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Legends keep the past alive in our world.

Legends are handed down from generation to generation. As they are passed along, they gather strength. In many cultures – legends act as guidelines for behavior.

We have corporate legends as well, rules and ‘knowns’ that we accept as truth. If you’re wondering what legends I’m talking about, here are some examples.

• Our product is just too cool.
• We can’t win in that market, so why bother trying.
• Our sales cycle is unpredictable, but that’s just our business.
• We have to discount to beat that competitor.
• Changing plans will just disrupt our business.
• We’ll just have to cut expenses to keep profit margins.
• We can’t grow in a down economy, everybody is hurting.

Often we can’t even remember the source of those legends. Some come from our own internal beliefs, some from external sources – like those business school truths handed down from mentor to student.

We tend to hang onto those legends, the knowns about our businesses. They become ingrained in our business cultures – just as the legends of King Arthur and more are ingrained in our personal stories.

But what if those legends are just plain wrong?

That’s why they are dangerous. What happened in the past isn’t necessarily a reliable truth today. Our world is moving too fast. Our ‘wow’ value from six months ago may already be ‘ho hum’ in today’s market. Certainly the rules of business from a decade ago are ancient history for today – but perhaps even our beliefs from last year are already past their prime.

When corporate legends live long – we don’t prosper.

Our success depends on our full attention to today – and tomorrow. Letting the past decide our future is a sure step down a slippery slope. Legends hold us on the wrong course, blind us to opportunities and give us a false sense of security. Sometimes – they help us avoid the change we fear.

The key to success in our dynamic world is to focus forward – leveraging the lessons learned in our past, while questioning everything in light of today’s reality. Great leaders do just that – asking for the logic behind every legend and known, taking nothing for granted as a given. Great leaders plan their course for today based on what they see ahead of them, not what they’ve already passed.

What are some of your legends? How can you evolve beyond them?

Remember how Tom Sawyer convinced all those other kids to paint the fence he was supposed to paint? He made wise use of other people’s skills.

One of the secrets to success in life is making use of the fact that others can contribute to your success with their diverse interests, skills and talents.

There are things you do better than other people; these skills and talents are what you do naturally. Your joy, satisfaction, and meaning in life come as the result of opportunities to do these things. The more you focus on activities that draw on these skills and talents, the better you will perform and the more success you’ll have in life.

There are also things you’ve learned to do but that don’t make use of your natural skill set. Even though you may do them at a reasonable or even expert level, they tend to require greater effort and usually don’t bring the same rewards.

Don’t Try to do Everything, You Can’t

Out of the Human Potential movement came the idea that people can do anything they want if they just put their minds and efforts into it.

Unfortunately, this has lead to the idea that if you can do anything then you should be able to do everything. As a result, we often take on too much, frequently in areas where we don’t have natural talent or ability.

How do you like to spend your time? What brings you the most satisfaction?

Since the possibilities of how you choose to spend your time (either at work or at play) are literally endless, it’s crucial that you have some kind of filter for deciding where to put your attention.

There are People Who Like to do That? You’ve Got to be Kidding Me!

If you look around at what other people enjoy doing, you’ll probably discover that there are far more things that strike you as boring or uninteresting than there are things that grab your attention.
Spending your time in the full expression of your talents requires that you give up roles and skills that are not where your passion and talents lie – just like Tom did. This latter category includes what we call “distractions.”

Distractions are the jobs or activities (and their accompanying sets of skills) that clearly do not interest you, or that require a great deal of effort on your part to learn.

What might be drudgery to you is someone else’s ideal job. Discovering someone who loves to do the things that you don’t enjoy is an opportunity for celebration rather than disbelief.

It’s important to know what you don’t do well. This is important for a few reasons: not just so you can avoid situations in which you are called on to perform unsuitable tasks, but also so that you can find and work with others for whom your distractions are natural talents.

Take Action:

Make a list of all the various tasks you perform in a single day. Next to each item, mark “L” if you love it, “N” if you feel neutral about it and “H” if you hate it.

