Short Sighted Customer Service – A Personal Experience

I recently had a call to ship a critical package for Saturday delivery so I decided to try the new local retail store supported by one of the nation’s mega-shippers.  The delivery had to be made on Saturday because the product expired the following Sunday.  As business people you know your reputation often rides on the actions of others.  I was counting on this service.  I wrapped my package, carefully selected “Saturday Guaranteed”, and happily paid the overpriced bill.  To make a short story longer it was not delivered for several days.  I called and requested a refund for the shipping and was told they would place a “tracer” on the package and call me back.  No phone call ever came.  I called again a few days later and was told “we won’t process refunds until the package is delivered, we’ll call you back”. 

“Hmm…..doesn’t that encourage you to ‘lose’ my package altogether”, I wondered.  Yes, I’m a skeptic.  I inquired about the possibility of a refund for the contents since they were time sensitive and was assured the outlet would make sure that happened for me.  They weren’t expensive, $55, but I had to process a refund since the product was not valid upon arrival.

The package was eventually delivered and a refund processed.  I was called to pick up the check in the store location (days after the refund appeared online and I’d been told the payment would be delivered).  When I arrived it was for the shipping expense only.  I was then told “the package was delivered so we won’t pay for it since it wasn’t lost.” 

By now my list of complaints has grown.  My package was not delivered, the tracking information was inaccurate, I was promised return calls that never came, I was promised compensation that never came,  I’ve been inconvenienced, and to top it off no one was going to bring it up until I asked – let alone apologize.  This outfit had jeopardized not only a few dollars, but my reputation in the marketplace.  I was hot.

I turned to the clerk and said “Now I know to use the other guy where ‘guarantee’ means something.”

“Fine.” That was all he had to say.  That, my friends, was the wrong answer.

We all have stories like this.  The bigger the company the more the underpaid counter clerk can remain anonymous – there is no authority figure to be accountable to.  The public is less likely to complain to mega-companies because they have been de-sensitized to bad service and know it will fall on deaf ears.

The bottom line – To follow through with their promise to refund the measly $55 would have made the company thousands in future sales.  By not honoring the promise they have sent those thousands to the competition.  This could have been the best bang for their buck in advertising dollars.  Companies spend millions on advertising for the slim chance that it generates revenue (1-15% of all advertising messages result in a sale).  This chump change would have had sold 100% of my business.  Good customer service may seem costly in the short term, but in the long run it pays well. 

Why Gift Cards Work…for the Retailer

With the holidays upon us many are snapping up gift cards to avoid fruit cake blunders and ensure an easier gift shopping experience.  Gift cards have become ultra-convenient, you can buy them at the grocery store check-out.  The sales of gift cards have risen so dramatically that there is now an entire support industry in gift card accesories – specially designed greeting cards and a wide array of gift boxes and creative giving gadgets have sprung up almost as prolific as the gift cards themselves.  So why are we so pushed into the gift card movement?  One reason pure and simple – there’s a lot of profit in it.

1. When you purchase a gift card you are paying in advance for an item.  The retailer doesn’t need to make good on the product for quite some time.  Because you pay in advance, the retailer can use your cash for capital investments without having to put out much initial expense in inventory.  This is pretty obvious, but…

2. In most cases, gift card sales aren’t logged into the financial records until the gift card is redeemed.  This means that the companies have cash on hand for investment purposes that they don’t have to report as income right away.

3. Most of the time, when you receive a gift card the item(s) you purchase do not total the same as the amount on the card.  One of two things happens.  Either your purchase is less expensive, thus the retailer gets to “keep the change” without delivering a product OR when your purchases total more than the amount of the gift card the retailer enjoys an increased sale.  Either way, the retailer enjoys a profitable exchange.

4. Gift cards are great marketing.  How many times have you received a gift card for a store that you would not normally shop at?  They encourage us into the store, even if it means travelling further than we normally would.  For some, the fact that the store is out of the way or not where we would shop means we just don’t use the card at all.  Also great for the retailer!  They got the cash for doing nothing.

