How to Fix Your Broken Business

How to Fix Your Broken Business

Losing money is bad for business, so stop doing it. Easier said than done, right? Even if you are swimming in debt and your outgoings are way bigger than your incomings, there is always a way to mend the money-loss and fix your financial fiascoes.

Debt

 

Take back control of your business’s finances by cutting costs and expenses wherever you can. You can start by outsourcing: bring in freelancers, contractors or agency staff for short-term roles within the company — even as short as one day. You could also hire interns, rather than employees who would need a full wage. Although this could result in you hiring somebody who isn’t as skilled at the job as you’d like, you could also very well find a diamond in the rough who is hungry to succeed and who can do a better job than anybody you may have hired, for half the price. For these facts alone, you’d have to weigh up the pros and cons: if your financial status is that bad, it could very well be worth taking a gamble on an intern. Other ways to cut costs include simple aspects such as printing less, buying used equipment and negotiating lower prices with your suppliers and paying invoices early to them in the hope that building a relationship with them will induce them to knock the prices down.

Make sure you can take payments: U.S. payment market shows that technology driven payment is the preferred method of payment. This is because of the freedom that it offers the consumer — with a credit card consumers are free to pay for anything they want, whenever they want. With the increase of this power on the consumer’s part, comes an increase in responsibility for the business they wish to be a customer of in making sure that their choice of payment is accepted. This is why a credit card reader is pivotal for all businesses, as if they can’t take the payment, they can’t take the custom. As well as this, ATM machines must be on your site at all times.

Also, you should never forget that customers are people, and not just vessels of which you make a profit through. They are worth far more than just a sale and they want to know that their needs are being cared for. If you feel as if you are guilty of sometimes de-humanising your customers — whatever the reason may be for it — then you must stop as this might be the factor that is breaking your business. A customer that feels as if they have been treated in a rude manner, or an unfair manner, will not return to your custom, it’s as simple as that. Always remember that the little things matter, and always remember that your customer will always remember too. Whether this means offering them a discount or maybe even something for free when they can’t afford a certain product, or even for their birthday. The business owners who act in this kind of way are far more likely to stand out in comparison to those that don’t. Process management technology can help you work on your achieve this vital aspect in customer retention — and retaining customers equal a profit, at the end of the day.

If you’re a business owner, and you’re in a bit of a rut, you can get out of it by following the advice above and by checking other ways that you can fix your money troubles.


A Dying Horse (A Move Towards The Collective)

A Dying Horse (A Move Towards The Collective)

By Skot Ward

What I see is a system collapsing due to the course and evolution of an inexorable progress made within the dynamic nature of the human animal. What I see within the eyes of those who refuse to allow this process to happen, is a palpable fear and anger, an aggression seasoned so strongly with desperation that it is impossible to swallow any longer. They are clinging tightly, they are fighting so hard to remain relevant that their actions appear stupefying and ludicrous to anyone with a modicum of common sense. The vitriolic hatred being stirred incessantly by these contemporary influential poster children and demagogues, is fanning the flames of divisive intolerance, and the result is nothing more than that of a last-ditch effort to beat a few more miles out of a dying horse, and the death of a self-serving desire for narcissistic self-deification merely to secure a place in our collective history. And that’s the irony right there now isn’t it? Individuals, seeking to secure a place in collective history?

Everyone is looking for a superhero, a savior, but no one wishes to sport the cape themselves, or to help others put them on THEIR shoulders. The saddest thing that there is to conceive of is the knowledge that our potential as human beings outweighs any other thought we can think of, but we choose instead to scatter those squandered possibilities and probabilities across a vast wasteland of nothingness, hoping that one day someone or something will come along and put all the pieces back together again; giving us all something to believe in once more.

By wasting our collective potential, we are doing nothing for the good of mankind, we are merely trying to keep ourselves from waking up from a shared dream which is quickening into a nightmare. We deny the reality around us because we are comfortable with persisting in our illusions. Illusions are something we can control, they’re not as scary as the results of the decisions we’ve made which we refuse to be accountable for. All of our little temporary dreams causing so much permanent damage. Are we ever going to acknowledge it? Or are we just going to let everything collapse into ruin?

We are the energy we prepare the spaces for within ourselves. We are whichever wave we choose to surf into the twilight of our horizons. It seems as though as of late upon this planet, we fear the burden of a struggle. We perceive the passage of time to create and formulate the solutions to our problems as a waste of our time, as if solutions are just supposed to magically appear before us whenever we make decisions. Or that a divine intervention will happen, just when we need it to, in order to steer the course of the planet so that it doesn’t tumble over the edge of the falls. So, inevitably we give in don’t we? We acquiesce to the flow of energy around us no matter what it consists of, and if it happens to run contrary to our values and belief structure, well, then just we hope that one day we may have the ability to reconcile its tenants against our own so we can justify all of our thoughts, actions, and inactions.