Pick the top three items on your “hate it” list and make a plan for getting them off your plate, either by discarding the activity altogether or by passing it along to someone else.

Dance to Your Music and Let Others Dance to Theirs

Your steps will be truer and your expression more joyful when you delegate to others those things they do best while you discover and concentrate on doing what comes naturally to you.

As stated by the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Legislature enacted three bills that allow small business employers to form cooperatives for the purchase of employer health benefit plans in Dallas, Houston and throughout Texas. All three types of cooperatives are private purchasing cooperatives under state law. Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1501, Subchapter B provides for the formation of Purchasing Cooperatives. Two of the three have special characteristics; for clarity, we will refer to the broader category as “private purchasing cooperatives.”

Who may form a cooperative?

Two or more small employers may form a small employer health coalition. Any person – other than a health carrier – may form a health group cooperative. A health carrier may assist a sponsoring entity in forming a cooperative. A health group cooperative must have at least ten participating employers.

How do I start a cooperative?

All three types of purchasing cooperatives must be formed as a nonprofit corporation. For more information on how to form a nonprofit corporation, you should consult the Texas Secretary of State, specifically the Filing Guide for Business Organizations and Non-Profit Associations.

Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1501, Subchapter B provides for the formation of Purchasing Cooperatives. Small business employers interested in assistance with forming or joining a small employer health coalition should also consider contacting their insurance agent or one of the existing small employer health coalitions. Once the cooperative has received a certificate of incorporation or certificate of authority from the Secretary of State, the cooperative must file that document and the cooperative’s organizational document with the Texas Department of Insurance. The address for filing these documents is: Filings Intake Division, Mail Code 106-1E, Texas Department of Insurance, P. O. Box 149104, Austin, Texas 78714-9104.

What Type of Cooperative Should I Form?

This decision will be based on the goals for the cooperative and the employers interested in joining. You should consult the description of the types of cooperatives available and review the statutes and regulations associated with each. Things you should consider when forming a cooperative include the potential for growth in the cooperative, the complexities associated with potential growth, interest from a carrier and a sponsoring entity in the cooperative, and carrier requirements, such as participation levels.

How Do I Join a Cooperative?

All of the cooperatives registered and listed with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). Contacting a cooperative in your area is the first step you should take in joining a cooperative. For certain cooperatives, there may be an annual open enrollment period, which will limit your opportunities to a certain period each year. Small employers interested in joining a cooperative should also remember that, as individual employers, they are guaranteed issuance of coverage from an insurance company or HMO that offers coverage to small employers. Similarly, a small business employer must be allowed to join a health group cooperative and purchase coverage during the next annual open enrollment period.

What Type of Cooperative Should I Join?

Various factors will influence your decision about the type of cooperative to join, including whether your company is a small or large employer, the rates offered by the cooperatives in your area, a cooperative’s administrative or membership fees, and whether a particular cooperative is accepting new members or currently enrolling new members in an open enrollment period. You should review the different types of cooperatives to determine whether a particular type offers advantages for the employer. There is also a revolutionary individual health insurance plan you can offer your employees.

Health Group Cooperative – Sub (p)

SB 805, enacted by the 79th Texas Legislature (2005), created a new type of health group cooperatives with special rights and requirements.

- Any person, other than a health carrier, may form a sub (p) health group cooperative.

- Once a sub (p) health group cooperative is formed, it must have at least ten small employer members to be eligible to purchase coverage from a health carrier that is participating in the health group cooperative market.

- A sub (p) health group cooperative is not required to allow a small employer to join the cooperative if the cooperative has elected to restrict membership in the cooperative in accordance with legal requirements, and after the small employer has joined the cooperative, the total number of eligible employees employed on business days during the preceding calendar year by all small employers participating in the cooperative would exceed 50.

- A health group cooperative must make the election to restrict membership at the time the cooperative is initially formed.

- Employers that join a sub (p) health group cooperative must commit to purchasing coverage through the cooperative for two years, but may cease purchasing coverage upon demonstrating financial hardship.

