Online Printing: Your one-stop shop!

Finally! There is a way to solicit and receive quotes from multiple online printing shops without having to make a million stops on the Internet. The solution is here at Online--Printing.com.

Quotes are available here from numerous online printing service providers. When you want to shop with confidence for online printing quotes, there is no better place to start than industry leader PrintPlace.com. Use the modern convenience of ordering printing online starting here:

Print Place specializes in high quality, fast turn, full-color printing. Backed by a proprietary automated ordering system with end-to-end manufacturing and shipping integration, the resulting efficiencies have allowed PrintPlace.com to offer exceptional value to our expanding customer base. The industry's most powerful and flexible instant quote tool is available at Print Place's user-friendly Web site. Their workflow guarantees color management from proof to press. After you receive your instantly generated free price quote, you can use a secure account to track the status of orders in real time. Operating from over 200,000 square feet across three facilities enables PrintPlace.com to offer especially fast turnarounds, a benefit previously available only with digital printing. Expanding to the East and West Coasts has provided faster shipping transit times, with 1 and 2 Day Ground service to much of the country. If you haven’t contemplated ordering your printing online, we hope you'll consider PrintPlace.com for your next printing project. Orders are backed by satisfaction and on-time shipping guarantees, so you can buy with confidence.

STEP TWO: Your next visit should be to PrintRunner.com. Online printing of business cards and post cards are among the numerous services they offer.

PrintRunner.com is the perfect online printing company for all of your professional printing service needs. We specialize in affordable high quality printing, and offer a wide range of products including business card printing, catalog printing, brochure printing, postcard printing, flyer printing, sticker printing, and much more. Simply place your order online and your materials are delivered to your doorstep when completed.

BONUS: For even more product and pricing options, visit the folks at uprinting.com.

For over 25 years, U-Printing has been a trusted leader in online printing, featuring its signature easy-to-use website and the famous Free File Check, a complimentary proofing service which requires no upfront payment. U-Printing offers convenient marketing support services such as design, lists, and direct mailing to help grow small and medium-size businesses nationwide.

Why Employee Satisfaction and Employee Exit Surveys Make Good Sense

If a business strives to become more streamlined and productive there needs to be acknowledgement that such efforts may not bare any fruit if the results of their initiatives cause among the workforce widespread dissatisfaction and a high turnover of staff. The benefits of a company having a highly motivated workforce can be considerable and having a workforce that is both motivated and productive should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive to one another.

If problems are left unresolved then companies run the risk of alienating their employees and events can then cause employee frustrations to boil over resulting in managers finding themselves on the back foot, faced with problems that cannot be ignored.

Ideally employers would take time to understand the needs of their employees and learn from their experiences of working on the front line, but employers are often themselves tied up day to day fighting their own fires.

With the intelligence gathering process being automated and the survey results being made available in a format that can be readily analyzed online surveys provide employers with a cost effective and efficient method to help towards the goals of staff satisfaction and high productivity.

 

Dissatisfied & unproductive

There are many reasons why employees may be dissatisfied with their job and more often than not staff frustration is channelled into a demand for higher salaries and less hours. Managers who tackle problems thinking it is all about salary and hours, will often find later that they have been dealing with the symptoms and not the root cause.

 

It's not just about the money

The following are common barriers to achieving productivity, none of which are likely to be resolved by increasing salaries or reducing hours:-

• Inadequate training
• Out of touch management
• Dated working methods
• Lack of proper tools and equipment

The solution to an employee’s problems is not always through the awarding of higher salaries. There have been many studies made that have found that the level of financial reward is rarely the main motivator towards job satisfaction.

Take the case of a single mother who is juggling a full time job with the need to look after a child. Out of frustration she may demand more money so that she feels that she is able to cope where a better solution, for both her and the company, may be more flexible working hours.

 

Good communications

It is in the interests of all organizations to establish good communications. An organization that makes communication between management and personnel difficult, or that takes the view that it is the responsibility for personnel who have a problem to say something, can often deceive themselves into thinking their workforce is content when it is not. It can take only one small problem and one employee to feel aggrieved for an entire workforce to develop a destructive 'them and us' attitude.

