Month: January 2013

Categories
Operations

The Data Deluge and Information Overkill

How many times have you been told by someone that what you have just said is too much information?

Now imagine too much information times millions. This is what we call a data deluge. The advent of the Internet and new technology has resulted in a steady stream or flood of information and not enough people or ways to disseminate all of this data into helpful smaller streams.

This is a problem for companies with both small and large staffs. The data deluge is a wall of information that results in overload, hindering ways the data can be used practically by those that need it.

The phenomenon of information overload is not new. However, in today’s world of data-driven technology the pure volume of information being produced is in many cases, overwhelming. This concept is being referred to as ‘data deluge’. The problem is, a lag is becoming increasingly apparent. Infrastructures, support tools and hardware are not always able to keep up with the influx of data.

Data deluge affects larger corporations in all areas, from the front office to the factory floor. Companies can use the data information flow to determine customer shopping patterns. If a major department store finds out that sales of a certain fragrance are through the roof at certain locations, they can reroute shipments of that fragrance to those stores.

With the advent of smartphones, data deluge can be managed. These same stores may have “apps” on their phones to track how many people visit their site and where they go. If stores see customers gravitating toward electronics, women’s fashions, etc., they can instruct heads in those departments about higher traffic. These are ways the data deluge can be disseminated and put to good use.

At LSI, a company specializing in storage and servers for small and large companies, Chief Executive Officer Abhi Talwalkar is approaching the data deluge as a chance to give the company more of a focus on the future. With volumes of information set to increase 30-50 percent over the next five years, according to Talwalkar, something has to be done.

“In mobile networks, the dramatic rise in video is driving explosive data growth,” Talwalkar said in a guest column for Forbes. “What’s more, end users want faster access to higher quality content, including bandwidth-hungry high-definition video and other rich media.”

Letting Go May Be a Solution

Data management can be a huge task when dealing large volumes of information. Organizing and archiving documents, emails, and other types of information add to the overall cost of operations. The costs as well as the risks increase as more and more information is kept. Sensitive data must be guarded to ensure that it is kept safe. The risks for litigation increase as the volumes of data increase.

Data mapping is an excellent way to create appropriate access to important information. Data maps are used to define the information that is kept and to discover any duplicate data that can be eliminated or consolidated. The data map is used as an authoritative and useful guide that can be helpful in litigation as well as in day-to-day business.

The use of support tools and such things as automated updates and deletes of files can help control the influx of data. However, automated systems should include an override that allows for flexibility. This can be especially important when there are litigation concerns.

As technology advances data destruction and retention are among the top priorities. The reality is, letting go of certain data at the proper time is as important as having the right data on hand. With that in mind, infrastructures and support tools should have built-in processes but they should also allow for flexibility. Individual companies need to have policies that address issues related to responsibilities, accountability, access, and time limits related to data and access of information.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Categories
Communication Skills

Influence vs. Manipulation

How would your life be simpler if you could build rapport with someone is 90 seconds? That is influence. Would it take the stress out of meeting new people? Would you approach difficult people with more confidence?

In our sales training module we teach how to build rapport in a 2 hour workshop. Rapport leads to trust, trust allows us to influence. Influence is positive and required in sales. Influence is helping others to take purposeful and inspired action?

All of us use persuasion and a leadership tool to help inspire others to do things they never thought they could do. The ability to create excitement all around you is what leadership is about. Listen to the sound of leadership; it is you being eloquent, powerful, convincing, compelling, and forceful. It is not for the faint of heart, but the outcome is inevitable if you care enough to ignite a spark, which will grow into a flame.

Leading through persuasion is a form of communicating that must be learned. In fact, it has to be learned, for if you can’t persuade or convince others, you cannot lead. If you can’t persuade or convince others, you cannot sell.

Manipulation is the opposite of persuasion. It is not truthful. It is not forceful, it is aggressive. It is usually fear based and it does not have the others best interest at heart. None of us want to be manipulated into doing things were don’t want to do.

I work daily with business owners, sales representatives, and others who want to influence others (employees, customers, friends, family, prospects, and vendors) to some specific course of action. Often times they are not successful. This problematic if you are in sales because you won’t make any money or change someone’s life with your wonderful product or service if you do not develop influencing skills.

Your purpose when influencing is to help others get clear and make the correct and right choice. The purpose of influence is to help you help them to understand why you are the right and safe choice. Effectively, I want you to communicate your value in a way that others are most likely to hear, understand and act upon.