5. There is so much profit in gift cards that they can afford to pay for the cards, packaging, shipping, and placement fees (commissions) without dipping into funds outside of the gift card cycle.  Grocery stores love placing gift cards because there is little or no initial investment and they can carry a lot of inventory in very little space and virtually no labor.  They are placed front and center not because they are an impluse buy or for security, but because they are so incredibly profitable for the grocery store.

6. Universal gift cards have all of the same benefits as above for the credit card companies that produce them, and one more.  They can be so hard to use that people just don’t.  There are many stores that cannot process these types of cards, or if they can it is very difficult.  Some must be used online, but many online checkout systems don’t allow piggy backing. This means that if your purchase exceeds the amount remaining on the gift card you cannot make up the difference by paying with another gift card or credit card. 

There are two benefits of gift cards to the consumer over giving cash.  One is that you can purchase these with a credit card to defer payment. Of course in this case interest stacks up against you and you pay more out of pocket. The other is that it appears that you were more thoughtful and took a little extra action by going shopping. 

So it sounds like my message is anti-gift card.  To the contrary.  This is a business blog for business people. If you are a retailer (or even provide certain services) and don’t have a gift card program you are missing out on an easy source of profit.  So really, this is just another ad for gift cards.

Disasters Lead to Contribution Disasters

In this time of crisis, where the countryside all around this office is aflame, friends and family and colleagues have been evacuated and the future seems a bit uncertain for those that have lost homes and businesses in this October firestorm we are all touched and most are moved to help in any way we can.  As business owners we know that making a charitable contribution to one of the victim relief funds springing up not only feels good, it is responsible, it is tax deductible, and it can be great marketing.  But is it really a good idea?  Here are a few things business owners and executives should consider before making contributions in the name of the business.

1. What is your reason for giving?  If your reasons are not altogether altruistic, if you are looking for the benefit or payoff to your business, that’s OK.  This is what busines is.  What is important is that you are honest with yourself about it and have reasonable expectations about what you hope to gain from your charitability.  This will allow you to get informed in a real way, analyze the numbers, and make the comittment that is right for your company.

2. Analyze numbers.  If you are looking for a tax break, find out exactly what the benefit will be in terms of real, hard, black and white numbers.  If you are looking for a marketing angle, make sure you know exactly what you hope to gain compared to the expense.

3. Be informed about the charity you give to.  It’s tempting to give to the first organization in sight but this may not be the wisest choice.  It should go withou saying that you need to find out exactly how your money will be used and ask yourself if you’re satisfied with what you learn.  What’s just as important, especially if you’re looking for the marketing angle, is to learn as much as you can about the public opinion about that charity.  One in particular enjoys partnerships and donations from many large businesses. Businesses jump likke moths to flame to this charity because they believe they will receive the good works stamp of public approval or perhaps because it is easy and well-known.  But what these business fail to account for is that 20-80% of the public (depending on who and where you ask) disapprove of this charity due to recent financial scandals.  Making a public claim of association by announcing your donation may turn just as many people (if not more) off to your business as it will attract.

4. If you choose to go the non-traditional route and offer services, goods, or discounts to victims be sure that your effort will do enough good to justify the expense.  If the efforts aren’t conducive to the business it may be wiser to encourage employees to make private relief efforts.  Also, if your business offers these types of relief, it should go without saying that there must be fraud protection included in your plan.

5.  Too little too late may be worse than nothing at all.  Offering small contributions in comparison to the size of your business, or waiting months to effect your plan may hurt your business’ image.  This type of action attracts attention, whereas do-nothings attract little notice.  If you make a pledge, be sure to keep to the terms of the pledge.  Late or short payments will certainly undo any positive notice your business received by making a heroic statement of generosity that can’t be kept.