 

Improving communication

One to one meetings between employer and employee would be ideal but in practice only practical for very small businesses.

Regular meetings between management and worker representatives are good in theory but they often become talking shops and can begin to lose their edge as the participants become familiar with one another and the forum runs the risk of being hijacked by the more extrovert personalities.

Suggestion boxes are useful but can be viewed as token efforts by management as they wait for personnel to highlight a problem.

Newsletters can provide a positive contribution, but their purpose is generally to inform and not discuss employee issues.

 

Keeping the initiative

Conducting employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis you are able to ask each employee specific questions and present a pro-active management initiative where the whole workforce can be canvassed on various issues. Surveys are able to provide a level playing field between the quieter and more vocal employees.

Being prepared to consulate with employees should not be seen as a sign of weakness, a confident manager will take counsel from all quarters before making a decision. By retaining the initiative and conducting a survey the employer is able to tackle problems from a position of strength as opposed to waiting for problems to arise and develop out of proportion.

Small problems left unresolved can lead to a situation where a minor problem might break the camel's back and the workforce mood change from positive to negative over night.

 

It's quick and easy

For the majority of companies online surveys represent a proactive and low cost solution. For the majority of organizations where most of the personnel have desktop computers, they are quick to design and deploy direct to the individual.

In situations where individuals do not have personal access to a computer there are still many options available to implement the online survey solution such as giving access to a shared computer, operator input or, as a last resort, a hardcopy survey.

 

Job satisfaction

There are combined elements that will contribute towards an employee’s job satisfaction, including company ethics, working methodology, ethos and environment to having decisive and effective management. Job satisfaction brings benefits through improved motivation and productivity from a workforce that feels that they are treated as individuals and not a commodity item.

 

Educate and inform

An online survey can also be used to educate and pass on to the workforce important information, the 'message' is consistently delivered and does not suffer from the Chinese whisper phenomenon where a message can be distorted as it is handed down.

An online survey can explain a difficult situation to the employees and get valuable feedback as to the best solution. It is rare in this situation that the workforce would appear negative; it is more likely they will feel informed and empowered and that might be enough to turn a potentially negative problem into a positive challenge that unites the workforce.

 

Exit surveys

Exit surveys are an ideal method for management to make sure that when people leave the organisation they are not leaving because of problems that could have been addressed and possibly resolved if they had been appreciated earlier. Although identifying a problem may not prevent a person leaving, having identified a problem it can then be addressed and that may be enough to prevent other key personnel from leaving.

 

Analysing the results

After having consulted with the workforce using an online survey the survey results are available for instant analysis. Common and specific problems can be identified very easily and then brought to the attention of senior management who will then have the chance to address the issues that have been raised.

 

Summary

Used regularly online surveys represent a simple and productive method of taking the pulse of an organisation and an easy way to establish a two way communication channel between employer and employee with the results providing management with vital, accurate and significant information.

For a Sample Employee Satisfaction Survey:- Employee Satisfaction Survey Template

For a sample Employee Exit survey:- Employee Exit Survey Template

Why Take a Speed Reading Course?

There are varieties of advantages attached to it that you are going to want to learn about when we talk about speed reading course. Whether you go for a free speed reading course or one that you have to pay for, you are going to want to learn about the different advantages that you have to gain from it first, if you want reasons for why you should even go through with a speed reading course at all.

Benefits Of Speed Reading Course

So if you want to learn about the different benefits that are offered by a speed reading course, there are a few in particular that you are going to want to focus on. By learning more about the benefits that are associated with taking speed reading courses, you are going to be much more dedicated and motivated to go through with one of these courses and see what they can do for you.

Increase Reading Speed

One of the main and most obvious reasons that people take a speed reading course is to improve their reading speed. When you take one of these courses you are going to learn how to read at a much faster rate. Instead of taking an hour just to read a single page, you will see that by the time that you reach the end of the course, you are going to be able to read through half a book in an hour.

Understand the Words Better

Another reason that you would want to go through and take one of these courses is so that you can understand the words better. You may be reading at a faster rate, but there is really not going to be much point to that if you are not even able to understand the words that you are reading. This is why you want to take one of these speed reading courses, or at least one of the reasons.

