4 Secrets to Multichannel Success

Having an independent online store can be great. But with so many vendors competing for attention, it can be hard to get noticed. That’s why many online retailers who do have their own online stores also choose to do business on large marketplaces, even though it means relinquishing some control and some of their profit margin.

We talked to three experts in multi-channel sales for their tips on how to make the most of both platforms. Here are their 4 takeaways for ecommerce entrepreneurs.

1. Be strategic. Having your own independent site can be great at connecting you directly with customers. As Dave Huckabay, an e-commerce veteran with more than two decades of ecommerce experience explains, “When you sell on your own platform you have control. When you use other platforms you always have to give them a cut.”

But even Huckabay, who sells industrial and scientific equipment, does a healthy chunk of his business on Amazon and eBay in addition to his five e-commerce sites. Says Huckabay, at the end of the day, the most important thing is to make the sale, even if it means sacrificing some profit margin.

Some secrets to making it work? Huckabay doesn’t list everything from his independent site on Amazon or eBay. He also modifies product descriptions from marketplace to marketplace to better suit that customer. Having something different from your own site can also help the item perform better in search results, Huckabay explains. He suggests you study competitors with the same or similar product to see who is beating you on price and who is offering free shipping so you can adjust where it makes sense for your business

2. Capture customer information. While established marketplaces are great ways to complement your own online store, many don’t share customer data or contact information outside of basic shipping information, says Terry Lin, the founder fashion accessories company Baller Leather. Lin says, “This makes it difficult to build your customer list and communicate with them in the future about marketing campaigns or promotions.”

To combat this, Lin suggests adding custom inserts when shipping a product. “Ask them to visit your online store for a freebie giveaway in exchange for an email address,” says Lin, who actually got his e-commerce start by selling used college textbooks on Amazon. “This freebie could be a guide, short e-book, audiobook, or content of similar nature.”

3. Be distinct. Since eBay and Amazon make money off transaction fees, it’s in their interest to put your competitors’ similar or even identical products right next to yours so make sure to differentiate your offerings.

“You can no longer just slap a product up and hope it will do well,” says entrepreneur and e-commerce educator Ezra Firestone. “You have to be willing to invest time and energy … You have to have a face, a name a brand and content around what you’re selling.”

Huckabay says he bundles items to create a unique package of products. In one example, he says he bundled a Mantis microscope, which has many uses, with a lens kit designed for circuit board repair. He branded it as the Mantis Rework kit. In other instances Huckabay offers his own replacement warranty when he thinks added value can move the needle.

4. Be selective. Have a reason for each marketplace you use and re-evaluate it seasonally. Not every channel makes sense for every business. For instance, certain luxury retailers who don’t sell in volume such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, never officially list their products an Amazon, eBay or Etsy because it dilutes their brand’s image, Lin explains.

“While marketplac

es offer a large number of eyeballs, it isn’t always the right customer,” Lin says. “Utilizing platforms in the right context is the job of the business owner.”

How to Make Your Cash and the Investor's Patience Last Until You're Profitable

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remainingrunway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

It doesn’t take a financial genius to recognize that you need to keep your burn rate low. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied.

If your runway is less than a year, it’s time to either begin looking for a new cash infusion or defining and implementing a Plan B to assure survival. Your goal is that magical break even point and hockey-stick profit-growth curve. Raising money from professional investors, even friends and family, takes time. Count on six months from beginning the funding process until a new check is cashed.

As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors:

1. Manage cashflow personally every day.  A big influx of orders may feel like success, but can kill your business if you don’t have the cash to produce, deliver and wait for payment. The best entrepreneurs manage cashflow ruthlessly and never delegate decisions about spending money. Cashflow out equates to burn rate, and the runway depends on your reserves.

2. Buffer your projected resource requirements. You will make mistakes. Things will cost more than you expect. Always add 20 percent to your best estimate of funding requirements when approaching investors. They understand startup realities. Better to ask for more early. Going back to investors for more money ahead of the plan is high in terms of credibility and leverage.

3. Use future cash for payments where possible. Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Think of these alternatives as paying interest on a loan, and manage them wisely.

4. Be a miser with contract services and facilities. One of the main reasons that former corporate executives often fail as startup CEOs is that they expect a big office and an entourage of expensive professionals to do the real work. Cashflow can be drastically reduced by working out of your garage. Tackling most of the support tasks yourself.

5. Use social media for early marketing.  Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Social media is not rocket science.

The timing of cashflow is everything. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Match your office, facilities and computer equipment to the size of the staff you have today, and intend to have in the next six months.

As a rule of thumb, your monthly burn rate should be less than 10 percent of your last funding raise or starting cash in the bank. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

In this case, the primary cash outflow would be for product development and operating expenses, with potentially enough runway to build the initial product, get a patent, attract some early adopters, and build the initial revenue stream. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Overall, managing cashflow and burn rate is more critical to your business success than having the right idea and the right product.  It’s why most investors proclaim that they invest in people, more than the idea. If you adequately manage your burn rate, your startup is much less vulnerable to flaming out before you get to that elusive break-even point.

5 Things You Must Do to Successfully Launch a Business

The effort required to launch a new venture can seem daunting. Of course, specifics vary based on the type of business you're establishing; manufacturers face unique challenges, as do retailers and consulting firms. But once you have your concept and your finances in line, there are some basics that are universal.