Firing the Customer

Until recently the common wisdom said never ever lose a customer.  They are far to expensive to replace and the poor will may undo some of your best marketing efforts.  Today it is becoming more and more common to hear seasoned business professionals touting the wisdoms of firing bad customers for reasons like non-payment, verbal abuse, or just plain being unreasonable.  Both sets of widom have their finer points, and their flaws.  When one considered firing a customer it is important to consider the impact to the business as a whole and from every angle.  Not only will there be consequences for firing the customer, how you go about it will largely determine the consequences and thier severity.  It will prove important in later days to be sure you have done your long range thinking ahead of time.  Today your company may be in a poistion that the customer is not needed, but what about next year when the market crashes?  The sales you make to this particular customer may end up costing the company a loss, but perhaps s/he refers your business to more profitable customers.  How many new customers do you need to replace the business of this customer?  What kind of damage can this customer do to your reputation?  Will they / can they sue?  What approach will work best?

Most businesses find the decision to fire the customer so consuming that not much thought or planning is put into the approach.  The channel in which you fire the customer will ultimately be the deciding factor in what and how severe the consequences are.  The simple fact that you choose not to work with the customer is almost an irrelevant factor.  Unlike firing an employee, the process of firing a customer can be very vague and carry much more long reaching effects.  Over the years I have collected some recomendations on the matter.  I have not employed all of these in my own business dealings, but the wisdom is clear.

1. Do not use a direct or semi-direct approach in email.  Emailing a client a “Your fired” notice or a list of their wrongs will only serve to fuel their fire that your company is in the wrong and the impersonal nature of email will be found offensive. 

2. Screaming matches or emotionally charged conversations are never appropriate, however they do happen.  This is not the time or the place to fire a customer.  They will think you said it in the heat of the moment and likely it will be three times harder to get rid of them.  Further, you will lose dignity and add amunition to any public relations fallout the customer may employ against you.

3. Know the customer’s style.  If they are the sort of person that would appreciate directness, then let them know in a precise, clear cut way that their business is no longer wanted.  With this type of directness, it is important to remain pleasant and professional, and to accept the fact you may never be able to win this customer back should you so need to.  If they are unreasonable this will only open up a can of worms, the same kind you are trying to walk away from.  A more subtle approach is required with this customer, but if they are dense you don’t want to be too sublte, they may never get the hint and go away.  By playing to your customer’s personal style you will send the message you need to send and they will appreciate it at some level, saving yourself the headache of the bad press.

4. If your business is structured in a way to do so, you have the patience for it, and you may need this customer again then try raising the prices for this customer to a level that is at the high end of reasonable.  You will be beat by your competitor and the customer will have no ill feeling toward your company.  This approach requires an intensive labor investment, but the rewards are that there will be no bad press and the channels are left open for future business should you need it later.

5. Let them think it was their idea.  Of course there are many right and wrong ways to do this.  Enticing them into a verbal fight is not the right way, nor is intentionally sabatoging their order.  But there are many subtle ways to drop the hint that you don’t value their business.  Pull back on the freebies they are used to receiving, maintain your ground on complaints and requests for re-productions, extend your turnarounds, stop taking them to lunch, charge interest or send collection notices, or put a junior associate on their account.  When possible, change the terms of future service or your bill collecting policy.  If you are firing the customer for non-payment of your 30 days terms, change their account to 7 day terms and charge heavy interest or place a hold on the account. 

There are just as many reasons to fire a customer as there are to maintain the account.  When deciding to fire a customer be assured in the wisdom and consequences of your actions and make a concise plan of action for dealing with the unpleasantness.  Remember, just because you rehearsed it in your head doesn’t mean the outcome will turn out as you had expected.  Be prepared for whatever the customer may do in repsonse.  Generally, when firing an employee there is a precise moment in time when the action occured and the relationship is severed rather cleanly.  This will not be the case when firing a customer.  This will be a process and the relationship will linger on.

Dealing With Nasty Customers

In my daily conversations with friends and business associates the topic of how to deal with nasty customers comes up…. a lot.  This can only tell me two things: 1) There are a lot of nasty customers out there and 2) No one really knows what to do with them.