Remember What You Read

Yet another reason that you are going to want to take a speed reading course is so that you remember what you read. There are lots of people who can read quite quickly but who are not then able to remember what they read afterwards. You really don't want to happen this to you, and by going through one of these courses you will feel comfortable because you will not forget what it is that you are reading.

The secrets to branding you and not your business.

A Video Tour of Chris's Home (One of the Top marketing master's of branding)

Are you the village idiot? No man or woman ever thinks that they are. If you own or are thinking about starting your own home business don't be the village idiot who brand's their business. It does not matter how great your product or service is because there will be more people doing the same thing you are offering. Never has this been more true than in today's market.

Folks just do not brandn themselves very often. If I asked you who the richest people in any industry are you can most likely identify who they are, but very likely do not know all of what they even do.

The top people in your industry are the top ones because they have branded themselves. When the business they own changes or the market shifts into a crisis those who brand a business or product are in trouble. Plus they never really would have reached their peak branding their business and not them personally.

When they learn to brand themselves it won't matter if they quit the industry or business. Leaders brand themselves and draw followers who buy from them because their personal branding makes people like them. For example if you have something in the communications market. Of course there are many people offering the same thing in your industry and you will not stick out if you are not branding you, but rather your service or product.

From day one brand you and your own story and then no one can compete against you. You draw to you those like you and you prefer to work with those you like and they will buy from you when you brand you. We all like to buy from who we like. When is the last time you bought anything from someone who annoyed you or you didn’t like? How often do you buy from people you enjoy who if not for them you'd not have bought what you did.

Yep thats why giving samples works. Ever notice how many times people serving samples influence you to try the samples? When checking out ever notice how you look for the happy people and not the mad looking ones?

When you go to buy a car or pick out a realtor you enjoy working with someone you like and enjoy talking to. We do this in all areas of life we look for people we like and connect with and want to work with.

It is rare anyone knows how to really use this secret and put it in action in their home business or small business. They are the ones making a lot in business. 

You have to grow it to large scales to get more volume for business. Take your business model and automate it as much as you can. The internet has made 6 figure income creation in a year for many possible and for some even in a month. Today domain names and website hosting through internet companies have made getting a website fast, easy and very affordable for everyone.

How to use the internet to brand yourself and not your business. 

When you start or expand a home business to make money online you need to build a website that brands you and your story. From start to finish you want your website visitor to get a feeling like they have met you in person and talked with you. They know your story and in many ways are likely to relate. We are all in many ways alike in the stories of our life. We all have struggles. We all face financial challenges. We all have a desire to be successful in life and we all struggle on the way to that success. When you tell your story and how you got to where you are people connect with you and can get a feeling of working with you.

When you made a connection you are in the perfect spot to share what changed your life and how. You are not in the old spot of trying to sell something. You are simply sharing your story online and when you use video to do it you can do it far better than you can without video.

When you first start out you may not have a success story. You can however share your vision and where you are working to build your business and again people will connect with you in sharing your vision for where you are going. Once you have a success story you will want to share it and this will push your business into phase two of new growth. You will find a slow steady number of people who follow you in your journey to success and when you start to really take off you will find your following grow in massive numbers and your followers become very loyal to you.

When you reach this point you have branded yourself and it doesn’t matter if you change businesses or industries because people are following you and not your business or product.

You should also stay in constant contact with those who are your prospects. You can do this in simply using a list management service to allow people to opt in to your email list. They enter their name and email address and then are put on a list where you can even setup a series of emails to be sent to them each day or every so many days. You can build extreme loyalty on auto pilot by having 15-25 emails pre-written and set to be sent to your new email opt ins who visit your website over a period of 30-60 days. Then send everyone on your list a email once a week about you and your business. When you brand you people will start buying from you because of you and not your business or product and you will crush your competition. Then you will sell your product for full price and they people won't buy from others who sell the same thing even at a discount. Why? When you brand you as the top person and authority in what you do. You may never meet most of your customers but they will feel they know you and buy from you. All the while the other guys going against you will be clueless as to how you do so much business and never discount your prices. They the whole time offering sales and spending mega dollars on ads branding their business and without results even close to what you get.

