My Final Look At 2005 - Happy New Year!

As 2005 nears its end, here are the seven posts I most remember writing. Not exactly a Best Of, but more a record of personal enjoyment"?¦I really enjoyed writing them :-)

Have a safe, happy, and prosperous New Year!

Who´s The Smartest Kid In School? In school we´re taught to answer questions. Getting 100% on a test, being first to raise your hand, and writing the correct answer on the board generally means you´re the smartest kid in the class. But is it the answers we have in life or the questions we ask that truly demonstrate our understanding and mental capacity?

Three Hour Parking M-F 9AM-6PM For every business decision you make there are consequences. Don´t compromise your long term customer satisfaction with near term revenue. Think ahead about the consequences you place on your customer. Let your customer know you're thinking of their long term interests as well as your own. The loyalty they repay is priceless.

The Temptation and Reality of Business Blogs There are many — countless — small businesses that live month to month, quarter to quarter, year to year. These small businesses range from solo enterprises to publicly traded businesses of varied sizes and market focus. They struggle from one reporting period to the next to satisfy investors, shareholders, and stakeholders alike. That´s reality.

Equal reality is they continuously seek the silver bullet. The one thing they aren´t doing today, that if done, changes their financial future for the better. Forever.

Coaching Is a Higher Value Service than Mentoring Businesses love sports analogies, maybe that´s why there are professional coaches. There are a lot of coaches in business — executive, sale, marketing, life-balance, etc. There are even blog coaches.

And then there are mentors.

Coach and mentor are often used interchangeably. Sometimes consultants will float between the two, dependant upon the direction of the prevailing wind or the latest competitive offer.

Could Greed Be the Greatest Sales Quality of Them All? What if you had legions of salespeople that were greedy? Hungry sales professionals seeking more and more commission; working hard to close as much business as they can, making as much money as possible - all to buy the toys of success. All the while making more money for their company, its´ shareholders and beneficiaries.

Are Frequent Visitors to Your Business Better Than More Visitors? Assuming an equal number of people visiting my business - a visitor being one that frequents my store, offices, or Internet presence (not all visits result in a purchase and not all visitors become paying customers) - I'd choose more visits per person than more visitors.

All You Have To Do Is Care You can spend millions of dollars on CRM solutions and customer service programs. You can take out expensive ads and make a big deal in the public eye about how much you value your customers. And yet the only thing you need to do to deliver outstanding customer service is demonstrate the genuine ability to care.