Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

February 4, 2012

Thanks to Week 329 SOBs

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:28 am

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss


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February 3, 2012

Finding the Right Talent Mix For Your Start-Up Enterprise

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:54 am

A Mixture of Key Personality Traits

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For the entrepreneur, the early months of developing a start-up are some of the most hectic and arduous: you need to secure financing, explore legal limitations, and forecast your financials for the years ahead. You need to take your idea and turn it into a product or a service, along the way keeping a close attention to quality, profitability, and logistics. You may even need to start thinking about your personal financial future; you may want to open an IRA, for example, or conversely consider how much of your funds you can afford to allocate to the venture.

Amidst all of this commotion, moreover, you find yourself in the position to make one of the most important decisions a new business can make – the decision of hiring employees, in the process surrounding yourself with the best talent possible designed to help your start-up grow.

While different businesses and different industries have a wide variety of talent needs, the most successful start-ups usually share several commonalities. They possess drive, motivated individuals. They hire people who are truly passionate about their work. And they assemble a diverse mixture of several key personality traits and personal attributes.

That last point is an oft-overlooked one. Unlike Abraham Lincoln, who assembled a “Team of Rivals” in his Cabinet in order to maximize diversity and individual talents, few entrepreneurs hire their start-up team with such an outlook in mind. Don’t make this mistake if you’re starting a business, or plan to do so in the future. Instead, look to creative a mixture of the most important personality traits and personal attributes necessary to get a new company up and running. I believe that the most important of these are charisma, having a mathematical mind, creativity, and possessing the ability to network. Here’s a quick breakdown:

  1. Charisma: This person can be the face of your start-up and an excellent salesperson.
  2. Mathematical Mind: This person can oversee your budgets and all your financials. A good start-up doesn’t need a full accounting department – just one talented employee.
  3. Creativity: Whatever your product, this person is the one best equipped to turn it from an idea into a reality. They should be incredibly hard-working and driven.
  4. Ability to Network: Along with our charismatic leader, this employee has strong inter-personal skills. However, they operate more behind the scenes and use their connections and networking abilities to market the business and secure investors.

While you certainly may possess one of these traits, don’t lull yourself into thinking that you could do all of them better than a team of specialists can. To this end you want to diversify as you seek quality talent; even if you don’t end up with a team exactly like the one above, insure that a variety of strengths and capabilities are exhibited in your force. Your start-up’s long-term prospects will be much rosier as a result.

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Author’s Bio:
Alex S. writes about education and business at theeducationupdate.com

Thank you, Alex!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.


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February 2, 2012

How To Select The Right Shopping Cart For Your Online Business Store

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 1:04 pm

What Works for the Buyer

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Keeping an online shop is taking your business to a completely new level. Until you had your online store, your clients were walking up to you to buy your products or services. But now, with an online facility, you are offering them a totally different experience. You are stepping forward and taking the river to the thirsty child! It’s important that the quality be worth it.

There are two things that come into play here:

  1. Your existing clients buy online.
  2. New people come across your site and buy.

In both cases, the user experience has to be great.

Once again, there are two important factors here:

  1. You – the seller
  2. Your shopping cart – for the buyer

Both the factors need to appeal to your buyer. So, your website needs to look and feel authentic – in a way, that your buyer doesn’t feel he’s going to be rugged! And your shopping cart has to be user friendly, comfortable and convenient – to make the buying experience a pleasure!

Here’s how you make it happen by selecting the right shopping cart for your online business:

1. The Look

Your shopping cart should match your website layout, ideally. It should look like your cart, for your buyer! And it should be easy to use. Don’t have complicated tabs; settings features that make the buyer suspect your intensions!

2. The Display

It is important for the cart ot display all the information relevant and important to the user. Along with the products selected, the cart should show the exact price clearly. If you are offering discounts, they should be visible to encourage your user to buy.

3. The Compatibility

Server issues are the last thing you want on your online store. The user can not afford a transaction error or a compatibility problem. If you are launching on the virtual space, you need to take care of technical issues. There’s no cashier sitting on the web page giving out the change! Your server and your cart, hence, need to roll together.

4. The Payment

The above discussion brings us to payment and processing questions. The payment processor on your shop online – cart should support credit and debit card transactions. Checking whether the gateways are working right for you is almost mandatory.

