Setting Non-Negotiable Staff StandardsWritten by Noel Peebles
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I’ll give you yet another example. As anyone in retailing will know, meeting and greeting customers is critical. If you ask, “can I help you”,  inevitable response is “no thank you, I’m just looking.” So why ask a question that you know will get a predictably negative response. The answer is you shouldn’t! So, one of my non-negotiable standards was that staff members never, never, ever asked, “can I help you.” Instead staff members were given intensive training on exactly how to meet and greet customers. They were given lots of ideas and flexibility to inject their own personality into what they said. When greeting a customer, staff members were encouraged to begin by talking about anything except making a sale. They could comment on weather, something happening outside store, fashionable coat customer was wearing… anything except making a sale. The reason for this was simple. The first objective was to always try to relax customer before attempting to make a sale. So “can I help you” was a definite “NO-NO”. I believe that, in setting non-negotiable standards, it is important to put policies in writing. Although verbal instruction will be necessary on occasion, it is much easier to hold people accountable for something that is written. Finally, it is really important to ensure that employees know and fully understand meaning of non-negotiable standards. They need to be thoroughly trained on what’s required, or how to do particular task. I’m a strong believer in asking people “do you understand” and in some cases following up with “show me.” This way there can be no misunderstanding as to exactly what’s required. Although setting non-negotiable standards might sound very disciplined, it is really about running a business at maximum efficiency. And, in no way should that stop everyone from having a lot of fun. Besides, most employees will try hard to please... and they have a right to know what’s required of them and their boundaries. © Noel Peebles. Market Leaders Limited. http://www.instantsellbusiness.com http://www.instantsellhome.comNOTE: The following information must be included if you reprint this article: ********************************************* Get Your 100% FREE mini-course "17 Powerful Secrets That Have Made Business Owners Into Millionaires." 100% FREE! Simply send a blank email to: instantsellbusiness@ReportsNetwork.com ********************************************
Noel Peebles runs his own direct marketing and internet company, supplying marketing and management solutions for small businesses.
| | How to run an e-commerce business on $30.00 per yearWritten by Paul Holstein
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Now you need ability to accept major credit cards. I struggled with this option for quite a while. There are several options available, but I think simplest option is to open up a PayPal account at http://paypal.com. No other service I have found offers ideal combination of low transaction rates, acceptance of all major credit cards and no start up fees. The one downside to using PayPal is that they require your customers to have a user name and password. While this is free for user, it puts some of them off. OK, it's not a perfect solution but ideal solution costs at least $199.00 in signup fees then about $10.00 to $35.00 per month in additional fees. That is simply not acceptable for a brand new business trying to make something happen on a tight budget. So start with PayPal and if you get successful, then switch to a merchant account. The last three items require more time than money. You need a product or service to sell. Again, you can get this for free. There are all sorts of businesses on Internet that want you to sell their products. If you do a search for word affiliate in Google, you will find thousands of companies wanting you to send traffic their way. In exchange, they will give you money. However, you may also have some physical goods you'd like to sell. Find something that interests you then find a manufacturer or distributor who will sell you products at wholesale prices. This is not hard to do. You simply need to do some research and make some phone calls. You can pretty much become a retailer in any business. Now you need to write your content. Your content should be written in HTML. If you don't already know how to write HTML, a good place to start would be http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/ The last thing you will need is traffic. You are in luck on this one as well. These days, one of best ways to generate traffic is to be highly listed on a search engine. The king of all search engines is Google.com. They get about 2/3 of all search traffic out there. Therefore, if you are trying to build a business on a shoestring, you should optimize your site for inclusion in Google and submit it for free. However, you need to be very, very careful before you submit to Google first time. I highly recommend that you research exactly how to optimize your site before submitting for first time. You can visit http://www.rankwrite.com/articles.htm for some helpful information in optimizing your site. The reason you want to be careful is that it takes about two months for Google to list you in their site. If you get a poor ranking in Google, they will take longer to visit your site next time to update their database. This can cause you to have few to no visitors for months. OK, that's it. There is no reason in today's economy why you can't be successful without spending a lot of money. Of course, this all requires time and effort on your part. If you prefer to let someone else do all work, that's where I come in. I run a business called resqpc.com. I can do all of this for you. Just don't expect me to charge you only $30.00. If you have any questions, just drop me a line. Good Luck.
Paul Holstein is the developer of CableOrganizer.com, a web site dedicated to providing cable organizers and other products for your wire management needs.
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