- A sub (p) health group cooperative is considered to be a single small employer for the purposes of issuance of coverage and rating. Accordingly, a health group cooperative may purchase coverage from any small employer health carrier that is not already providing coverage to a health group cooperative in that county.

- Health carriers providing coverage to a sub (p) health group cooperative may offer a health benefit plan, specifically allowed by SB 10, which does not include state mandated benefits. This freedom from state mandates is specific to SB 10, but it is similar to that which authorizes consumer choice health benefit plans.

If you have a number of temporary, part-time or seasonal employees working for you, cooperatives have a number of limitations and may not be the best health insurance option for your small business. Group health insurance can be unaffordable for many small businesses, not to mention an administrative headache. Another alternative to group health insurance plans is to offer individual health insurance options to your employees. By law, an employer is not allowed to contribute to these plans, or that would be treated as group insurance under Texas state law. But you can still help your employees become insured in a good plan and improve their health and well-being and also improve employee retention in the process.

If you’re a small business owner who would like to offer affordable health insurance plans to your employees, but can’t afford group health insurance, you should consider offering your employees the revolutionary, comprehensive individual health insurance solutions created by Precedent specifically for young, healthy individuals.

Precedent offers affordable, individual health plans with catastrophic coverage, but without a high deductible, and we’ll offer these plans to your employees at a discount. For more information, visit us at our website. We offer a unique and innovative suite of individual health insurance solutions, including highly competitive HSA-qualified plans, and an unparalleled “real time” application and acceptance experience.

I remember it like it was yesterday. My friends Jack, Bert and I (we all owned small businesses) were having lunch at the Steak House across from the new, first combination gas station / mini mart to come to the area. It was the first day the Quick Fill was open.

I think I was the first to say, “They will never make it.” After all who is going to pump their own gas? I felt I was an expert on the subject of customers getting out of their automobiles and pumping their own gas, as I owned and operated a gas station. It was all we could do to get the people to roll their windows down when it was raining to tell us how much gas they wanted us to pump into their vehicles. There was no way they would get out and pump it themselves even though they would save a few cents. And there was no way people would pay twenty cents more for a half gallon of milk and thirty cents more for a loaf of bread. By the end of our lunch we all agreed the Quick Fill would be out of business in 3 to 6 months.

It is no secret we were wrong. Totally wrong! But why do people who will drive twenty five miles to use a coupon to get a free four dollar appetizer constantly overpay at these type of stores?????

You know the answer as well as I do. Convenience! And when I figured it out in the mid 70′s my businesses soared in sales and profits. I saw my customers, who beat me up for a discount on everything they purchased, parading in and out the mini marts and thinking nothing of over paying. I figured out that I needed to be the one providing convenience. I figured out what every customer is demanding:

1.MAKE IT QUICK. I do not have time to waste.
Business names with words like “Quick,” “Jiffy,” “Instant,” “One-hour,” and “Speedy” are common. Jiffy Lube International, which offers a ten-minute oil change, has grown to over one thousand outlets. Even overnight mail is not fast enough for the buying public. Facsimile machines and email are now widely used to transmit documents across the country in seconds. Your customers constantly patronize fast food restaurants, drive through banks, and drive through car washes.

2.MAKE IT EASY FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND THE BENEFITS
Listen to me. Listen to what I want the product to do. Listen to my problems I want solved. Tell me the benefits I will obtain from buying your product or service. Tell me why I cannot live without your product or service.

3.MAKE IT EASY FOR ME TO BUY
Be flexible with options for me to pay by cash, financing, using charge cards or lay-a-way. Have flexible delivery schedules to accommodate my schedule.

4.DON’T LET ME DOWN
Do what you say you will do. Deliver on time. Make the paperwork easy. Be easy to get in touch with. Give me the good service you promise.

5. BE 100 % CUSTOMER-CENTERED
Make it all about me. Give me your full attention when I am trying to buy your products and service. Don’t answer your phone, talk to others or even look away. If I am not important enough for you to disregard everyone and everything else going on around you, I will take my business elsewhere.

