Client Rapport: Increasing in Impotance

Recently, I have been collaborating with a local bank to create a booklet that will be sent to each of their customers. In the past, I would create the logo, document, etc and then the client would verify its quality at the end of the project cycle. With this project, however, the client has been involved in every step along the way.

This article on the American Bar Association website explains that the client/customer relationship is changing:

Developing high-quality interactions with clients will increasingly be key to satisfaction and loyalty. The groundwork is already laid. How will your firm choose to build on it?

The nature of the relationship between companies and their customers is changing dramatically. In general, today’s customers are more informed, more networked and more involved with the products and services they consume. They aren’t satisfied to simply buy a product or a service—they want to be part of the process of creating it.

We may not be attorneys, but we can learn from this realization. We must be ready to become truly connected to our client, especially to the point person on the project. Developing a rapport with him or her will help throughout the project. Assuming we complete the project on time and exceed expectations, we can expect more work from the client or even referrals to potential clients.

Social Media Etiquette from an Expert

An article on Entrepreneur.com caught my eye because I am a Jane Austen fan. I have read all the books and seen many of the corresponding movies. The author, Laura Hale Brockway, explains how the social lessons penned over 200 years ago are applicable in our digital age. There are three lessons in particular: Facebook over-sharing, questionable connections, and having an actual conversation. Click here to read the article.

Gmail Shortcut

If your inbox is like mine, you receive junk email even though you have applied filters. Although it does not seem to take much time to delete unwanted messages, all those seconds add up to minutes and eventually hours of time lost.

Google has done it once again by adding an inbox feature/shortcut for its users that will save them time. Quite often to unsubscribe from unwanted emails, you have to scroll to the bottom of said email and hunt for a way to unsubscribe, which will usually take you out of Gmail. Now a button will appear next to the promotional email that will allow you to unsubscribe.

"We want our users to not have spam, and we also want you to reach the user," said Google’s head of anti-abuse research, Elie Bursztein, at a conference in San Francisco held by M3AAWG -- an anti-abuse messaging group -- where the new feature was announced last Thursday. 

According to IT World, The unsubscribe tool is Google’s latest of several “quick action buttons.” This is a button I know I will use. Read more at Entrepreneur.com.

How to Protect your iPhone

If you have an iPhone, read the information in this infographic for ways to protect that valuable asset. Also, if your company passes iPhones out to it's employees, make sure the employees know ways to protect the company's asset.

10 Crazy Facts About Valentine's Day (Video)

A fun way to learn some Valentine's Day facts. Look out for # 2...not sure I could hold it that long!

Travelogue of the Temporary Worker

Last week I had the opportunity to work at one of the many Williams-Sonoma stores, Pottery Barn Kids. If you have never been in Pottery Barn Kids or looked at their website, you will be unaware of how adorable - and how outrageously expensive - most of their products are. A very tempting place for a mother of three girls. Although, some of the neatest items were the Star Wars sheets and Darth Vader and Storm Trooper decorative pillows. I made it through without purchasing anything even though I did receive a 20% discount.

I was working at the store because a friend of mine is in management at the Tampa location. They close all the stores across the country on the same day each February to complete their inventory check. They hire a few temporary employees in order to make the day go faster. I have never worked retail before or been in the back of a store to see where all the goods are kept. When I first saw the rows of floor to ceiling shelves, I was somewhat daunted.

Our task was relatively simple, we just had to go shelf by shelf scanning each item's bar code and then verify the number of each item. I am kind of a weirdo int hat I find that kind of work fun. ALthough, I would not want to do it on a daily basis. I was pooped by the end of the day. We worked from 6 am to 4:30 pm.

Working for that day reminded me why I love being an entrepreneur. No getting up at 4:30 am, no 30 minute commute, no supervisor, better pay. It also reminded me why I love working someplace other than my home office. Mainly being around other people and knowing work was done when I left the building.

That day was a fun diversion. It was good to be back in work environment. However, I would not trade it for my small business for anything.

Small Business Big Crime

With a slew of recent big name companies becoming victims of cyber crime, it has given all of us business owners reason to reflect on our own security against all types of business crimes. Because of the nature of my business and how I get paid, I have not felt the need to obtain business insurance. I would definitely if my business sold products. Here is an interesting infographic put out by Bolt Insurance Group.