Differenciate Yourself From The Rest

Author; Joni Walton

You know what it’s like when you cultivate a quality business relationship with a client? You know what it’s like when you have a client relationship where they would never consider using another person or company for your types of products or services?  Those are the clients we all hope for who buy what you tell them to and they provide you with even more business and continuous referrals. 

Satisfied clients tell an average of 3-5 people.  Unsatisfied clients don’t return, and they tell approximately 10 people and then those people tell other people.  A successful business attributes approximately 85% of their clients to word of mouth.

 Have you ever asked yourself how you differentiate yourself from your competition?  Well I did, and I thought about companies we deal with and why?

• My cleaning service leaves a fresh flower on my desk each time they clean
• My graphic design firm occasionally delivers chocolates with their proofs
• Each person at my new health club I attend knows me by my first name.
  I missed a class the other day and they called me to make sure I was o.k.
• We recently received a resume/cover letter from someone that stood out among 150 others.
  This person took some risks with his cover letter leaving us totally intrigued.
  By the way we hired him –  

Danlee continues today to answer our phone with a live individual.  I personally never liked automated answering systems and punching numbers to speak with someone.  After 17 years in business, and actually having a phone system that has all the capabilities of automated answering and voice mail, I choose not to implement it.  It is important to us to speak with our customers and to insure that they reach the appropriate person to help them get the answers they need when they need them.   

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, make an impact or try something different.  Go the extra mile and it will pay off for you time and time again.  When Danlee developed our mission statement many years ago, it seemed almost too simple; “Our Goal is to Exceed Your Expectations Every Time.” 

 The difference is…we mean it.

 

 

  

Disability Insurance for NYS Workers: I’m All For It, But Buyers Beware!

“Disability insurance, often called DI or disability income insurance, is a form of insurance that insures the beneficiary’s earned income against the risk that disability will make working (and therefore earning) impossible.”  Disability income policies may provide policy holders with short-term benefits, long-term benefits, or both. When an unforeseen event such as illness or accident occurs it is comforting to know that there is a back-up plan in place.  Statistics show that 1 in 5 workers will be out of work for at least a year before age 65 due to disability.  Truth be known so many of us are stuck in the two income trap, and many living paycheck to paycheck with little or no discretionary income, so what do we do?  This is where the safety net comes in, disability insurance; a great idea but only if your policy is tailored to meet your individual needs and objectives. 

Let’s face it, when it comes to buying any type of insurance the first thing that comes to mind is, how much is it going to cost?  While cost should definitely factor into your decision I’ve come to realize that like most things you typically get what you pay for.  A great example of this happened recently at our office; one of our employees was going to be out of work to undergo a surgical procedure deemed medically necessary.  The employee had purchased short/long-term disability insurance from a provider offered through our PEO.  The employee was expected to be out of work a total of one month and it was understood that the coverage would not kick in until after 21 days.  In the interim the employee would be eligible to collect NYS short-term disability that had a waiting period of only one week.  Her disability policy would pay 50% of her gross weekly income with a cap of $1,385.  The cost to the employee was approximately $5.56 per week for a female over age 50.  Seemed like a deal right, wrong.  The employee contacted the insurance provider subsequent to her being out of work two weeks to confirm benefits.  It was at that time the employee was notified that she would be receiving a total of $25.00 approximately 87% less than the employee’s expectation.  It was explained that NYS is one of 5 states (others include CA, HI, NJ, RI) that mandate short-term disability and that the benefit was calculated based on the sum of 50% of Gross Wages – NYS Disability.  This was not clearly stated as a condition in the benefit description but it did not change the outcome; definitely a hard lesson learned.

So how do you go about getting a policy tailored to your needs, SHOP IT OUT; there are companies that pay comparable rates without consideration of state collected disability payments.  Policies that promise higher pay outs may be a bit more expensive but in the long run you’re getting more bang for your buck. 

In addition when looking to purchase a disability policy:

1. Consider a policy that may not be terminated
2. Choose a policy that promises premiums will not increase
3. Consider a policy that includes partial or residual coverage in the event that you can only return to work part-time
4. Choose a policy that offers greater benefit levels to replace as much as possible of your lost earnings

 

Good luck and in closing my only advice is before you purchase understand the policy stated provisions, ask questions,  and always always read the fine print.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Annette Scorzelli

When I read this article I felt the power in this statement myself, and felt it was definatlely worth sharing.

