Hire the Right People and Get Them Productive Fast!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
1:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM Central, 11:00 AM Mountain, 10:00 AM Pacific)

Managing the Customer Relationship
Thursday, April 12, 2007
4:00 PM Eastern (3:00 PM Central, 2:00 PM Mountain, 1:00 PM Pacific)

How many advertisements do you see that just scream out: We give you the best prices or Our service is better? The simple answer is, too many. It’s easy to make a promise like this in an advertisement and every newspaper is full of them, but they can be a real turnoff to an aware public who are interested in finding value and need proof that you can offer it.

Consumer research has consistently shown that people perceive most businesses as having similar relationships between their pricing and service. They know that there are top of the line suppliers that excel in service and charge higher prices, just as they know that there are cut rate suppliers with lower prices and lower standards of service.

But they also perceive that the difference in pricing between the two levels isn’t all that great, and that no business will stay around long if its service isn’t at least acceptable. That leaves the important question of how you can stand out from the competition while still trying to communicate your own value proposition.

Tell them what you’re going to give them

If somebody’s never been a customer of yours previously, your advertising has to be very specific in painting a picture of what they’ll find if they buy from you. It’s essential to convey your uniqueness rather than just trying to say We’ve got good prices and service.

What is it about your business that will interest a prospect? What will you do for them that nobody else can do? Or, that nobody else is saying they’ll do?

It begins by finding out what your customers and prospects really want, then telling the world that you’ve got it. What’s really important to them that will induce them to purchase from you?

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your advertising has to be about them and not about you. Be specific about what you’ll do for them – is it better fitting clothes or a smoother running engine? That’s what they really want, and not just bland statements of price and service.

Customize your benefit

Once you’ve identified the basic benefit that they want and you can provide, augment this with an offer that’s specific to your business. Take a hypothetical situation where a person’s refrigerator has broken down and a replacement is urgently needed.

That person looks in their telephone directory and sees two advertisements for refrigerators. The first says:

Award-winning electrical appliances. Great service and the best price.

The second advertisement says:

Electrical appliances delivered free. Same-day service to most areas.

It’s obvious that winning awards and vague promises about service and price aren’t nearly as important to somebody without a refrigerator as having it delivered quickly and especially if it’s free. There’s no question about which advertisement is going to be the most appealing.

The best way to stand out from the competition is to base your advertising on what your customers really want and how you’ll provide it to them. Think about this the next time you prepare an advertisement and you’ll be using words your customers want to hear.

Information in this article is sourced from RAN ONE, Inc.

By Teri Milligan, QuickBooks Consulting and Implementation

When you load QuickBooksTM Accounting Software and set up your company data file, one of the accounts that QuickBooks creates automatically is the “Undeposited Funds” account.

A lot of my clients really don’t understand the purpose of the Undeposited Funds account and often this can cause a problem in their accounting records. The purpose of the Undeposited Funds account is to group payments from your customers based on when you deposit them in the bank. Using this account correctly can greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to reconcile your bank accounts in QuickBooksTM.

Often my clients will have a large balance in their Undeposited Funds account because they accept payments through the “Receive Payments” window, but do not go the next step to group those payments in the “Make Deposits” window and deposit them in to a QuickBooksTM bank account.

If in your business you only collect a few larger checks and tend to deposit those checks when you receive them, then you might want to change how QuickBooks automatically sets this auto preference to allow you to deposit your client payments directly in to your QuickBooksTM bank account.

Changing this preference can give you the flexibility to choose where you want to deposit your customer payments, either the Undeposited Funds account or a QuickBooksTM bank account. A note of caution, if you do change this preference you will have to be more aware of where you are depositing your payments.

To change this preference, click on the “Edit Menu”, “Preferences”, then choose “ Sales and Customers” on the left hand side. At the bottom of the “Company Preferences” tab, is a check box called “Use Undeposited Funds as a default deposit to account”. If you uncheck this box, then you will have an new option that says “Deposit to” with a drop down menu on your sales receipts and in your “Receive Payments” window as to where you want to deposit the payment, either your Undeposited Funds account or a QuickBooks bank account.

To learn how to use QuickBooksTM more efficiently in your business you can contact Teri at 619-463-6851 or by e-mail at teri@terimilligan.com.

