Don’t Let Your Business Be Destroyed by a Poor Online Reputation

Business

Combat Poor Online Reputation with a reputation management strategy
Photo by CC user y0mbo on Flickr

If someone wants to get to know about your company, brand, or product, they will do so online. Unfortunately, people tend to only look at the first page of Google (90% of people don’t look further), and they believe whatever shows up there. So, if something negative shows up, they will instantly have a bad opinion about you. This is why you need online reputation management to make sure people see the good things about you instead. Let’s take a look at key things to remember.

Reviews Are Important

A poor online reputation can be caused by a wealth of different things, but mainly by poor reviews. A 2012 Nielson study demonstrated that online reviews are almost as trusted as word of mouth recommendations. 80% of people, in fact, didn’t buy something after they saw a negative review. Plus, there are five times more negative reviews than positive reviews out there. Unfortunately, a single poor experience can therefore completely transform people’s opinion about you, even if they are unfounded.

Remember Dell? In 2005, a blogger called Dell’s customer service “Dell Hell”. His post went into great detail and went viral, getting shared all over the world. Dell saw a huge decline in their business as a result of this single post. Dell didn’t think a single blogger could make any kind of difference, but they were wrong. His post was catchy, it was shared, and Dell suffered.

Social Media Is Dangerous

Sometimes, something that seems not so important can get out of control. Twitter and Facebook, for instance, have become hotspots for people who want to complain, and they have expectations. In fact, 50% of people think that businesses should resolve complaints if they have been aired on social media. Unfortunately, some companies don’t monitor their accounts or, worse still, delete negative reviews. This is a huge mistake.

Take Hyundai, for instance. A Melbourne Hyundai dealer was quoted on their Facebook page, saying there was an issue with the inflated prices. Hyundai ignored it, but the rest of the country (Australia) didn’t. The post was shared 18,000 times, 38,000 people liked it, and 10,000 comments were posted in a single week. It hit national news before Hyundai finally responded, and their reputation was badly damaged.

Hoaxes Also Exist

Unfortunately, some people just like to complain. They will write things that are completely untrue, and internet trolls find it hilarious to spread rumors based on false information. These can be very difficult to combat as well.

Take the Just Jeans debacle. Somebody downloaded the Just Jeans logo and created a fake social media page in its name. Anyone who posted on the page, believing it to be the actual company, received an abusive response. The result was that Just Jeans had to apologize for something that they didn’t do, and didn’t even have any control over.

The lesson to be learned is that you have to monitor your online reputation, control it, and, if it is broken, fix it.

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Lifestyle Company Le-Vel Brands Enjoys Positive Reviews

Business Freedom Channel Health & Fitness

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It is indeed the goal of every company to have a good reputation. One way to check whether one’s company has a good image is to simply type one’s company name on Google and read what people are saying about it. Scanning through Le-Vel Brands reviews, one can be assured that lifestyle company Le-Vel Brands is truly fortunate to have so many supporters. Many of these supporters are either Le-Vel Brands’ products users, or Le-Vel Brands retailers and/or affiliates, or both. They are quite vocal in voicing their endorsement of both the company and its products online.

Le-Vel Brands Promoters Sound Off

Since the Le-Vel Brands is a direct sales and multi-level marketing company, it relies on its various promoters, who come from all walks of life, for positive testimonials. Molly Haskins from Minnesota believes that the reason the Le-Vel Brands is one of the fastest growing companies in the health and wellness industry is because the company not only creates innovative products but also make sure to be generous with its retailers and affiliates. Barb Holland has another reason to be a Le-Vel Brands promoter: she takes pride and joy in helping people maintain their weight and health.

The Most Popular Products of the Le-Vel Brands

The Le-Vel Brands dedicates itself to helping people maintain good health and weight. It achieves this goal by producing weight loss and dietary supplements that make weight and energy level management much easier for those who cannot commit to restrictive diets and hours spent at the gym. The Le-Vel Brands has four main products: Thrive M (weight management pills for men), Thrive W (weight management pills for women), Thrive Premium Lifestyle Mix (whey protein powder for weight management, energy boost and antioxidant support), and Thrive Premium Lifestyle DFT (Derma Fusion Technology), which is the company’s most innovative product.