We talked with business owners, consultants and professors to boil down the bare necessities of getting a startup off the ground into a handful of manageable steps. Apply these fundamentals to your own industry, and you'll be ready to tackle the specifics of creating your successful business.

1. Validate your idea.

Einas Ibrahim, founder of Talem Advisory, a New York City startup consultancy, says the biggest mistake she sees new entrepreneurs make is starting to work on a business idea before confirming that there is market demand. If your startup aims to sell a widget the world has never seen, make sure the world, in fact, needs your widget. Perhaps it doesn't exist yet because no one needs it. If it is needed, then make sure the world is willing to pay for it.

"Don't work on the business until you've validated the idea," Ibrahim says. "Make sure there's a market. Make sure it's what the customer wants. Sometimes the entrepreneur's vision doesn't align properly with what customers want."

Market research proves especially critical for startups with big dreams. If you're aiming to become a billion-dollar business, take steps to ensure that the market can satisfy your aspirations.

"Entrepreneurs find this out after they start talking to investors," Ibrahim says. "The idea might be sound, but it might be too small to become fundable by a professional investor, or by angels or venture capitalists. If the whole market is less than $500 million, it's not going to be worthwhile for a venture capitalist to fund you."

2. Shore up your plan and budget.

Even the best business plans go awry. Successful startups will expect the unexpected--and have an answer ready for it.

"Have a plan for how the business will be run," says Leonard Green, founder and chairman of The Green Group, a New Jersey-based accounting, consulting and tax firm, and entrepreneurship professor at Babson College. "It's a form of making decisions before you have to make decisions."

Those decisions should range from your startup's mission to its business structure (LLC, sole proprietorship, S Corporation) and compensation policy.

When budgeting startup cash needs, assume your business will generate zero revenue for the first year, Green says. "Many times when you have sales, you don't have collections for a few months," he adds. "You still have to cover rent, utilities, inventory, salaries and promotion."

Image credit: Jesse Dittmar

3. Build the right team.

Perhaps the most critical step in the evolution of your startup is assembling a team that works well together and can deliver the goods. "Many good entrepreneurs are by nature connectors of people, so they have strong networks, which puts them at an immediate advantage," notes Mark Coopersmith, a longtime tech entrepreneur and senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Your teammates need to share your ideas about how the business should be run. "The crucial element here is that entrepreneurship is a team sport," Cooper-smith says. "Build the team early, and build it around shared values. Because if you bring on employees and partners and you agree upon common values, you can use those values to come to decisions."

Coopersmith invokes the late Peter Drucker, the management guru who 60 years ago wrote that corporations have only two core functions: marketing and innovation. In other words, businesses exist to build and sell product. "I would ensure my team comprises those two skill sets," he says.

Additionally, you need a team that's pragmatic and able to work together when times get tough. Sit down with critical team members and plan for all contingencies. "What happens if your partner becomes disabled? Sick? Divorced?" Green asks. "Or suddenly the business does poorly, and now we have to go to a bank? You've got to decide those things beforehand, so that it's not you or me, but it's us."

4. Establish a support system.

The entrepreneur's journey can seem like a solitary quest. But before you embark on such a voyage, you need to make sure your loved ones have your back. In fact, it's essential to your emotional health--and to the health of your company.

"I always say it takes a village to raise a startup," says Margaux Guerard, co-founder and CMO of Memi, a firm touting wearable technology designed for women. "As an entrepreneur, you just can't do this alone. You need the mental and emotional support of your friends and family to help you weather the storm."

Guerard left her job as director of marketing at Diane von Furstenberg to start Memi with her business partner, Leslie Pierson, in 2012. Her first entrepreneurial venture has been an around-the-clock whirlwind--exciting, frustrating, rewarding and upsetting, sometimes all in the same day. She relies on her loved ones to help keep her on track.

"I see myself as being the cheerleader for the company," Guerard says. "When everyone is saying 'no,' I'm putting my pompoms on and saying 'yes, yes, yes' at the top of my lungs. When I'm feeling frustrated and sad and beat up, some days I need help doing that. Who do I count on? My family, my friends, my husband."

5. Respond to feedback and refine your model.

When Bayard Winthrop conceived his notion to manufacture an American-made hoodie, he outfitted hundreds of potential customers in prototypes and asked them what they thought. How did the fabric feel? Was it too rough? Too soft? Too clingy?

Without soliciting such detailed feedback from your most likely customers, says Winthrop, founder and president of San Francisco-based American Giant, you'll never know if your idea is a good one. "We did everything from putting imagery up on the website to making 100 sweatshirts and getting them into people's hands," he says.

American Giant, which launched in 2012, has been credited with rethinking every inch of the ubiquitous hoodie. Before the company launched, Winthrop asked customers their thoughts about all aspects of the garment: the cuffs, the fit, the hood, even the zipper. The fabric alone took six months to fine-tune.

"In our particular, narrow world of sweatshirts, getting that right is like cooking a great meal," Winthrop says. "That required getting it onto backs and asking people what they would pay for it."

Feedback led physician Mitesh Patel, co-founder of Docphin, to tweak his technology. He designed his platform to help healthcare professionals get fast access to research articles published in medical journals. The emphasis was on fast.

But the site's initial registration process proved cumbersome, leading many frustrated users to log off. Docphin scaled back, asked fewer questions of first-time users and reduced the average sign-up time to two minutes. Users returned in droves. Today Docphin serves 500 hospitals nationwide.

