Every new rule needs to be associated with one and only one person who is willing to stand up for it and explain it (to your people and to the public).
At one point our service agreement was three pages long…until we extended it to four pages. Why in the world did we do that? I’m sorry but I do not have an answer. A few years ago I feel like we wised up and cut the superfluous junk out and now the entire agreement is a single page. For this I do have an answer: it is easier for everyone. When the agreement was four pages long, I could be assured that 90% of the people it was sent to were not reading it. The folks that were reading it were confused. When we wanted to make a change, it was an ordeal because of all of the references in the document. Perhaps worst of all, I had to re-read the document to make sure I could respond to every item included and if I wasn’t familiar with all of the policies, how could I expect any one to want to even try?
Yesterday, Seth Godin rather succinctly created a rule for making rules: at least one person has to be capable (and willing) to speak up when the rule is challenged. This doesn’t mean you have to go through each and every policy and make one team member responsible for each, but the next time one of your policies is challenged, make sure you (or someone else) can and will defend it.
It certainly can be thankless and most often it is not glamorous, so this Friday, take a moment to thank your SysAdmin for everything they make happen (your email, your applications) and everything they keep from happening (viruses). Happy
SysAdmin Day!
Share your glory and/or horror stories in the comments.
“All confident people have three things in common: Self confident people are optimistic, they face their fears and deal with them and surround themselves with positive people.” – Ben Bilanich
The Optimist Creed is a 10 point guide to self confidence, success and becoming more optimistic. By following these “common sense” rules, your personal and business success will boost and continue to grow. I will go over a couple points that I have learned to apply to my life and have made me a more successful person.
The first is “Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.” This is one of those “easier 
said than done” statements but you can make it possible with the right attitude. When I was in college, I worked in a portrait studio taking pictures of families and kids. During the Christmas season, we had photo sessions every 10 minutes – literally impossible to do. Before I got to work, I already knew I was going to have a bad day because no matter how hard I tried or how good our photographers were, customers were going to be angry because of their long wait. I was already convincing myself of the bad day I had ahead of me before I stepped foot in the studio. I decided it was time to change my way of thinking and not let things I couldn’t control affect my attitude. While the customers waited, I gave them books to browse so they could have an idea of what they wanted before their session time. This way the customer did not feel neglected and it got them in and out of the studio faster so other families wouldn’t have such long waiting periods. I took control of the situation and by choosing to be strong, it helped the flow of the studio and I kept my peace of mind.
Another point in the Optimist Creed that I can relate to is “Promise yourself to forget the mistakes of your past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.” Set backs and failures are an inevitable part of life. Self confident people are not intimidated by their failures. They embrace it and move forward towards their goal. A good example of this would be an athlete. The goal in any sport is to win or be number one. What does a boxer do when he looses a fight? The boxer and his trainer will sit together and review a tape of the fight and see what he did wrong and what he can improve on. Even though he lost, he gained knowledge for next time.
These are just two of the ten points on the Optimist Creed that I relate to. For a free copy of Optimist Creed click here. What the author suggests is hanging a copy near your desk to continually remind yourself of these self confident rules to become a more success peron in your career and personal life.
“Customer Service is Always King”
I have heard this conversation many times recently, in the office, with friends and at the Customer Service Excellence Award ceremony I attended. This is a program developed by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to recognize people for their outstanding customer service. At the ceremony all of the nominees accepted their awards, had a picture taken with the mayor, picked up their snazzy pin to show off to everyone!
Before distributing the pins, the host of the ceremony thanked everyone for a job well done and reminded everyone of the importance and the impact great customer service has during a slow economy. It can make or break your business. The concept seems like a no-brainer but to my surprise, I still hear stories from friends and colleagues about their awful experiences. Keep in mind, when dealing with your customers that they are the key to your success. Great customer service is essential all the time and especially during this rough economic time. We want to impress them and we want them to return. Customers are less likely to return to your business if they do not get the type of customer service they expect, or better. Make sure that you always follow through. Word of mouth is an effective, low-cost method of marketing. Remember, every customer who has a good experience will share it with 1 or 2 people. Customers who have experienced negative service will share that with 8 to10 people.
Check out customerservicezone.com for great ideas for almost every situation.
The sun is shining. Spring break has already passed. It just seems like most of us would rather be somewhere else doing something else. Sometimes even after a long weekend, rather than coming back refreshed and reinvigorated, it seems more difficult to get back into the swing of things. So how can you stay on task and avoid distractions? Read these 10 helpful ways to get your sparkle back!
- Collect all of the items on your ‘to-do’ list in one place. Clear your mind and then prioritize. Start with the most important items and watch the impact you make. Taking care of your highest priorities first will help the other pieces fall into place.
- Set up your plans and record your progress. Write an outline and mark items off as you complete them. Checking a box or marking an item done can be a great motivator.
- Set achievable goals and realistic rewards for yourself. Then treat yourself when you do reach your goal. Even if it’s something small like a banana split, you will remember the impact.
- Don’t underestimate the value of role models. Read about successful people that you admire and learn how they think and behave. You should even talk to your friends or invite a colleague to lunch to hear how they stay motivated.