Here is what you can do.
1. Shop your competition. Not just the businesses that sell what you sell, but everywhere your customers buy. Every business is your competition. You are competing for the dollars your customers spend. Your customers only have a limited amount of money to spend. If they spend it at other businesses they cannot spend it at yours. Shop your competition to see what they are doing to meet the customer’s demands

2. Shop your business. Walk into your business, call your business on the telephone and shop it like you are seeing it for the first time. Are your people providing the customers with what they demand? Watch your customers. Ask them if they are satisfied with your products and services. Of course the best way to get the answers you need to know and not the ones you want to hear is to have an independent person or persons survey your customers and people who do not buy from you. All they have to ask is one question, “What do you think of (your business)?”

Grocery stores figured it out in the 60s when they put in the ’10 Items or Less’ line. Just go and look at those lines. You will find honest people cheating. I have seen people in the ’10 Items or Less’ line with as many as 50 items in their carts.

And now you can even check yourself out. Scan your items, pay in cash or credit. Why does it work? Because you want it quick and easy. They figured out how to give you want you want and lower their operating cost at the same time. Figure out how to create your own ’10 Items or Less’ convenience for your customers. Your sales and profits will increase.

The art of dealing successfully with the public is difficult at best. If you’re in a service business the ability to effectively communicate with a steady flow of potential customers is mandatory.

In order to profit fully from this flow, it is vital that you view your business the way the consumer does. Doing so will provide the insight necessary to become more effective. The advertising dollars you spend in order to generate business really amounts to nothing more than your cost of buying customers. If you total all the money you spend in a year on advertising, divide it by the number of potential customers it generates, you would have calculated your gross potential customer cost. If you divide the gross cost by the number of jobs you actually acquired, you would have arrived at your net customer cost.

If this figure is then deducted from the price you charged for the job, you’ll begin to appreciate the importance of not turning-off potential customers.
The only way to lower this cost, thus reducing your advertising expenses and increasing profits, would be to sell more of the customers you come in contact with. In order to do this, every effort should be made to avoid costly mistakes.

Effective Telephone Use – A Word About the Telephone

More potential business is lost at this point than most business owners are aware of! Everything from how your phone is answered to how you end the conversation is critical. Your phone, when used effectively, is an important money making tool. Learning how to use this tool correctly requires nothing more than a little time and common sense.

Have your business phone located in an area that is not subject to noise. Noisy conditions force you to speak louder than normal, and the caller to frequently repeat themselves. Don’t use speaker phones or constantly place callers on hold. There is nothing wrong with taking a caller’s number and getting back to them in a few minutes.

Always start a phone conversation by introducing yourself by name. Ask the caller how they heard of you. Ask them what part of town they’re calling from. Ask them if they ever used your service before. This will act as a warm-up for further dialog while allowing you to sound organized and professional. Next, ask the caller how you may help them, and then LISTEN CAREFULLY.

Before answering the caller’s questions, take a moment to let them know a little bit about your company such as years in business, number of satisfied customers, professional memberships, and any unique services available. This helps to build a positive image of credibility and professionalism in the caller’s mind.

Don’t fumble for answers or try to second guess what the caller is really after. Answer all questions in a direct manner, using a friendly voice, and
in a speed that is easy to follow. Never hesitate to answer any questions regarding rates as long as you do the following first:

1. Fully understand in exact detail the services needed.
2. Find out when they want the service performed.
3. Ask if they’ve ever used any other companies and were they satisfied with the work.
4. If the answer to the second part of question #3 was no, then, if possible, find out why.
5. Explain in detail what you offer.

If you require a little time to arrive at an answer, get their number and call them back. They’ll wait and will appreciate your concern and effort. If you feel uncomfortable giving prices over the phone, the caller will usually find someone that doesn’t. There is nothing wrong or misleading with attaching a contingent phrase to prices when giving phone quotes. A phrase such as, “The final price is best determined when I see the job, but I’ll be glad to give you a working price now” addresses the caller’s question without locking you into a sight-unseen situation.

