Business 2 Community has a handy article on this topic, published in November of 2012. It’s called Does Your Website Answer these 5 Questions to Convert Visitors into Customers? and lays out a list of five simple queries that potential customers may be asking themselves when they visit your website. It’s a good guide for business owners to utilize in order to get a different perspective of their site, and also offers some advice on how to answer each question in a positive manner that could increase the likelihood of users sticking around to make a purchase rather than leaving and looking for an answer to their searches elsewhere.

Here’s an example of one of the questions and recommendations from the article:

1.   What is this?

You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t make it clear, crystal clear, what exactly they do.

Always assume visitors know nothing about you.  Don’t make people have to click or read big blocks of text to figure out what you do.  Make it very obvious in your slogan or somewhere in your header.  That way, no matter what page visitors land on when entering your site, they’ll know what your business is all about.

While it almost seems like a universally understood, unspoken rule amongst commercial websites, the truth is that several of them do make it difficult for visitors to understand exactly what they’re about, who they’re targeting and how they can help answer the questions that brought users there. If you feel as though your website doesn’t currently offer a clear idea of what your business does, the good news is that you know it best, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to put together a message that gets that point across.

Your goal as a business owner regarding your website has always been clear: to ensure it works as effectively as possible to help you grow your customer base and business. But it’s never a bad idea to take stock and make sure it’s reaching these goals as well as it can, and to find out what more you can be doing to make sure it does.

As the partner company to an internet marketing agency, e-Commerce Essentials, we have the advantage of being in the loop on issues like this, and can strongly recommend this for any business owner. No matter how big, small, new or old your company is, the web is one of your most powerful marketing tools, and one with which you should always be working to keep up-to-date.

How well does your website currently work to convert visitors into customers? Did you find this article useful? Do you plan on implementing some changes after reading it? Your thoughts and comments are always welcome, so let us know!

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We came across this article written by Kevin Weir from ActionCoach last August. Entitled Grow a Spine and Get Rid of Your Dead Weight Employees, it tells the story of a client of Kevin’s who called him to ask for advice about the most recent incident regarding an employee that had been causing trouble amongst her colleagues for ages. This time around, she had, according to the article, “[thrown] another major fit, screamed that she was quitting, and stormed out of the building.”

Kevin’s client was concerned about letting this employee go due to the fact that she was “35% of her income.” But where she saw negative repercussions, he saw a perfect opportunity. From the article:

“Of course I told her that this was the greatest piece of news that she could ever get.  I told her to pack up her personal effects, and put them out in the hall.  When she comes in tomorrow for work (which I knew she would do), just tell her that since she quit yesterday, you accepted her “verbal” resignation.”

Kevin goes on to explain the history of this particular employee, one he was all too familiar with, and points out that the potential financial ramifications were solved within half a year after she was let go:

“For almost two months, I had been coaching this individual to get rid of her cancerous employee, no matter how much revenue went through her.  In that time I had seen the team walk on egg shells, and in general, display an almost total hatred for their work environment.  Finally with this outburst, she had the courage to do what I asked her to do.  Over the next few days, every team member privately came to her and expressed thanks and appreciation for getting rid of this malcontent.  The atmosphere in the business totally turned around, and the lost income was made up in about 6 months with the addition of a new team member who fit well into the team.”

Despite concerns that firing this employee – no matter how problematic she was becoming – would have negative consequences, particularly regarding the company’s revenue, replacing her with a team member that got along well with the rest and fit in nicely helped increase employee morale, improved the overall atmosphere at the company, and saw their income back to where it was within six months. In the end, it was completely worth it.

If you’re in this situation, Kevin’s points are pretty sound and we recommend you give this article a read. He’s blunt in his assessment, reasoning that, as in the case of this example, it’s never worth it to hold on to an employee that causes multiple problems for the team, the management, and ultimately, the business.

Have you had to deal with an employee like this before? How did you approach it? Do you agree with Kevin’s points? Your thoughts are always welcome, so let us know!

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At the end of 2012, in preparation for the new year, the website Leading With Trust published an article entitled LOS v.2013 – Three Steps to Upgrade Your Leadership Operating System. We found this to be a particularly enjoyable and rather intelligent piece of writing, thanks to its clever approach of comparing bringing your leadership strategy up-to-date with upgrading a piece of software. Despite the brief, three-step approach, the article offers some extremely insightful advice regarding effective leadership, breaking down the necessary actions in a compact, easy-to-understand list.