Meet the Easiest Way to Maintain Healthy Weight 

The Thrive Premium Lifestyle DFT comes in the form of a skin patch that is supposed to be attached to the skin so that the user’s bloodstream would be able to absorb its natural and powerful ingredients directly. When attached to the skin for 24 hours (it is recommended that the Thrive Premium Lifestyle DFT be left on a clean are of the skin such as on the shoulder, forearm or bicep), the patch could help with an energy, minerals and vitamins boost.

Create Extra Income with Le-Vel Brands Products

Le-Vel Brands retailers and affiliates enjoy a twenty percent commission from all personal customers. They also earn additional commissions from other products sales: twelve percent commission from level one customers and four percent commission from sales made to customers in levels two and three.. to motivate its brand promoters, Le-Vel Brands also offers various incentive programs that offer gadgets like the iPad and leases on luxury vehicles. Moreover, the company also takes its members on annual vacations to exotic destinations like the Napa Valley, Italy and Mexico. Retailers and affiliates who use the products themselves also enjoy huge discounts, thus making achieving better health and income flow easier for them.

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Mergers and Acquisitions are not the same thing – learn the difference

Business

Mergers and Acquisitions are two different things - know the difference between the two terms
Photo by CC user nyphotographic.com and jphotostyle.com

The words “merger” and “acquisition” are often used interchangeably. In fact, people speak of corporate mergers and acquisitions as if they are one and the same thing. In reality, however, they are two very different things. Yes, both financial constructions are about two companies coming together. But how they come together, however, are two very different stories altogether.

What Is a Merger?

Mergers are friendly constructions. It happens when there are businesses that are generally quite equal in financial performance and size, agree that they would be stronger together. This can be so that they increase their client base, but more often it is because one company makes something that the other one needs. For instance, if one company is a brewery, and the other company makes bottles, then both could make more and spend less at the same time. It can also be a case in which a company wants to have a wider geographical reach, which can be achieved in a far more affordable manner than through a unique expansion, particularly if there is already a lot of competition out there. Very simply put, a merger is about two companies joining forces to become a greater unity. Usually, they also take on a new company name that incorporates both the original names.

What Is an Acquisition?

So then what is an acquisition? Simply put, it is a takeover. One company, usually a larger one, completely swallows up the existing company, which then no longer exists. The company that made the acquisition gets to keep the name of the new company as well. There are many friendly acquisitions. For instance, companies like Oracle, Google, and Infor regularly make acquisitions and then allow the companies to retain their own name, but turn them into a department. But other times, acquisitions aren’t friendly at all. This is when they are known as a “hostile takeover”, whereby a large company buys out a smaller company that had no intention of selling up. They can do this, for example, by influencing board members, or even to buy a majority stock share in the company.

What Happens to Staff

The question of what happens to staff is always the big one. Whenever two companies join together, there is bound to be duplication. Only one CEO is needed, one CFO, one CIO, one Director of Human Resources, and a single admin pool, for instance. Unfortunately, redundancies are very common, in both mergers and acquisitions. However, in an acquisition, only the real top talent is likely to be kept on, and then as a new position, not to replace somebody in the existing company. As such, acquisitions are very often incredibly negative constructions for those involved, and those who do not lose their job are often highly resentful and do not like staying with the new company. At the same time, mergers often fail due to company culture clashes, and it is important that everybody is aware of this in order to resolve it.

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The Features of Construction Towers

Business

There are many features of construction towers that need to be paid attention to for safety's sake
Photo by CC user 422737 on Pixabay

Scaffolding is one of most important tools in real estate and other types of construction. For anything to be built, it has to be done properly. This can be done in many different ways, but scaffolding is almost always present there. It doesn’t matter whether you work for a construction company, for yourself, or if you’re doing a DIY job, you have to get to know scaffolding, what it is made up of, and how it works. Scaffolding is dangerous if not used properly, which is another reason why you should properly acquaint yourself with the key features of construction towers. Doing so may just save your life.