5. The Support

There’s always going to be something that goes wrong! God forbid, but some unforeseen circumstances can lead to problems or concerns. How are you equipped to deal with it? This is an important question that should be answered before you plunge into the virtual shopping scenario. Plus, in case there is a problem, how soon can you resolve it? Support is, hence, something that influences the strength on your online store.

There are various open source shopping cart downloads available for you to select from and install on your website. One of the key features to note here is that the premade software you are planning to use should be easy to edit or should have a template format to suit your requirements. The look and feel should go with the perception that your website creates. So, take time out to evaluate the shopping carts and find the one that suits you the best. After all, turning your e-commerce business into a profitable one could be a matter of only a few ‘right’ choices – for you and for your buyer.

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Author’s Bio: Divya Rawat writes about e-commerce and Website Development at SEO Company inetzeal.com. Divya also writes ezinearticles and other resources.

Thank you, Divya!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.


Filed under Successful Blog, Tools | 2 Comments »


February 2, 2012

Be a Good Citizen

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:40 am

A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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Like it or not, it’s political season in the United States. We must sort through the debates, talking heads, and town halls, and do our duty as citizens.

There are clear rules to being a good citizen of the US. Obey the law and vote, and you’re pretty much good. Throw in some volunteering, and that’s even better.

Online, in the social world, it’s a different story. Depending on where you are, the rules are different, and often unwritten. It can be tricky.

But don’t fear, I’m here to give you some simple tips that will keep you out of the Internet version of Turkish prison. We’ll cover Twitter and LinkedIn today:

Twitter

LinkedIn

If you keep these guidelines in mind, you’re well on your way to being a solid social citizen. And don’t forget to vote.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss


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February 1, 2012

Time is Money!

matt wrote this at 10:43 am

While the old adage of “Time is Money!” still holds true, is your small business accurately tracking employee time in order to get the most out of your workers?

In today’s day and age where companies scramble to keep up with customer requirements and maintain revenues in the black and not the red, worker productivity is critical to meeting those needs.

Even though all businesses want to have the services of productive workers, certain lines of work stand out in such a need, including areas like manufacturing, accounting, law firms, auto repair shops, medical services and more.

If your small business is not up to date on keeping employee hours through the various applications available on the market or you’re about to open a business and need some guidance on such matters, keep several things in mind.

First, do you understand the importance of keeping employee time?

The main reasons are to track payroll, expenses for an employee’s time that is directly charged to a customer, and when your employee’s time is tied to the expense of a product.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, business owners can monitor their employees’ hours however they deem necessary, provided it is correct and complete. Employers are required to maintain timekeeping records for two years at the workplace or at a central records locale.

Time tracking is also important due to:

Attention to Detail – Those employees who arrive and leave on time daily are more likely to be your better disciplined workers. Those who test the boundaries by arriving or leaving early may lead to problems down the road;

Accountability – Tracking employee time forces them to be accountable for their actions. While all employees should be adults about this matter, sometimes a little electronic reinforcement doesn’t hurt;

Cost Effectiveness – Employees who are productive are also going to provide your business with more cost efficiency. Having an automated system in place allows your administrative personnel to focus on other matters and not tracking who is coming and going and when they’re doing it;

More Production – When employees are aware that their time is being tracked, they are more apt to provide you with better production results. Not only will your product offerings be improved, but you are likely to see better customer service too.

 

Clocking Better Efforts in the Workplace

In the event your small business is in need of tracking metrics, there are different options available.

Among them are: Punch cards, paper forms, wall mount biometric or swipe clocks and web clocks.

Not only can time and attendance systems monitor in-house employees, but they can also be used for your employees who telecommute and/or are on the road a large portion of time.

Businesses that assign time-based tasks which require monitoring can utilize time tracking systems and job scheduling software to be sure their employees are hitting their requirements.

Managers, meantime, can use job scheduling software to map out timelines for different prospect jobs which generally utilize the data recorded from in-place time and attendance systems.

No matter which form of time and attendance software you decide to employ, take the time to make sure it is the one that fits best for your small business.

Photo credit: sodahead.com

Dave Thomas, who covers topics like securing small business loans, writes extensively for Business.com , an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.


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