Although the end of the year was quite some time ago, the topic is still extremely relevant, especially because it’s likely not every business was ready to devise a new leadership system in time for 2013. Perhaps you’ve recently upgraded yours or are planning to do so soon; in any case, this is the type of advice that’s often considered timeless, and should come in handy the next time you want to take a fresh approach towards taking charge of your team.

Here’s one of the three steps outlined in the article:

“2. Determine the new LOS programs you want to install — What new things do you need to learn in 2013 in order to be a better leader? Where do you need to improve? The best leaders are continuous learners, always seeking new ways to improve their craft. Examining the areas for improvement you identified in your backup is a good place to start. Another helpful strategy is to ask for feedback, especially from those you lead. It takes some courage and willingness to be vulnerable to ask other people how you can improve, but the uncomfortableness will pale in comparison to the insights you’ll gain.”

Taking stock of what you’re doing and thinking of methods for improving it is an important step in any business strategy; it makes sense to look back at how you’ve been approaching your leadership system since it was last changed, what’s been working and what hasn’t, and how you can continue to make it as effective as possible.

Hats off to Leading With Trust for their clever approach to laying out how to bring your strategy up-to-date. It’s an enjoyable article, partly because of the entertaining analogy and partly because of the usefulness of the content. If you’re looking for straightforward but detailed advice on how you can effectively upgrade your leadership system and ensure it continues to work for you as your business grows, then you should definitely give this a read!

What are your thoughts? Have you recently upgraded your leadership system? Are you planning on doing it soon? Did you find the content of this article useful? Your comments are always welcome, so be sure to let us know!

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I’ll give you an example from our own experience here at AIS Solutions.  Quite early in our history we had hired a bookkeeper who was fabulous in her job.  She was knowledgeable, efficient, and accurate.  Probably one of our best bookkeepers and she knew it.  However, her personality didn’t mesh with the other members of our team, and collaborating with her on projects and clients was always a challenge.  No one else wanted to work with her, and there was very little harmony when she became involved.  When we finally accepted the realization that we had to let her go, she was stunned.  Her immediate reaction was “How can you let me go, I’m your best bookkeeper?”  It was never a personal affront, or that she was a bad person, she just wasn’t the right person for our team at the time.  The change in our environment was immediate upon her departure.  The atmosphere in the office improved significantly, as did productivity and collaboration.  It also reaffirmed to our remaining team members that we don’t just talk about team, but that it does mean something.

Dr. Jack Zenger, a leadership development expert and head of Zenger Folkman, contributed an article to Forbes at the end of 2012 entitled The Power of Teams: A Lesson In Leadership From A Siberian Husky. It tells the story of how one of the children of Zenger Folkman co-founder Dr. Joe Folkman wished for a dog one Christmas – specifically, a Siberian husky. Dr. Folkman obliged and the family took in a puppy that his son named Kestler; however, after some time, Dr. Folkman came to realize the dog just wasn’t working out, and decided to give him away to a friend named Racer, who already owned five huskies and wanted a sixth for his dog sled team.

This decision ended up becoming an unexpected lesson in teamwork for Dr. Folkman. From the article:

“After a few months of training, Racer invited us to go on a dog sled ride to see Kestler in action. It’s hard to describe how excited the dogs were about getting their harnesses on and being tied to the sleigh. I remember being pulled by horses on a wagon, and for them it was obviously work. But the level of excitement was totally different for these dogs. The dogs took off and I wasn’t prepared for the jolt. As they began running, it was almost like the jerk of a fast car. As we rode I stared in amazement at my “dumb dog.” There he was, between the two lead dogs! The dog I could never control was working in perfect unison with the other dogs on the team. He listened, he pulled, and he enjoyed working together with his team. These dogs can pull a sled for 20 miles, and they love every minute of their job.”

Huskies are often the stereotypical choice when one thinks of sled dogs, but few people realize the deeper implications of a story like this and how it can connect to their own daily efforts with members of their own respective teams. Dr. Zenger goes on to say:

“Have you ever been part of a great team? A team that utilized your individual strengths and caused your performance to improve? A team where productivity increased just to keep up with the other team members? A team where you love coming to work and every day is an exciting adventure?

In contrast, have you ever been a part of the Team From Hades? This is the team nobody wants to be a part of and is full of conflict, disagreements and discontent. Most people know and have experienced the difference. The contrast is huge.”