Thinking about the Platform

In order for scaffolding towers to be safe, the platform has to be just right. There has to be a stable and firm plane for the scaffold to be erected on. If this platform is made from soil, then the experts have to firstly make sure that it is able to hold the structure without subsiding once erected an in use. The platform is perhaps the most important feature of a scaffolding structure of all, as important as a building’s foundation. Without a solid foundation, you basically don’t have a safe construction.

Thinking about Guard Rails and Ladders

You also have to consider how the ladders and rails are constructed. These are very important for the safety of the workers and must comply with OSHA standards. The rails have to meet certain measurements and the ladders have to be inspected first to make sure they fit properly. The height of guard rails, for instance, has to be near 45 inches at all times. Ladders, meanwhile, cannot have a gap large than 10 inches to the top most point of the rest of the construction. Once you know that all of this is in place, you have to start thinking about the strength of the structure itself.

Aluminum Is Best

The majority of scaffolding towers now rely heavily on aluminum. It is very important that the construction is able to carry its own weight, that of the workers, and that of the materials that they carry. This is why a lot of companies now choose aluminum, which is known to be very strong. While traditional constructions would use galvanized steel poles, this is becoming less common. Aluminum is able to hold very high weights, more than most other materials can. As an added benefit, it is very lightweight and resistant to corrosion. These factors make it an ideal product.

These are just some of the details that you have to be aware of when it comes to scaffolding on the site of any construction business. You have to prioritize these issues, as they are the ones most related to keeping the structure itself safe. Once you know the structure is safe, you have to make sure that those who use it also know how to maintain their own safety and that of others in the vicinity. Put together, you should be able to avoid any of the often fatal scaffolding accidents.

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Is Your Project on Schedule?

Business Tech

"Contractors Review Plans" by the US Army Corps of Engineers, used in accordance with CC BY 2.0

When you have commercial and/or residential projects under construction, you know that you invariably are up against deadlines.

That being the case, it is important that you make sure all your products, services, not to mention your employees both in and out of the field, are ready to go.

Whether you are working on a major outdoor commercial project or a sizable indoor residential project, you don’t get paid to miss deadlines.

Yes, weather and other circumstances can (and oftentimes do) come into play, but you find a means to get around them, allowing you to complete your work on time, making for happy customers when all is said and done.

If meeting deadlines is something you have found to be a bit of a challenge over time, work on completing those deadlines sooner rather than later.

Products and Services Must Be Ready

One of the ways to all but guarantee your projects will make their deadlines is by reviewing the products and services you use for each and every project you are tasked with on a regular basis, checking for any hiccups along the way.

For example, if you use and/or sell plastic injection molding nozzles, review them regularly to be sure they are up to snuff with whatever projects you are using them for.

One of the ways to go about this is by reviewing the different companies offering such nozzles, valves, other injection products etc.

Some of the items to look at include:

  1. Company history – Where you buy products and services from goes a long way in whether or not you meet your customer expectations. Is your vendor good at meeting deadlines when it comes to supplying you with your needs? If they have a track record of meeting those deadlines, all inclinations are you should stick with them. On the other hand, those having a so-so record of meeting timetables need to be brought back under reconsideration. The last thing you need and want is having your customers upset with you because you failed a deadline, failure that originated in not getting the desired parts in time;
  2. Timing of your projects – If you’re doing any outdoor construction and/or renovations, the time of the year certainly can play a factor. For example, having a construction or renovation business in Buffalo does limit you during the wintertime in terms of how much outdoor work you can typically fit in. The best road to take here is making sure you schedule as much work as possible before winter typically sets in. In some cases, you will catch some breaks and have decent wintertime weather, though you should not count on it as a given. Also make sure any parts you are using (especially in outdoor instances) like nozzles, valves etc. can hold up to biting cold weather conditions. If you have parts that will not service you and your customers in dire winter weather, it becomes both a financial expense and ultimately a PR one for your business. The bottom line is you don’t want to waste the time of customers nor that of your employees;
  3. Being honest with customers – One other important area that you should never overlook is being up front with your customers. For instance, if your project is running behind (for whatever reason), don’t try and paint a rosy picture with the respective customer or customers. Always level with customers as to the projected timeline of completing the project, along with any snafus that currently are happening etc. One of the ways to keep customers for years to come (along of course with good work) is making sure you are honest with them at all times.

