Are You Your Authentic Self or Fictional Self at Work?

To quote Dr. Phil:

“Are you living a life that is more in tune with your “authentic” self (who you were created to be) or your “fictional” self (who the world has told you to be)?”

Gee, I never thought I would write a post where I would quote Dr. Phil!

Are you who you appear to be? Let me explain.

Many of us who have worked for 20 or more years have changed our behaviors there to fit in, to be a more attractive employee, to get paid more, to be more valuable. We have morphed our behaviors to fit in.

I am a certified Birkman consultant. The Birkman assessment will tell you in nine different behaviors both how you appear and how you want to be treated. We are usually treated the way we behave. When the way we behave is markedly different than the way we want to be treated - issues arise. Below are some examples.

Closet Introvert

My MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) score is ENTJ. The E is for extrovert, or I behave like an extrovert. I can work a room at a networking event like a pro. I am an excellent presenter. The issue is, I am a closet introvert. When I finish a presentation or leave a networking event, I am exhausted. I am very good at behaving like an extrovert, but it exhausts me.

I have learned that if I am going to teach a class all day, I need to spend the evening alone or with only a few close friends. I am not an extrovert. I really want to be left alone.

Most people do not know that about me. I know I am not the only one who masks his authentic self in this way.

Stealth Competitor

A stealth competitor is someone who appears to be all for the common good. They are very nice people. However, they feel if they do good work, it should be noticed and they should be rewarded.

The kicker is they never have to ask to be rewarded.

Unfortunately, this is very common in the western world. Many of us were trained by our parents and society that if we do good work, it will be noticed and we will get rewarded. We do not need to ask.

Stealth competitors rarely feel they are valued at work.

Sound familiar? Stealth competitors are very common in certain work environments. By the way, there is a very good book written on this topic, “Know Your Value” by Mia Brzezinski.

Structured Anarchist

I have had quite a few clients who are structured anarchists. They appear to be very orderly. They function well in a rules oriented environment. The issue is they have to create all of the rules.

These individuals want to create the rules. They are great at creating order out of chaos. If they enter a new environment, they need the freedom to change the rules to their suit.

Sound familiar? There are a lot of you out there.

In each of these cases, the way people behave does not show their authentic self. They often are not perceived for who they are and, therefore, are not treated the way they want to be treated. The personal brand you create is not completely authentic.

How about you; are you the real you at work? What does it say about your personal brand?

Republished by permission. Original here.

Authentic Self Photo via Shutterstock

How to Evaluate Market Demand of Your Products Before Selling Them

You can never predict the future, but at least you can estimate what can happen. Maybe you have implemented different ideas to find out the products currently trending, but how do you go about evaluating and determining whether potential exists to build a profitable business with those products?

If there was a single person searching for a product last year and 10 people searching for it this year, the trend is increasing. But is the market still significant to enter as a business?

You need to think like your consumers and zero in on their motivation to buy. In otherwords, you need to figure out if there’s a significant demand for your products. Here’s how to determine that.

Google Trends

This tool searches for a product idea and views the search volume for that keyword throughout the past few years. Visit Google Trends and search the product name you’d like to sell. This will give you an idea as to whether or not the demand for your product will grow or stay flat.

As I searched for iPhone, this is the history of the search that I got:

Google Keyword Planner

This is a way to get an idea of your product demand in just a few minutes. Google Keyword Planner helps you to search for keywords related to your products. You will also find out how many monthly searches are performed for different related keywords.

If Google indicates that there are thousands of searches done for keywords or a page is saturated with high competitive keywords related to your products, then you can assume that the demand is quite high. Hence, you may want to take the next step for your business.

To use this tool, you need to have a Google Adwords account, which you can sign up for free. Simply login to the Adword account, select tools from the menu at the top, and then select the keyword planner. On the next screen, click ‘search for new keyword and ad group ideas:’

Google Adword Campaign

I thought of selling ebook that I was planning to write. However, I wanted to test the demand for an ebook before spending hours on it. I wanted to know whether there was any demand for my book and created a sales page for it, including a buy button. I used Google Adwords and ran PPC (pay per click) ads and direct traffic to the sales page.

