Business Service

To find auto insurance rates online has actually become harder in these past few years. It used to be that you could just go to one site and type in your information and then it spits out a list of all the different carriers and what their offers would be, but now it has gotten much harder and this is due to a few different reasons, first of all the various companies have taken it upon themselves to start lying about not only their own rates, but the rates of the competitors to make it seem like they are giving the best deal, you only find out when you sign that they were not giving you a fair quote, or if the quote was fair it was only for a limited time, like the first month or something. It is ridiculous what they can get away with, they bend every rule in the book just to try and screw you over as much as they possibly can. It just sickens me that our government doesn’t step in to stop them from manipulating the prices.

Even when you are starting up or thinking about starting up a business there are a number of practical considerations both short-term and long-term that are worth having in mind. They may not be hugely relevant when drawing plans up or making plans for the business, but they are issues that will very quickly develop and which some forethought will help you prepare for.

One of the questions very simply will be where is your business to be located. This raises the question of whether the business will be located in your own home or in a separate location where you will need business premises of some sort. Either situation is fine, but knowing what your needs are will help you prepare. It may be that you intend to start off the business or service based from home, with a view to moving into premises once the business is established. The value of thinking this through beforehand will enable you to prepare effectively so that when the situation arises you will be able to deal with it without having to spend a lot of time and effort researching it. There are many questions about what type of premises you need, but they will depend to a large extent on what type of business it is you’re running. There are many government and local funding schemes available to business start-ups that may be of help when deciding what type promises to have.

The other question to have at the back of your mind at a very practical level is whether you are going to or want to employ other people and if so how many. Maybe if your business grows very quickly you will suddenly have a need to employ other people. You do not want to be in a position where you have to turn down business simply because there is too much of it for yourself to do on your own. Equally you don’t want to say yes to everything because you’re afraid of turning business down, which results in either you not being able to do the work or doing the work and not doing very well thereby damaging the reputation. The question of using other staff needs to be at the back of your mind in terms of how you plan to proceed if that becomes a reality. With that in mind think about whether you want to employ other people, use subcontractors or freelance staff, whether you want to employee trainees or an apprentice. Another alternative is to get to know other contractors whom you would be able to share the business with and possibly get reciprocal business from them as well.

Supplies are a really important question and issue for any business, especially one that is starting up. If you are promising a business or service to someone, then it is key that you are able to deliver when you say you will. If your service or product is dependent on third party suppliers you need to know they are going to be reliable and deliver what they say they will when they will. No customer is going to be impressed by you saying it is someone else’s fault. Knowing what supplies you need, where you can get them from, and whether you need to carry stock of your own to guard against any delays from suppliers are important considerations. Carrying stock of your own supplies of your own is a good idea, but again dependent on you having premises available to keep stock, and also realising that it is essentially money tied up in stock that you may or may not be able to afford.

One of the questions running through all of this is how much you plan at the beginning and how much you plan as you go through the course of setting up the business. It is a good idea to have both a short and long-term plan at the beginning. This will give you a frame of reference to be aware of things as they develop or are likely to develop, and you will have a good idea as to what course of action you intend to take. Being aware of potential problems such as supplies or lack of supplies gives you the knowledge to plan ahead, and make plans for any contingency that may arise.

Setting aside time to read over the next few months is one of the smartest things you can do to enhance your candidacy for top-flight MBA programs. The broader your knowledge base, the more interesting you become to others, including the admissions committee.

The reality is that many candidates have not read a book for personal enjoyment or education for years, and they often don’t consider MBA application season a good time to start. But when you consider the advantages of diving into some good books over the next several months, getting into a habit of reading is a no-brainer.

The No. 1 reason to read more is to strengthen your GMAT reading comprehension skills and to improve your essay writing. There’s no better way to improve your vocabulary and mastery of grammar, and reading can be a welcome change of pace from GMAT prep books. If you read a variety of materials from different genres, you may also get some creative ideas when it comes to inventive sentence structures and storytelling methods, which can inspire your b-school essays.