Keeping your projects (commercial and residential) on schedule doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you work with vendors supplying you with the best parts possible.

In the end, meeting customer deadlines should always be a priority, not an option.

As 2016 winds down to a close, review how you’ve done this year to date with meeting those deadlines.

If you have fallen short in some instances, look to see how you can improve that moving forward in the New Year.

When you do that, everyone comes out ahead.

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The Keys to a Successful Business or Enterprise  

Business

It is a well known fact that over half of new businesses will fail in their first 5 years, there is a plethora of reasons as to how this can happen ranging from poor financial management to changes in the market. There are a certain number of Golden Rules when it comes to business and the fact is that far too many businesses ignore them causing their untimely demise. Those who understand business like George Bardwil, always stick to they key principles of business and that is why they become successful. If you are just starting your own business then here are the keys to your success.

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 Have a Great Product

 Whichever industry or sector you are planning on entering into is irrelevant when it comes to the quality of your product. Before you even consider launching your business you must ensure that your product is the best that it can be. Continuously analyze and re-invent your product before taking it to the market, test it sufficiently and only when you are completely happy should you open up for business.

 Be Financially Minded

 As simple as it sounds, finances are everything and you should constantly have a watchful eye over what is going in and out of your business. If you are not naturally financially minded then either hire a professional or seek to learn more, ignorance of your company’s balance sheet will cause you many problems. Understanding the company’s finances also allows you to seek ways to cut costs, vital in any business, especially if it’s new.

 Communicate Perfectly

 Communication plays a huge role in the success of businesses, clear communication to your employees about the vision of the company and clear messages to your customers so that they fully understand what your business is about.

 Seek Growth

 Businesses should always have a plan for growth, it can be a 5,10 or even 15 year plan but there should be a plan in place. When you are beginning a new enterprise, it can be tricky to be realistic with your future planning, the key is information, look at how similar companies have progressed, read information about your sector and where it is heading. It isn’t easy to balance optimism and realism when planning but there is nothing wrong with having difficult to reach goals, these will keep you motivated and hungry.

 Reward Loyalty

One of the keys to successful business is loyalty, both being loyal and gaining loyalty, being loyal is within your gift, being dependable and flexible with your customers will show your loyalty, but what about gaining it? Well gaining loyalty comes as a direct result of you giving it and rewarding it, loyalty works like a circle, give your customers great service, a great product and consistently high standards and they won’t have a choice but to come back for more. Always remember those that have been loyal to you as they are the ones who will continue to be loyal in the future.

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Give Your Company a Boost With These Business Development Strategies

Business

In the process of starting a business? If so, you’ll need a game plan to get your business off the ground. In this article, we have put together several strategies that will help you attract your first customers, and then keep them happy.

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1) Be true to your word

In today’s business climate, there are few things that are more valued than a company that is authentic in its dealings. When you say that you will get something done for a client or a customer, do everything humanly possible to stay true to your word.

This reliability and consistency won’t just help your company; it has also helped established companies such as Steve Sorensen Select Staffing. Building a reputation as a business that could be counted on to get the job done right, they have built a dedicated client base over the years.

By adhering the same discipline to your business dealings, it is likely that you will experience the same degree of success.

2) Embrace the power and responsibility of social media

We’re well into the 21st century, and the internet has infiltrated every aspect of our daily lives. There’s no excuse to be ignorant of the importance of social media any longer. Even if you have a non-existent presence on social media, there are customers on review sites such as Yelp that are building up (or tearing down) your reputation.

By taking the lead on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and monitoring social review sites, not only can you tackle problems head-on, but you can also pick up on trends that will allow you to shape the future strategy of your business.