To learn HOW TO BUILD RAPPORT WITH ANYONE IN 90 SECONDS OR LESS click here. I will not ask for ANY  info, not even your email address.

Persuasion is a learned skill. It required practice. It required thinking differently. It requires personal growth and getting clear on who you are. Are you up for the challenge?

Categories
Home-Based Business

Home Based Business Marketing Plan: 4 Tips to Fine-Tune Your Niche Marketing

Before you can have clients, you need to have prospects — that’s what marketing is all about. If your marketing isn’t attracting the kind of people you’d like to be working with, it’s like pushing a rope — you are trying to sell them something they don’t need, and they are looking for something you don’t offer. A little fine-tuning of your marketing plan can make the difference between a home based business that lurches and stalls, and a business that runs smoothly and is fun to operate.

Your Four-Point Marketing Tune-Up Checklist:

Understand the difference between your Target Market and your Niche.

A target market has distinguishing demographic characteristics; for example, recently widowed working women under 50. A niche gets more specific in characteristics that might not be as easily identifiable as demographics; using the previous example, you could further narrow your target market by including only women who want to remarry and don’t know how to meet suitable men.

Make sure your Niche is focused enough.

Think of all the people who might fit in your niche. Imagine them all in a room at a business or social event. Would you find them all interesting and enjoy talking to them? If you cringe at the thought of meeting some of the people in that imaginary room, note what it is about them that you’d like to avoid – and re-define your niche to exclude them.

Perhaps you want to coach women who will be patient in their search for a spouse — not desperate! If your marketing message implies easy, immediate results, you’ll be attracting the wrong prospects. Fine-tune your language so it is clear that your solutions may take time to be successful. You won’t be eliminating potential customers – you’ll be saving yourself time wasted on less-than-ideal prospects. And you’ll find yourself more effortlessly attracting clients in the heart of your niche market.

Choose marketing techniques that fit your strengths.

Just because every other relationship coach has written a book, doesn’t mean you have to! If the whole publishing and book promotion exercise sounds like torture, don’t waste your time. Maybe writing a Dear Abby type of newspaper column is more your style. If you find dealing with your website to be confusing, but are good at speaking to small groups, ignore the advice to do a lot of online marketing and instead look for opportunities to speak at senior centers, for example.

Be authentic – be yourself.

Building an image that isn’t who you are is a setup for disaster, especially for the self employed and home based business owner. You’ll be exhausted keeping up the façade…and potential clients will sense the lack of integrity. If you yourself are recently widowed and learning how to meet the right kind of men, don’t try to imply that you are an expert. Your personal dating stories can be a great way to establish a relationship with a potential client, who can see themselves in you. Clients want someone they can trust — it is more important than all the credentials in the world.

Categories
Entrepreneurs Success Attitude

The Value of Being “Second” — 3 Reasons Why Your Biz Might be Better Off Not Being First

There’s a lot of value around being first in your business. The first person to come up with a hot product or service tends to reap a huge amount of rewards in the process.

However, being first isn’t always all that and a bag of chips. In fact, there are times when being second to the party puts you in a better position than being first. Below are 3 reasons to celebrate being second:

1. You know there is a market for what you’re selling.

The one thing no one talks about in the “quest to be first” is the fact that lots of times, the person who is first falls flat on their face. Sure we all want to be Apple with the next iPod. But what about all those businesses who came up with some brand-spanking new gadget and didn’t sell a thing?

Years ago, I read a story about entrepreneurs knowing when it was time to give up. One of the stories was from a guy who created a picture frame that “talked” — I can’t remember if you could create your own audio but I do remember he had these pictures of famous events, like Neil Armstrong on the moon, and you pressed a button and heard a recording of Neil talking about one giant leap for mankind.

Everyone who saw it loved the concept. But no one loved it enough to buy them. He said he stayed in business a good couple years past when he should have quit and lost thousands more because people kept telling him what a cool concept that was even though it apparently wasn’t “cool” enough to actually purchase.

So here we have a story about someone who was first with this cool concept and no one bought it. Because there wasn’t a market for it. And that in a nutshell is why it can be scary to be first, because you have no idea if what you’re selling is something people actually want to buy. (Or at least want to buy at that moment of time — there are also stories of entrepreneurs who had the right idea at the wrong time — 10 years later the idea is big hit but not when they came up with it.)