Instead of collecting the payment whenever somebody tried to buy the book, Adwords collected their email address and informed them that due to server problems, the books are currently not available.

The trick actually helped me know the percentage of people who visited the sales page and were genuinely interested in buying the book. This tells you, which keywords your organic search strategy should target.

Pre-Orders

An alternative idea is to take payment for the product before you are ready to ship it. Give the buyer an estimated date for when it will be ready. Taking pre-orders can help:

• Create a buzz about your products, especially if you provide special offers.
• Give you an idea of how much inventory is required when you take orders and start shipping.

Directly Search Keywords in Google

Type your target keyword in Google and view the results that come up. Are they from different companies? If there is no single company dominating the search results with multiple listings, then you have a competitive advantage. Additionally, using an SEO (search engine optimization) tool will also tell you the authority of the domains that are ranking.

I used the keyword ‘iPhone deals’ in Google to check the type of content that is currently occupying the top position. The objective was to get an idea about what I would be competing against:

This is one way you can analyze your competition. Check out a few specific critetia:

• Do your competitors have a strong social media following?
• What are your competitior’s product reviews?
• How long have your competitors been in the business?

Trusting the Customer’s Intention

Market research often questions potential customers and whether or not they aim to buy a product. Often, customers say that they are interested in buying the product, but fail to purchase it.

In particular, market researcher has found a positive correlation between the intention and actual purchase behavior. They found that those who indicate that they are most likely to purchase a product do have a higher probability of purchasing it than those who said they won’t.

However, the most important finding is that from a new product perspective, intention studies work far better for existing products than new ones. This is because, consumers are familiar with existing products and are also likely to have an understanding of using them. So, their specified intentions are more firmly based.

Game Theory and Conjoint Analysis

There’s more you can do now than just passively hoping that customers will buy your product. Why don’t you use forcasting methods at the design stage to increase your product’s chance of success?

The combination of game theory and conjoint analysis helps to predict how customer preference for a product depends on its different attributes such as packaging, pricing, and so on. This combined approach enabled the manufacturer to design the package and price of the product in ways to maximize the chance of its acceptance by consumers.

Validate Location

It is important to know who your customers are. If you notice, sometimes products and trends can be very specific to geographical location. You need to find out whether or not your target audience and those who are searching for the products live in areas where you’re able to sell them.

Research Photo via Shutterstock

U.S. Airways Accidentally Responds to a Complaint with an X-Rated Link

Talk about the worst of all customer service disasters. . .#FAIL, anyone?

How about responding to complaints from a disgruntled customer with a link to an X-rated photo? Well, that’s exactly what happened to U.S. Airways recently.

The airline was responding to a customer complaint about the service the passenger had received on a recent flight. The unhappy passenger Tweeted her dissatisfaction. A U.S. Airways employee with access to the company’s Twitter account reportedly responded to the complaint. That person apparently meant to paste a link to a website that allows customers to log formal complaints to the company.

Instead, the employee posted a link to a pornographic photo.

The Tweets from U.S. Airways were not on the social media site for very long, only about an hour. But the error was quickly made viral, an example of how a single customer service misstep can end in disaster. In the Twitterverse, an hour is plenty of time for a post to be seen and shared with millions. U.S. Airways deleted the Tweet and offered an apology later that same day.

The company tried to explain it away as an accident that occurred when someone at the airline tried to flag the link as inappropriate. The latest reports suggest that the employee responsible for sending the lewd photo to the disgruntled customer will not be fired.

But reporting on an official statement CNN Money quoted a company spokesperson as saying:

“We deeply regret the mistake and we are currently reviewing our processes to prevent such errors in the future.”

