from another country or someone who can’t understand the problem they are having.

   You have to remember that there’s a person with emotions, feelings and sometimes frustration on the end of the line, and making them deal with a less-than knowledgeable person when they call you or use live chat is only going to add to that.

2. Always figure out the problem first. Every time someone contacts you for sales or support they are looking for a solution to their problem. They are NOT looking specifically for your product. This one is sometimes hard to grasp, so let me give you an example.

   Someone searches for “email marketing software” and ends up on our SendStudio page. They are not looking for SendStudio specifically, but they are looking for a way to send emails for themselves or their clients. If they have a question on live chat then it’s our job to find out their problem and offer advice on how one of our products might solve their problem.

   You do this by taking the time to listen to the person and offer suggestions to each of their questions, slowly turning their problem into a workable solution, which one of your products may or may not solve. You never force your product/services onto them – no matter how keen they are to buy. Always educate, never sell. That’s our motto.

   It’s the job of your sales/support staff to provide that person with an answer to their problem, and the best answer to a question is always a solution that solves a problem.

3. If your product is a mismatch, let them know. If someone fires up live chat and asks us if we have a product specifically for affiliate marketing we politely inform them that we don’t and we point them in the direction of a product which we think might suit their needs. We then wind up the chat.

   Initially you might think you’re losing a sale, but that one person will never forget the helpful, friendly advice you gave them and there’s a great chance they’ll think of you in the future when they need something you sell.

   Remember, business isn’t all about money. It’s about building sustainable relationships with your customers and prospects, regardless of whether they buy from you now, in 6 months time, or never.

4. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. If someone asks you a tricky question on live chat then don’t try to provide them with the answer you think is right. If no one is around to help, politely inform them that you don’t know the answer to their problem and ask for their email address or phone number so you can pass their question onto someone who will get back to them.

   People would much rather wait a few hours for a correct answer instead of acting on an incorrect answer which could end up costing them time and money. They will also appreciate your honesty, and you’ll learn something new in the process.

5. Forget proper grammar and punctuation. When you talk to a friend, family member or your spouse on MSN, Yahoo Chat or text message, do you meticulously make sure every word is spelt right and every sentence ends with a full stop?

   I’m guessing you don’t, and it should be the same for live chat. Just type as the words come to you and don’t worry too much if you miss a comma or capitalization of a word every now and then – we’re human, and humans make mistakes. Throw in a smiley face every few responses as well – text is a faceless medium so let the other person know you’re not a robot.

6. Ask for the persons name straight up. This one’s pretty simple. Here’s how I normally start a live chat session:

   Mitch: Hi this is Mitch. How can I help you?
   Visitor: Hi Mitch
   Mitch: Hi! Can I grab your first name so I know who I’m talking to?
   Visitor: Sure, it’s Katie
   Mitch: Hey Katie, hit me with your question

   Very casual, friendly and to the point. I then move on and figure out how to turn her questions (the problem) into a solution (my answer).

7. Move from chat to phone if you need to. Sometimes people don’t like live chat. If you sense that they’re getting frustrated or you can’t answer their questions properly then ask for their phone number and pick up the phone and call them. Greet them in a friendly manner, such as:

   “Hey Katie it’s Mitch from Interspire. We were just talking on live chat. Sorry I couldn’t explain myself properly…”

Conclusion

I’m sure some people will disagree with my 7 tips above, but I can honestly say they have worked well for us and will continue to do so. If you run your own business why not try using live chat on your site (we use LivePerson.com) and implementing my 7 tips above? If you do, you’ll have created trust and started the foundation of any healthy business relationship, which is putting the customer first.

Author:  Mitchell Harper is the co-founder and devleopment manager at Interspire.com, a software and web application firm located in Nachville Tennessee.

Are You Saying What You Think You’re Saying?

By Stoney deGeyter in Business

Even when you think you’re communicating properly, you may not be. If you’re anything like me (and honestly, let’s hope you’re not!) you find yourself getting frustrated from time to time because some people are not following your directions. You couldn’t be any more clearer, right? Well, maybe you could!When you think that your employees just don’t listen or follow directions very well perhaps its time to sit down and start listening to yourself for a change. Get out of your own head for a second and hear your directions from the standpoint of someone who doesn’t already know what you want.

What do you hear? Clear, precise directions or instructions that can be left to interpretation? Many times when we give instructions what we think is obvious–and therefore left unsaid–isn’t so obvious to anyone else.

Luckily, these errors in communication can easily be fixed.

I’ll use myself as an example about communication gone awry. Several days ago when I was flying out to Portland , I got to the airport only to realize that I forgot to un-dock my laptop and stick it in my travel bag. I was lucky in two things, 1) I had plenty of time and 2) I work within an easy walking distance to the airport.

I quickly called my office and asked Jason to bring the computer out to me. Left unsaid was that I wanted him to bring it to the Airport, not just bring it outside the building. Since I walked to the airport Jason assumed that I’d simply walk back to get the computer. Nope, I wanted him to drive it over–that would be quicker.

