Tag: money

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Be your best self in business
& stop trying to be something you aren’t

I want to scream anytime someone says :
• “I want to be like xyz company because they seem to be making money”
It’s very unlikely your business will really flourish with this mindset.

You can’t just say “oh that business looks like they’re making money I want some of that pie” particularly if you don’t know how they got where they are today … or don’t want to put the time or money into it. OR worse, you want to make money but think that they charge too much so you want to be like them but cheaper without sacrificing quality … and without first reviewing what business expenses might be. I have heard it SO many times in my life it’s not even funny anymore.

You need to be your best self in business:
• “I have these core values and my business provides a valuable product/service for this need/desire/problem”

But I want to make a boatload of cash!

Money isn’t magic. Money also isn’t evil. Money is certificates of appreciation for something you sell or offer that someone else values. Money is a standardization of value instead of trading goats for crops and vice versa. Whether it fills a basic need, a desire or fixes a problem, people pay because it fulfills something in their lives. Physically or emotionally.

See also: Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

What makes you you?

Trying to be someone else means that you are less unique and have less to offer the world. And therefor people are less likely to give you those certificates of appreciation we call money. This doesn’t mean your business can’t be similar to someone else’s just that it needs to focus on what makes you unique. USP or Unique Selling Proposition.

Yell it from the rooftops!

So what about marketing? No matter how awesome your service or product is, “Build it an they will come” is not a reliable business marketing plan. Whether you market traditionally (magazines, tv or radio) or via more current method (social media, website, streaming radio) you need to have a USP and some effort put into spreading the word.

Do you still really want to BE amazon.com or Google or Apple or Microsoft or other large national organization?

If so, you really need to just go apply for a job with them.

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Scammers & Internet Fraud :
educate yourself

A couple of nice references when your gut makes you think you might be dealing with a potential scammer.

Educate yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
http://www.snopes.com/

Prompted by a client that I think might have a “potential customer” who may be trying to pull the reshipping scam:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud#Re-shippers

Drawbacks to each type of payment:

  • Checks : bounced If you decide to accept this method of payment and are uneasy about the customer, require a waiting period to match your bank’s cleared check policy. Typically 7 days. Your bank will probably also charge you a bounced check fee between $20-$40 if this happens.
  • Money Order or Cashiers Check: Fakes Like checks, Money Orders and Cashiers Checks may appear to have cleared with the bank only to come back and bite you.
  • Credit Card or Paypal: Chargebacks Someone is paying with a credit card, that isn’t fool proof either, the buyer can do a chargeback: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback
  • Cash: Counterfeit You can get a Counterfeit money pen for around $4 or take the money to the bank for confirmation: http://www.staples.com/Dri-Mark-Counterfeit-Money-Detector-Pen/product_450130

Consumer reports has a more thorough run down of each type of payment and some additional options for accepting payment that might be useful: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/consumer-protection/counterfeit-currency-and-checks/overview/index.htm

Red flags can include:

  • Unusual or unusually large order
  • Out of country shipping
  • gmail address (or yahoo or aol … anything easy to sign up for)
  • business address is an apartment or house or PO Box
  • when searching online for the person’s name and/or business name, nothing comes up
  • Asking you to take payment for more than your invoice and then pay another company / shipper for something (this one is more than a flag.)
  • No BBB record, no Dunn and Bradstreet record, no record of the business registered in the city of their address

Most of these alone do not mean that the business is not legitimate but the more red flags you have, the more cautious you should be.

 

There are times when you just have to pass on the business if it’s not worth the risk and there are too many red flags.