"For us," Patel says, "it was all about finding out what is the value of the end user, and how can you get them to achieve that value as quickly as possible. What we found was the real value was speed."

For startup entrepreneurs, the need to constantly tinker with the business never ends. "You have always got to be thinking about how you can tweak whatever you have to make it even better," says David Rush, co-founder and CEO of Earshot, a Chicago-based company that helps businesses acquire new customers through social media. Rush's initial venture was an app called Evzdrop that allowed strangers in the same location to communicate with one another. Customers told Rush they wanted to be able to access more widely used social networks. Seeing a better business opportunity, he pivoted, and in October 2013, Evzdrop became Earshot.

"You have to be acutely aware of what the data are telling you and what you are able to learn about either your competitive landscape or the market you're trying to serve or the problems you're trying to solve," Rush says. "It's a continuous product. You're never satisfied."

5 Things to Do Before Saying 'I Do' to a Business Partner

As an entrepreneur, you may at some point consider getting a business partner or co-founder. Maybe you miss working with a larger team that complements your skills, or perhaps you are trying to broaden your market or expand your clientele. Whatever your motive, you should know that business partnerships always start with excitement, but have the potential to end tumultuously. When forming a business partnership -- just like a marriage -- there are certain key steps to take at the beginning that will help in the transition if your professional relationship should end.

1. Perform due diligence. Yes, everyone is fun over cocktails, but when the time comes to sign contracts and do business, you’d better be sober and confident you’re shaking the right hand. Asking for referrals about a potential partner goes beyond contacting common friends and asking their opinions. Call former partners and business associates, inquire with clients, read comments on their social media pages and look them up on Google. (Keep reading way past page one of the search results.)

By the time you’re done, you should be able to name anyone who dislikes them -- from their first high-school enemy to their latest unhappy client. Only then will you be able to either take a calculated risk or a major step back.

2. Make sure you lawyer up. If the legal fees in the beginning of a business relationship don’t make you wince, then you’re doing something wrong. When you partner with other people, every aspect of the business relationship should be put down in writing --  including the goals for the company, duties and responsibilities of the partners and an exit strategy. Every sentence of a contract -- no matter how innocuous -- should be looked at by a lawyer. Since tax laws can be tricky, have your accounts receivable/payable arrangements scrutinized by an accountant.

3. Ensure you have exit strategy. Ending your business partnership is the last thing you want to think about when you are beginning one. It is similar to thinking about divorce on your wedding day, but you should have a plan. The business exit strategy should include several legal points including the division of the business assets and how the partner's portion of the business will be handled in case of death.

4. Protect yourself. One of the smartest moves you can make is to protect your personal assets in case of a lawsuit. Whether you choose to incorporate or become an LLC, the top benefit will be shielding your savings, home, car and even your favorite pair of Louboutins from any liabilities associated with the business.

5. Protect your brand. Joining forces with a partner takes a lot of energy, and chances are that somewhere down the line you will lose your focus. Working for a common goal within a new team is really exciting but merging forces does not necessarily mean merging identities. Don’t lose sight of who you are. If part of the original business plan is to maintain your brand, make sure it doesn’t suffer while you’re giving all your time and energy to your new endeavor. 

When you meet a potential partner, your personalities may click and your goals may be identical but to have a successful relationship, clarity is key. The more precautions you take in the beginning, the happier and more productive you will be later on. And the day you see that the team you’ve tried to build has become nothing more that a group of people looking in different directions, then it’s time to part ways and move on

Protect your Partnership With a Buy-Sell Agreement

Does your business have a plan if one of your partners dies, is disabled or wants to leave the business? It should. As soon as a business partnership has an intrinsic value, it’s important to protect that value for each individual partner. A Buy-Sell Agreement can specify trigger events, voluntary or involuntary, and contain all the terms for a situation when a departing partner wants to protect his or her value in the partnership. Such agreements are additional to the business agreements of an LLC or Corporation.

3 Ways to Get Business Recognition on Social Media

In our increasingly competitive world -- one in which we clamor for the right kind of attention for our companies -- the pursuit of "likes" can become an obsession.

While experts work to define the return on investment, or ROI, of social-media attention and quantify the financial value of social media-fans and followers, entrepreneurs have an innate sense that there is power in gathering a following of likes for our brands.

If being liked is an important goal, and if we measure our like ability by what our social-media fans are saying, how can we effectively gather that evidence of our like ability?

While the current tools to collect and aggregate social-media feedback for a particular demographic are useful, they will only continue to get better and more detailed over time. Fairly soon, you'll be able to look at the score a service provider gets when servicing people who are just like you.

But in the meantime, here are three simple but powerful ways to encourage your advocates to like you.

1. Facebook fan page likes. If you haven't already, create a fan page on Facebook and ask people to "like" you there. It only takes a consumer two seconds to click on the "like" icon, so take advantage of this easy marketing tool on social media.  

And don't be scared of the "ask." On blog sites, business cards and across other social-media channels (i.e. LinkedIn), ask people to like your Facebook page. 

2. LinkedIn skills and endorsements. Ask people to add your skills on LinkedIn. Similar to asking customers (advocates) to like you on Facebook, this is a great way to ask people who know and like and respect you to state what you are good at.