U.S. Airways Photo via Shutterstock

Questions You Should Ask Your Customers in an Exit Interview

Is an “Exit Interview” a good idea for lost customers and if so what questions should you ask them?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Yes

Asking for information is always a good idea. Too often, we ask why the customer left instead of inquiring about what we could have done differently. It’s a nuance, but an important one. They will give you something like, “We decided to go in a different direction,” which isn’t actionable. Ask, “What could we have done differently?” You are likely to get one or two actionable insights.
- Beth Monaghan, InkHouse
2. Yes

A bad customer experience can hurt not only the bottom line, but also the confidence of some employees. We schedule a meeting with both our sales and services teams to go through Salesforce and review the play-by-play when our results aren’t what we expected. It’s critical to perform this review to prevent the same mistakes and to resolve personnel conflicts before they arise.
- Ryan Buckley, Scripted, Inc.

3. Yes

Doing an exit interview or exit survey is great for getting honest feedback as long as you ask the right questions. More importantly, ask very specific questions focusing on flaws. If you have a product, ask if it’s missing features or important functionality. Are they getting value? Is it easy to use or confusing? Also, ask if they’d be open to setting up a call to discuss in more detail.
- Sujan Patel, Single Grain

4. Yes

Whenever our users churn, we always send one final email with specific questions about what they would do to improve our service, why they chose to move on, etc. Not only does this provide invaluable feedback about our product and service, but it also often leads to re-engagement of lost customers.
- James Simpson, GoldFire Studios

5. Yes

If you’re looking to learn why a customer left, an honest exit interview can be hugely valuable for future growth. Ask them honestly what went wrong, what went right, and what you can change to better serve them and your current/future customers. Exit interviews can be the best source of criticism turned constructive.
- Parker Powers, Millionaire Network

6. Yes

If you’re able to get an exit interview, I’d take it. I always make sure they know what they say doesn’t impact anyone’s job or anything. I find we get the best answers out of clients, and our employees aren’t afraid to report the negative results.
- John Rampton, Adogy

7. Not Really

If you think about it, you’ve already lost mind share. You’re unlikely to get any valuable information from customers who have already give up on you unless these are big-ticket contracts or there is very little competition in your space. I would take this feedback with a grain of salt. A much better use of energy would be to focus on your customers when they are customers, not after.
- Tracey Wiedmeyer, InContext Solutions

8. Yes

Ask them if they would stay with your service if the price was lower. This will help you figure out your sweet spot price point.
- Rishi Shah, Digioh

9. No

Most customers are reluctant to share information or be truthful. The better resolve is to have your employees tell you why they lost the sale so they know you require them to be accountable for the sales process. This will help you find unique trends in their ability to close specific account types.
- Sam Bahreini, VoloForce

10. Yes

An exit interview is a must because what you learn helps you retain others. We ask only three simple questions: How would you rate your satisfaction? What is your reason for leaving? What suggestions do you have for improving the product or service? We often focus on our most highly engaged customers, but there is much to learn about your offering from those who don’t like it.
- David Hassell, 15Five

11. Why Not?

Be genuine and completely non-defensive. Ask for real feedback and suggestions for improvement. Ask them if they’d be willing to consider working with your organization again if these improvements were implemented. Additionally, ask them for referrals. Clients can feel bad ending a relationship, so ask them for other companies they might recommend for your goods or services.
- Andrew Howlett, Rain

12. Yes

Customers leave for a lot of different reasons. In some cases, it’s your product, price point or customer service. In other cases, it may just be the timing. Either way, you want to get to the bottom of what’s diminishing the LTV of your customers. End with compassion, condolences and hopefulness so they won’t feel bad coming back in the future. The aftertaste is what lingers most.
- Heidi Allstop, Spill

Yes, It Really Is Possible To Create a Business App Without Coding Skills

Our editors here at Small Business Trends saw a segment on Fox News a while back in which Pete Khanna, CEO of Trackvia was interviewed. He spoke about Wired Magazine using the Trackvia service to create an app. But what got our attention was Pete’s assertion that “it’s so easy you can build it yourself.”

So we decided I would sit down and, using the free trial offer, attempt to build a Small Business Trends article assignment app. Was Trackvia really as easy as Khanna claimed? Here’s what I found.