By Christopher W. Olmsted, Attorney

Businesses routinely send employees on company errands in their personal vehicles. In many companies, it would be hard to find a day when one employee or another does not jump in the car before or after work, or during lunch, to make a bank deposit, swing by the post office, pick up lunch for the staff, or run some other simple errand. What kind of legal risks does a company face if someone gets hurt in an accident caused by such an employee?

General Rule: Employers Liable for Acts of Employees - It is a general principle of law in California that employers are liable for injury caused by employees who are acting “within the course and scope of their employment.” Attorneys refer to this principle of liability with the Latin phrase “respondeat superior.” For example, a pizzeria is liable when its delivery driver causes an accident while delivering pizza. A home improvement store will be liable when its stocker topples merchandise off a high shelf onto a customer.

“Going and Coming Rule” - Employers are not ordinarily liable for injury caused by an employee during his or her normal commute to or from work because commuting is not part of the course and scope of employment.

Special Errand Exception - Not all personal driving activities fall outside the course and scope of employment. An employee running a special business errand is deemed to be within the course and scope of employment. The errand can be done either as a part of regular duties or at the specific request or order of the employer. Importantly, the entire trip counts as part of the course and scope of employment, from the start of the errand until the employee returns to the work place or departs from the errand for personal reasons. Courts have been fairly strict about when the errand becomes personal, requiring a “substantial departure” for personal business before respondeat superior liability ends. In many cases, running a business errand on the way to work or on the way home will cause the entire trip to fall within the course and scope of employment. For example, an employer may be liable for injuries caused an employee who is asked to make a bank deposit on the way home from work, and who after making the deposit causes an accident on the way home.

Minimizing the Risk - The right kind of insurance coverage is a must. Every business ought to purchase “nonowned” automobile insurance coverage. This insurance covers accidents caused by employees driving their own cars (i.e., cars not owned by the company). Even with suitable insurance, litigation will be an unwelcome distraction, and quite possibly harm business in broader ways. Consider the possibility of respondeat superior liability any time that an employee is asked to run an errand or drive on company business. Implement company policies regarding the use of personal vehicles for company business. Limit the number of company errands and the employees who run them. Restrict errands to business matters when feasible. A company-wide awareness of the potential for respondeat superior liability, along with appropriate risk management measures, will go a long way keeping the company out of legal tangles.

Christopher Olmsted is a member of the law firm Barker Koumas & Olmsted, practicing in the areas of employment law and business litigation. He can be reached at (619) 682-4040 or Email

The article presented herein is intended as a brief overview of the law and is not intended to substitute as legal advice. Any questions or concerns regarding any statute or case law should be addressed to a licensed attorney.

by Jim Muglia, Computer Consulting and Maintenance

If you were not aware, this year Daylight Saving Time (DST) extends by approximately four weeks. In compliance with this provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DST dates in the United States and Canada will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November).

In some instances, some effort will be required to accommodate the new DST legislation. For example, your computer systems and applications may need to be updated directly, while in other circumstances the application may inherit the date and time information from the underlying operating system.

Details of the updates for Microsoft Windows and affected Microsoft applications, how customers can acquire them and when they will be available can be found on the Microsoft website at http://www.m icrosoft.com/dst2007. Corresponding technical Knowledge Base (KB) articles are linked from this website as well.

Windows Mobile will have more KBs relating to the time changes, I hear and Microsoft recommends you keep an eye on their DST time rules change page for any new developments. Note: To date Microsoft is not making any patches available for Win9X, ME or NT, as these are unsupported systems. And, for you techies, if you have any old app servers or legacy workstations, take note!

In addition, FAX machines (along with PBX/Voice Mail/Alarms/Security Cams) will also be affected by this change and potentially each will need to be adjusted four times per year, as a manual adjustment. At home you might also have VCR/VDR/DVRs to think about. It’s not that ANY device will die, but there is a very real possibility that you won’t be able to log in or, in the case of an application with a calendar function, you may miss an appointment by an hour.

This article was brought to you by Microsoft, Roger Otterson and Jim Muglia.

Fear melts when you take action towards a goal you really want.

~ Robert G Allen