Another big advantage of reading is that it offers you something to talk about with business school interviewers. Many of these conversations touch on current events, history, and politics. If you can demonstrate that you’ve kept aware of the world outside of your cubicle, you’re a step ahead of the game.

Several business schools have offered tips for business school applicants and students who want to catch up on their reading. Last year, Robert Bruner, dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, suggested a summer reading list for MBAs; the faculty of the University of Maryland–College Park’s Smith School of Business has posted an annual book list for business leaders for the past nine years; and professors from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania have also provided book recommendations for aspiring business people.

These lists provide great jumping-off points, but by no means should you plow through a stack of the latest business books so that you can drop buzzword after buzzword in your essays and interviews. And you shouldn’t feel obligated to round out the weak areas of your business experience by hitting the local bookstore for any trading or marketing 101 guides.

Make sure you’re regularly reading at least one of the general business magazines such as Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, or The Economist. With the holidays upon us, now is a great time to let friends and family know that you’d like a subscription to one of those periodicals as a gift this year.

However, it’s also crucial to further develop your own interests and passions, not just to demonstrate that you are a member of the Warren Buffett Book of the Month Club. If you are interested in art, read about that. If you are intrigued by the history of baseball, immerse yourself in that area. If medical science advances fascinate you, find some gems in this arena.

Of course, it never hurts to develop some form of business perspective on the subjects you feel passionately about. For instance, if you love reading about medicine, mix in some books about the economics of the healthcare system in the United States, or the behavior of the global pharmaceutical industry. Should you wish to transition to a new sort of career after business school, displaying this kind of commitment can be particularly important.

If you have been an IT consultant for the last five years but want to become an entrepreneur and launch a new restaurant concept, show a commitment to the area that goes beyond what the admissions committee will expect. Reading about consumer trends, restaurant and retail entrepreneurs, or the organic food movement helps demonstrate that you follow your interests rather than just talking about them.

You may counter that you just don’t have the time to read. Nonsense! Start by creating a plan that will make the task mentally manageable.

For example, a modest but meaningful goal might be to read three books over the next six months. That means reading one 300-page book every two months, or 150 pages per month. That’s just five pages a day. Anyone can do five pages a day–especially when the end result is becoming a more interesting, more compelling MBA candidate and person.

Talk to many business people about how they approach customer service and the majority of them will say that they are aiming to have ‘satisfied’ customers. No! What we all should be seeking is to have loyal customers. But how can you turn a satisfied customer into a loyal one?

Talk to many business people about how they approach customer service and the majority of them will say that they are aiming to have ‘satisfied’ customers. No! What we all should be seeking is to have loyal customers.

Research has shown that 65% of customers say they are loyal. You may be happy with this but you shouldn’t! Satisfied customers are in a state of nothing – they are neither is satisfied or happy; they are in between. They will tolerate you while you are of use to them but if a better deal comes along, they’re off.

On the other hand, loyal customers are your friends. They will be with you through thick and thin; they will be the first to try out you new product; they willing give you honest feedback; they will regularly refer business to you. This is what you want! But how can you turn a satisfied customer into a loyal one?

Let Them Decide How to Do Business With You

Today customers are a lot more sophisticated in how they want to do business. If your product or service lends itself to be offered via a number of different means, then give your customer the option.

Can you deliver face-to-face? What about telephone services? Could you make use of SMS texts for quick notes and reminders? Do you have a web site through which customers can contact you or even make orders on-line? If you provide a variety of delivery channels which are available to suit the customer’s needs then they are more likely to stay with you.

Build a Relationship

Loyalty can only be achieved if you have a true relationship with your customer. Aim to build rapport. Understand who are dealing with you and understand what they are looking for. Keep in regular contact with them; you don’t necessarily have to be selling something. Always use their names, especially their first name if you can.
All of this will help in building a long term relationship. Once you have this, they are less likely to walk away.

Generate Staff Loyalty

How can you cultivate a loyal customer if your staff are not loyal to the business? You must have staff who care for the job and will do anything to protect and move the business forward. Customers will be more loyal if they see familiar faces. A business with a high staff turnover will find it difficult to build a relationship with their customers.

