Successful Blog

Small Business Owners, Employees Sick of Rising Health Care Rates

by

With just about everything going up in price these days, it should not come as a surprise that health care rates for both employers and workers have been on a steep upward trend in recent years.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey released this fall, employers are putting more money toward their employees’ healthcare premiums than at any other time.

The survey, which interviewed close to 3.200 public and private firms with a minimum of two employees, notes that prices grew 9 percent over the past year. The premiums for family health care coverage have increased to an average of $15,073, with business owners covering more than $10,000 of the cost.

Some highlights from the survey:

  • Six-in-10 companies made health benefits available to their employees in 2011, a sharp contrast from the nearly seven-in-10 who did so just a year earlier;
    • Employees pay $4,129 toward the premium, while employers cover the remaining $10,944;
    • Single policy health coverage costs also grew some 8 percent, coming in at $5.429 yearly. As a result of this coverage, employees pay $921 toward the plan;
    • Overall, PPOs are much more common plan types, enrolling 55 percent of those covered;
    • Seventeen percent of those covered workers are enrolled in an HMO, while 10 percent have a POS plan, and 1 percent utilize a conventional plan;
    • The majority of covered workers have to deal with added expenses when using health care services. A large number of workers with PPOs (81 percent) and POS set ups (69 percent) deal with a general annual deductible for single coverage that must be taken care of prior to all or the majority of services being reimbursed through the plan;
    • In all, 31% of covered workers have a policy with a deductible of at least $1,000 for single coverage, a major increase from the 22 percent such reported in 2009;
    • Most employees also are required to pay some of the expense of doctor office visits. Approximately 75 percent of covered workers’ pay a co-payment toward office visits for a primary care doctor or a specialist physician, along with any general annual deductible a plan may have.

According to a spokesperson for Kaiser, “This year’s nine percent increase in premiums is especially painful for workers and employers struggling through a weak recovery.”

Meantime, according to a report from Aon Hewitt, employees nationwide who have healthcare coverage can figure on seeing a cost hike of seven percent in the coming year.

So, how can both small businesses and employees lessen the chances of needing some of this healthcare in the first place? Among the things to consider are:

  • Stay healthy and active– More and more companies are instituting comprehensive wellness programs that involve disease management, offering cancer screenings, flu shots and smoking-cessation sessions. Some businesses also offer discounts or even free admission to local fitness centers in order for employees to stay in a good shape;
  • Give them what they want – While some plans have requirements as to what coverage and at what cost it is available, sit down with your human resources individual or team and see what your employees are most interested in. By doing so, you can potentially eliminate some of the more costly options if they are not being used;
  • Look into health savings accounts – More businesses are giving a second look to HAS’s. The accounts are tax-exempt, used to cover a number of medical costs;
  • Get a number of quotes – Small business employers are advised to shop around and obtain a variety of quotes. Also, don’t settle on the first quote even if it sounds really good. By shopping around, you have the opportunity to get a good health care insurance product at a reasonable price.

As 2012 comes to light in a little over a month, make sure both you and your employees have a health care plan in place that is both affordable and provides solid coverage.

Photo credit: businessnewsdaily.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ workers compensation, 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.

 

 

 

Haven’t You Got Smaller Fish to Fry?

by

A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

cooltext443809558_authenticity

If you’re a small business or a consultant, Fortune 500 clients are a rush. Impressive logos can adorn your sidebar, you can impress your grandma with how successful you are, and credibility is yours. However, it’s very important to treat every customer as if they are your “marquee” client.

And here’s a secret:

The small fry customers aren’t used to being treated like a VIP, so they are easier to delight.

Here are a few more reasons why the small fish deserve TLC:

  • Small fry grow up to be big – that lower-tier administrator you’re dealing with may get a promotion or move to another company and suddenly be the decision-maker.
  • The neighbor effect – the woman who runs that small business could refer you to her neighbor, who is VP of Something Important at a Fortune 500.
  • Large quantities of small fry make a steady revenue stream – if you’re reliant on the good graces of a few big companies for your revenue, you’re in a precarious position.
  • Smaller organizations can be easier to deal with – it’s much easier to get access to the decision-maker at a smaller organization.

Never burn bridges – if you try every day to delight everyone who comes in contact with your business, including the “nobodies” with no money to spend, you are building goodwill equity that comes back to you when you least expect it.