The reason this is so useful is often when people meet new collegues or associates in their industry circle, they Google their name and go to their LinkedIn profile, which provides a plethora of information about the person.

When I am on LinkedIn, I read a person's summary, view her past jobs and look at what she is currently doing. I then look at the number of skills/endorsements she has and make sure these affirmations back up who she says she is. If there is inconsistency, I throw up a yellow flag. If there's major inconsistency, I throw up a red flag. I've had major success running a campaign asking for those that knew me to endorse my skills on. (If you want to read more about this tactic, I go more in-depth in my post Successful LinkedIn Endorsement Promotion Case Study.) 

3. Website activate page. Create an activate page on your website specifically asking visitors to take action on what's important to you. Every website should have explicit calls to action, as they help provoke an immediate response. So, don't make your visitors guess at how they can help you; tell them what positive action is. Examples of call to actions include subscribe buttons to newsletters or social channels, requests to follow on social-media channels or to join forums. For theThought Leader Life show that I'm a co-host with Michael Procopio, we created an Activate page that has really helped drive consumer engagement with our brand. 

To be successful in business today, and certainly in the future, you need to be liked. The more you're liked, the higher you'll come up in the tools that sort by customer satisfaction and the more successful you'll be. To ensure your long-term viability, put a consistent program in place to increase your "likes."

How to Make Lots of Money...Your Way

The headline caught my attention: “The 10 Best-Paying Jobs of 2014.” The top five were surgeon, physician, psychiatrist, orthodontist and dentist. Well thank you Captain Obvious. Did we really need a study to learn that doctors make good money? Really?

The article begins by asking a question on many people’s minds these days: “Is college still worth it?” The answer? “If you want a sure path to making lots of money, yes.” What a misleading conclusion. Although the top-paying jobs require advanced degrees, that’s far from conclusive that college is worth it. I think it is, but that’s neither here nor there.

Look, we all want to make a good living, right? And I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that we all want a fulfilling career and maybe even to retire in comfort someday. Well, I’m here to tell you there are lots of ways to accomplish that without becoming a doctor, lawyer, or some other profession requiring a Ph.D or equivalent.

Let’s take a step back for a minute. The median salary of the top 10 jobs on the list compiled by CareerCast was $138,000. Now let me give you a few more data points to provide a somewhat broader perspective on making lots of money … and perhaps even enjoying a bit more satisfaction in the process.

Got Tech?

A PayScale survey lists the median mid-career pay at Google, Salesforce.com and Yahoo as $158,000, $150,000 and $141,000, respectively. LinkedIn, Microsoft, Adobe and a host of other tech companies were close behind. That’s across their entire workforce. And it doesn’t include equity that can sometimes dwarf cash compensation at tech companies. As a veteran of the tech industry, I can certainly attest to that.

Climb the corporate ladder.

According to a joint study of U.S. tax return data by the Treasury Department, Williams College and Indiana University, about 60 percent of the top one-tenth of one percent of income earners are executives, managers, supervisors and financial professionals. That, of course, includes equity-based compensation. If you’ve got the ability and the drive, climbing the corporate ladder pays off big-time. Again, it did for me.

Do it your way.

According to The Millionaire Next Door, two-thirds of America’s millionaires are self-employed or small business owners. Half consider themselves to be entrepreneurs. Just 20 percent were professionals, such as doctors or lawyers, and 62 percent have a bachelor’s or no college degrees. Meanwhile, the average household income was $247,000 and the average household net worth was $3.7 million. And that’s 18-year-old data.

Now here’s the catch. The vast majority of those millionaires work long hours (45 to 55 hours per week), live well below their means, and are diligent and demanding investors. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the same is true of the top earners in management and technology.

While there is some overlap between the categories, we can draw three conclusions about becoming financially secure:

1. Take individual studies with as much salt as you like. Each report tends to present a single viewpoint. That’s great for reinforcing a decision you’ve already made, but if you want to be objective, drawing conclusions from a single data point is not such a good idea. Cast a wide net.

2. You have more options than you think. The entrepreneur or small-business route can be a good way to go but it is not the only way by any means. You can climb the corporate ladder, join the exploding tech industry or become a professional. And there are lots of other ways to achieve your financial goals. Don’t feel boxed in. You’re not.

3. Success is never easy but your odds go way up if you like what you’re doing. There’s no shortcut to financial security. It takes hard work, perseverance and fiscal responsibility. And that’s the best argument I know for doing what you love for a living. If you don’t, you are going to have a hard time being patient and going the distance.

The Secret to Outstanding Customer Service

Every small business owner knows how expensive and time-consuming it is to acquire new customers. Sooner or later we figure out that the best customer is a repeat customer and outstanding service is the key to customer satisfaction and loyalty. That’s what keeps them coming back time and again.  

Meanwhile our products, services and systems are becoming more and more complex every day. Things go wrong. Stuff happens. And competition is fierce. If you’re not adept at handling the many issues that inevitably arise, customers are not likely to stick around.

Besides, everyone loves to complain about customer-service nightmares and word travels fast both online and offline. You don’t just have Yelp and social media to worry about. In at least one sense, word of mouth can have a bigger impact on your reputation because you don’t know what people are saying. It’s a silent business killer.  

In almost every situation, the difference between bad and outstanding customer service comes down to the same two things:

The first is having respect for the customer as a potentially intelligent human being as opposed to a clueless pain in the you-know-what.