Dan Nielsen publishes new TIPS FOR SUCCESS

In his recent ”TIPS FOR SUCCESS,” Dan Nielsen, founder of the National Institute for Healthcare Leadership (www.nihcl.com), talks about how powerful it can be to admit you were wrong and ask for forgiveness. He points out that not one person in the entire world is always right, and how people who are self-confident, self-aware, considerate, thoughtful, mature and comfortable in their own skin have no problem with appropriate and sincere apologies. To read the most recent tips, visit www.nihcl.com/html/tips/2010/August-9.html.

Feed Your Muscles

Author; Tim Walton

Proteins are the body’s building material.  Whether you’re an advanced athlete or just putter in your garden, everyone needs it.  The amounts are different obviously for different endeavors.  While there are varying opinions and studies in regards to how much, your protein intake should take place every 4-5 hours.  Bear in mind that supplements are not substitutes for actual balanced meals.  Most of your protein needs should be met consuming meat, fish, poultry, eggs and milk. 

So let’s talk briefly on protein powders. Protein powders come in two basic forms; fast acting whey and slower absorbing casein-based.  Whey gets into your system very quickly while casein has a more trickle effect.  Most people say since there is a 45 minute window after you work out to get protein in the muscles for the repair and building process, that whey is the way to go. However, while whey is in very quickly, it is out of our system quickly also.  This is where the beneficial slow trickle effect of casein is superior for a longer constant protein supply. 

Although it is recommended that you have some sort of protein intake every 4 hours, whether by regular food or a protein supplement, I believe that one of the most important times is right before bedtime as your body actually does most of it’s repairs while you are sleeping. 

Here are some helpful tips when choosing a protein powder:

1. Choose a product from a reputable company. Don’t try and save a few dimes by settling for an inferior product.  Do a little research as there is a huge gap in grades, purity and actual contents.
2. Taste:  Even the best working protein will not be of any use if you can’t choke it down.  Be aware of companies who add high amounts of sugar to cover up nasty tasking powder.
3. Mix ability: The best protein powders mix easily without having lumps, clumps or having to use a blender.
4. Bloating:  No matter how good it tastes, mixes or works, if it makes you a “gas station” try a different brand.

 I have attached a couple links to websites, in my opinion, offering good quality protein powders.  Some health food/supplement stores have individual packets for samples of various brands to see what you like.  Some companies will send you a free sample if you check out their websites.

www.gasparinutrition.com  *   www.muscletech.com  *  www.designerwhey.com

Everything Happens For A Reason

Author; Joni Walton

One of my favorite sayings is “Everything Happens for a Reason.”  I say this so often that when I asked one of my employees what I should write about this month, she quickly responded, “Why don’t you write about your favorite saying? 

I truly believe this saying with all my heart.  Some say Everything happens for a reason” is a convenient formula that allows you to shed responsibility for our actions. Well shame on them for being negative and not seeing the power in this statement if you apply it correctly.   

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there…to serve some sort of purpose, teach us a lesson or help figure out whom we are or who we want to become.  Sometimes things happen that are horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles we would never realize our potential, strength, will power or heart. 

Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck.  Illness, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test limits of our soul.  Without these small tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless. 

The people you meet affect your life.  The successes and downfalls that you experience can create who we are, and bad experiences can be learned from.  In fact they are probably the most poignant and important ones.  If someone hurts you, betrays your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart. 

Being negative cripples the human spirit.  I guarantee if you start applying this powerful statement, “Everything Happens for a Reason” to situations good and bad, you will see the positive effect it can have on your life.

When It Comes to New Health Care Legislation, What’s In It for Us?

Author: Deborah Brown

The ongoing debate over health-care reform is finally over after President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act March 23, 2010.  “The law includes a large number of health-related provisions to take effect over the next four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, subsidizing insurance premiums, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage/claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, and support for medical research.” 