…….

“Sometimes, just like Joe’s dog Kestler, you will never recognize an employee’s full potential until they are placed in the right area with the right people. It is the responsibility (and the opportunity) of all leaders to cultivate a collaborative environment in which team members can flourish.”

These excerpts speak volumes about the value of a great team. As a leader, if you put an employee with people they won’t work well with or even get along with, you hurt their chances of growth and prosperity as much as you hurt the ability of the group itself to tend to their responsibilities. One crack in the system and the whole thing can fall apart.

However, as Kestler and his fellow sled dogs demonstrate, put an employee with a group of people that they mesh well with and you’ve given them the chance to grow and nurture their skills and abilities in the right environment and with the right people – the right team. While his time with Dr. Folkman and his family did not work out as hoped and expected, it lead to Kestler ending up with a group with which he truly belonged that allowed him to, to paraphrase Dr. Zenger, show his full potential. Just as in the above example, we found out that the employee we let go is so much happier in her new position, as she is now with the right team.

If you’re in a leadership position, this article can give you an excellent perspective on the importance of creating and managing an effective team that works well together. It can help you understand just how much it matters when the right people collaborate in any setting.

Do you pay close attention to where you place your team members? Do you have any success stories on how your leadership played a crucial role in putting together a group that helped your company, as well as each other, grow? Your stories are welcome, so be sure to let us know and leave a comment!

The post The Power of Teams: A Lesson In Leadership From A Siberian Husky appeared first on AIS Solutions.

At the beginning of this year, Blanchard Leaderchat, a “forum to discuss leadership and management issues”, published an article entitled 4 Common Mistakes Managers Make When Goal Setting (and 3 ways to fix it), which gives a detailed look at the factors that can cause goals to be missed, as well as advice on how they can be successfully met in the future. The mistakes and fixes outlined in the article come from performance expert John Hester, who wrote them in a contribution to the January issue of Ignite!, a newsletter offered by the Ken Blanchard Companies.

Let’s start by taking a look at one of the reasons they list on why goals are not met:

“Setting too many goals. When employees have too many goals they can easily lose track of what is important and spend time on the ones they “want” to do or that are easier to accomplish whether or not they are the highest priority.”

This is probably a very common one. Everyone has been in a situation where they’ve put too much on their plate at one time or another, whether it’s because they were concerned about meeting everyone’s expectations or were not able to anticipate the full scope of what they were taking on. It happens, especially to those in a management position, and it’s an understandable conundrum, but one that can lead to overworking and under-delivering if it happens too often. It’s important to make sure you’re only taking on as much as you can at once without straining yourself or your company’s resources; while it may seem like you’re putting yourself in the good graces of your clients by saying, “Yes, no problem”, to every request they make, it could lead to problems down the line if you’re not able to get it all done. The bottom line: be sure to manage your clients’ expectations when you’re setting your goals.

Now for a look at one of the solutions the article offers:

“Approach goal-setting as a partnership. Recognize that performance planning is not something that you should do alone. This is something to be done in partnership with your team member. It’s a collaborative process. So the manager needs to know what the employee’s key areas of responsibility are, what is expected in the role, and what they want to see in terms of performance. The key is to have that discussion with the employee.”

The article makes a key point here. Collaboration is one of the most important factors when you’re striving to set goals as a team. Without it, you run the risk of nobody being 100% sure of what their duties are, what’s expected of them and what overall role they’re playing in the process, and this confusion can lead to a breakdown in communications before they’ve even started, which is absolute poison for any project, no matter what the size and scope. This practice should also be reflected with your clients, and goes back to managing their expectations. Keeping in touch with everyone involved in the project will help it run smoothly and is a key element in ensuring that things don’t fall apart halfway through, which often leads to panic mode as all the major players realize that the deadline won’t be met because of a lack of communication throughout.

Whether you’ve got a few small goals or a whole list of major milestones you’d like to meet, we strongly recommend giving this article a read, as it offers a solid look at how you can effectively meet the goals you set for your business and that of your clients.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a specific process for ensuring that you meet your goals? Did you find the tips in this article helpful? Your thoughts and comments are always welcome, so let us know!