If you utilize an answering service or voice-mail, be sure to check your messages as often as possible. Don’t wait until the end of your work day to return calls. Returning calls promptly also limits the possibility of losing the job to the competition. Since your telephone is usually the first point of contact you have with a potential customer, every effort should be made to handle calls properly. There are a number of excellent books on the market that will further enhance your phone skills, so check with your local bookstore to see the titles they have available.

Every business wants to deliver customer service, but what customer service do the customers want?

What is valued, what isn’t?

What is a waste of time and what gives a return on investment?

That’s why we do customer service surveys. Isn’t it?
Or is the issue at the source of many a service lapse a problem that starts with customer service surveys.

How can two surveys with the same subject matter conflict?

Ask any statistician and they’ll reel off a list of reasons why two surveys can give completely opposite results.

But whether it’s differences in the sample, the questionnaire or the interpretation, the fact is that many businesses, especially large ones, put significant store by their customer measures.

But are we just kidding ourselves? Can we really measure customer experience objectively? In short, that depends on the questions — the most important being those that you ask before you even put pen to paper.

Here are the three important questions to ask before you start planning that next customer survey:

1. What is the survey for?
a. To give a consistent year-on-year picture for performance management
b. To compare relative performance in specific areas across a competitive set
c. To understand what customers want; what they value; and how they decide “who to use” and “who to recommend” (not always the same).

2. Who are you asking?
a. A representative sample of current customers
b. Anyone that’s in the market for your product / service
c. The “best” customer groups (e.g. most profitable / most enthusiastic etc.)

3. What are you asking them?
a. How their experience compares to their expectations
b. How your delivery compares to that of your competitors
c. What they like, and how they are likely to behave (e.g. would you return, would you recommend to a friend?)

Each combination of the above (and it isn’t an exhaustive list) should lead you to a quite different approach.

You may find you don’t need a survey after all — just to spend some quality time with real customers in a real environment, or perhaps you’d benefit from a number of different views to give a more rounded picture.

Either way, surveys and statistics do have a role to play in understanding your customers, and how well you’re delivering. But they are only a part of the picture. In isolation, they can be confusing, contradictory and quite simply.

Business management is one of the much appreciated jobs positions in the world. The manager is required to have a keen eye so that he makes sure that all the business in running smoothly and there are no stones on the way of success and no decrease in the amount of profit earned each year.

All organizations, including business has managers. They may not be called managers as different titles can be used such as leaders, directors, and head teachers and so on. A good business manager should have abilities to plan, organize, co-ordinate, command and control. In business management, the above mentioned abilities are used a lot. Some examples of these decisions are

o Should we open a new factory in the north or south of a country?
o What price should we charge for the new product?
o Do we buy the new machine even though this will involve job losses for some of our workers?
o Is expansion in another country going to be profitable?

In business management all the decisions are important so it is common to divide these decisions into three types

Strategic decisions are very important which can affect the overall success of the business. Tactical decisions are decisions which are taken more frequently and which are less important. Operational decisions are day-to-day decisions, which will be taken by a lower level of manager.

Taking decision is always a risk. Time, money and other resources will be used as a result of a decision. In business management, taking decisions is one of the toughest jobs. In a small business, such as a sole trader, the owner is the manager. This person will be taking risks with their own capital or savings. These people are referred to as true entrepreneurs or risk takers. If the decision goes wrong they could end up losing their own house and other assets. In a larger business such as a public limited company, the manager taking the decision in not risking his or her own capital but that of the shareholders. Although the manager is still taking risks, the cost of poor decisions will be felt differently. The manager may lose his or her job but it is the shareholders capital that is at stake.

These risks cannot be eliminated but can be reduced by following some simple steps. These steps are sometimes called the decision-making process.

o It is important to establish the objectives of the organization.
o Identify and analyze the problem to be solved.
o Collect data on all possible alternative solutions.
o The most important decision in business management is to make the final decision and put it into effect.
o Look back to see whether the right decision was made. This is called review and evaluation of the decision.

Each department has its own manager. Like the manager of the human resource project will be responsible for

o Forecasting staff needs
o Recruiting staff
o Preparing job descriptions
o Keeping staff records etc.

In business management it is the duty of the managers to look over the departments