Trackvia Review

I have to be totally honest and say that I needed help from the company. Sometimes when confronted with a new technology tool like this, my brain shuts down. So I asked Trackvia to give me some pointers, and they were only too happy to oblige. But when employee Dan Lopez started to show me how to use Trackvia, I realized how utterly simple it all really was. And I felt foolish for not getting it myself in the first place. Trackvia’s support staff are truly second-to-none.

Trackvia gives you a web-based service where you can set up an unlimited number of applications. These applications reside on the Trackvia servers. However, the company has told me that a white-label option (where you can brand with your own colors and logo) is something that is “in the works.” An unlimited number of people can be given user logins and permissions within the account. This means they can log in and use the apps that the company has built anytime.

When you hear the word “app,” it’s easy to assume (as I did) that it’s a smartphone-based app you’re building. But it’s not - at least not at the moment - again this is something in the works. Right now, it’s all web-based.

Constructing The App’s Foundations

I had been asked to make a new article assignment database for Small Business Trends. So first we needed to give the app a name. “Automatic Assignments Database” was the one I chose.

Then it was time to start constructing the app “table” (the columns of the app containing the information for our article assignments). I named this simply “Article Assignments” so that I would have a place on the Trackvia site to work on the new app.

Dragging & Dropping The Columns

The beauty of Trackvia is that you can set up fields simply by dragging and dropping what you need. In case you are not familiar with the term “field,” it is simply the box in which each piece of information goes. So, there’s the name field, the date field, and so on.

There are three columns on the screen. Far left, are all the possible fields you can have. The middle column is where you drag with your mouse all the fields you want to use. The far right column is where you see the settings for each field.

So, looking at the left, just decide which fields you want and move them to the middle column. When they are there, you need to rename them to whatever you want.

You can specify whether filling in a field is required or not. For example, you can say that in the finished app, the user must enter a name and date. But the rest of the fields may not need to be filled in if there is no relevant information. This way, you can make sure that the most important and relevant data is always entered.

Test Your App

Once you have all the fields in place, test your app to be sure it works to your expectations. This is what our app would more or less look like :

Trackvia spokesman Greg Thomason told Small Business Trends that Trackvia is being used by about 2,000 businesses. Pricing is a simple $10 per user per month.

“We don’t have specific demographic stats as to company locations or company size because we deal in an extremely wide-open space. We have customers managing their brick and mortar operations with 10 employees all the way up to multi-billion dollar fortune 500 companies. The real power behind TrackVia is its flexibility.”

How Did This Video Get a Million Views in Just Two Days?

Creating video marketing campaigns can be a great strategy for spreading the word about your brand. But getting these videos to go viral can be the tricky part.

The Independent Journal Review says this Bump to Buzz video, which shows a time lapse progression of a couple’s journey from early pregnancy to the birth of their child, got a million views in just two days. (It’s up to more than 8 million, now. Take a look!)

Below are lessons small businesses can learn from this video about creating content worthy of viral fame.

Create an Eye-Catching Video

Find a Hook People Will Remember

Fletcher used his musical background to write a new song specifically for the occasion of his child’s birth. He played the song in the video while the photos of his wife’s pregnancy progressed throughout the video. This catchy tune made the video more memorable and provided a complement to the visuals.

Leverage Your Network

When attempting to get a video to go viral, it helps to already have social connections you can share the video with. Before releasing this particular video, Fletcher already had his own YouTube channel where he posted regularly. He is also part of McFly, a U.K. pop group with its own online following. So when he first posted the video, he had an existing group of built in viewers to share the video and build a larger following.

Create a Message People Can Relate To

Will the Dependent Coverage Provision Raise Insurance Premiums?

When the data on enrollees in the federal exchanges is tallied later, the fraction of young people is unlikely to meet the 40 percent target the White House has said is necessary to keep health insurance premiums from rising significantly next year.

A major culprit will be the popularity of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) provision increasing the age of coverage of dependent children. This provision has led fewer young adults to obtain insurance on the government exchanges. The older-than-hoped-for risk pool that has resulted will lead premiums on insurance purchased on the exchanges to rise next year.

