The 99 Percent Rule

It's Friday night, you're sitting at a restaurant, and as your meal arrives, server says, "Now, don't touch that plate. It's hot." What's first thing you do?

Well, 99% of time you're going to touch that plate, right?

I call it 99% rule. It's closer to 100%, but I give myself a little "out" for those who wish to find a loophole in it.

After years of studying human behavior, I've come up with a few of these 99% rules that I wish to share with you today. Looking for these common denominators in everyday conversation will help you read between lines more quickly.

When someone starts a sentence with it's not, they're usually trying to tell you what something really is without hurting your feelings.

When someone starts a sentence with I don't, they're trying to direct you without hurting your feelings.

Here are some examples of first rule in action.

When they say, "It's not you, it's me," they're trying to tell you that it is you. (Since I date quite a bit, I hear this one quite often!)

When they say, "It's not that you're too short," they're trying to tell you that they think you are too short.

When they say, "It's not that I have a drinking problem," what probably comes out of their mouth next is a story about how they drank too much.

How to Handle 12 Big Issues for Small Businesses

Some day-to-day work issues can turn into big headaches for small businesses. For example, not having enough help during a busy season or new promotion can hurt production, sales and customer relations in fulfillment of orders and customer service.

A quick glance at following stats reported by US. Small Business Administration, shows that small businesses are not small potatoes in today’s economy. In fact, number of small businesses multiplied by number of large problems equals need for a lot of solutions.

Small firms*:

·Total approximately 23 million in United States, with roughly 75 percent of firms having no employees.

·Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

·Employ half of all private sector employees.

·Pay 44.3 percent of total U.S. private payroll.

·Generate 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually.

·Create more than 50 percent of non-farm, private gross-domestic product (GDP).

·Are employers of 39 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer workers).

·Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 29 percent of known export value in FY 2001.

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How can small business handle big issues? OhioHelp.net, an Ohio-based company that helps businesses worldwide with their marketing, public relations and freelance writing services, shared 12 tips based on their own client projects.

1. Need help? Find some great subcontractors & cyber-helpers. Post for help on your favorite forums and freelance biding sites like Elance.

2. Need enhanced product / service lines? Offer larger pricing packages or specials for larger businesses and clients who have worked with you previously. And offer introductory pricing and smaller packages to new clients and smaller businesses.

3. Have a guarantee? Forget worrying about “Guarantees” and offer payment due AFTERWARDS with no-cost trials- -so clients can have product and make sure it meets their needs. (Only risk small portions of project at a time, though. But it works great for everyone.)

4. Need more business? Keep marketing- offline, especially. Work with associations in your industry.