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As our partner company, e-Commerce Essentials, is an internet marketing agency that offers all of the services covered in this article, we’re already rather well-versed in the subject, and it contains several good points about the advantages that come with different forms of online marketing. Here’s a quick snippet that covers one of the more broad questions about how to spend for online marketing:

3. What can I invest in to get my website generating more leads?

Your website should be your best salesperson. Just like a salesperson, it needs to have KPIs: a form completion, email sign-up, blog retweet, whitepaper download, or a purchase. Once you have your metrics, you can start to improve them by testing, testing, testing. A/B or multivariate testing are great ways to see what visitors respond to better in the effort to generate more leads. Whether it’s experimenting with different navigation, images, headlines, colours, buttons, form fields, promos, or prices, without ongoing testing you won’t know if you’re website could be performing better and bringing in more business.

The first sentence in this answer is a simple truth: your website should most definitely be your best salesperson. To know how it’ll work best in conjunction with your marketing goals, much of your time and budget will likely go to testing at first, so you can understand what brings you the most results and where you should be investing. Once you know what’s helping you accomplish your goals, you’ll have a much better idea of where to allocate your budget in order to build your business effectively online.

If you’re still wondering how to effectively spend your marketing budget, we strongly recommend this article. It can help you understand more about the different avenues of web marketing, how they can help you grow your business, and where you should be investing based on your goals.

How do you currently utilize your budget for web marketing? Are you meeting your goals, or are you looking for new ways to divide your budget? Your thoughts, comments and experiences are welcome, so leave a comment and let us know!

The post Your Top 10 Marketing Budget Questions Answered (Almost!) Just in Time for 2013 appeared first on AIS Solutions.

Near the end of last year, Work Awesome published an article entitled 6 Tips for Dealing with Client Conflict, which lays out some strategies that companies can use should they fall into an argument with any of their customers. It covers how to approach a conflict, how to work towards a resolution and knowing when you should walk away, with a detailed, step-by-step look at how to solve the situation in a diplomatic matter. From the article:

Handling business disputes is a delicate art. Do it the right way, and you will prove to your client that you’re attentive, dedicated, and capable ─ all traits he or she should find desirable for a continued relationship. But handle it poorly, and the result could spell disaster for an important partnership.

These are wise words. Take things too far in an argument with a client and you may find yourself with one less customer. Disputes are rarely worth losing a client over, especially if you have an otherwise good working relationship with them. That’s why it’s important to know how to handle these situations properly; when you have the knowledge you need to resolve a conflict peacefully and with benefits for both sides, you’ll be able to move forward and hopefully have whatever caused the conflict to begin with solved so it doesn’t bring any more problems down the road.

Here’s one of the tips the article offers:

3. Let your client speak ─ and listen carefully

When your client is upset, he or she will want to do the talking. The best thing you can do is let it happen. Don’t interrupt. Just listen carefully to what’s being said. Eventually, the client will get tired of speaking and you will have time to say your piece. You may even be invited to interject, in which case you should oblige the offer.

Again, wise words. If you don’t let your client get a word in and go on and on about why you think they have no right to be upset, they’re just going to get that much more angry and may start to view you as irrational or unreasonable – not a good trait to have in someone you want to help you build your business. Letting them talk and listening closely as they get their grievances out in the open will not only help them calm down, it will also allow you to see things from their point of view, understand why they’re upset and come up with a reasoned response to their issue. These are good first steps towards bringing a conflict towards a resolution without risking things getting overheated or causing the client to walk away.

If you’re in a client-centric industry, this article is worth a read to help you deal with any conflicts that may come up in the future. Being prepared for this type of situation will also allow you to handle any future disputes more easily, which will reduce the risk of letting one argument lead to you losing a client.

Do you have any tips for dealing with client conflict? Have you had to handle disputes with clients in the past? If so, how did you do it? We’d love to hear your stories, so let us know!

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That last aspect is usually the deciding factor that drives most entrepreneurs to start their own business, to take what they enjoy doing in life and what they know the best, and build something from it. There are often other reasons involved, but the bottom line is that the majority of those who run their own business set out to do so because they were passionate enough about something to take a chance and start from scratch.

But one factor that many entrepreneurs consider just as important as doing what they love for a living is the idea of, to put it simply, getting rich off of it. Certainly it’s not the only appeal, but it can often be a main – or the main – driving force behind starting their own business.

These thoughts stem from an article written by Jeff Haden at inc.com from December 28 of last year. Entitled “One Test Every Entrepreneur Must Take”, it talks about the fact that there are often two options to choose from when deciding to go the do-it-yourself route and start your own business.

From the article:

“When you start a business you have two basic options:

Option 1: Start a business to hopefully do a lot less of what you don’t like and a lot more of what you love.

