Successful Blog

Should Credit Reports be in Play for Potential Employees?

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Despite an economy that some consider to be on life support, there are some employers who are actually hiring these days.

With that being said, should an individual’s credit report be fair game for employers, who are looking for the best and brightest to fill their ranks? Or, should how a person handles their personal money be off limits during the hiring search?

 

Following the Money Trail

In general, there are two schools of thought on this issue.

The first is that what a person does outside of their employment with their money is none of an employer’s business. The thought is that as long as an individual abides by the law, whether or not they have a $10,000 credit card balance is no one’s business.

On the other side of the coin, any applicant for a job, especially those applying for work where finances play a role in their daily responsibilities, should be checked out to see if they have had issues paying off credit card debts, handling a car payment, overseeing a mortgage etc.

While each company has to determine which road it wants to travel, some of them are being told in no uncertain terms by some state and even federal officials that they have limited means to check up on potential employees.

 

Do the Laws Need to be Stricter?

According to federal law, an employer needs written permission from an applicant to run a credit check. Given that replying no may send up a red flag to a possible employer, how many applicants will actually say no to this request? Also, do you not think some employers try and skirt the law and do credit checks anyhow?

Both Connecticut and Maryland recently enacted laws that in essence prohibit employers from using a job applicant’s or an employee’s credit information in deciding whether or not to hire that individual. Both laws will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2011.

The laws recently enacted in Connecticut and Maryland are different in their application but have a number of similar provisions.

While both public and private sector employers are expressly protected by the new Connecticut law, it seems that Maryland’s law will not be applicable to governmental employers. Both laws in essence exempt financial institutions, credit checks required by federal or state law for employment, and credit checks that are for a bona fide purpose that is substantially job-related.

Meantime, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon and Washington presently limit employers’ use of credit history in employments selections. Legislation that would impose similar restrictions is pending in a number of states and also at the federal level.

With more individuals hoping to return to the workforce in 2011, giving them credit for their workplace experience should override how much they owe on a credit card or loan.

Photo credit: publicdomainpictures.net


Dave Thomas is an expert writer on payroll processing services based in San Diego, California.  He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as small business payroll services at Resource Nation.

5 Steps To Create a Solidly Successful Online Product

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A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

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We know that almost all products, no matter how good or bad they are, have a certain life cycle, and once a product has ran its lifecycle, the business needs to modify, innovate, or even create new products to survive. So, whether you are an old online business or a new one, you can benefit from having a step by step course-of-action for product creation, because you will need it sooner than later.

Online businesses should not be treated differently from their offline counterparts, as far as product creation is concerned. In both cases, the businesses have to come up with a product, or service that some customers are looking for, while expecting some rewards (AKA profits) for doing so. The only difference is probably in the nature of the products, for example, in cyber world, even a website that offers a very basic service like accumulating news on a specific topic at a single platform is still a product, regardless of how profitable or unprofitable it turns out to be.

Following are five basic steps that you should adhere to, when creating a new online product, regardless of how small or how big the product is supposed to be.

Step 1 – Idea

First step in product developments of all sorts is the idea, whether it is unique or just inspired by an already successful business model. The idea for an online product should be based on solving an unattended problem or a particular need of Internet users. Mindlessly copying some get rich quick schemes with the purpose of earning some extra income doesn’t really stand for an idea.

Remember that the web might appear to be already cluttered by all types of business, but a little out-of-the-box thinking will reveal many untapped markets, however you will be able to see these opportunities only if you are not driven by “overnight riches” dreams.

Step 2 – Scrutinizing

Next step is to brood over the idea, while considering all aspects. This phase is very important, still most entrepreneurs, in sheer excitement, neglect this very important step, and go straight from idea to development phase. It’s important that you take some time and wait for the excitement to settle down, only then you will be able to see the glitches in your plot. Once the initial excitement fades out, you will see that it’s not really a walk in the park.

Step 3 – Marketing Strategy

Some businesses devise a marketing strategy after the product is ready. Ideally, you should be wearing your marketing hat even before you get into the development phase. Having a marketing strategy, or more importantly the target market in mind will help you come up with a product/service that caters to the specific type of customers you are going to target. Thinking from the perspective of a marketer will give you an idea of the cost, and profit margins. Otherwise, it’s quite possible that once you’ve invested your time or resources in the product development, you will discover that you aren’t left with enough money or resources to invest on marketing.