But again, that part about driving it over was left unsaid. He might actually be walking it over! I realized this so I called him back a second time and told him that I wanted him to drive over to the Airport with the machine. Of course, he’s just lazy enough to want to drive it over anyway (why walk when the weathers nice, right!) so that was a non-issue. But it could have been.

When communicating directions to employees or subordinates or even fellow coworkers, its important that you be as precise and clear as possible. Instructions left unsaid will often result in work left undone or worse, done incorrectly. So think about how and what you say. Keeping communication clear helps everyone and avoids unnecessary “corrections” that inhibit productivity.

So the next time you give out directions take a second and listen to see if you’re really saying what you think you’re saying.

Stoney deGeyter leads a spectacular team of seasoned marketing experts at Pole Position Marketing, a search engine marketing company. Stoney started PPM in 1998 by finding the brightest minds in the industry and nurturing within them an intense desire to become leaders in their respective fields. With this team of professionals, he has built a wildly successful website marketing company that succeeds through both personal and professional integrity.

Getting A Partner, Best Thing for my Business

By Allen Taylor in Business

When I returned from Iraq in January 2006 I put up a website and started marketing myself online in the all of the usual ways:

• Article Marketing
• Blogging
• Ezine Publishing
• Free E-book Downloads
• Social Networking
• Forum Posting

All of these methods worked in some fashion. I achieved some results with article marketing and noticed that the more I did it the more positive results proliferated. It’s a great long term strategy. Blogging was more immediate and I found the SEO benefits more than rewarding. The free e-book downloads resulted in building a modest size list of e-zine subscribers, but writing and mailing my newsletter every week became a time consuming chore. At least I saw my name in print – again.
While my marketing efforts resulted in some sales, and still do, my most important marketing move by far has been a different way of marketing altogether. I simply accepted a partnership agreement with another marketer. Since then, my business – and my partner’s – has skyrocketed.
Many people shun partnerships because of the risk of losing control. While losing control is possible, it is unlikely if you screen your partners carefully. If you build trust between your partners and respect each other’s strengths then you can develop a winning business strategy and be insurmountably more effective. That was my experience.
One day, I happened upon a website that was offering the same services that I offered. Content. As a professional writer, I’ve got a diverse background in the printed word to include journalism, creative writing, and technical writing. I tried to steer clear of article ghostwriting because of what I perceived to be low pay. The ads on the freelance job sites continue to amuse me:
Need a ghostwriter for 500 articles. Deadline is one week. Topics vary. I’m willing to pay up to $1.50 per article.
I laughed at those jobs. I couldn’t imagine anyone surviving on $1.50 per article. Still can’t.
When I decided to apply for freelance writing work through a ghostwriting service I stumbled upon last summer, I did so with some trepidation. After all, one can never be sure how such things will turn out. Within one month I was getting more work from this one customer than I was getting from all my previous customers combined. I didn’t have time to pursue other work. What did it matter? I was making a decent living. I wasn’t getting rich, but I was eating every night – and I was making more than $1.50 per article. Then one day out of the blue my boss called and said he wanted to offer me a chance to make more money. How could I refuse?
I soon started managing the company’s work flow. He sent me more work. I didn’t have time to write any more but that was OK because as manager I was scraping a little bit off the top of other people’s production. Henry Ford’s maxim – it’s better to make 1% off of 100 people’s efforts than 100% off of your own – became my new motto. The business continued to grow – thanks in large part to my boss’s ability to sell, his spectacular SEO and PPC skills, and my ability to manage and organize people and projects. My wife was a fitting help mate. She took over management of some of the business functions, freeing me up to focus on other things. We continued to grow.
Today, Chris McElroy aka NameCritic and I are partners. We are both committed to growing the business by tending to our respective duties and relying on our managers to keep it organized and delivering quality services in a timely fashion. It’s worked out well. I am more successful today, and have learned more about Internet marketing than I ever thought possible, just because of this one partnership.
Partnerships are the best way to build a business fast. Just ask any affiliate marketer. But you do have to adhere to certain principles to be successful in any partnership:
• Build trust – If you expect your partner to trust you, give him to reasons to.

• Respect your differences – The reason you have a partner is to increase your productivity by focusing on the things that you do well and letting others do what they do well.

• Have clear divisions of responsibilities – Know your place within the organization; do what you do best and let others do the same.

• Develop a common vision – No business can survive if key decision makers have divergent views on central issues related to the business.

• Bring something to the table – What do you have to offer? You can’t attract partners if you have nothing to give.

• Talk every day – A business partnership is like a marriage; you’ve got to have constant contact.
In the time that I’ve partnered with NameCritic I’ve seen others try to branch out on their own only to fall on their faces. I’ve seen good people try to nose their way between us and our clients only to be cast aside for their lack of judgment and integrity. Those are sad cases of low regard for business ethics. In business, online and off line, it isn’t what you think you know or believe you can do, it’s who you are at the deepest levels of being. Successful partnerships depend on strong character, integrity, and mutual respect. Those are qualities that are a little bit out of fashion, but important nonetheless.
Author:  Allen Taylor is the operations manager for Article Content Provider and Blogs.pn. For more information about how you can get affordable high quality content visit www.articlecontentprovider.com or call 717-528-4005.