To some, this may sound just peachy, but how it will truly play out for small business is yet to be seen. Obviously someone has to flip the bill for this reform and my guess is the taxpayers and small businesses will be left to pick up the tab.  New taxation on tanning services and brand name drugs, new limits on HSAs and FSAs, and down the road a federally mandated minimum-benefits package are some examples of how this legislation is going to add up to big bucks for all of us.

In light of that news there may be some benefits currently available that small businesses can take advantage of to offset some of these upcoming expenditures.  Part of this new legislation includes the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit.  This 2010 tax credit is available to all “eligible small employers” that provide health care coverage to their employees.

 An “eligible small employer” must meet all of the following criteria including having fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees (excluding the business owner and their family members) for the tax year, having average employee annual wages of less than $50,000 per full time employee, and paying premiums under a “qualifying arrangement”.    “Under a qualifying arrangement, the employer pays premiums for each employee enrolled in health care coverage offered by the employer in an amount equal to a uniform percentage (not less than 50 percent) of the premium cost of the coverage.”

If the company meets all three of these stipulations, than this credit is well worth looking into.      Beginning in 2010 through 2013 the maximum credit is 35% of the employer’s premium expenses; this max phases out gradually if the number of full time employees exceeds 10 or the average annual wages exceed $25,000.  The tax credit will be available six years.  For more information see Notice 2010-44 Section 45R (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-10-44.pdf).

Third Quarter Incentives

Annette Scorzelli

 

Summit Doppler offers free warranty upgrade, cash back and trade in incentives.  See below for details:

Supplement’s…Good or Garbage?

Author: Tim Walton

Let’s talk supplements.  Supplements are exactly that; Supplements.  They’re not supposed to take the place of a balanced diet, which is one of the most common mistakes people make.  People forsake good eating habits and try to rely on the latest wonder pill to delivery unrealistic results.

The supplement industry was a $25.2 billion entity last year alone and it gets bigger every year.   Pick up any major fitness or muscle magazine and you will see that in most of them, at least 1/3 of their pages are ads for some sort of supplement.  These products range anywhere between very good to, in my opinion, “garbage”.

Most supplement companies have professional body builders touting the benefits of their  sponsor’s product.  Do your research.  Most of these pros are on either steroids, human growth hormone, or a combination of both. No amount of the “over- the- counter- wonder- stuff” they are hawking will result in you even approaching their level. 

An example of a “garbage” supplement; Back in the day, liquid amino acids were the rage.  “Cherry Flavored” (supposedly), this foul tasking stuff was consumed by the gallons.  It was literally made by dumping enzymes into vats of discarded parts from slaughterhouses.  These liquidated parts included hooves, hides and anything else they could toss in there that wasn’t used in even the most horrendous meat by-products for even dog food.  Needless to say, someone got very rich by selling actual garbage. 

There are some very good products out there which can make a vast improvement in your appearance if you choose the right ones in the right quantities.  The “shotgun” approach of trying every latest fad pill or powder based on the pure hype of ads may disappoint you with the result being a slimmer wallet.  Look for the “good products” in our next newsletter due out in August.

Commitment & Success Go Hand In Hand

Author; Joni Walton

A great business leader once said:

The most important single factor in individual success is COMMITMENT. Commitment ignites action. To commit is to pledge yourself to a certain purpose or line of conduct. It also means practicing your beliefs consistently. There are, therefore, two fundamental conditions for commitment. The first is having a sound set of beliefs. There is an old saying that goes, “Stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.” The second is faithful adherence to those beliefs with your behavior. Possibly the best description of commitment is “persistence with a purpose“.

Persistence with a purpose….. About a year ago, my son asked for 2 baby leopard tortoises right before he went off to college. Since he would not be home to care for them, I reluctantly agreed not knowing the nature of the care they required.  One of these little tortoises, named Shelbert, ended up being very sick very early on.  To say the least, we spent countless hours at special exotic pet vets, Cornell University, researching on line, and just sheer frustration trying to understand what was going on with this little guy.  You can probably guess how many people, told me I was crazy and to take him back or to just “get rid of him”.  My vet said to me on one of my visits, “You know Joni, you could spend thousands of dollars and Shelbert just may be one of the sick ones that was never meant to survive.”  I remember my words to him very clearly.  “When I purchased this animal I made a COMMITMENT to him.  This is a living, breathing creature.  Just because things get tough does not mean you just give up.”  My vet never questioned me again.  The next two treatments we tried cured him. Shelbert is now thriving and growing by leaps and bounds!  (Did I mention these grow to be 40-50 lbs.?) 