Step 4 – Product Development:

Once you’ve mulled over the idea a number of times, and devised a marketing plan, it’s now time to develop the product. This should be easy, because you’ve successfully gone through the planning phase.

When developing product, think of your customers, and what they’d be looking for, and not what you’re looking for.

Step 5 – Test Marketing

Before you go full throttle with your marketing strategy, you must do the test marketing. Test marketing is quite the same like the actual marketing, but on a smaller scale, while targeting a small test group. Thanks to the Internet, you can use the power of social media to identify your target customers and check the initial response. If it’s good, you should set the wheels in motion, and if they are finding faults in your product/services, be thankful that you’ve avoided a bigger setback, and get back to make necessary changes before launching the final product into the market.

Rahil Muzafar

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Author’s Bio:

This article was contributed by Rahil, who is an Internet Marketer, specializing in making available discounts (like this) and coupon codes (click to see) opportunities. At his website, you will find all kinds of coupon codes and discounts, from hosting packages to stuff like 4inkjets or 123inkjet. Feel free to avail these deals to save on popular online products.

Thanks! Rahil!

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

What Great Interviewers Ask to Always Hire the Best

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Guest Post
by Riley Kissel

Insight on Interviews from Stan Duncan, SVP, Westfield

People power boils down to one thing: potential. Just ask Stan Duncan Senior Executive Vice President of U.S. Human Resources and Global Head of Management for Westfield. Rome could always have been built with enough hands, but those hands needed a dream to follow and voices to guide them. In the 20-plus years that Stan Duncan has worked with human resources divisions in several multinational companies, he’s learned a thing or two about what makes a good job candidate. He’s learned which specific resources are vital to those who are ultimately hired and, more importantly, which questions to ask those candidates.

Duncan says that it’s all about asking the candidate to tell you what they want, what they have done, what will make them successful and “why.”

According to Duncan, having a prospective employee reveal what they see as their own abilities and competence is a surefire way to not only get a raw understanding of their talents and pros and cons, but also to get an understanding of their ability to adapt and their potential to last in the long term. “We aren’t looking for super-humans; in my two decades as an HR executive, I’ve yet to meet one. We want people who are talented, but most importantly, willing to grow and change as the company grows and changes, too.” I believe people who know a lot about themselves do the best selling themselves in an interview. Basically, make sure you’re introducing yourself, presenting the real you in the interview.

Duncan is certainly not shy about his two decades’ of experience as an interviewer. That was proven when he was asked what he’s learned about hiring the right people: “Doing this for 20 years certainly helps you see the big picture; it’s all about potential.” Duncan has been around long enough to see what works for the long-term and what only succeeds in the short term, and his reflections have resulted in him founding an HR model that prizes a prospective worker’s long-term potential over short-term spunk.

“Working in human resources for companies that focus on everything from career apparel, managed services, aerospace glass manufacturing to chemical agent creation has allowed me to see what always stays the same despite the change in labor practices, techniques, and strategies. Human resources are universal in that HR personnel are always seeking out that potential for a long-term employee presence once they’re hired. That’s because longevity in employment means a stronger, more developed team, which increases the likelihood that each member reaches their potential due to the longstanding support of one another.”

The beauty of Ancient Rome would never have been erected by unorganized stone cutters with no collective vision, no matter how many were hanging around looking for work, which demonstrates the power of potential. Without a guiding vision, the kind that an institution like Westfield has and HR leaders like Duncan possess, the potential of individual talent to serve something greater is often wasted. Asking the right questions and paying close attention as human resources workers is the only way to uncover that potential and make sure the talent stays around long enough to make an impact. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your company won’t be, either. Let Stan Duncan’s success show you what can be accomplished in 20 years if you put your mind to it.
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Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com

Thanks, Riley, for new insights on a critical topic.