If you pay close attention, your individual small fry will build into a net-bursting haul.

_____

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

Motivational Triggers: Ninja Secrets to Increasing Conversions

by

By Pawel Reszka

cooltext443809602_strategy

Uncovering Your Readers’ Hidden Motivations

No matter what anyone tells you, selling isn’t easy. There’s no magic formula that says, “Put this product in front of this group of people, say this specific thing and you’ll get sales” – despite what all of the long form sales letters floating around the internet would have you believe. Instead, it’s up to you – the blogger – to figure out the right combination of product selection, positioning and advertising copy that will lead to sales or conversions on your site.

To do this, you’ll need to uncover your readers’ hidden motivations. You need to know what makes them tick, what gets them motivated and what types of information or products can’t they get enough of. Once you have this information, you’ll find it much easier to choose the right products and target the most effective emotional triggers to maximize your blog’s profits.

So to get started, the first thing you’ll need to do is to understand more about how your audience thinks. Getting to know your audience members is crucial for a couple of reasons – not just to encourage more sales. Understanding who your audience members are will help you to choose the best content to post to your site to encourage repeat visits, as well identify the products they’re most likely to be interested in.

As Liz said in a past post on knowing your audience on the site:

The more you know and understand about your audience the better job you’ll do at giving them what they’re looking for. As well, there are other benefits; your writing will come easier, you’ll better communicate your ideas, you’ll stress less and you’ll enjoy it more.

Whether you’re just starting out as a blogger in your niche or you’ve got extensive experience in the field, the following are a few of the things you can take into consideration when getting to know your audience members:

  • Demographic information – As readers leave comments on your posts, do they appear to be primarily male or female? Young or old? Does the quality of their comments suggest anything about their education levels? By painting a picture of your audience members in your mind, you’ll be able to extrapolate some of their concerns, fears, interests and passions.
  • Primary interests – Do your readers tend to respond more frequently to one type of post over another? For example, if you get more comments on your “how to” posts than your personal development posts, you might conclude that your audience is interested in more practical, applicable advice than nebulous, indistinct recommendations.

By paying attention to these types of information, you should start to get a general idea of who your audience is. But while this is important, it’s also only half of the battle. The key is to use this information to successfully tailor a sales message for your unique visitors, based on what you’ve identified as their primary fears and motivators.

Suppose you’re blogging in the personal finance niche and find that you have a large following of single mothers. While you won’t be able to make assumptions that apply to every single one of your readers, you can make some generalizations that can guide your product selection and positioning.

For example, it’s probably safe to assume that many single mothers worry about making ends meet and about what would happen if they were suddenly unable to take care of their children (whether due to death, illness or disability). From a personal finance standpoint, products that help these mothers manage their bills or set up the legal and financial safeguards that ensure their children will be cared for in the event of an emergency could be hugely appealing.

Making assumptions about your audience in order to identify the best products and/or services to pitch to them is important, but the final step in the process is to tie everything together with emotional triggers. An article from Entrpreneur.com on common and effective emotional triggers identifies the following 10 factors to consider while building your product copy:

  • Fear
  • Guilt
  • Trust
  • Value
  • Belonging
  • Competition
  • Instant Gratification
  • Leadership
  • Trend-setting
  • Time

Here’s how to use these emotional triggers in your sales messages:

Fear – As seen in our earlier example about the concerns of single mothers, fear can play an incredibly powerful role in getting people over their objections to buying. While the fears of running out of money and of children being left on their own are major fears, even something as simple as the fear of missing out on something – as emphasized in your sales copy – can encourage conversions.

Guilt – If you’ve ever seen a charity commercial entreating you to “Donate Now” to alleviate suffering, you know how powerful a motivator guilt can be. Use this emotion in your sales copy by emphasizing something that the reader isn’t yet doing well (but that could be remedied with your product).

Trust – As a blogger, you’ve likely built a rapport with your readers over time, which may make them more likely to trust the product recommendations you make, based on the relationship you share. Just be careful not to abuse this trust by making your sales pitches carefully for products that you truly believe in.

Value – Everyone wants to feel like they’ve gotten the best deal possible, which is why you see customers buy name brand products off the grocery store shelves when they have a coupon – even if the store brand product is still cheaper overall! Emphasize the value of your product or service by comparing it to comparable options, quantifying money saved or including bonuses that increase the perceived value of your offering.