Now, if you’re second, then you can celebrate because you know there’s a market for what you’re offering. In fact, I would go as far to say if there’s competition for what you want to offer that’s a good thing because then you know for sure there’s a market for it.

2. You can improve upon what the “first” already did.

Google wasn’t the first search engine out there. Zappos wasn’t the first to sell shoes online. But now both of them are the two-ton gorilla in the room. They looked at what the other “firsts” were doing — both right and wrong, and improved upon it.

And not only does this mean improving on the product or service it also means improving on the marketing.

If you are second you’re in a fabulous position to analyze what the “first” did and see how you can improve it to solidify your position in the marketplace. And if you do this right, you may have your own opportunity to be “first” — and reap the benefits without taking as much of the risks, which I cover in the next reason.

3. You have the opportunity to put your unique spin on whatever is “first” — which could make it “first.”

Let’s take coaches. Coaches have been around, well, probably for as long as there were people. I suspect when we were all cavemen we had coaches teaching us better ways to run away from saber tooth tigers and selecting the right berry to gather. But coaches as an entrepreneur industry is a relatively new thing. And the new twists on coaching also can make it feel first, even though the field of coaching is not new.

How this could work in your own business: See what you offer in your business that’s a “second” — is there a way you can put your own stamp on it (maybe combine with something else or approach it with a fresh angle) that could give you the security of knowing there’s a market while also letting you be “first” with your own twist? This is the secret to standing out in a crowded marketplace so don’t rush into this. Play around with some ideas and test them out to see what you come up with.

Categories
Finance & Capital

Is a Merchant Cash Advance Right for You?

You own a small business, but accounts receivable are piling up. It seems that everyone is a “slow pay” these days, but your business needs working capital to operate- and it needs it now. Your banker wants more collateral, and he will not accept your accounts receivable for that purpose, so what is one to do?

The “answer” for many struggling businesses has been a new entry in the field of finance – the Merchant Cash Advance, or “MCA,” for short. Bankers may have fled from the small business community due to credit risk, but there is ample investor cash on the sidelines looking for better returns even when risk profiles are high. This new funding source, however, is expensive and may not be suited for your business model, such that extreme caution should be exercised before heading down this funding path.

What is an MCA? In most cases, it is tied to your daily credit and debit card activity with your merchant processor, although many providers have expanded into making these advances available on an unsecured basis to qualifying small businesses. Technically speaking, these advances are not loans, do not fall within fair credit law dictates, and are for the most part unregulated. Depending on your weekly billing history, a portion will be advanced for your use. A factor from 20% to 50% or higher is added, and then the total is collected ratably over an agreed upon time period from your daily receipts.

If it works for you, this funding source can grow with your business, but experts warn prospective applicants to be cautious; “Next to borrowing from Tony Soprano, MCA’s are very expensive and often have repayment penalties that prevent the borrower from getting out of a difficult situation.” The industry arose five years back when banks departed the scene. Usury complaints and unfair business practices have subsided to some degree, but here are a few tips to follow before jumping into this:

  • First, read up on the funding method and become familiar with what it is and how it works. Internet search engines can direct you to a host of articles and independent testimonials on this topic. The North American Merchant Advance Association website is a good place to start. It was formed in 2008 to “set ethical standards for the industry”.
  • Does your business model have quick turnover and high margins to support the high costs of this funding option? For example, a $20,000 advance might carry a 20% fee and require a $2,000 payback over twelve months in a best-case scenario. This interest-rate tab computes out at a 40% rate, and higher still for shorter payback periods, which are more common. Does your business have the capacity to generate the necessary margins to cover this expense and remain profitable? Experts once again counsel, “With this short repayment period, a majority of the company’s credit card revenue is deferred to pay back the loan instead of being available to cover operating expenses.”
  • This option should not be viewed as a long-term alternative. It is designed for an immediate need. You need to get in and get out quickly. “MCA companies are great at offering to loan additional money to borrowers based on the increase in monthly credit card transactions or when a loan matures. It is very easy for a company to fall into the trap of continued borrowing from an MCA when it may no longer be necessary.”

MCA’s are the latest funding option to hit the market, but proceed with caution and understand your risks before committing.

Ms. Bekiroglu is a published freelance writer and editorial consultant for www.mobilepaymentgeek.com. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida, she became determined to eliminate her student loan debt, thus becoming very knowledgeable about money management. Now she seeks to educate others with tips in both personal and business finance.