Even if young adults have delayed signing up until the last minute, the 40 percent target for the fraction of young adults purchasing insurance on the government exchanges is unlikely to be met. At the end of February, Department of Health and Human Services figures showed that only 27 percent of enrollees were between the ages of 18 and 34.

While the pundits have offered many explanations for the low level of enrollment by young people- from the cost of health insurance to a youthful sense of invincibility - one factor has been missed. The ACA’s increase in the age limit for dependent coverage has reduced the number of young people seeking insurance.

One of the first-implemented provisions of the new law - put in place in September 2010 - was a requirement that plans providing dependent coverage make that coverage available until a child reaches the age of 26, regardless of whether the child is married, in school, living at home, or a dependent for tax or financial purposes. Prior to the passage of the law, young adults in many states lost coverage under their parents’ plans when they reached their 19th birthday or finished their schooling.

This provision shifted many young people to coverage as dependents under their parents’ health insurance plans. A 2012 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper reported that the ACA raised the adult dependent coverage by 5.3 percentage points between 2009 and 2010 alone. Analysis by the Heritage Foundation found that the probability of moving into dependent coverage among those aged 19 to 25 more than doubled after the law was implemented.

The provision reduced the fraction of uninsured young people. The percentage of uninsured Americans aged 18 to 25 declined from 28.4 percent in the first quarter of 2010 to 21.7 in the first quarter of 2014, a Gallup Organization poll showed. And the NBER’s analysis revealed that the provision drove the fraction of uninsured young people down by 3.5 percentage points between 2009 and 2010.

But the provision also reduced young people’s participation in the new federal and state exchanges. As the NBER working paper explains, by increasing the number of healthy young adults being covered on their parents’ insurance plans, the ACA’s dependent care provision contributed to making the composition of participants on the new exchanges older and riskier. To compensate for the make up of the risk pool, insurers will likely need to charge those buying insurance on the exchanges higher premiums next year.

In the world of policy making, even the most beneficial provisions of a new law sometimes have adverse unintended consequences.

Family Photo via Shutterstock

Yes, Top Performing Businesses Pay More in Taxes

Do businesses pay their fair share of taxes? Should they pay more in taxes and are they paying considerably less than everyone else? Many consumers seem to believe they’re held more accountable for their income taxes than businesses, especially around tax time.

But a recent report from WalletHub shows the average business is paying their fair share and then some. In fact, one finding is that the average S&P 100 company pays a 14 percent higher tax rate than the top 3 percent of consumers. WalletHub used 2012 data and examined those companies’ profits, withholding practices and tax payments on the state, federal and international levels. Data was compiled to determine each business’ effective and deferred tax rates.

The report explains:

“With memories of corporate greed and Great Recession bailouts still fresh in the minds of taxpayers, the myriad ‘revelations’ about corporate accounting practices that have emerged from inspection of quarterly financials have fueled indignation as well as confusion among us little guys who feel as if we might be getting the short end of the stick.”

But it turns out nothing could be further from the truth.

On top of the very general statistics, the WalletHub report dug deeper. It found that only six of the S&P 100 are paying a negative overall tax rate, entitling them to a refund from the federal government. Those corporations are Abbott Laboratories, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, AIG, Bristol-Myers and Verizon.

Microsoft, conversely pays more in taxes compared to the average consumer than any other corporation on the S&P Top 100. In fact, according to data in the report, Microsoft paid nearly 103 percent more than its fair share. That’s if you consider what the average American consumer pays in federal taxes each year. Another corporation, General Dynamics, pays even more, percentage wise. The report from WalletHub found that General Dynamics pays more than 160 percent what the average consumer does in local, state and federal government taxes.

Many of the top 100 on the S&P list actually do pay less taxes than average internationally though. The WalletHub report found that tech companies like Apple, eBay and Google do manage to pay lower taxes overseas. The WalletHub report found that these corporations are paying about 80 percent lower taxes abroad than they do in the U.S.

Tax Photo via Shutterstock