We have clearly come to an age where the adage “the customer is always right” is tired, overused (or more truthfully underused), and more often plainly inappropriate.   Customer abuse has become one of the leading reasons people in service industries chose to leave their employment.  Business owners are recognizing the double edged sword that nasty customers are weilding.  Their business can not survive without the customer, but nor can it survive with abusive customers.  The consequences of nasty customers effect the bottom line.  There is a real cost to the givings in that we do to accomodate these types.  There is a detrimant to the human spirit of both management and worker, which in turns reduces effective work habits.  There is the negative marketing campaigns that some nasty customers employ as a means to slander businesses.  There is the loss of business from the customer that can’t be satisfied. 

 So, what are we to do about these nasty sorts? 

As with everything, dealing with the nasty customer is a game in balance.  Every effective manager has some idea of what is acceptable and what isn’t.  The manager must make clear to each employee what they are to take from a customer, and what they must not take.  Obviously every employee must know what they are authorized to do for a client in order to re-establish peace and good will. 

One of the first steps in establishing these guidelines is to recognize at what point the company can tolerate giving in to the customer.  If you offer refunds, discounts, extra work or other incentives to customers that yell, scream, or otherwise abuse your employees they will learn that in order to get what they want they must yell, scream, and abuse your employees.  This tactic will become the first employable option, rather than the last resort.  You will find yourself giving away the cow to sell the milk. 

The second most important consideration is developing a measurable means to determine fault, the justifiability of the customer’s complaint, and appropriate means to rectify the situation.  If you sold them a widget that you said did xyz and would be delivered in 3-5 days and it actually did not do any of x, y, or z and was delivered in 20 days you have no business being surprised at the customer’s response and have an obligation to make it right.  In this example it would be appropriate to replace the product or offer a refund, however it would not be appropriate to give away ten more xyz’s without the customer paying for any of them.  What can your first line customer service do and what can’t they?  When is it appropriate to bring in a manager?  What can the manager do? 

But we all know that most of the time customer conflicts are not this cut and dried.  The vast majority of the time customer complaints are generated from a series of unfortunate events.  Typically they start with one or two miscommunications on the part of the business and the customer, and that if the situation stopped there and was reasonably handled, the customer would have been satisfied. Maybe not ecstatic, but satified nonetheless.  Unfortuantely, the customer service team handling the original complaint do or say something that contributes further to the client’s wrath.  A promise isn’t lived up to, the technical support isn’t helpful, the customer service phone line is always busy or backed up resulting in “perma-hold”, the customer is further inconvenienced by the solution.  Whatever it is, this something added gives the customer the ammunition they need to bring up the original weapons and now you have a recipe for war. 

There’s a myriad of simple things any employee can do to difuse angry customers.  Make the customer feel heard, that the employee will take corrective action, that management is getting involved.  Take the “kill them with kindness” approach.  Say things like “I would be upset too”.  When the customer is at fault or does not understand a fact, even partially, one bad habit many employees fall into is reapeating the script.  First of all, if the customer didn’t understand it the first time, they probably won’t understand it the second time.  But what’s more, it conveys to the customer that the employee doesn’t know any more than the “right words” they have been told and isn’t truly intetested in hearing their case or answering their concerns.  Effectively communicating that you have a clear understanding calls for the ability to re-phrase, use synonyms, and apply your knowledge within the framework of your audiences vocabulary. 

In some instances the customer may get so blocked by the individual they are speaking to that just hearing the same message from another voice helps it to sink in.  If the customer is truly at fault or is making an unreasonable demand, ask a co-worker to help explain.  Think of it psychologically, how many times did your father tell you something that offended you, but when your best friend told you the same thing you took it to heart?  Thinking of it more impersonally, it goes back to the vocabulary.  Once a situation has reached this point you have probably exhausted your own communicative resources.  By allowing someone else to tell the story may give it just that little bit of difference that was needed.

So what does the business do when they decide that the client is no longer worth the time, expense, or energy it takes to manage the customer service?  Popular opinion is to “fire the client”.  How do you do this?  What if you need that client later when business is slow?  Will they ruin your reputation?  How do you do this and avoid a conflict situation? These are all questions many business owners are struggling with on a daily basis.  Tune in to our next edition to learn ways to cut a customer loose without losing the customer…..