We don’t need a superhero. We don’t need a savior. What we need it’s to subvert the dominant paradigm of thinking about who we are, and what we’re capable of as human beings. We need to become familiar with the concept that “we” can become “I.” That the self can be plural. That we can be of one mind, with 7,000,000,000 vessels to work it’s concepts and ideas through. We need to stop with our incessant, selfish, individualistic “me first” thinking, which has succeeded only in destroying our world and driving it insane. We are constantly looking for simple, yet comprehensive solutions, a better way outside of ourselves, the highest yield with the least amount of labor. We elect officials to deal with global problems so compounded that delving into them at length would be an impossible task for one person to handle, and then we rant and rave, cry foul, and spit vehement hatred at the very person we have made solemnly responsible for them when they cannot follow through with what we’ve expected of them.

When in the course of our history have we ever ever looked in the mirror to realize that the overall solution has been there all along? Have we ever once pointed our fingers back at ourselves in that reflection and simply just asked, “Can I do it?” Could it possibly all start with me? Yes, as a matter of fact that’s the only way that it very well can succeed.

Do it. Come together. I dare you.

°8°

 

Skot Ward describes himself as such:  I’ve had 41 trips around the sun to make sense of this little blue dot floating inside infinite space. I truly believe that if enough people care, we can all make sense of it together.

Brian McKay describes him as the coolest guy he has ever met at a wedding.

Image courtesy of Flickr, under a creative commons license.

When Winning on Valentine’s Day Equaled a Big Loss

When Winning on Valentine’s Day Equaled a Big Loss

When Jerry opted for a low-key hang with his girlfriend, he thought he was winning on Valentine’s Day. Until an unexpected “grand prize” ruined everything.


I want to start this story by clearly stating that I have no illusions about my level of maturity when these events happened. When I tell the story people ask me: Why didn’t you do this or why did you do that? I’m not defending my actions—although they were all done with more naivete than ill intention. What is clear is that I lacked what is now called Emotional Intelligence or EI.

While I was in my 20s, I met a woman on New Year’s Eve. We seemed to get along well and the night culminated in a midnight kiss that showed promise. This midnight smooch was not merely a champagne induced mash-session, we had a real connection.

Because we found the idea of seeing more of each other enticing, we exchanged information and began dating. This was before texting or any real application of email, so we called each other on the phone and met a few times a week. It felt like a fledgling relationship and we were both committed to sincere exploration.

The timing of our meeting proved to be a challenge though. Only six weeks into our fun-but-new romance came Valentine’s Day. Being that we had only known each other six weeks, this holiday offered up some fear. Riddled with insecurity as to how to proceed, I asked Jennifer what we should do on that day. She had the perfect answer: “Since this is all so new, let’s keep things mellow.” I was ecstatic that we were on the same page and offered to cook dinner at my place.

On Valentine’s Day I went to the store to buy the ingredients for dinner. This was before paying with debit cards at the counter, so I stopped into the bank that was housed inside the store to withdraw some money. Upon completion of my transaction, I was informed that I had won the Valentine’s Day grand prize!This was an ostentatious package of romantic symbols that would win any husband weeks of goodwill from their wives; but I wasn’t a husband, and my new relationship was far too vulnerable for such a grandiose assortment. The prize included a stuffed bear with heart shaped soles on its hands, lingerie (his and hers), champagne and crystal flutes, massage oil, chocolates, and the biggest bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen including at least a dozen long-stem red roses.

Buy History Yoghurt And The Moon on Amazon

I kind of panicked.

I had never won anything and suddenly I was faced with this expensive bounty that I felt should belong to someone else. I made a weak effort to decline the winnings. No go. So I took everything to my car, which took several trips, then returned to shopping. When I got home, I put everything away. The flowers were too big to stash, so I put them where they could be seen, but not on full display.

Jennifer showed up on time. She brought me a card that simply asked, “Will you be my Valentine?” with two boxes, one for yes and one for no. It was the perfect amount of gift for our situation. I found it cute and non-threatening. We chit-chatted while I finished cooking. As I was preparing to plate the meal, she was wandering around and saw the flowers.

“OH MY GOD! Are these for me?” She cried with tremendous excitement. Inside I was terrified. If I said no, then I had to explain that why I didn’t get her flowers and why I had these flowers and they weren’t for her. That seemed complicated. If I said yes, I might be coming on too strong and give her the idea that I was too clingy.

In a sit-com-esque fashion I said a weak “yes…”. She was thrilled with the flowers and I felt like I made the right call. She was warm during dinner, shooting me flirtatious glances and body language that indicated I was in for a good night.

I kept thinking, I’m glad I said yes

Jennifer spent the night and I felt like things were really heading in the right direction. It seemed I had dodged the bullet fate had shot in my direction, except for one little detail: I never saw her again. After that night she no longer returned my calls. Her sister asked me to leave her alone and it became clear that my over-the-top floral gift sucker-punched my future with her.

What I took from this is that romance is a dance. We have to constantly engage our partner to sense where they are, where they are going and not just dip them suddenly out of nowhere—even if they ultimately want to be dipped. We must communicate on a constant feedback loop.

Love hard, my friends.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jerry Mooney

Jerry Mooney is the author of History, Yoghurt and the Moon. He also teaches Language and Communications at a small, private college in Idaho.

 

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