Option 2: Start a business that will (hopefully) generate significant income.”

Sadly, these two options tend to be mutually exclusive–unless what you love to do is grow a business.”

Is he right? That’s a tough question to answer, because there are no doubt countless examples of entrepreneurs who have successfully managed to do both, just as there are no doubt countless examples of entrepreneurs who have only managed to do one or the other.

Mr. Haden goes on to say:

“If you’re a chef and you open a 40-table restaurant, your success will always be limited by price, number of sittings, and a few other basic factors. Even in a best-case scenario you can only make so much money.

The only way to generate more income is to expand: more locations, more employees, more investment, more everything.

But most entrepreneurs don’t think that far ahead. The idea of following a passion is so exciting, and falling prey to the “I will be the one person who does what no one else can do” syndrome is so easy, that many entrepreneurs forget to do what I call the satisfaction math.”

He argues that most self-starters are so excited, so passionate about the idea of opening their own shop centered on their greatest passions and making a career out of it, that they fail to see the big picture. They’re too focused on their aspirations to think about the requirements to ensure the business they start sees enough successful growth to generate a significant amount of income, an amount that will easily cover overhead, employees, and their own take-home pay while still leaving them with a serious surplus.

It’s a completely understandable scenario, but, unfortunately, it’s also one that prevents a lot of entrepreneurs from achieving the dual goal of running their own business and, to put it in simple terms once again, getting rich off of it. If you’re considering going down this path and want to pursue your passions to the point of making a career out of them on your own terms, you need to ask yourself these kinds of questions first. You need to consider if you’re alright with not making a substantial amount of money if it means getting to do what you love every day. To put it in Jeff Haden’s own words:

“It’s simple:

Will I enjoy the satisfaction of my business (or career) enough that I will be happy with the income I can realistically expect to earn?”

The full article can be read here. It’s an extremely insightful read that I would strongly recommend for anyone who’s thinking about starting their own business, as it can help you do some serious and necessary thinking about how to move forward with your ambitions.

Are you thinking about putting your passions to full-time use and making a career out of what you love? Did you find this article helpful? Your feedback is always appreciated, so share your thoughts in the comments!

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Dummies.com, the website of the famous For Dummies books, has written an article entitled Benefits of Budgeting That Relate to Business Management. It covers the various advantages that budgeting for your business can offer you, including better forecasting, yardsticks for evaluating performance, assisting in communication between different levels of management and how it can help you write a business plan. Here’s an excerpt:

Budgeting forces managers to do better forecasting. Managers should be constantly scanning the business environment to spot changes that will impact the business. Vague generalizations about what the future may hold for the business are not good enough for assembling a budget. Managers must put their predictions into definite and concrete forecasts.

The article is an extremely useful resource for business owners or managers who dislike the idea of budgeting or who want to learn more about how it can help them. It shares some great insight on how budgeting can be more about the overall management of your business than the management of its finances, and can help you understand why it’s essential for you to plan a budget when you have goals in mind for your business.

As bookkeepers ourselves, we here at AIS know the value a budget can bring from both a financial and management standpoint, and hope that you’re able to take the same knowledge away from this article. You can read the full thing here – be sure to let us know what you thought!

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The tax changes represent an interesting role reversal: the 12% Harmonized Sales Tax in BC will be replaced by the 5% Goods and Services Tax and 7% Provincial Sales Tax, while the Provincial Sales Tax in PEI will be replaced by a Harmonized Sales Tax rate of 14%; 5% of this will represent the Goods and Services Tax, and 9% will represent the Provincial Sales Tax.

Below is the email in its entirety, with some helpful links for residents of both provinces.

On April 1, 2013, the provinces of British Columbia (BC) and Prince Edward Island (PEI) will be changing the way their sales taxes are administered.

In British Columbia, the 12% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) will be replaced by the 5% Goods & Services Tax (GST) and 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST).¹

In Prince Edward Island, the PST will be replaced by a HST rate of 14%, of which 5% will represent the GST and 9% the PST.¹

You will need to make a few changes to your existing tax codes to accommodate for these changes, but we’re here to help you through it.

Review our Support FAQs and videos on how to make the transition within QuickBooks 2013:

Are you a resident of BC or PEI? What are your thoughts on these tax changes?

Residents of other provinces, do you think changes similar to either of these should come into effect for sales taxes in your province?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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