Everything I have been successful at I have been totally committed to; owning my business, my 27 year marriage, my son and even little Shelbert. Any type of success whether it relates to business or your personal life is not possible without commitment. 

Stay Committed;  Joni

Want to Kill Off Small Business, Follow the Lead of Big Banks

Author, Deborah Brown

I received a call the other day from a credit card processing company that claimed they could save us between 20 to 40% on our credit card transaction fees.   This is not typically something I would involve myself in, I dabble more in Regulatory Affairs and HR issues, but I’m also not one to turn my nose up on an opportunity to save a few bucks and thought it at least worth looking into.  So I did a 12 month analysis of our “swipe fees” and what I came up with was shocking enough to prompt further research.  In our case, over the course of one year we had expended over $23,000, approximately 3.25% of our credit card sales on transaction fees, pretty inconceivable to me.  I remember going through page after page of Merchant Statements looking for some explanation of what these fees where about.  I took it upon myself to contact the bank for clarification and didn’t get very far.  I remember how frustrated I got because my questions continued to go unanswered; does anyone have a clue as to what these fees are really for?  I started reading whatever I could to gain a better understanding and found that there was a lot of buzz  recently about the subject matter, in particular interchange fees. 

An interchange fee “is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee that a merchant’s bank pays a customer’s bank when merchants accept cards such as Visa and MasterCard for purchases.”  These fees are determined by the credit card issuers and are the “largest component (70% – 90% of total fees charged) of the various fees that most merchants pay for the privilege of accepting credit cards.”  Fees vary and are dependent on many factors including card brand, regions or jurisdictions, the type of credit or debit card, the type and size of the accepting merchant, and the type of transaction (e.g. online, in-store, phone order, whether the card is present for the transaction, etc.). Because only large merchants have the ability to negotiate these fees, interchange fees in recent years have become a hot topic and subject to both regulatory and antitrust investigations.  Small businesses recognize the importance of accepting major credit cards if they are to effectively compete in the market; at the same time merchants are being squeezed and forced to increase prices to consumers to cover these rising costs that in some circumstances may exceed seller profit margins.  Many believe that interchange rates and fees exemplify price-fixing and acknowledge that these inflated charges have more than doubled in the last 10 years even though US technology and efficiency have improved. To give you an idea of how much revenue these charges generate, according to government estimates industry kingpins Visa and MasterCard collected approximately 48 billion in interchange fees in 2008.        

I know this all sounds pretty grim but retailers are poised for a major victory in the Wall Street reform bill currently pending in Congress.  “The Senate recently adopted an amendment that will slap sharp restrictions on the fees issuers levy every time a buyer pays with a debit card.  The new senate amendment adds two major restrictions to the rules on interchange fees.  First it requires that the fee be ‘reasonable and proportional to the actual cost incurred’ by the payment network or issuer for processing the transaction” and gives the Federal Reserve the leeway to determine what counts as ‘reasonable’.  “Second, it allows sellers to offer a discount to customers who pay with cards that carry lower transaction fees.”   The amendment is backed by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin and has been incorporated into a financial reform bill the Senate hopes to finalize in the upcoming weeks.

Aside from looking to new legislation for some relief, retailers can exhaust other methods to reduce costs associated with credit card processing in an effort to offset rising interchange fees.   One means of doing so would be to look into processors who offer a lower per transaction processing percentage rate.  There is currently heavy competition out there and if you land the right deal it can really payoff; on the flipside buyers beware, some of these companies are not reputable and will be handling sensitive information and/or they may require you sign a long-term contract that includes their own hidden fees.  Another option that I chose to go with was to request from our bank a rate review. When a rate review is performed the bank looks at transaction volume and total credit sales.  The bank is fully aware of the stiff competition and is often willing to lower your per transaction processing rate in order to keep your business.  Rate reviews are conducted per a merchants request and are free of charge.  Depending on the financial institution some are willing to do a rate review every 6 months.  My advice is, if you’re looking to save a couple bucks weigh your options and go for it.