Treat your staff well. Reward their successes and recognise their achievements. Hold regular training sessions so they feel they are learning and developing. An established training programme will also make sure that their product knowledge is up to date.

Seek Out Complaints

This sound strange but the average customer has to be encouraged to complain! Many will keep quiet about poor service but if they can find someone else to do their business with, they will. Set up a clear complaints procedure so customers can complain if they wish. Provide staff with the tools to effectively deal with customer problems. Follow up all complaints to ensure that they have been resolved.

Take an Interest

Show your customers that you are interested in their views. Run regular surveys to find out what they think of your service, to find out what you can do differently. You can either carry out a survey over the telephone, or go as far as doing a mailing to all your customers.

Taking the trouble to contact your customers will reinforce the message that you want their custom. But don’t forget – take action on what you find out!

Be a ‘Can Do’ Business

Customers like nothing better than a business which delivers on even the most difficult of requests. ‘Can Do’ businesses will always have loyal customers. Train your staff to never use words like, “Sorry but …”, “It’s not my fault”, “Its company policy”.

Be a business where solutions are always looked for and problems seen as challenges.

Look After The ‘Golden’ Customers

The old 80/20 is likely to apply to your business – 80% of your sales or profits are likely to come from just 20% of your customers. Work out who your top 20% are and love them to death! Why not concentrate on turning the remaining 80% into loyal customers? Well, the 20% have already shown that they trust and respect you. A little more effort with these customers will reap more business than concentrating on the ‘maybe’s’. By all means, run a programmer to convert the ‘maybe’s’ but put more effort into the converted.

So, there you have it. Some ideas and tips on how to build and keep loyal customers. Take a critical look at your business and put a loyalty building programmer in place, which will boost sales and profits.

The field of computer forensics was developed primarily by law enforcement personnel for investigating drug and financial crimes. While Electronic discovery has its roots in the field of civil litigation support and deals with organizing electronic files using their attached metadata.

Computer Forensics

The field of computer forensics was developed primarily by law enforcement personnel for investigating drug and financial crimes. It employs strict protocols to gather information contained on a wide variety of electronic devices, using forensic procedures to locate deleted files and hidden information.

Computer forensics tasks include capturing all the information contained on a specific electronic device by using either a forensic copy technique or by making an image of all or a portion of the device. A forensic copy provides an exact duplicate of the hard drive or storage device. None of the metadata, including the าlast accessed date,ำis changed from the original. However, the copy is a าliveำversion, so accessing the data on the copy,even only to าsee what is there,ำcan change this sensitive metadata.

By contrast, making a forensic image of the required information puts a protective electronic wrapper around the entire collection. The collection can be viewed with special software, and the documents can be opened, extracted from the collection, and examined without changing the files or their metadata.

Other forensic tasks include locating and accessing deleted files, finding partial files, tracking Internet history, cracking passwords, and detecting information located in the slack or unallocated space. Slack space is the area at the end of a specific cluster on a hard drive that contains no data; unallocated space contains the remnants of files that have been าdeletedำ but not erased from the device, as าdeletingำ simply removes the pointer to the location of a specific file on a hard drive, not the file itself.

Electronic Discovery

Electronic discovery has its roots in the field of civil litigation support and deals with organizing electronic files using their attached metadata. Because of the large volume encountered, these files are usually incorporated into a litigation retrieval system to allow review and production in an easy methodology. Legal data management principles are used, including redaction rules and production methodologies.

Electronic discovery tasks usually begin after the files are captured. File metadata is used to organize and cull the collections. Documents can be examined in their native file format or converted to TIF or PDF images to allow for redaction and easy production.

Common Capabilities, Different Philosophies

Computer forensics and electronic discovery methodologies share some common capabilities. One is the ability to produce an inventory of the collection, allowing reviewers to quickly see what is present. Another is the ability to determine a common time zone to standardize date and time stamps across a collection. Without this standardization, an e-mail response may appear to have been created before the original e-mail.