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

Be Irresistible: THE 7 Key Steps to Becoming Your Own Boss

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insideout logo

I woke early Sunday morning. I beat the sun again. I started the coffee; turned on the computer; and while they fired up, I cleaned up and fired up myself. After I poured that first cup of coffee, I sat down to see what was happening on Twitter and one interesting Tweet from @WamdaME timed at 03:49a.m. was waiting for me.

After another tweet or two, we established that WamdaME was asking about “starting your own company,” so I sent the following stream of tweets to her under the hashtag #owningit and favorited them too.

It seemed a good idea to share them here too.

THE 7 Key Steps to Becoming Your Own Boss

The seven steps I tweeted might seem to have come easily at 4:00 a.m. that morning. But every success is build on our skill set and talents — what we’re good at — and experience. Strategy and strategic thinking come naturally to me. However, I learned this strategic process by testing it constantly and doing it wrong until I found the way to “right.” After the experience of building a conference business from a blog post and a consulting business from that, I can tell you this is what works.

  1. Look over your successes to find what they have in common.
  2. Recognize the skill sets and experience that you’ve already acquired.
  3. Name the values that define you.
  4. Know how to recognize the people who believe in those same values.
  5. Get to know the people who share your values and understand their goals, dreams, and problems better than your own.
  6. Identify a problem that you enjoy solving at the crossroads of your success skill set and your values.
  7. Build a strategy to serve the people who share your values and the problem you solve for them.
    • Make it your mission to be mission critical to the mission of the people you serve.
    • Understand your position – how your size, skills, visibility, competitive place, and relationships offer opportunity.
    • Leverage conditions – find the opportunity inside every trend, cycle, shift, change in power, etc.
    • Make command decisions – commit to where you’re going, persuade the right people to help, focus on the things that move you forward.
    • Build Networks and Systems – Connect the people who help you thrive. Have an ever simpler process for serving them.

    And the most critical …

  8. Be in with your head, heart, hands, and both feet.

Offer those ideal customers (the people who share your values) the solution to the problem (something that makes their life easier, simpler, or more meaningful) and make that offer everywhere they gather in ways that are easy for them to say yes. And keep listening to their responses , tweaking your offers, and practicing your craft to give the people who love what you do more of what they love, less of what they don’t like, and something uniquely surprising and valuable that only you can bring.

Success in establishing a business grows from what has always has always made us successful — those talents and gifts that define us expressed in the ways that only we can bring them to the world — and such a deep seated commitment to an idea, a quest, a goal that we’re willing to focus all we are to make it real.

It takes commitment to become your own boss — a commitment to yourself, to the people you serve, and to the value of what you offer.

That commitment has been in every success you’ve won.
Make the commitment and you’ll become an irresistible force.

Ever had an experience like that?

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

PetCareRx Offers Advice for Online Success

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Guest Post
by Riley Kissel

The survival rate of any business is fairly low. Only 1 out of every 10 succeeds in the first five years. With the popularity of online businesses growing daily, the success rates of these types of businesses is even lower. However, one online giant, PetCareRx () has endured and continue to succeed in spite of the odds, and the company’s COO, Blake Brossman, is more than willing to offer 5 great tips for success in the online business world. In order for a business to succeed, Brossman believe every company needs:

Passion

Always choose to start a business that revolves around something that you are passionate about. When business becomes difficult, when the long hours and seemingly endless marketing becomes too much, it will be your passion that gets your through. Brossman became determined to offer great pharmacy services to pet owners after having to deal with his own Rottweiler’s expensive medications. “I looked around the vet office and saw all the helpless people spending astronomical sums of money to treat their pets,” Brossman recalls.” I wanted to give these people the opportunity to treat their pets without breaking the bank!”

A Great Business Plan

PetCareRx was started during the dot-com hype of the late 90s, and was able to survive when the bubble burst during the early 2000s, and they credit their success to the company’s solid business model. “The 2000 bubble was caused due to incessant hype, and weak business models with high investments,” stated Brossman. PetCareRx new the products and type of service it wanted to offer, wrote it down in their business plan with precise goals, and stuck to it. Now they are an industry leader.