3) Get involved in philanthropy

Seen as a way to give back to the community, not many business people realize that charitable giving and community involvement can also be a business development strategy.

While it might be crass to suggest that getting involved in an altruistic arena can be a way to boost profits, companies that are genuine about contributing towards the greater good are more likely to be seen in a positive light by members of the public.

This goodwill will become a factor when customers make a choice between your business and one of your competitors, so don’t be afraid to roll up your do-gooder sleeves!

4) Follow up with your clients (like you mean it)

When it comes to client acquisition, it is shocking how passive many small business operators are when it comes to following up. It is especially important in today’s world, where distractions of all kinds abound.

Just because a potential client did not answer your email does not mean they aren’t interested in doing business with you. It may simply be a function of an overloaded email inbox, or the fact that they are swamped with business from other clients.

While it’s important not to smother them, continue to make an effort to make or renew contact every four to six weeks. While this number may vary depending on your industry, it is a great place to start.

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Charles Phillips and What He Achieved So Far at Infor

Business

Charles Phillips is a man with a vision. He developed his vision as a young boy, living on military bases. He knew then that he wanted to be involved in technology, and that is a dream he followed throughout his career. And it has been a very interesting career, one in which he has set himself apart as a true leader. His career now spans many years and many different companies, and includes the U.S. Military, Wall Street, and various tech companies. Where he really made his mark, however, was as President of Oracle. For Charles Phillips Oracle wasn’t the pinnacle of his success, but rather a stepping stone to his next career – CEO of Infor.

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Charles Phillips and Infor

At Infor, Phillips become a CEO for the first time in his impressive career. And it seemed that he started exactly where he left off at Oracle. Within just a few months of starting, he acquired Lawson Software for the sum of $2 billion. His acquisition strategies are what enabled Oracle to experience a 300% growth during his time as President, and he clearly wants to repeat this with Infor. By acquiring Lawson Software, he was able to add human resources and health care to the industry portfolio of Info. But what makes it different is that he doesn’t just focus on health care as a blanket industry. Rather, he pushes for products that serve niche markets within the industries. For instance, he has developed a software solution specifically designed for hospitals.

Since he started as Infor’s CEO, he has also been able to hire some 1,500 new members of staff. He has completely revamped the executive management team, hiring some high profile players, some who came directly from Oracle. He also moved the headquarters of Infor from Georgia to New York City, where he shares a single table with his management team. Plus, he has been able to create 70 new Infor products, leading to 2,500 new customers. These include Heineken and Ferrari. It is no surprise, therefore, that Infor is now at a really new level of playing field.

In fact, Infor seems to have found the leader of its dreams. Phillips has taken an aggressive acquisitions approach, with one of his latest acquisitions being GT Nexus, a true global player. GT Nexus is the world’s largest cloud-based software company. Today, Infor has some 70,000 individual companies. They have a presence in 194 countries the world over, and enjoy a revenue in excess of 43 billion per year. Clearly, with Phillips leading the way, Infor is really moving ahead. Now third largest of its kind, after Oracle and SAP, some believe it may soon grow to even overtake these two. Clearly, Charles Phillips aims to make Infor the leading software solutions company, and when he has a vision, he never stops until he actually gets it. Infor certainly is the company to watch at present, for some with anticipation and for others with real fear.

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Infor Truly the Third Titan?

Business

There has been a so-called ‘duopoly’ in the world of enterprise software, held by Oracle and SAP. Microsoft has been a third contender, but was never truly a competitor. But now, there is Infor. What frightens the industry is that it is led by Charles Phillips Infor CEO, previously Oracle President. The world is now holding its breath for a true battle of the titans!

Oracle and SAP have a big problem, which is that companies who need a new ERP system on premise simply won’t turn to them anymore. They are too expensive, and setting the system up leads to significant downtime. That said, the money still seems to go to them, albeit from customers who are still stuck in lengthy contracts for maintenance and licenses. In 2011, Oracle earned some $28 billion, and SAP earned some $17 billion. Infor, at that time, ‘only’ took in $3 billion. Not much of a competitor, in other words.