A Note to Retailers

I shop. I’m the one in my home that does all the shopping, groceries to birthday gifts. I’m in and out of a lot of stores. I’ve begun looking at these stores through my business eyes and what I’ve found is that most retailers are losing a lot of potential revenue.

How a store utilizes its space is probably the most important element in my decision on where to shop. If I need one item or a zillion items I’m not going to the store that offers discounts by selling in bulk or reducing services like bagging (Food 4 Less, Costco, Walmart type stores). I reserve these stores for the times that the discount is worth the trouble. With one item it just isn’t worth the driving, parking, walking, bagging, and hauling. Too many items and it’s too much work. Another way of looking at it is that the stores with more services are charging a convenience fee (over there warehouse competitors), which at times I’ll happily pay.

Further, if I know the one item I need is in the back of a large store I will chose a smaller store that doesn’t make me schlep across four city blocks to get it. The idea of putting popular items in the back to walk customers past less popular and more profitable items may work well in a bodega or corner convenience store, but it just can’t work in a warehouse. Instead of making additional sales, you’re actually losing one or possibly more. (Who buys just a loaf of bread at Costco?) Having a good working plan of the space required, the conveniences offered or eliminated, and how this functions with your pricing may very well increase your sales and profits, or even save your business.

When planning how to use a retail space, I also feel (and I know I’m going to make myself a very unpopular girl by saying this) that retailers should know and understand that Americans are growing much larger and plan with this trend in mind. The trend in retail is just the opposite, cram as much as you can into a space, and logically so. Space costs money and the more you can sell from the smallest space the more money you save. But, this trend misses the fact that shoppers will avoid stores that are too crowded, where one can’t easily negotiate the aisles. Of course, in keeping with the last point, the aisles can’t be too big, that just adds walking space and leaves a shopper feeling bewildered; not to mention the added cost for the wasted space. Striking a balance between enough aisle space, but not too much, is a fine art that only a handful of retailers value.

When planning for your retail business:

1. Plan how much space you need.

• How much room do you need to house your products with reasonable inventory?

1. Consider how customers will function in your store.

• What is the flow pattern of your store?

1. Consider how customers will react to more / less space and the flow pattern in your store.

• Why are they shopping there?
• Will space attributes determine if they chose to shop in or avoid your store?

1. Plan your store for the busiest times.

• Anyone can shop easily at 2AM when there are no other customers in the store, but how will it work at your peak hours?
• Will customers have to compete to navigate around the store?
• Will too many customers be in one aisle at the same time causing “blocked product effect”?

1. Map your ideal store.

• There are many professionals that can help you with this, retail consultants, architects, or even retail geographers.

1. Run a feasibility check.

• Model your store with scaled customers and shopping carts.
• Don’t forget strollers, children, wheelchairs, large purses, and that people differ in size.

If you don’t have computer or artistic modeling skills you can either hire a professional or use a large space like a park to model your floor plan with rope.

The Real Cost of Labor

Did you know that a $12.00/hour employee costs a company somewhere around $26.80/hour in their first year? And of the $12.00/hour the employee nets about $7.50/hour. That means that the pay an employee receives is only about 28% of the cost to the company for their work. How do you analyze the actual cost you pay for labor?

Beyond the obvious calculations of pay, labor burden, taxes, workers compensation, and benefits there are hidden costs associated with regular employees.

For every employee you must provide workspace, equipment, and supplies. Add in the extra rent, computers, printers, monitors, scanners, desk supplies, chairs, and wasted office supplies to the cost of the employee. There is added use and wear and tear on your general equipment like copiers and fax machines and the equipment can only service x number of employees. After so many employees your company will need additional equipment resources.

Think about the cost of the ads you placed to find the employee. The hours spent reviewing resumes and interviewing. The downtime you face while training. Consider training materials and employee manuals.

New employees tend to make the most costly errors, whether it be incurring additional expenses or in poor customer service leading to a loss in sales. Retaining an employee is certainly more cost effective than hiring and training new employees. However, much of the savings accrued from a well trained employee is re-invested in raises and benefits.

With employees comes risk. Employees want steady employment, which you may or may not be able to offer in the long term. Labor laws can be strict and errors can result in costly law suits. Workers compensation claims increase your premiums. Unemployment claims incur costs to the employer. And the hardest risk to face, you may hire a bad employee.