Belonging – Facebook and Twitter are two powerful examples of our need to belong to a social network. You can use this motivation to your advantage by offering the people who purchase your products or services special perks that set them apart as part of an exclusive “members club”.

Competition – The classic “Keeping up with the Jones” scenario highlights the hidden competitor that lurks within each of us. If your audience is especially conscious of status and image, simply suggesting that owning your product or buying your service will make friends and neighbors jealous will cause sales to skyrocket.

Instant Gratification – Buying lights up the pleasure centers of our brain, and this effect is enhanced when the product is immediately available for consumption. Whenever possible, make some (or all) of your product available digitally so that it can be accessed right away in order to play to this emotional trigger.

Leadership – If your niche consists of experienced industry personnel, you’ll find that the desire to differentiate ones-self and be seen as a leader is a powerful motivating factor. In this case, use your sales copy to highlight how your products will make these readers feel powerful and authoritative in their personal or business lives.

Trend-setting – Younger audiences or those who are particularly susceptible to brand messages often respond well to sales messages that position products or services as “trend-setting”. Look no further than the Apple iPod, Gucci bag or Vibram Five-Fingers to see how influential trend-setting brands can be.

Time – There’s no one out there that couldn’t use more time, but busy professionals and parents are two groups in particular that look to time savings as a key selling point. Emphasize how your product or service appeals to this trigger and you should see a corresponding increase in conversions.

Again, it may take some time to gain a good enough understanding of your audience that you’re able to identify the hidden motivations and feelings your readers are experiencing. However, with continued effort, you’ll be able to pair the correct products with the right emotional triggers and increase your site’s profitability dramatically.

—-

Author Bio:

Pawel Reszka is the founder of Affhelper.com, a blog where he shares tips and strategies on how to make money online. He talks about blogging, affiliate marketing, and content marketing. Check out his short guide to making money with blogs where he shares some great tips for beginners.

Outstanding information, Pawel! Thank you.

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

What’s the YOU in What You Do?

by

Your Strategy Is Uniquely Yours Alone

cooltext443809602_strategy

I spend most of my days thinking about, reading about, writing about and talking about strategy for individuals, small businesses, and huge corporate brands. When you look closely at what I do, it will soon become apparent that like snowflakes that every strategy is uniquely different and in that way they’re all the same.

True strategy draws from who you are, where you’ve been, what you know, what you’ve experienced, and decisions you’ve made. So even though an individual, a small business, and a huge corporation might all have the same vision, mission, and goals. The opportunities that come to them are as different as who they are and what they know.

A solid brand is like your character. Build on who you are, not on a strategic plan.

It’s a serious risk to invent a brand that isn’t you or the values that your business is built upon. What happens when you do is that the brand becomes a bad facsimile of what you really are. And sooner or later the true you leaks out in some way — you don’t live up to what you invented.

You can’t write my blog post. You can’t give my talk. You can try to copy me, but you’ll always be a copy.
The value in what you do you is your own version of the way you do things.

I can’t be Copyblogger Chris Brogan, Oprah, or even my own mother, but I’m one heck of a Liz Strauss.

The closer we get to understanding who we are and what we value, the more people trust us to show up in ways that we say. They see, feel, and respect that we are living what we’re saying and they know they can trust that. It resonates with others when we ARE who we ARE, not just how we act.

And within us, our businesses and our corporation, the integrity and confidence of know who we are offer rich context that telegraphs itself to anyone who hears any one of us talk or anyone talk about us..

Don’t reinvent yourself. Don’t re-engineer new ways of reaching out.
Reconnect to your values and be what the best version of you is about.
That’s how you’ll attract the people who share those value with you.

It’s the YOU in what you do that makes the brand, the business, and the team work the way it does. No one can compete with that. People can join in, adding to the story and enhancing the mission.

The you in what you do is the ultimate barrier to entry. It attracts opportunity, but defies replication.

Read that sentence again. Information, products and services are all over the world and all over the Internet, but there’s only one YOU. No one can do, see, think or add the difference you make in exactly the same way you do. Anything that isn’t you … isn’t your brand – it’s discounting your true value and values.

That unique YOU is the part that people love, protect, stay loyal to, and bring their friends to experience.

You are the value. You are the difference.

Have you figured out what’s the YOU in what you do?

Be irresistible.

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

Thanks to Week 318 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

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

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

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

muddy teal strip A

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.

deep purple strip

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