WELCOME

Cash Back!

Just in case you haven’t seen one of the MBA announcements, members are now entitled to take advantage of an exclusive offer from Energy Plus, a supplier of electricity. As you most likely know, there are many companies that are offering electricity supply at a lesser rate than the local utility company due to deregulation. So, after a careful review, MBA chose Energy Plus, and members can now receive the following:

Members enrolling a residential account will receive a $25 activation bonus and 3% cash-back rebates on the supply portion of their annual electricity bill. Members enrolling a commercial account will receive a $50 activation bonus and 5% cash-back. All member staff are included in this offer. And there are no costs to enroll, no monthly fees associated with your account and no cancellation penalties.

Your local utility will continue to deliver your electricity, read your meter, handle service emergencies and mail your statement.

More information is available on MBA’s website, mbainc.org, or click here.

Libby Beatty, Chair
MBA Board of Directors

INSURANCE

MBA,s endorsed health insurance administrator, The Administrators, Inc. has provided the following article from United Concordia Dental.

Talk With Your Dentist About the Health Risks Associated with Poor Oral Health

United Concordia Dental, one of the nation’s largest dental insurers, encourages adults to talk with their dentists about the health risks associated with poor oral health.

“Growing evidence suggests that poor oral health, particularly gum disease, can affect a number of medical conditions such as heart attack, stroke and diabetes by making them more difficult to control,” said Jerome Blum, D.D.S., corporate dental director of United Concordia Dental. “By visiting your dentist regularly, you can help your mouth, and possibly other areas of your body, remain healthy.”

Regular visits to the dentist can help identify potential issues. Dentists are trained to look for signs of systemic disease as part of every routine dental checkup, including bumps and sores. Dental X-rays not only identify cavities, but also early signs of bone problems. Finally, dentists can help determine if seemingly harmless mouth conditions such as dry mouth and bad breath may be signs of more serious health problems.

'Oral health includes more than strong and healthy teeth,” said Dr. Blum. “Oral health also refers to the condition of your upper and lower jaws, gums and supporting tissues, chewing muscles, roof of your mouth, linings of your mouth and throat, tongue, lips and salivary glands. In addition, branches of the nervous, immune and vascular system are involved in protecting, nourishing and moving these parts as well as connecting them to the brain and the rest of the body.”

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MARKETING

Seasonal Tune-Up for Online Sales

With the holidays heralding an influx of traffic to your website, now is the time to make sure that it’s in top form. Here are some ideas for fine tuning your site to turn browsers into buyers:

Be Seen: Three out of four online shoppers use search engines to find what they are looking for. If you’re not a pay-per-click advertiser, this would be the time to try it out. If you are, try changing or adding additional keywords and revamping your ads. Local search engines are another avenue to explore.

Product Info: The more valuable content you offer about a product, the greater the chances of making the sale. This means adding photos, videos, reviews and size charts where appropriate.

Convenience is Key: Convenience is the prevailing reason people shop online, so offer tools that save time. On-site product search tools and quick check-out options for return customers are great services to offer. Customer service tools like live answers to questions can be implemented with instant messaging services or by posting a number for a Q&A hotline for peak hours.

Cart Confidence: Some shoppers are put off when they see that the initial price quote did not include tax or shipping, leading many of them to abandon their purchase. Get all your prices up front and offer as many payment options as you can. Also be sure to show that shopper’s info is safe and protected by posting your privacy policy in a highly visible location.

Suggestion Noted

Getting your customer’s opinion is a great way to bolster retention and also a tremendous wellspring for innovation. A suggestion box is a simple, time-saving and cost-effective tool to gather customer opinions and data:

Methodology: The “open method” uses a blank form that is open for suggestions of any type. An “ordered method” can function as a survey where opinions about specific subjects are solicited.

Implementation: The box should be placed in a high-traffic area of the office or store, but in a place where people feel they have the privacy to express themselves freely. Employees should use gentle reminders to let customers know that their opinions are valued. Try offering incentives like discounts or gift cards for those who take a minute to share their thoughts.

Response: You can’t please everyone, but you can appreciate them. Appoint a customer service representative to respond to every suggestion with an e-mail or phone to say “thanks.” Be sure that the good suggestions are implemented, and if you can, let all your customers know that the change was suggested by a customer, just like them.

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FOR THE HOME-BASED BIZ

Home Biz Heating Savings

Working from home affords a unique opportunity to find home and business savings on your heating bills. Here are some cost-free ways to instantly reduce your heating expenses:

Thermostat: Each degree you lower your thermostat represents one to three percent off your heating bill. Try setting the thermostat to 60 at bedtime and when you’re out of the house try lowering it to 55 degrees. Also, have your water heater lowered to 115-120.

Exhaust Fans: Generally, exhaust fans pull warm air out of the house replacing it with cool air, so use them only when it’s absolutely necessary.

Service Providers: Many heating companies provide annual checks and tune-ups for your heating system. General maintenance and calibration could save you up to 10 percent of your current bill. Local utility companies may offer free energy audits and sometimes offer free devices to keep usage in check. These improvements may also result in tax breaks and a discount on homeowner’s insurance.

Closed: The damper on your fireplace can create a draft and pull warm air from the house, so make sure it’s sealed tightly. Do the same for other areas of the house such as the attic and the garage.

Another Benefit of Working from Home

The products you buy and the ads you see in your home represent inspiration for your next marketing and advertising campaign. They worked on you, right? Take a look around the house to see what inspired you:

Kitchen/Bathroom: The products and services that you purchase over and over again may be found in your kitchen and bathroom. Ask yourself why you bought those brands and use that information as you prepare your campaign.

