This was not an attempt to get the employee fired we need more people working these days. I stated in fact I would rather you keep him on, with my strategy I have a system that will train every single one of your employees on the importance of your reputation but that’s another message this message is about the report only, and I have no plans to put this businesses name on public display.This is just something I think start-up business owners as well as seasoned businesses should keep an eye on when sections of their business deals directly with the public.Also for businesses just in the planning stages the problem outlined below could happen in your business one day as well, especially if you are a start up business and plan to grow. The events described below are all true and could be present in whatever business you are in this statement applies to you.There has been a major shift in marketing, you and every other consumer wants to do business with a reputable business, when you network, you want to do so with a reputable business, right.People will search the internet and check out your reputation before ever visiting your website or your business and they are doing business with the most reputable business. If your reputation says you cannot be trusted the consumer will just find someone they can trust.There are many ways to find out if you have a reputation problem, here is just one way. If you type into a Google search any business name and their city, what you will see are the directories and other places their reputation shows up. The person searching may have only your name and phone number and they want to know more about you or they may be simply searching just be looking for directions to your business.Did you know that all they need to do is type in the business name and the phone number and your reputation is on display for the world to see?Why is this important? There was a study done not long ago and what was discovered was that consumer opinions posted online are trusted more than businesses realize, and the consumers posting are your customers.As posted on the ‘Nielsen: Global Consumers’ Trust in ‘Earned’ Advertising Grows in Importance says “Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.”An Employee Destroying His Employers Reputation and Causing Massive Loss of Revenue With One Simple ActI was allocating some freight for relocation at a local distribution center for a popular well know business which I shall keep their name private but the city was in Atlanta, Georgia recently and I filed this report with the CEO about the damage that could be done to the business reputation and after reading it what do you think the response was?The ReportOn yesterday 1-6-2014.This should have been a 10 to 15 minute turn around but ended up being over 1 hr an 45 minutes because of an employee that was unaware that his actions can harm the company’s reputation and untimely cause the company to lose business.I’ve been picking up freight here for years and have seen the 1st shift shipping clerk first hand do what is stated below to truck drivers and more time after time over the years.For example if a person let’s say it was a “Truck Driver” that approaches the window he/she gets ignored until the clerk feels like it. The astounding thing about this is the clerk with his peripheral side vision he can see you and when he does decide to look at the driver it’s like what do you want?You are bothering me, now consider this the owner does not know anything about this display of attitude being displayed. The shipping clerk forgot he represents the business owner, this is not his business to treat customers how he wants to and when he wants to.I’m looking for businesses that want to make a change from within, businesses that want their employees to want to give great customer service and build a great 5 star reputation.As you read this article please note how many people dropped what they were doing to deal with this problem.Here are the facts as they happened on 1-6-2014.I presented the clerk with the pickup number and immediately left the window to get out of his way because I did not want the same experience happening to me that I have seen happened to other drivers. The shipping clerk looked into his computer system for the load and calls me back to the window and says “that’s a bad number it’s not in my system”.No argument from me, I asked for a recheck but did not get it, so I call my dispatcher the carrier and asks that he double checks his information, which he did, he calls the sales person who booked the load and they both check the website where the load was booked to confirm it was in fact a good pickup load number and it was. He calls me back and tells me it’s good and asks me to once again ask the shipping clerk to recheck.I had already asked and the shipping clerk would not recheck but I asked again. The clerk says it’s not in my system and would not even attempt to look beyond that point.I once again called and reported that to my dispatcher “the carrier” and from their end they called someone else at the shipper “XXXXX” that was shipping the load and located a second PO#, and the trailer the load was on and once again asked me to pass the information on to the clerk and ask for a recheck but he had already gone home.Before I got that call, I was watching him leave and as soon as he left I asked the next shift shipping clerk to double check and he found the load within 2 min.I got the 2nd shift supervisor involved and he did a lot of documentation to reprimand the employee with, another 20 minutes waiting and while he proceeded to get me checked out and said they would handle the problem on tomorrow.He says this person knows all he had to do was to get up and ask another