Excellent Customer Service

PetCareRx reviews couldn’t be better. The online pet pharmacy has been a hot spot for pet owners for years, and has built incredible company loyalty. “At PetCareRX, the customer always comes first,” stated Brossman. “PetCareRx, built a strong foundation around every pet parent’s requirement, backed by a great product line and the highest level of service and convenience. This helped us survive and grow over the years.”

Social Media

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to spread word about your online company, and a great way to allow patrons a way to create a community, without having to spend anything. They are also a great way to offer special discounts to Fans or Followers to add to increase company loyalty. PetCareRx can be found on both Facebook and Twitter, and frequently offers fans great discounts to use on a variety of store items.

Show Your Credentials

Many online businesses fail because they don’t convey that they are trustworthy. People don’t want to purchase a product or service from a website that doesn’t look secure or isn’t backed by prominent watch groups. PetCareRx has made it a top priority to be licensed in every state and to make sure their customers are aware of this. However, other less successful pet pharmacies don’t take the same precautions which can easily put a pet at risk. “Visitors should be skeptical of ordering medications or any products from any non Vet-VIPPS certified pharmacies,” stated Brossman.

Starting an online business is difficult. Succeeding with an online business is even more difficult and requires time, dedication, and perseverance. However, the rewards can easily prove to be worth the hours and energy poured into it.
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Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com

Thanks, Riley, for simply showing how great thinking has built great success.

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

30 Blog Posts to Get Strategy and Celebration Back into Your Business and Your Life

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That Fireworks Feeling of Celebration!

Remember when you first were going to see the fireworks? It wasn’t that different from the first day of school or the first day of that new fabulous job! And if you’ve ever started your own business, the first day you’ve got things in order to launch is certainly a time worth celebrating with fireworks!

Then come the days that follow that often get filled with more work and a little less of that brand-new feeling that made everything easy at that very first. I’ve been taken by the thought of how much fun it is when we get back with our heads, hearts and our hands in our business and everything once again works.

Here are 30 blog posts based on solid strategy — a realistic plan that moves you forward over time by taking advantage of the opportunities that are uniquely yours.

  • Stating your mission and sharing the vision
  • Seeing and levering your unique position
  • Finding opportunities in changing conditions
  • Bringing leadership to decisions
  • Building networks and systems to align your goals.

These five strategic steps and the blog posts that explain them are yours for building the kind of business that feels great every day when you walk into work. So get ready to strategize some, to make some plans, to explode your business and then once again you can celebrate!

Be of the Right Mind

  1. The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life Life either happens to us, or we take hold of life and live it. Here are 10 Ways to get a life and start living it.
  2. 5 Ways to Take the Work Out of Work and Connect with Life Ever notice that some of us live, some of work to live, some of us live to work … and one or two of us seem to BE a piece of work?

Stating Your Mission and Sharing the Vision

  1. Why Play the Game, If We Aren’t Playing for Keeps? Why should anyone believe the shoemaker makes fabulous shoes if his own shoes are ratty?
  2. Is Your Strategy About Winning Opportunities?Tactics are interesting. The accomplishments they bring can be thrilling. But the bigger picture that a strategic mission lays out is powerful and amazing thinking.
  3. How to Make Your Dream Come True — Thought, Strategy, Action You can wonder. You can wish. You can wait for help. Say that you will, or say that you can’t right now. The most important key to a dream come true is personal investment
  4. How to Share the Vision and the Plan with a Business-Building Community We have to be able to explain — what we’re building and what roles others might play.
  5. WHY Doing What We Love Is Solid Business Thinking Because it’s how we’re wired as humans. We bring our best to whatever challenge we face. We’re better when we’re inspired by deep feeling.

Seeing and Leverage Your Unique Position

Position is the unique combination of where you stand in your field and what you bring to it.

  1. Are You Seeing So Much That You’re Blind? With or without a real itinerary, traveling too fast made see so much I was blind to the people around me.
  2. 8 Powerfully Subtle Ways to Let Your Work Show Your Expertise To be recognized as a expert requires communication skills and social skills as well as technical expertise.
  3. Marketing Strategy ala Mickey Mouse Eisner didn’t make random decisions. He followed solid business strategy. Anyone can use these strategic principles for success in any enterprise from a service business to a blog.
  4. Checklist: Opportunity Is Knowing Your Position on the Playing Field Think through where your brand and your business is right now.