- Keep a success diary. Record your successes and how you felt when you achieved the success. It will make a great read later when you might feel you need another boost.
- Listen to your body. It’s easy to become sluggish if you are not getting the proper rest and not eating properly. An adjustment to your sleeping patterns or diet might be just what you need.
- Make it a habit. It takes 28 days for a habit to start forming. The more consistent you are, the easier your daily tasks will become. Take advantage of the momentum you create for yourself.
- Make working towards your goals fun. For example, each time you make a sale, have customers ring a bell. It will also serve as a reminder of what a good job your team is doing.
- Enthusiasm is infectious. Attend networking events, read and list to others that are enthusiastic about their business and your industry.
- Work hard and play hard. You will enjoy work and leisure time more if you keep a good balance between.
Summer time means more vacations and leisure time. It’s easy to get side tracked, but remember these tips and make it a priority to stay focused!
Thanks to all of the users that attended the MAS 90/200 User Group meeting on February 19. We covered a tremendous amount of information.
During the meeting, Esther talked about Sage Online. This website includes all of the knowledgebase information your consultants use for researching service issues. With a current subscription agreement, you can create a profile here and log on to your account here. If you are not an authorized contact for your Sage account, you will need to complete the form here. Esther also talked about the Product Enhancement Request Form that you can find here. Sage uses these suggestions to develop future upgrade releases.
Esther also demonstrated five Extended Solutions. Here are links to information about those enhancements. A complete list of the 700+ Extended Solutions can be found here and the list of Esther’s Extended Solutions Honorable Mentions can be found here.
BR-1004 Positive Pay Export
BR-1005 Bank Reconciliation Import
GL-1064 Bank Reconciliation Integration with General Journal
LM-1028 Background Color by Company Code
PR-1064 Tax And Deduction Liability Check Generation
Annette showed some options for printing labels and customizing them to your exact needs. You can download these basic forms using these links. We’ve also included a link to the instructions included in your handouts here.
Vendor Mailing Labels Avery Form 5160.rpt
Vendor File Labels Avery Form 5266.rpt
Active Employee File Lables Avery Form 5266.rpt
If you have any questions about these links or any of the topics we covered during the meeting, just send a note. If you have suggestions for future meetings, we want to hear from you. And if there are any other items you would like to discuss, just let us know. If you aren’t yet on the mailing list and want to receive notices for upcoming meetings, send us a note.
Thanks again to all of the users for making the meetings such a terrific success.
Spreadsheets are great for calculating interest but they are not an effective way to generate reports. Use your software. Today every business management software package has some kind of custom report writer available, yet many businesses are creating their business critical reports using Excel. Learning your system’s custom reporting tool and creating your reports using these tools will provide companies with huge return. Once custom reports are created, and all transactions are completed for that accounting period, then reports are generated at the touch of a button and the report contains actual data. Spreadsheet reports require too much time for data entry, possibility for data entry error and probability of formula corruption. Spreadsheet reports lack timeliness, integrity and the ability to reproduce historical reports.
In the latest issue of the Nevada Business Journal, the Managing Partner at Acuity Solutions, Shari Farkas writes about some very useful ideas that businesses of all sizes can apply.
By taking a common-sense and tactful approach, technology can be applied effectively by small businesses. Let us hear about your approach to technology for your business in the comments.
The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce recently published a paper outlining some very sensible strategies businesses can employ in seven different arenas “when the economy sours.” While we might argue that, at this point, if the economy has soured, following the advice provided may either pull your business out of a slump or keep it from falling into a slump in the first place.
Two of the sales strategies mentioned in the document recommend prioritizing both your sales prospects and your existing customers. We can all agree that we should exert our effort where we will realize the biggest return; after all, how many references to the Pareto Principle can you recall from prior sales training?
ACT! by Sage ships with some pretty terrific reports for prioritizing your efforts that might work for you right out of the box. By following the Reports Menu to Edit Template, you can even modify the existing reports to meet your needs or click New Template to start from scratch. By using these tools to analyze where you need to focus your sales and marketing energy, you will also be working within another of the included strategies: optimizing operations.
Sage Software shipped all customers on a current subscription the 4.3 release last week. There has been a lot of talk for a long time about this release such as:
- The inclusion of the most popular Paperless Office enhancements
- Integrating the Fixed Assets module with Accounts Payable and Purchase Order
- The expansion of Business Insights Explorer to include General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Inventory Management and Purchase Order views
However, there is another less talked about (but maybe more anticipated) enhancement included: the simplification of report selection criteria.
No longer are users required to move to a second tab to define the criteria, but better yet is that users now have the option to keep the selection criteria window open after printing or previewing a report. That means you no longer have to navigate through the menus to run multiple iterations of a single report. It has been a long time coming.
Considering that and the fact that we’ve had some time to do our best to break the new release so it doesn’t break at the customer’s site, we’re getting excited about moving ahead with the upgrades. It’s also important to note that Sage has not yet had to release a service update for version 4.3.
Let’s hear what is exciting you about the upgrade to version 4.3 in the comments.
