Merchants Center.com » People

Your Business and Your Manpower

Melanie James — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:59:07 +0000

When you started your small business, you may have done all the tasks on your own. However, as your business grows, you may be thinking that it’s about time to hire helping hands so you can be more efficient in managing your company. In this article, let us discuss some essential points about hiring employees for a small business.

Hiring Employees

If you have decided to designate some of your tasks to employees, then you need to look for the right people. It is crucial to find workers who are not only efficient in performing the job but can trusted as well.

This is why it is very important to spend time evaluating the applicant’s resume and conducting actual interviews with potential candidates.

Since you are running a small business, it would be best to hire people who already have experience with the job you want to designate. This way, you will not need to spend time on training especially since you have other tasks to attend to. To save money, look for workers who are knowledgeable and skilled handling multiple tasks.

Compensation and Benefits

Providing your people with good compensation and benefits are very important to the success of your business. Make sure that the salary you offer is in line with the rates given by other companies in the same industry that you are in. You want to take good care of your employees as much as you want them to give you great service.

If you can’t afford to hire in-house employees, you can also consider hiring freelancers. Freelance workers are only paid based on their work and unlike regular workers, freelancers do not require you to pay for their Social Security, 401k fund, and other benefits.

Freelance employees or independent contractors can do the work you assign them to do from their own homes. Thanks to the internet, telecommuting is now a popular strategy of expanding a business. Just like regular employees, see to it that your freelancers are fairly compensated.

In addition, make sure that the candidate you are hiring will be capable to do your tasks. Ask for samples of work or arrange for a probationary period. Although it is best to hire experienced freelancers, you may want to try out newbies as well. Freelancers with no experience on their portfolio will often demand a much lower rate for their projects. Furthermore, since they are still building up their portfolios, you can assured that they will do their best to submit a great output.

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About the Author:

Melanie James has spent the last 14 years working with businesses to implement quick, effective and inexpensive changes to their businesses to increase productivity and their bottom line.

Accepting Credit Cards – the Way to Building Up Your Customer Base

Melanie James — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:48:15 +0000

If you’re looking for an effective way to increase your customer base, then you should definitely consider accepting credit cards. Whether you’re into selling products or offering services, your business will be a lot more effective if your going to use credit card marketing strategy.

The Age of Plastic

If you still haven’t realized it, you’re living in the plastic age, where credit card is the new money.

Yes. With the convenience that credit cards bring, most people prefer to use them as payment compared to cash whether they’re shopping in a regular store or purchasing from an online market.

Just think about how much your business will be missing out if you go on marketing without accepting credit cards. Your business probably wouldn’t have much improvement for the years to come if you won’t accept credit card payments.

Are Credit Cards Safe?

Some business entrepreneurs reason out that customers are really afraid to make online transactions. True, there may still be a lot of people who are hesitant about purchasing through the internet because they fear credit card fraud and identity theft. However, many businesses have gotten over this obstacle by providing a secured website for their customers.

In fact, many customers are willing to purchase online using their credit cards as long as they are assured that the website is secured and that the online marketer is a legitimate one. Because credit cards allow them to shop conveniently even with their busy schedules, more people still prefer to do online shopping rather than go out of their way to visit the mall or regular stores.

There is a big market of online shoppers out there, and your business needs to reach out to this online market. Yes, you too can strengthen your business and acquire more customer base by providing a secured website that allows customers to use their credit cards and make purchases securely.

Protecting Your Customers

If you’re going to accept credit card payments, one of the first things you should check is that your payment processing page uses Secure Socket Layers (SSL) of at least 128 bit.

This will be reflected with padlock symbol that users will find at the bottom of their browser’s window.

The padlock symbol indicates that the webpage uses security encryption that protects all the information that is entered in the page. With this credit card strategy, you can be assured that your customers will be more confident in making online purchases from your business.

Don’t forget to provide a customer support system for your business as well. When your business accepts credit card payments, you can expect to receive a lot of inquiries from your customers.

Prove to your customers that you’re a reliable business company by responding to their queries quickly and efficiently. Let them know the status of their orders and the purchases they made and assure them that they have made business with the right online merchant.

Truly, accepting credit cards using a secured system will increase your customer base and productivity significantly.

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About the Author:

Melanie James has spent the last 14 years working with businesses to implement quick, effective and inexpensive changes to their businesses to increase productivity and their bottom line.

Accepting Credit Cards: A Strategy to Boost Your Business

Melanie James — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:08:38 +0000

Online marketing is the modern way to do business. If your business already has a website, then you have already noticed an increase in your sales and customer potential.

Aside from creating a professional business website and making sure that its user friendly, there is another thing that you need to consider. What, you may ask?

Accept credit cards. Accepting credit cards from your customers will not only boost your sales, it will also give your business a better reputation.

Credit Cards Are a Must!

As we all know, almost everyone who is old enough to qualify for a credit card have one. And it is also a well-known fact that everyone who owns a credit card obviously use it in making purchases whether at regular stores or at online retail shops. Imagine how many potential sales you will be losing just because your customers are not able to purchase from you using their credit cards.

When a prospective buyer visits your business website and sees a product that he wants, your buyer might get disappointed to find out that your business only accepts cash purchases. The next time around, this same buyer may not even bother to visit your website again because he knows that you’re not accepting credit card transactions.

Advantages of Credit Card Payment

Remember, people always prefer what is more convenient for them. With a credit card, a person can instantly purchase a product he likes in just a few, simple steps without even going out of his house or office. This enormous convenience is one of the major reasons why most people prefer online shopping.

Another reason, is of course, most often than not, they don’t have the cash to make the purchase at that very moment.

A credit card gives your customers the opportunity to buy the product they want in advance, and pay them at a later time when they have the money.

Protect Your Customers

However, accepting credit cards require that your business can assure the security and safety of your customer’s personal information. With the prevalence of identity theft and credit card fraud, customers are also wary about making online purchases. Thus, it is very important that your website is embedded with SSL or Secure Socket Layers of at least 128 bit.

Customers will know that you are using SSL encryption when they see a padlock icon at the bottom right side of their browser. This way, your customers will feel at ease at placing orders and filling up their credit card information at your website.

Another credit card marketing strategy that your business needs is having a customer support system. When you accept credit card payments, you should be able to provide quick response to your customers regarding the status of their order, the status of their payment as well as the shipping details about their orders.

Be sure that you can provide support to your customer’s queries about matters concerning their purchase. Following these credit card strategies will surely increase your customer base and boost your sales in no time.

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About the Author:

Melanie James has spent the last 14 years working with businesses to implement quick, effective and inexpensive changes to their businesses to increase productivity and their bottom line.