The second is asking and answering one simple question: “What is the most effective way to get this customer what he or she wants?”

Here’s a great example. It’s not a small business but it is a perfect illustration of what I’m talking about.

If you’ve done a lot of business with Walgreens’ prescription services you know that your experience will vary from day to day and person to person. There are a number of reasons for that and, while most are not within the local store’s control, the individuals you interact with do have quite a bit of control over the outcome.

In a nutshell, Walgreens has lots of different systems – both automated and manual – for ordering and reordering prescriptions and notifying customers. Those systems are buggy and they don’t talk to each other very well. So it’s often challenging for both call-center and local retail agents to figure out what’s going on.

I was out getting food the other day when my wife called to tell me that we received a call from our local Walgreens that a prescription was ready for pickup. I had recently responded to an auto refill email request and had already received several calls, so I swung by the drive-through and gave the agent at the window my name.

“I’m not showing anything for you,” said the agent staring at her screen.

“Are you sure?” I said. “My wife said she just got a call from you a few minutes ago saying a prescription was ready to be picked up.”

“Really? From a person?”

“No, it was an automated call.”

“From this store?”

“Yes, from this store,” I said.

“Are you sure?” She asked, still staring at her screen. “I’m not showing anything.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Do you have a reorder for Flonase from a few days ago?”

“Did you call or fax it in?”

“Neither," I said. "It was a response to a reorder email request from you folks. It was just last week.”

“I show a purchase in June, that’s the last activity,” she said, still staring at her screen.

“That’s funny because I’ve gotten several automated calls saying it’s ready for pickup over the past week,” I said. “You’re not seeing that?”

“Really? Are you sure it was from this store?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said, getting a little annoyed at this point. “This has been my store for over 10 years. I know you. We must have talked a hundred times.”

“Hold on a second.” She left. After a minute, the pharmacist came to the window.

“Can I help you with something?” he said.

“No thanks, I’m good,” I said and drove off. It was pointless. I had melting ice cream in the car and enough Flonase to last at least a few weeks.

When I got home we figured out that the call was for a refill of one of my wife’s prescriptions. She has a different last name. Funny thing is, she had not called it in and doesn’t use the auto-refill service because it’s so problematic. It might seem weird that the prescription renewed itself for no apparent reason but for us that was nothing new.

In any case, the agent could have filtered by phone number. She never thought to do that. To be fair, I didn’t think of it either. But then I was too busy eating a peach and responding to all her questions. Besides, it’s not my job to figure out how to solve what I imagine must be a very common problem. It’s her job.

Instead of treating me like an alien from another planet and giving me the third degree all the agent had to do was ask herself, “What is the most effective way to get this customer what he wants?” Had she done that, she would have realized that maybe Walgreens actually did call, as I said it did, and simply asked for the phone number.

The order would have come right up, we would have avoided that entire ordeal and I would have driven off happy instead of questioning my own sanity for sticking with Walgreens all these years.

While I picked on Walgreens, the reality is that its customer service is no worse than that of CVS. Which begs the question why do people stick with their pharmacy? The answer is there has been so much consolidation that there are just a few choices left. And once you’ve got all your prescriptions with one chain, it’s a real pain to switch.

But most small businesses can’t count on there being minimal competition and high switching barriers, especially in markets where it’s hard to differentiate. Oftentimes, your quality of service is the only thing that keeps customers coming back.      

In a complex world where time is precious and competition is fierce, companies have to be just as innovative with their customer service as they are with their products. If you want to be known for outstanding customer service, treat customers with respect and think about the most effective way to serve them. That way you’ll never have a customer walk away dissatisfied.

How to Pick the 'Right' Clients and Stand Out Among the Competition

Remember dating in high school? You know that guy or girl who you liked but were pretty sure didn't feel the same way back? It is likely that you spent countless hours trying to wow him or her, but to no avail. In the end, although you were unlikely to admit it, you knew he or she didn't like you back. Despite all your charisma, your efforts were simply wasted on the wrong person.

Just as you tried to get the attention of that guy or girl in high school, today your accounting firm is trying to differentiate itself by offering business advisory services. Adding business advisory services with platforms like ProfitCents is essential to growing your firm. But your firm should not offer these services to all your existing clients. The reason is that many CPAs, just like those in the high school dating scene, spend most of their time trying to "wow" the wrong guy or girl. Therefore it's key that you identify clients who will be as enamored with your services as you'd like them to be.

Step 1: Identify Key Clients

Start by identifying a short list of key clients (it could be as few as 5) who you will start providing business advisory services to. Use the following characteristics to select key clients:

• Client Relationship: Identify clients that you already have a strong relationship with. You will be more comfortable and they will be more receptive as you introduce new services.
• Client Potential: Choose clients that have unrealized potential. You and the client will be able to see tangible results as you help them grow their business.
• Owner Mentality: Focus on proactive clients who frequently ask questions about improving their business. These clients tend be more appreciative and willing to pay for your professional advice.
• Business Health: Select a few clients with poor financial health. They will perceive your services as a need rather than an unnecessary expense.

Step 2: The Discovery Process

The next step in the process is to develop a strategy for your firm to approach the list of target clients. According to Lauren Prosser, Sageworks Director of Professional Services, this includes thinking about the needs of each business, what’s going on in their industry, their goals, what resources your firm has to offer them, and ultimately how to communicate those services to them. Such a discovery process could include client surveys or merely conversations with clients to gauge their satisfaction with your firm and understand their business needs better.