person just feet’s away that had an updated list that had not yet been updated into the system.There is a dollar amount that is taken right from the bottom profit line for the businesses for every one that spent time on this problem all because one person forgot he works for someone else because they could have been working on other projects.Let’s look at some of the time loss, the terminal yard that I was taking the load to was 20 minutes away, but I spent over 1-3/4 hrs here which should have been a 15 minute turn around.1. Could not be dispatched on another load2. Dispatcher spent his time and his assistant’s time researching and verifying the load.3. The customer service for the shipper spent their time locating the load and relaying the information back to our dispatcher who called me back.4. There was a 2nd clerk doing the same job that had already been entered.5. The supervisor of the shipping clerk who was busy on another assignment until he was pulled away from that project to help get me going.6. There was equipment (the truck) that was sitting not being used, just idle.Imagine if this was your employee and your business that the shipping clerk worked for or a business that you know well.Can you see how it could easily an employee could harm your business, just imagine it could be another business that you know very well that has an employee doing the same thing and causing your clients to lose money right from the bottom line?I’m more interested in making a difference that will help businesses get more customers by ensuring every employee understands that this company’s reputation is on the line every time they interact with a customer.Let’s switch positions just for a second. Let’s take the event a little further; you know how people exploit the bad information online of offline, right.Some people could be angry enough at the shipping clerk to post this event as a review on the business directory listing, if it’s a bad review it’s not just going to go away, oh no. That bad review is going to hang around and may even be on the first page for years as the first thing people will see when they check this businesses reputation.Would you agree with my point here that if this were a published review of the business on their Google + listing and you had no prior knowledge of how reliable this distribution center was that this employee’s actions reflects badly upon his employer’s reputation as a reputable and reliable distribution center?This employee probably has already caused customers to find another distribution center that’s a given and could cause the company to lose this business and future business and it never crosses his mind that my employer is his customer.In fact I heard my dispatcher say to the sales person who booked this load that we should drop the load if that’s the attitude they are going to have.All the while it was not the attitude of the company shipping the product but rather one employee.And if we went online as the carrier and left this experience for other to read, or if I as a driver without my employer’s knowledge or consent wanted to get back at the shipping clerk, if I went online and left a bad review about the entire incident, hoping that other businesses may read it and decide to use another distribution center for their business how do you think it would impact the shipper.Can you feel the impact that could happen if this was your business, you as the business owner would never know anything about the review I left, and you cannot get it removed on your own if you were aware of my review. Information is shared all over the web so this review could also be posted on other directories, and on and on.Very Important point here: In all of this the actual business owner who’s reputation is on the table as being a reliable distribution center does not know anything about what’s really going on or how many times it has happened before.Keep in mind the years of hard work and many sacrifices the business owner and the CEO have made to get contracts and build the business up is on the table and they have no idea of what’s happening, one day they turn around and their customer is gone somewhere else.I have a solution to the problem but here’s the rift, I cannot tell the solution to the supervisor he does not have the power to do anything with it. His focus is to deal with the employee, right.The solution must be presented to the head of the company and come down from above, from the person who has the authority to do something with it down to the employee. It’s the person who’s reputation is on the table that has to be the one to make changes and those changes move down, the person at the bottom of the pile has no desire to want to make change that will improve the company, the sad truth is that they are only there to get a pay check and go home.Another option for me is if the solution is mentioned to the customer service person hoping that it is passed along to the decision maker they may be the very one’s that are creating the problem and surely they have no desire to pass this information on to the top.The problem is as I mentioned before in another example about the two truck drivers having a conversation about how to improve things as they are traveling down the road and they come up with some good points and ideas in the conversation but as soon as they part ways and go to their separate destinations everything said dies.If you are a business owner reading this or you know of a business that has employees that run their departments as if they own the business the focus needs to be on changing the culture, to get the employee to understand that their future with the company depends on their contribution to help build up the reputation and not tear it down.
