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Protect Your Cash, Part 3

If you implement the policies that prevent the same person from handling all the cash and banking functions, plus review receivables, payables, and your financial statements regularly, you will have a better chance to catch anything questionable early on.

Protect Your Cash, Part 2

In this second of three parts, here are more easy procedures to implement so that you protect your hard earned cash. The person who signs the checks is not the same person who balances the checkbook.

Protect Your Cash, Part 1

There is no sense in doing the work if you’re not collecting the cash for the work you do. That, from a business standpoint, is one of the most important things to do. But once you get the cash in the door, you must make sure you protect that cash from employee theft and other mismanagement. There are some simple and very easy things that you should do to make sure that you protect your hard earned cash.

Set a Customer Service Culture with Three Steps to Welcome

What pleases one customer may easily disturb another. But you’ve got to do something. So what should you do? Should your customer service culture be reserved and polite, or outgoing and friendly? Should you be fast and efficient, or personal and attentive? Should you initiate contact and offer immediate help, or wait discreetly until you are asked?

The Fairness Doctrine

Most emotional responses to decisions in business are generated not because the person making the response feels the decision was unwise, but rather unfair. So I’ve created the “Fairness Doctrine” as a stated element in the cultural fabric of businesses where I am involved.

3 Key Questions to Ask Before Hiring for Your Startup

One of the hardest but most exciting things about being a young entrepreneur, first-time business owner, or even a startup manager is the hiring process. But there are a few things you have to think about before green-lighting a new startup employee, especially in the earliest stages of starting up.

Humanizing Your Customer Service

Customer service gives your company an opportunity to build a strong relationship with customers at a critical point. If they’re calling for help, then they’re likely frustrated. All too often, customers are greeted by “customer service robots.” Everyone’s familiar with this type of representative.

Contractors Must Really Be Independent

How many of us have “hired” independent contractors over the years, a bit worried over the gray area between employee and contractor as defined by the IRS? I’ve experienced the results of a wrong decision, and the IRS and state agencies are not forgiving in their pursuit of penalties, interest, and (most damaging) assessing a company with both employer and employee taxes when reclassifying the person as an employee.

What Makes Customer Service Interactions Good or Bad in the Eyes of the Customer?

An April 2013 Customer Service Study by Dimensional Research pinpointed what makes customers of mid-sized companies happy and what leaves them in dismay. This is the first in a series of blog posts about the important results of this study.

Improve Customer Service by Designing with Clients in Mind

It’s easy to get caught up in designing new things that are “cool” or “elegant” or “hot.” But if you don’t keep your customer in mind throughout, you could end up with an investment that’s “not.” Keep clients in the forefront of your mind with every decision and you can improve customer service quality.

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