We used these secrets to make our business into a global powerhouse of sales and now do over 6 figures a month. Most of the sales that are processed are done with automatic systems. Our team members are very branded and we have made the process very automated for us and for our customers.

If you want to learn more about earning money online and how to grow your existing business online we offer a free member back office to our members.

To get your free member back office account to the Pizza Boy Club where our top income earner who started at 21 as a pizza boy delivery boy went on to make 6 figures in one month after just 6 months of using these methods come get your account today to make money online at http://www.pizzaboyclub.com/theclub/

 

 

 

Grow Your Business Faster By Accepting Credit Cards

Fact: Businesses that accept credit cards grow between 30% and 70% faster than those that don't. Wireless credit card processing works and works well. If you've been thinking about bringing your business to the next level with an on-line business merchant account read on...

Businesses are going global at an eye-popping rate for a good reason - wireless credit card processing.. If  you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Why sell only 8 hours a day when you can sell 24/7 to every corner of the planet.  In fact online sales are poised to blow through 204 billion in 2008.

Those who don't accept credit cards  are simply leaving a ton of money on the table.  It's a proven fact that businesses that accept credit cards are able to grow their businesses at a much faster rate than those who don't accept credit cards. Merchant acount credit card processing works..Here are some stats that I'm sure you'll find quite interesting...

Trends are constantly shifting but 87% of those who are making their purchases online do so with credit cards.
Since 1997 sales made via the Internet are up a staggering 1200%. Internet sales grew by 29.5% in Q4 2007 alone.The internet also ads a mind-blowing 500,000 new users every single month? Yes, you read that correctly. Every month. And they're buying from someone... that someone could be you. But it all starts with a merchant account.

Isn't it about time you get your slice of the pie? That's exactly what you'll be doing when you start a Fast Transact merchant account. The trend in credit card usage is clearly pointing in one direction - up. In the 60's no one even had a credit card. Now your average 16 year old has more than one and this trend is even stronger with college undergraduates.

Take a peak at this...
The percentage of college undergrads who hold a card in 2001 rose by 24% since 1998. Believe it or not, college students double their average credit card debt—and triple the number of credit cards in their wallets—from the time they arrive on campus until graduation.

And don't forget this: there's some other merchant taking the purchase on the other side of the transaction.

Not full yet? Okay here's another pretty interesting stat...
There were 1,645 million bank-issued Visa and MasterCard credit card and debit card accounts in the U.Thus far in 2008. (Source: Visa USA, MasterCard International).


When you open your on-line account with United Bank Card
you effectively place yourself and your business right smack in front of these 1,645 million buyers - that's a lot of buyers.

Think about that for a second...
1,645 million buyers.  All buying from someone. That someone could be you.

And UBC makes it a snap to get started

• Super low processing fees
• Absolutley Free readerss and other payment processing equipment
• Most offer same day approval - some within mere hours
• Zero set-up costs
• Accepts all major credit & debit cards

Designing Customer Satisfaction Surveys that Work

Why should you bother?

The life blood of any business is good customer service. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With every satisfied customer your business is likely to go on and secure many more customers through recommendations and if you do not take proper care of your customers there is probably a competitor waiting in the wings that will.

Online customer satisfaction surveys will demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

 

Where do you start?

Objective - As a first step decide what the main objectives of the survey are, in that way you will be able to retain focus and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis - When the survey is complete consider how you will analyse the answers.

Bare in mind that 'closed' questions (where the respondents are asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than questions that are ‘open’ (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want).

A lot will depend on the volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – As well as obtaining valuable market research data keep in mind that customer surveys are also a good way to advertise areas of your service that your customers may not be aware of.

After you have drafted your survey read through the survey from a market research view point and check that you are asking the right questions in the right way and that with the feedback information you will be able to properly analyze the data allowing you to make informed decisions.

Then, read through the survey from a marketing view point, check that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business?

The ideal question will perform the following three functions:-

• Market research - provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business
• Marketing - promote aspects of your business
• Information/Education - advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:- Do you find the in-store baby changing facilities useful?