When making the decision to hire a new employee consider and analyze alternatives. Could a Virtual Assistant do the work off-site? VA’s reduce workspace, tax, and burden expenses to the employer while also providing a flexible workforce. Would using an employment agency reduce the time involved in qualifying candidates? Could they reduce your risks or exposures? Would a temp-to-hire arrangement give you enough time to ensure the employee is the right fit? Would an independent contractor give you the same work while reducing your expense? Do you want to use a payroll company? If so, consider leasing your employees to reduce cost and risk.

None of these options are the right one for every business in every situation. But, by analyzing your alternatives in a systematic and mathematical way you may discover that your labor needs can be met in an alternative way reducing your total expense and exposure.

Client Conundrums

Who Is the Client and Who Do I Serve?

Most of the time, the customer relationship of a business is pretty straightforward. You provide a product or service to me and I give you money. Simple. It’s easy to define who the customer is in the relationship. Your money comes directly from the person, group, or business you provide products or services to. But this type of clear cut relationship doesn’t always exist between a business and its clients. In some instances a business collects money from one group, but serves another. In other circumstances it can be very unclear who exactly the business serves. This raises interesting questions of ethics and standards of service.

Doctors provide services to their patients. Their patients pay insurance companies and in turn insurance companies pay the doctors. In a roundabout third party kind of way, the patient is the customer. But, insurance companies are out to make a profit, and this can best be done by reducing expenses, so they will negotiate lower rates and not authorize procedures that may be the best option for a patient. Since the insurance company is paying the doctor, the doctor is forced to provide better service to the insurance company than to the patient.

Alternative sentencing is a quickly growing private industry in which a company provides court ordered sentences like electronic monitoring to minor offenders in exchange for payment from the offender. Theoretically, offenders are willing to pay for the services because it offers them more freedoms than a jail or prison term. Courts love it because it reduces the overcrowding in the jails. But problems arise when offenders violate sentencing terms or fail to pay. By notifying the courts of such violations the company runs the risk that the offender will be removed from their client list and returned to jail. No offender equals no pay. The companies are economically encouraged to allow offenders to violate the terms of their court orders and in turn violate their responsibility to the courts and the community.

Non-profit charities receive money [or products] from one group of people in order to provide money [products or services] to another group. What is the responsibility of the charity to provide service to either group? What is their responsibility to ensure donations are being distributed in such a way that agrees with the donors?

Prisons have a very unique conundrum. Government entities qualify as business because they tender economic activity and provide service in exchange for funding. Do they serve the prisoner? There is a responsibility for health, safety, and rehabilitation. Do they serve the local population? They have a responsibility to keep locals safe from escapes. Do they serve the population from which the prisoners were arrested? Or do they serve the taxpayers that fund them?

Who is the customer of a school? The child? The parent? The community? The taxpayer or philanthropist that fund them? Public schools are funded by taxpayers that may or may not have children or may or may not have attended schools in that jurisdiction. In California, the tax dollars are distributed to the schools throughout the state by attendance. This means that the majority of tax dollars are received from richer areas but distributed to other, poorer, areas. This policy fuels the overcrowding conflict because the school is encouraged to remain overcrowded and under staffed. Private schools are funded by the students’ families and donations. This may seem fairer, but as private business they are encouraged to cut costs which may cheat students out of resources. In either case, who is the school responsible to? The parent or the student?

There’s a Gas Station on Every Corner

Breaking the “Dime A Dozen” Myth

I hear it every day. I’ve even been guilty of saying it from time to time. But what does it really mean? What are we really saying when we say “______ businesses are a dime a dozen”.  Fill in the blank with housekeepers, restaurants, hair salons, web designers, car washes, virtual assistants, repairmen….the list goes on and on.

What we’re really saying is that we don’t respect the profession. Somehow we feel our own professions are vital, require special skills, provide a great service, are unique; but we really want to believe that other businesses are somehow easy to open, easy to operate, and don’t provide a valuable service.