The Hunt for Student Loans, Grants and Scholarships Begins
If you plan to attend college for the first time in 2011 or have a family member who will, you’re about to embark on student financial aid season.If you’re looking for money for college and want to apply for financial assistance, your first stop should be the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as the FAFSA. All federal student loans, federal grants, and other forms of federal student aid are tied to this form.Federal Student AidThe FAFSA can be filled out and submitted online.. The FAFSA is available free of charge, and submission is also free. The federal deadline for submitting your FAFSA is June 30.You don’t need to know which college or university you plan to attend in order to fill out or submit the form, but you will need to refer to your 2010 tax return. If you’re a dependent of your parents, you’ll need to have the 2010 tax return of your custodial parent(s) or the parent who claims you as a deduction, even if this parent doesn’t plan to help you pay for college.Once you submit your FAFSA, the Department of Education will generate a Student Aid Report (SAR) that summarizes your and your parents’ financial information. You can choose which schools receive your SAR, and you can add schools to this list at any time.The schools that receive your SAR will analyze your financial information and generate a financial aid package based largely on the school’s cost of attendance and the determination of your ability to pay. (Some schools also offer non-need-based financial aid, which is awarded on the basis of merit rather than on your financial need.)Federal grant assistance is reserved for low-income and financial needy students. Most students, however, will qualify for federal college loans.Federal Stafford student loans are available in both need-based and non-need-based versions. Need-based subsidized Stafford loans are reserved for students who demonstrate financial need. Non-need-based unsubsidized Stafford loans are available regardless of financial need. There’s no credit check or co-signer required for Stafford student loans; you take out these loans in your own name.State Financial AidSome states also use the FAFSA to determine your eligibility for state student loan and grant assistance programs. Although the federal deadline for submitting the FAFSA is June 30, many states have earlier filing deadlines, with some falling as early as Feb. 15, 2011.Other states have no specific application deadlines but award state-funded student aid on a first-come, first-served basis, processing college aid applications only as long as there are still state funds available to distribute.Parent LoansThe federal government also offers parent loans, known as PLUS loans, for parents who want to help their undergraduate student pay for college.Although the Education Department doesn’t require you to have filled out a FAFSA in order for your parents to apply for a PLUS loan, many schools will require it. Such a school will not approve or certify an application for a PLUS parent loan until a completed FAFSA form is on file for the student.As with federal student loans, repayment on federal PLUS loans can be deferred until you, the student, graduate or leave school.The 1-2-3 of Getting Financial Aid for College1) Complete Your FAFSA — CarefullyFilling out the FAFSA can be time-consuming, and it requires you to have a good deal of documentation on hand.Since you’ll be submitting your FAFSA to the federal government, just like a tax return, it’s highly inadvisable to misstate or misrepresent your financial information on the FAFSA in any way. Irregularities in a FAFSA form are flagged and must be corrected before the form can be processed, delaying your financial aid application.If you’re awarded grants, student loans, or other financial aid based on false or incorrect information that you submitted on the FAFSA, you may be required to repay any over-allocation of financial aid immediately. If the misstatements are determined to be deliberate or egregious, you may be subject to fines and other sanctions.2) Search for ScholarshipsWhile your FAFSA is being processed, begin hunting for scholarships. Scholarships are available for virtually all types of students in almost every field of study. Some scholarships are need-based, others are merit-based, and some are a combination of both.Since scholarships provide you with award money that doesn’t need to be repaid, like a student loan, you can think of scholarships as “free money” for college.Use an online scholarship search engine that keeps an updated database of scholarships and lets you search that database for free. The best online scholarship search sites routinely list millions of scholarship listings with billions of dollars of award money available.3) Only Use Private Student Loans as a Last ResortOnce you receive your school financial aid package, make sure to take advantage of all your federal and state student aid options before you turn to higher-cost financial options.Specifically, you should maximize your federal student loans before turning to the non-federal private student loans offered by banks and other for-profit private lenders.Federal college loans offer fixed interest rates that are generally lower than the variable interest rates offered by private student loans. Federal loans also offer more flexible repayment options than the typical private student loan program. You should only turn to a private college loan when all your other federal and state student loan options have been exhausted.Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA): http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/, private student loans: http://www.nextstudent.com/private-loans/private-loans.asp
Trading Gurus, Secret Trading Systems, and Chat Rooms – Where Is E-Mini Education System Headed?