In asking this question the store will hopefully not only receive useful feedback on the baby changing facility but they will also promote the store as being child-friendly even beyond the customers who actually require the facility.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to dig deep and accept the worst.

A customer satisfaction survey should be designed to identify any problem areas so that they can be fixed; conducting regular customer satisfaction will help prevent complacency and will also give early warning on where you may be losing business to your competitors initiatives.

 

What to ask?

Depending on their own particular size and makeup each business is likely to have unique factors in relation to providing good customer services however there are common areas relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, online store or a service industry. The following are some key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication - What do you do to make it easy for your customers to communicate with you?

When a customer telephones is the phone answered promptly; are enquiries about products or services properly handled? A good business will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, politely, quickly and fairly.

If a problem is not resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise?

Use a customer satisfaction survey to ensure that all your staff are considered by your customers to be knowledgeable, courteous and helpful.

Location – Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, does it have good access and is it conveniently located?

Making it pleasant, making it easy - For an internet business it is important to ensure that your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

Regardless of the store being a bricks and mortar or purely online web based store, is the store properly laid out and can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient detailed information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – Not only should you measure the quality of the service that you provide but you should check that the products and services that you market are what the customer wants and closely match their expectations.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is hardly ever a good measure, value for money is.

Do your customers associate your business with value for money, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – Regardless of the type of business most customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively.

Are you doing everything you can to avoid any delay?

A good business will try to treat each customer as an individual, does yours? Attention is one thing but only if it leads to a quick and satisfactory resolution to the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example what is their age group and where do they live?

By understanding your customers more, the better your chances of correctly targeting your business.

Encourage customers to highlight their specific problems and provide contact details.

 

What is next?

Having completed the survey analyse the results.

Trends – Look for specific and common areas where the customer service is found wanting.

Ask yourself if any criticism is valid, be honest to yourself, is there anything that can be done to properly resolve, or at the very least, minimise the problem?

Training – Are all employees properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge?

Where employee training programmes have been implemented have they had a positive impact on the business?

Follow-up – If a customer who has completed a survey has raised a specific issue ensure that they are contacted and their complaint addressed.

Don't lose an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor - Make changes based on the survey results and then re-measure by issuing follow up surveys.

If you are interested in tracking customer satisfaction and would like to see a sample survey for a store that demonstrates some of the above advice please view the following example that can be used as a customer satisfaction survey template.

Small business management software - Business Planning and the Chart of Accounts - Part 1 of 4

small business accounting software

The essential reports you need to view the financial activity, the financial position and the timing of the amounts of cash coming in and going out of your business are derived from the information and balances recorded in your chart of accounts.

Good businesses know what they want to track and measure and why. The detail of what they want to track and measure is reflected in the design of their Chart of Accounts which in turn is a mirror of what is in their Business Plan.

Successful businesses use business planning to forecast what they expect to happen in the future. They always begin this exercise with the end in mind

Good businesses set less than five clear objectives and then think through and decide the best strategies to achieve them.

Strategies are then broken down into Activities with schedules and priorities which are then communicated and assigned to the individuals or groups for execution.

The plan details the assumptions about what sales will happen when, what the future financial activity, financial position and cash flow is expected to be.

The assumptions in the business plan help you define financial targets each of which has financial implications for a business. So it’s essential you are able to accurately track and measure these critical numbers

Cash provides the oxygen for every business and therefore it’s critical the supply and consumption is carefully managed to keep the business alive and help it grow and flourish.

For the purposes of good management and in support of prudent financial practises supporting information behind the critical numbers has to be accurately recorded and well organised.

This can only be achieved with enduring discipline, a well organised chart of accounts and good small business management software.

Because of the rapid emergence of SaaS systems, online small business accounting software now makes it possible for business owners to see real time view of progress of their business against their plan.

Every number in the accounts of a business has a story behind it containing events and characters the details of which cannot easily be recorded in an accounting system therefore Small business management software as opposed to accounting software is now an essential part of the foundations of a well run business.

Continued in - Small business management software - The join between planning and accounting - Part 2 of 4