Is this reminding you at all of the kid in grade school that would make fun of the other kids to hide his own inadequacies? In essence, that’s exactly what we’re doing, just on a more grown up scale. Whether you call it a cheeseburger or steak tartare, it’s really just ground beef dressed to impress, and our insults really are just another form of bullying.

Where I live it is reported there are more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the world. Why is that? It’s because residents are busy professionals without the time or inclination to cook and they have the discretionary income to dine out. The rare stay-at-home moms are mostly mompreneurs- selling Tupperware or jewelry; authors; actresses; consultants. In other words, the market can support all of these restaurants. So are they “dime a dozen” or are the restaurateurs brilliant marketing geniuses that see a need in the market and fill it? Why is there a gas station on every corner? Because everyone buys gas.

I love this one. “Why should I pay for something I can do myself?” Usually followed up with a gripe about pricing this one just won’t hold up. To use the last example, if you eat in a restaurant this is exactly what you’re doing. We could all make a sandwich at home for less than $1.50, but we’re willing to shell out $7.99 for the same sandwich at a restaurant. Why? Time? Convenience? Taste? Atmosphere? Variety? To socialize? Think about everything you pay for in the course of a week that you could have done yourself. Housekeeper? Car wash? Oil change? Laundry? Gardener? Starbuck’s? Nail salon? Gym? Plumber? Electrician? Did you buy pre-cut fruit? Canned soup? You could have made that. Come to think of it, if we had a good enough garden we wouldn’t need the grocery store at all. Heck, if we took the time to learn botany we wouldn’t even need the nursery.

How about “Any mook with a computer can be a web designer.” Really? All businesses take time, hard work, skill, dedication. They take marketing, bookkeeping, management. There’s an investment for software, licensing, copyrights, taxes, labor, legal issues. No Virginia, there’s no such thing as easy business.

So before we start shooting from the hip and taking aim, let’s think about it. Can you tell me why your business takes more of these than any other? Why does your business deserve payment and even, aghast, profit? Given the time, investment, training, and inclination, we could provide ourselves with any of the services of any business, or chose to go without. Given that 6.6 billion people in the world are all trying to make a living, just about any industry would fall under this scrutiny.

I use all of these services because they are not my business. They aren’t what I specialize in. They can do it better, cheaper, or faster than if I did it myself. They know something I don’t, and I don’t care to learn. They provide me with something that I want. They free up my time or make me feel good. They help me focus my energy on what I do best, my business.

Excel With Excel the Easy Way

What’s the difference between a great Excel file and a bad one?  A great file will enhance the user’s ability to perform while the bad one will kill it.  To put it in crassly – the great file will be like Viagra, the bad will be like salt peter. 

1.       Excel is for spreadsheets and data validation.  If you are writing an essay or text file, use Word.

2.      When you first start a worksheet set your page breaks FIRST and set up your worksheet to print 100%.  This prevents scaled printing, multiple pages, and a myriad of headaches.

3.      Reduce point sizes to maintain 100%.  8 point type in 100% is quite legible in Excel.

4.      Use borders.  I personally like to use the lighter borders so that they don’t compete with the data.

5.      View your worksheet in print preview or page break preview mode. 

6.      Use Print Preview before printing.  (I once worked for a man that refused to do this and constantly wondered why he was printing 20 pages when he only wanted one.  No exaggeration!)

7.      Keep data entry functioning in mind when setting up your forms.  Jumping from cell to cell for data entry should require no more than 3 Tab or Enter keystrokes. 

8.      If your data will print on more than one page set the directory line to repeat on each page.  In the sample below I have set up line 1 to print on all pages. (Use the automated fedature, do not hard key your title lines.)

 

9.      Format cells that should return values in a particular format.  This saves data entry time and keeps a consistent presentation.

10.   Keep your end or next user in mind.  While you may be an advanced user, the person utilizing the file may not be. 

11.    Ensure formulas are correct and are written correctly. Envision all data entry scenarios before writing your formulas.

12.   Test drive your worksheet before finalizing it for use.  Do random data entry, print the worksheet, validate your formulas.