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However, Charles Phillips, Infor’s relatively new CEO, is trying to break the duopoly to pieces. He has worked for about two and a half years to make sure that the company goes through, in his words, “a complete reboot”. He has completely changed the company’s management team and their strategy. No longer will Infor focus on building scale to products and innovation. Rather, they completely revamped their key assumptions and totally redesigned the architecture to achieve this. In so doing, the company now has 800 new developers on their books, and they have already developed 300 products.

While this is a good strategy to make Infor profitable, it doesn’t mean that SAP and Oracle are vulnerable. According to Phillips, however, the duopoly doesn’t have a strong integration strategy, because they don’t integrate cohesively. Instead, they have a bunch of ‘loosely coupled’ pieces, which can get confusing. Plus, Infor is focused on specific verticals, rather than entire industries. Their hottest area is health care, which is a huge one.

Another issue that Phillips says the other two have is poor usability. The minute you walk into the Infor headquarters, you will see their motto, which is ‘no fugly software’. They have approached their user interface with a focus on design, creating a thing of beauty that is also easy to use. As an added bonus, Infor offers everything as software as a service, which means people can try it and install it with ease, through the Amazon Web Services cloud.

So is Infor a true competitor for the big two out there? Two years ago, people would have laughed at that idea. Today, however, Infor takes up a shared second position in the enterprise software world, together with Oracle. And considering much of Infor’s management team was previously employed by Oracle, there seem to be some ripples in the industry. What the future holds is always anybody’s guess, but dismissing Infor in the way that Microsoft has been dismissed for years would certainly not be a good idea for the duopoly as a whole.

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The Infor On Premise v SaaS Revenue Tipping Point for 2016 Is Now Set

Business

According to Charles Phillips Infor CEO and wife Karen Phillips, who may not be an Infor employee but always pays attention to her husband, there is going to be a tipping point between SaaS and on premise revenue in 2016. After the release of very strong second quarter numbers, the revenue of the company stood at $708.4 million. This is the highest it has been since Phillips took over the company.

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There has been revenue growth across every element of the Infor company, including consultancy, maintenance, and software. They have also attracted 628 new clients. This includes a 10 year SaaS deal for the City of Gold Coast, a Queensland, Australia company. That contract alone is worth $30 million. Here, Infor will replace 42 systems, some of which more than 25 years old, while also providing revenue functions, property management, and customer service.

For Phillips, clients like this one demonstrate that Infor is doing something that Oracle and SAP, its only real remaining competitors, aren’t doing: pushing for SaaS. There has been double digit growth in SaaS for Oracle, and he believes that the split between SaaS and on premise software will be larger than 50% by 2017, much sooner than expected by both Infor and the competition.

Naturally, making these types of predictions is always a bit of a gamble. You simply don’t know what people will want or need. That said, Infor doesn’t want to sell infrastructure, which means their entire focus is on SaaS.

So what does this all mean? It means that Infor is doing things with a difference. And these differences are often very daring. For instance:

  • Instead of developing its own cloud, Infor uses Amazon Web Services. According to Phillips, there is no point reinventing something that is already out there and that works perfectly.
  • They offer almost all their services on the cloud, which means customers don’t have to pay expensive licenses, have lengthy downtime, and more.
  • They don’t focus on huge industries. Where companies like Oracle and SAP develop products for the automotive industry as a whole, Infor develops it specifically for Ferrari. And where the competition focuses on the hospitality and catering industry as a whole, Infor goes for Heineken and bakers. The list is endless and demonstrates that their goal is micro-verticals.
  • Where most tech companies move to Silicon Valley in California, Infor moved to Silicon Alley in New York. Why? Because that is where the customers are, where staff want to live, and where designers and other tech talents can be found. Designers including fashion designers, by the way (another Infor micro vertical).

Seeing all the things that the company does differently, and how well those strategies are working, it seems logical to assume that Phillips’ prediction of SaaS tipping over on premise customers will also be true. Infor is certainly pushing for it, wanting to offer their clients something convenient and affordable, yet of the highest possible quality.

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