By using these two strategies, your firm will increase the odds that it garners clients who utilize your valued added services. Once you've chosen your clients, you can alert them of your new services.

5 Tips on Building an Epic Customer-Support Team

Let’s face it: When every move your company makes can be easily amplified to thousands over the social web, you need to make every interaction with your customers exceptional. And to deliver awesome service, you need an awesome service team at your back.

While your “call center” may actually be your startup’s garage, you still need to put as much effort as a giant enterprise into hiring the right people to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. But building your support dream team isn’t always easy, so here are five tips to help you hire an epic customer service team for your startup.

1. Know what you want. Don’t automatically assume that prior experience with your startup’s products or industry is the No. 1 hiring criteria. You should instead think about your primary support channel and look for complimentary skills. If it’s phone, you might want to prioritize a person's phone voice or conversational skills. If most of your inquiries come in via email, you should look closely at a candidate’s writing skills and responsiveness. And if your support agents need skills that can’t be taught in a reasonable amount of time (like walking customers through complex coding) those need to be prioritized too. No matter which skills top the priority list, it’s always important to be sure candidates can express your brand personality -- whether it’s friendly, hip or serious. Ultimately, you want to hire people with the skills that map to your support processes, as well as your brand.

2. Be transparent about the job. Being up front with candidates about both the great and the not-­so-­great aspects of the position can help you find people that are truly a match for your needs.

“We make every facet of the job known to those who apply: both the good and the

challenging," Patrick Cheeseman, head of customer experience at HotelTonight, told desk.com." By being so transparent, we’re able to build respect among our team.”

Talking about the challenges of the job is also an excellent opportunity to find out if candidates have ideas to mitigate them. Not only can you get some fresh ideas to solve ongoing business issues, but you can also show candidates that they have the ability to influence the company’s direction, which is appealing to a lot of people considering working at startups.

3. Let a candidate's resume do the talking. You can tell a lot about candidates from their resumes, so save time in your interview process by screening them carefully. For instance, if writing skills are important to you, look for resumes that are well written -- and without typos.

You can also get a good idea from their resume if a candidate has the other qualities that you are looking for. Not only is their prior experience important, but their other interests and activities can show if they have the right personality for the job.

4. Look for people that are passionate and empathetic. The best customer-support agents have a certain kind of drive and a desire to help that can’t be manufactured. Do your candidates like to solve problems? Do they have passions outside of work? Do they regularly engage in volunteer activities?

Walk candidates through some of the challenges that they would face on the job -- not necessarily issues from customers, since they may not know the product well enough -- but how they would solve things like having too much work on their plate and then being asked by their manager to pitch in on something else. It's not necessarily about getting an answer right, but you’ll learn a lot about their approach to problem solving, and if they will go the extra mile to help a customer, because they enjoy helping others find the right solution to a problem.

5. Carefully craft your interview questions. When you write your interview questions, think about what you will be listening for when they answer.

For example, you don’t just want to hear about what products they supported in the past. You also want to learn how they solve problems, if they are creative, do they work well on a team, whether they can think strategically, if they have a good work/life balance and more.

Here are some suggestions for effective questions:

• Can you tell me about a problems that you identified that other people couldn’t see?
• What makes you feel successful and balanced at the end of the day?
• What was your most stressful support­-related situation and how were you able to turn it from a problem to a solution?
• What are you are passionate about outside of work and why?

Hiring the right team doesn’t happen overnight -- and you wouldn’t want it to. Having the right people in place takes the same patience and deep understanding of your goals that you want your support team to show in their approach to helping customers

Skip the Reluctant Customers. Start Resonating With the Right Crowd.

A few years ago, I was on a call with business strategist Tara Gentile, when she said something that hit home: “You don’t actually want those customers that you have to convince to trust you,” she said.

In a tough economic climate, it can be easy to slip into the mind-set of trying to convince people to trust you. You want clients to see how your company differentiates itself from the pack and believe that you’ll actually deliver the promised results.

But always feeling the need to convince people of something means operating out of a fear-based energy. The customers drawn to this type of dynamic are skeptical and unlikely to become loyal fans. They’ll always try to get you to prove your worth. Instead, partner with clients who come to the table with trust and who feel that your company’s message, offerings and way of doing business resonates with them.

Here are three ways to move away from always trying to convince clients and head toward relationships that resonate.

1. Avoid comparing your company's wares to another firm’s.

If a client walks into a business meeting and asks for a demonstration of the value of your offerings as compared to another company's, he or she is setting up a dynamic of pitting your organization against another firm. And that’s a red flag that this person isn’t coming to the table with trust about what you can deliver.

If you respond by running through comparisons to convince a customer that your company is better, you play right into that dynamic. The same goes for creating sales pages with charts that compare the value of your offering to another's. Sales pages need to focus on the benefits of your product not grant airtime to competitors'. The way to win at the comparison game is to not play it at all, keeping the focus on your company.

2. Stop endlessly giving away freebies to secure business.

It’s great when a company shares a sample of that work that will be generated but not so much so when this leads to a pattern of doing work on spec or constantly providing a client extra work for free. This is particularly rampant in the service industry, where it’s become the expectation that some clients get freebies.