  5. Personal Branding: Strengths Assessment Tool     Here’s a tool to help you assess what you have to work with.

Find Opportunities in Changing Conditions

Every business faces change in cycles, climates, and shifts. That change holds opportunities that are fit our unique position and skills. Working with change grows a business.

  1. Change As Influence: How to Get the Attention of Deniers, Followers, Dreamers, and Leaders? Every now and then, something happens that pulls the rug out from under us …
  2. How to Claim Your Ground and Own It It was still the 20th Century when someone told me that I could count on these four words to always be true … This too will change.
  3. Do You Sleep in the Freeze or Invest in the Spring? The sailors who love sailing know just saw it as part of the yearly progress of the sailing “routine.”
  4. Stop Thinking Poor – Start Irresistibly Growing Your Business Something negative happens. People hit a wall with their business. They pull back, retreat to safer ground to protect what they have.
  5. The 5 Step Strategy that Saved a Company Can Also Get You to Your Dream Working with strategy of any kind, it comes with the territory to know that, the minute a strategy is worked out, it is outdated. That’s because the information on which the strategy is based has already moved and changed.

Bring Leadership to Decisions

Making command decisions is about understanding the role of a leader and the people who can help a business thrive.

  1. Leaders and Higher Ground There’s not a person on the planet
    who has not been a jerk.
  2. How Do You Recognize and Attract Heroes and Champions for Your Brand? Before you try to create evangelists why not reach out the ones you already know?
  3. Strategy: All of the Information Available Strategy is setting a vision, making a path, knowing what we can know, and planning for the variables. To know what we know . . . That means having command of the information available.
  4. Have You Tried the DO Strategy of Social Business Success? People who succeed DO what the work to get themselves where they want to be.

  5. Money Strategy, a Dead Horse, and Folks     The key here is whether the new upgrade will pay for itself in productivity, quality of life, or other tangible or intangible benefits. In circumstances such as this, here are some of the “go or no go” questions.

Build Networks and Systems

Networks and communities are the people who help the business thrive. Systems and processes are the ways of doing things that support the work people are doing.

  1. The 5-Point Strategy to a Powerful Network Networks of people can be powerful influencers. A network of influencers expands our knowledge and our reach by engaging the power of “WE.” The problem is that networks take time to build and require attention.
  2. How Do You Get a Community to Help Build Your Business? The beauty of enlisting a social media community from the start is that communities only have time for ideas that will work.
  3. A Barn Raisers Guide: 7 Ways to Leave the Field of Dreams to Build a Thriving Reality Barn Raisers invite collaboration from the people they’ll be serving and so what they build is often a gathering place for people even before it’s fully finished.
  4. Where Would a 30-Minute Strike Force Strategy Increase Your Productivity? When the piles start to slow down progress try this 30-minute strategy to get back to a Command Center that works for you and your productivity.

  5. Building A Powerful Personal Developmental Network – Is Your Next Teacher on Twitter?     Whether we’re a company or an individual, it’s easy to find reasons that we made our successes, but that our failures were due to other circumstances. That’s where a powerful personal developmental network can keep things real.

The Challenge

Leave hesitation behind. go for the win and claim your successes.

  1. Extreme Hesitation and Extreme Strategy: Are You Willing to Own Your Life? Because deeply knowing where you’re going is irresistibly attractive.
  2. How to Turn a #Fail Position into a #Win Then it struck me that how I was looking at the problem was what was keeping it a problem.
  3. Are You Ready to Claim the Right Things You’ve Done? We’re great about learning from our losses. We’re not so great a learning from our success.

It’s a true calling that allows to serve other people by providing a service that make’s other folks lives easier, faster, and more meaningful. That kind of calling is worth celebrating because it makes us all feel more alive. Other people find a living soul irresistible, fascinating, and attractive. They come to see what makes a person so engaged, directed, energetic, and calm. The best part of bringing that kind of true strategy to work is that it is contagious and explodes into that a fireworks feeling that we all can paint the sky with light!

It took a few years to write the blog posts I gathered here for my birthday. It took a lifetime to learn what they say … what will you do with them?

Be irresistible.

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