Garage/Storage: The types of products here are used less frequently, so your home-to-campaign project will be a bit more difficult.

Newspapers, junk mail, coupon books and magazines are great places to get ideas and pick up on design trends. Using similar graphics and color schemes of well-recognized brands and logos might translate to a similar sense of familiarity to consumers.

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HUMAN RESOURCES

A Simple Supervision Technique for Performance Problems

Regardless of the size of your staff, clear communication can greatly increase efficiency and eliminate “who said what to whom” situations. Try this technique when problem-solving with an employee.

1. Tell the employee what you have observed. “You have been late with inventory reports four times this month” (a pure statement of fact).
2. Tell the employee what you expected. “It is SOP for all inventory reports to be on my desk no later than 3 PM on Wednesdays.”
3. Ask the employee what reasons might exist to explain the discrepancy. This is a key step…actively listen here…you might learn something about your operation that you didn’t know.
4. Explain to the employee why compliance is important to the operation and what happens to the business when there is non-compliance.
5. Ask the employee for suggestions to correct the discrepancy.
6. Set a follow-up date to review the problem and if it has been corrected.
7. If it has not improved, explain to the employee how non-compliance affects the ability of others to do their job.
8. Set a follow-up date to review the problem again.
9. If it has still not improved, explain to the employee how non-compliance may affect continued employment.
10. Set a follow-up date to review one last time.

At no time should the problem become a “shared” problem. You are asking the employee why he/she is not performing, and you are allowing him to change his performance. All descriptions of the problem should be specific and measureable. Do not use general statements or labels.

As offered by The Administrators, Inc.
A simple approach to employee communication to solve performance problems.

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IT

Wi-Fi Holiday Horrors – Avoided.

Shoppers and well-wishers aren’t the only groups increasing holiday web traffic. Hackers and cons are also shopping for bargains at the expense of your business’s Wi-Fi connection. Here’s how to protect your business from these Grinches:

Lucidlink.com: This free service will alert you against threats like “War Driving” and “Evil Twins.” War Driving is when someone drives around in order to exploit open networks. Evil Twins are fake access points that replicate the name of a network in order to fool you into entering your private data to join it. This program automatically detects the change of security settings and alerts the user of an attempted attack, before it’s too late.

Seasonal Blues: Bluetooth-enabled devices represent easy targets for cutting-edge hackers. “Bluejacking” is when hackers send unauthorized messages to your phone. “Bluesnarfing” lets hackers steal data from you. At the moment there is no way to trace or stop these cyber hucksters, so experts advise turning on Bluetooth only when you need it.

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COMMENTARY

Of Demonstrators and Map Reading
By Stephen Markowitz

Regardless of whether you are one of the 99% or of the other 1%, it is clear that the worldwide demonstrations, riots, and government overreactions are coming to a city near you. Produced and directed by Iran’s Ahmadinejad, America’s Soros and others of their ilk, acting as front men for the leaders of several countries, these poorly coordinated demonstrations underline a troubling validity. We have turned a blind eye to systems of financial endeavor that are greedy and getting worse (paid $5 to use your own money lately?).

Maybe it is time for us to get past the discomfort we experience in observing citizens being manipulated by those with no real concern for anything other than staying in power, and focus on the real source of their dismay. First, they don’t get it. Second, they don’t get it, and third they don’t get it. The source of the downward trending here in our country is not Wall Street. It is those who allow Wall Street to operate like a band of backward Robin Hoods. They rob from the poor, which most are slowly becoming to give to the rich, themselves that is. Don’t expect a president aiming for $1 billion in donations to do anything about the excesses and thuggery being practiced by Wall Street. Do expect the “downtrodden” demonstrators, on leave from their college studies, or European junior years to be aimed by Soros directly at you and your votes.

Did you know that if you run a small business today, you are part of the 1%? Did you even know how privileged you are? All the entitlements from which you benefit are at the expense of those poor demonstrators? Take your head out of that bottle of Lafite Rothschild you are swilling and smell the cordite. Your businesses are at risk, your families and employees are at risk, unless you determine it is time to stand up and point the mobs toward the real cause of all problems: Washington, London, Beijing, and of course the most virulent of the Middle Eastern countries, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and France.

You should be taking to the barricades called elections. Tell your elected members of Congress that the policing of the financial enclaves in this country must be regulated by honest, not-on-the-take politicians, who will be elected by you only after they have committed, in the form of an election platform, to regulate all segments of the financial industry. And then hold them to it. Your job doesn’t end because you pulled a lever.

So let’s not cluck our tongues and dismiss the mobs as unruly, unwashed, unfocused underachievers who are too lazy to take advantage of this country’s willingness to reward hard work and achievement. Let’s take pity on the fact that they just don’t get it…and give it to them. Let’s get them a map, teach them how to read it, and send them to Washington with our blessings.

Stephen Markowitz is chief executive officer of The Administrators, Inc. His column, Commentary, appeared for 15 years in The Alliance Report, MBA's printed newsletter. His comments reflect his views and not necessarily the opinions of the board and staff of Midlantic Business Alliance. Contact him at SMarkowitz@TheAdministratorsInc.com.

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NEW MEMBERS

When our member base increases there is more of everything: more creative networking, more benefits and more experienced, enthusiastic business owners. All move our members toward growth, success and the entrepreneurial spirit.

Click here to meet our newest small business partners.

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Unless specifically indicated, MBA does not intend mention of companies, products or services discussed in this publication to be construed to be endorsements. The information in this publication is offered as examples that may be useful to our small business readers. Please consult with an industry professional before implementing any of the tips or subscribing to any of the services described above.