Clients who constantly expect freebies are freeloaders. While there's the fear that they’ll go elsewhere if the freebies stop being offered, the truth is that if they do leave, you’ll have more energy and time to devote to securing clients who don’t expect constant kickbacks.

3. Don't undercharge to undercut the competition.

The era of Walmart-style competition is flagging. Customers are more savvy than ever before and they understand that saving a little money on the front end only to receive poor service or a shoddy product later isn’t worth their time (or money).

If a client tries to enlist you in a bidding war on a proposal or spreads the fear of possibly not paying and you then send a last-minute coupon to your subscriber list, rethink your strategy. You’re essentially teaching your customers to associate your brand with discounts. This means you are poking at your company's pricing or teaching them to wait to buy until something goes on sale.

Instead, examine every aspect of your sales operation, from the website to the fulfillment process and from the sales team to the creative team. Ask yourself what cost-effective ways can make the process excellent for customers. Have people on your team make your clients feel truly cared for.

It's said, “They won’t remember what you did, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel.”

The biggest issue with always trying to convince customers to do business with you is that it just doesn’t feel good. It not only hits your bottom line but also saps your energy and makes the work less fun. When you eradicate a fear-based dynamic of trying so hard to convince clients and start creating resonance with the right people, you'll open up more room for working with clients who appreciate your company. They'll become raving fans and a source of referrals.

Why the Investment Potential of the 'Internet of Things' May Be Overblown

Remember how, back in the early 1990s, virtual reality was about to explode onto the scene, transforming everything from the way we taught our kids to the way we consumed media?

Or what about gamification? Just a few years ago, the buzzword was offered up as the solution to everything from disengaged employees to America's obesity problem.

Both emerging technologies had their time in the sun, but the lofty predictions have failed to materialize. Despite Facebook's recent $2 billion purchase of Oculus, virtual reality has yet to reach the mainstream. Meanwhile, gamification's impact has been minor; use the word now, and it's clikely to arouse immediate skepticism from investors.

This phenomenon – frenzied speculation and outsized expectations, followed by a far less impressive reality and gradual resurgence to a level of practical adoption – happens frequently enough that research and technology firm Gartner releases an annual chart plotting where emerging technologies fall on its five-stage 'hype cycle' (technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment, and finally plateau of productivity).

Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2014

Image credit: Gartner

Since Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of the creator of the Nest smart thermostat in January, the term "the Internet of Things" (IoT) has entered the popular consciousness. Companies have been quick to cash in on the buzz, advertising a range of 'smart' items from cars, to tennis racquets, to alarms, to refrigerators, to entire homes, which all promise to maximize convenience and productivity by connecting disparate areas of our lives.

In August, Gartner released its 2014 Hype Cycle report, which placed the Internet of Things at the zenith of the "peak of inflated expectations."

If Gartner is right, we're in an IoT bubble and our expectations are about to be deflated.

A VC weighs in.

Craig Hanson is a general partner at the venture capital firm Next World Capital. When examining investment opportunities, he always asks himself one key question: "Is this something that creates a new product category, or is it simply a feature added to an already existing product?"

If a company is merely creating a feature that improves an existing product, that's a problem; existing product manufacturers can easily incorporate the feature themselves. The real innovation and return-on-investment, he finds, comes from companies creating new product categories.

That's why he's not buying into the hype surrounding the IoT. Besides wearables, "which didn't exist before," he's hard pressed to identify a new product category that has been created from the craze. Take the 'smart' refrigerator. While its applications are impressive – the ability to communicate via text with the appliance from the grocery store in order to determine whether or not you need milk is ingenious – a 'smart' refrigerator is ultimately just a refrigerator with an Internet connection. Same thing goes for other 'smart' household items, and Hanson predicts that existing appliance manufacturers such as GE and LG will simply add Internet connectivity to their range of products. (In fact, both companies have already launched a line of 'smart' appliances).

Internet capabilities for appliances and other daily use items "may be an interesting next step, but it doesn't create the opportunity for new companies to emerge," Hanson says. "As a venture capitalist or as an entrepreneur, you need to look for a new market space."

He believes that the concept of an 'IoT company' will follow a similar trajectory as the concept of the 'Internet company.' Just as most companies are now, by default, 'Internet companies, we'll eventually assume that all products are 'smart.' "Within five years, we won't be talking about it," Hanson says. "It will be like saying my smartphone can surf the web."

And as with 'Internet companies,' the startups that will survive the IoT hype cycle are the ones with a narrow focus that either a) create a new product category that addresses a specific function made possible by the IoT (as Google did with the Internet and search) or b) build a software system that can optimize functionality on top of an existing product category (as Amazon did with the Internet and shopping).

Hanson hasn't seen many of these promising startups yet. But he predicts that as the buzz fades, they will begin to emerge from the woodwork, representing just "a small percentage of what's talked about when we bring up the Internet of Things today."

Advanced Marketing Techniques to Help Your Twitter Account Take Off

We’ve all read those same old Twitter marketing techniques: use hashtags, speak with your followers, listen more than you talk, and a host of others that are all too obvious after using the service for more than a few days.

I’m going to skip past those and give you advanced Twitter marketing techniques that will really help your Twitter account take off. Whether you’re trying to get the word out about a new piece of software or you just want people to know about your latest online sale, these are the Twitter strategies you’ll want to employ.

I’m going to break down my advice into three basic categories: tweet layout, using your followers, and using your competitors. You can choose to focus on one topic for certain marketing efforts, or just build up your knowledge slowly.