A relatively new trading room review site (tradingschools.org) has been open for less than a year and created quite a few waves in the e-mini trading community. I suppose this site has reviewed 50 or so trading rooms to this point and the result of the reviews has been, to say the least, a bit shocking. The reviewer has chosen to focus his analysis upon user experience and documented performance. You might be surprised at some of the “gurus “deficiencies in trading results and documentation. To be sure, the reviewer has taken on some of the larger and more popular e-mini trading rooms in an unbiased fashion.But this article is not centered on tradingschools.org or their reviews; rather, I read every review (and subsequent comments) and was shocked by how similar the deficiencies in the lower rated trading rooms were; with some exceptions, the similarities of trading room efficiency was relatively uniform from negative review to negative review. This came as a shock to me! Granted, I run a relatively small operation that focuses students who want break from the traditional (and deficient) trading curriculum espoused by the majority of trading educators and want a more institutional based trading education. So, I don’t pay much attention to what other people are doing but get my information from new students as they and enroll in my course and describe the trading methodology and psychological principles exhibited by previous trading education experiences.One group of these rooms operated as a sort of “cult of personality.” Regardless of performance, these rooms are popular because of the superior communication skills of the owner/moderator. I don’t suppose that this should come as any surprise, as individuals with magnetic personalities tend to have the ability to attract willing participants. Most surprising, when the performance of the “cult of personality” type trade room is published, the actual room participants are quick to defend their charismatic leader despite an inferior record. I am about is charismatic as a block of granite, so this revelation was truly surprising to me. Coming from institutional investing, where performance is the only variable of evaluation, the loyalty to the owner/moderator of the “cult of personality” is truly remarkable and interesting.On the other hand, there is no shortage of individuals who have developed a new and revolutionary “secret trading system.” After nearly 30 years on the institutional investment side of things, I can tell you the only real new things in trading are massive advances in technology and quantum analysis. Since most of the new technology is available (at a price) to every retail traders I thought that this variable was well understood. Quantum analysis has also made inroads into all phases of trading. That being said, I haven’t met the retail trader who considers himself/herself a “quant trader” and most have a rudimentary, at best, understanding of algorithmic trading. There are no secrets in trading, there is great trading technique, experience, and patience; these are the qualities of a competent trader.Finally, many frustrated traders turned to e-mini trading forums in an attempt to gain insight into what particular deficiency they may have in their trading technique. In most cases (but not all) there is a good deal of negativity in these forums and rationalization for past failures. Above all, good traders possess the ability to look in the mirror and understand their problems begin with themselves. You would be hard-pressed to find complementary comments about any given trading system, trading educator, or the trading business in general. Needless to say, I only visit these forums after I’ve had a good day e-mini trading and am prepared for the onslaught of negativity that I often encounter. This is not to say that there are not some great threads in these forums, because some members ask genuinely good questions and get positive feedback and possible remedies for their trading problems. In general though, there is a good deal of complaining and finger-pointing at a wide variety of individuals and trading systems.As I said, I am not one to really worry much about what other individuals are doing in their programs; but I was flabbergasted at the repetition of themes in substandard trading rooms. There are a very small number of actual trading “gurus” in the trading business and they generally confine themselves to work at the institutional level. With the exception of technology and algorithmic trading there is very little that is new in trading, with the exception of anecdotal stories about the next great indicator. Finally, while there are occasional good threads in trading chat rooms, I strongly recommend you avoid much of the negatives that are part and parcel of most e-mini trading forums.
Are You Choosing the Right Stock Market Advisory Company
What do you do if you want to learn driving a car? You will try to find an expert teacher, isn’t it? You do not want to avail the services of a novice individual to help you out, but a professional person can provide you the vital tips and most importantly guide you efficiently. Similarly, when it comes to investing in the stock market for the first time, you require a knowledgeable advice to attain your financial goals and get profitable returns.
If you are a beginner, then it is quite obvious that you may be having no information about the process of buying the right shares in the market. In such a situation, getting the right tips from an experienced financial advisor or a registered advisory company will truly prove to be a great blessing in disguise. However, there are some of the important things that have to be kept in mind while choosing the top stock market advisory company, which are as follows:
How much assistance do you actually require?
Before you make up your mind to hire an advisor, it is imperative that you must first decide about the kind of service you require from them. You may need their help at the beginning or during the time of any issues. This is because an advisor has to formulate a map according to your requirements. Hence, it is suggested to ascertain your needs first and then take further action.
Choose a top ranked advisory company
It is a very important point that has to be taken into the consideration. Availing services of the well known advisory company or a financial advisor is an absolute necessity. Make it a point to carry out a proper background or research work about the company. Check out their credentials, reputation, experience, etc before hiring them.
Asking for a sample financial plan initially makes sense
When hiring a financial advisor, then do not forget to ask for sample plan first. It is imperative to note that there is no such thing called the perfect plan. A sample plan will help you to determine whether an advisory company is actually making sense according your requirements or not.
Conclusion
The financial planners or advisory companies can really turn out to be the greatest asset for you if you choose the best one. They are just like the professional sailors who can help you out to sail through stock investment related problems quite efficiently.
Deepak is a financial advisor who likes to provide quality tips to the people facing any issues with regard to investing in the stock market. He likes to keep himself updated about the stock market by reading articles, news and blogs, etc.