How to Change Your Tweet Layout for Optimal Engagement

Vary link locations: You may think that placing a link anywhere in a tweet is good enough, with the most common location being the end of the tweet. A recent study by Dan Zarrella used a heat map on tweets that had links in them. It found that the click-through rate for links was higher on average, by quite a bit, when the links were closer to the beginning.

Go multimedia: Twitter has been working constantly to update their service. First came pictures in tweets, then video, and now, finally, GIFs are on Twitter. The most important medium for software companies right now may be these new GIFs, as you can quickly show, without the data problems of video, a new feature, a redesign, or how to use an aspect of your software. You also can have fun:

Use @reply carefully: A Twitter design issue that you may not be aware of and that may be hurting your chances of getting all your tweets out to your fans is the @reply problem. This is when you share a tweet like this:

This tweet will show up only on the account of @otherdeveloper. Your followers will not see it. Twitter reasons that since you’re starting by addressing another user, you’re speaking to only that user (as in a real group conversation, you would say someone’s name to get their attention and address them specifically).

Instead, you can try this to have your tweet viewed by everyone:

This is unless you do not want your fans to see the tweet, of course!

How to Use Your Followers on Twitter

Locate and work with crowd influencers: There are going to be people who follow your company because they really love a particular piece of software, service, or feature of yours. They will work extra hard to promote you. There also will be on Twitter those who are trusted voices in your industry.

Work with both of these crowd influencers, or brand evangelists, by creating specific content for them and giving them @mentions in your tweets. Send them a direct message to see if you can work together on anything further. Maybe they’ll want to live tweet a tour of your office or a demo of your next software, or just retweet your best content.

Use Twitter’s List function: It seems that many people never go beyond learning where the “tweet” button is. Twitter’s List feature can help you locate influencers by finding people who retweet, favorite, and reply the most often. You’ll have a better idea about who you should target.

Find the Twitter list by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner and selecting “Lists” from the drop down menu. You can start creating lists based on your needs.

Create rewards: This can be done one of two ways:

1. You can work to reward specific followers who you find to be crowd influencers.
2. You can work with all your followers to promote a Twitter exclusive promotion.

Either way you choose, rewarding your followers on Twitter is a great way to find even more new followers. Wouldn’t you be more prone to retweet a message or send it directly to your friends if you knew they would be up for a prize or reward, too?

The simplest way I’ve seen this done is software companies simply sending out a tweet that says something like: “@Mention a friend in the replies below to be entered into our contest for the New Software. #companycontest.” This is how new fans can find a company easily. Their followers do the work for them!

How to Use Your Competitors on Twitter

Use Twitter’s Advanced Search: This tool will help you refine a search, allowing you to find your competitor’s hashtags and customers. By using the geo-location and keywords search functions of Twitter Advanced Search, you can narrow your parameters to the keywords that are important to you, or you can find potential customers in the city or country that you’re interested in.

You can get to Twitter Advanced Search by first entering search terms in the search bar along the top. On the results page, you will see a menu on the left-hand side. At the bottom, you will see the “Advanced Search” tab. Click on it to discover all the features of Advanced Search.

Follow your competition: Not only will you and your competitors share followers, you’ll also share interests and passions. With all of your similarities, why wouldn’t you follow the competition and see what they’re up to?

As an example, the two most popular airlines on Twitter are @JetBlueand @SouthwestAir. They follow one another and even have ridiculous conversations from time to time.

Pretty silly, right? The followers of both accounts loved it and joined in, and this kept both brands on the minds of consumers.

If you’re not up for fun, you still can see what competitors are doing, jump on trends that emerge, and join in on sedate conversations. Another practical consideration I’ve seen is software developers launching beta tests on their Twitter accounts that are never mentioned anywhere else. You can get that information!

The “Other” Field in Advanced Search Is Your Secret Weapon

The “Other” field in Twitter Advanced Search is the most ignored, yet useful, search feature of the Twitterverse. You can find it at the bottom of Twitter Advanced Search as a series of checkboxes.

To give an example of how it works, let’s say you’re a software company that has a new product launch for photo editing software coming up. First, you go to the Words field and enter a phrase like “best photo editing software”:

You then scroll down to the bottom of the Advanced Search field and find the “Other” checkbox section for questions.

Now hit that big blue Search button and voil?:

You have found new leads you can quickly recommend products to, with real advice that is useful to them. Maybe you can include a link to your store and the exact program you’re recommending in the tweet. And, here is an important tip: Look in the top right-hand corner of the above picture of search results. That Save button will save your search so that you don’t have to do this over and over!

For even more customization, you can narrow down your search with other fields. Under Places, select a specific region if you sell only within a certain country or city and want to address questions from that area. Under People, select a specific Twitter account if you want to see what people are asking your competitors. Sneak in and answer questions yourself if your competitors are ignoring their customers!

The number of things you can accomplish by simply knowing that the Other field exists is staggering. It may be the key to your using Twitter as something besides a fun place to chat, turning it into a place that really helps you find new leads.

Twitter Is More Complex, and Useful, Than You May Think

On the face of it, Twitter is a very simple marketing platform. You have 140 characters to make a momentary impression. Once you move beyond focusing on those 140 characters and start seeing all of the more advanced opportunities, you’ll find that those short tweets you send out can set you up for a lasting impression.