Goodbye US Post Office

STOP relying on the US Post Office for your payments

Now more than ever, you should STOP relying on the US Post Office to send out your invoices and to receive prompt payments from clients! Here's one MORE reason why-http://bit.ly/10OCF56-our mail is about to get even slower, even if Saturday delivery is preserved. Go electronic using custom methods that suit you, and your payments will speed up. Many clients prefer to use electronic methods as well. I can show you how you can accommodate them.

PayPal wants your checking account PIN

For shame! The invisible folks at PayPal now think that in order to verify your credit card payment/donation on a PayPal page, you should voluntarily give them your checking account number and personal ID number (PIN) to assure them you will pay.

I am not the only one taking exception to this.

The New York Times ran an article in the Sunday Business section on March 26th. They think it's foolhardy too.

Why would anyone ever give more personal information that is absolutely needed?

The combination of your street address, zip code (called Address Verification in the e-payments business,) coupled with the CVV (3- or 4-digit code on the back of Visa/MasterCard/Discover cards and front right corner of American Express cards, respectively) is plenty of identification in almost all cases, in my opinion.

The real effect of asking all this information PLUS your checking account number and PIN, is to drive e-tail purchasers and online donors, away from PayPal payment pages. While this appears to hurt ecommerce and online donations, to quote Martha Stewart, that's "a good thing!" for you. Really.

Why?
PayPal is expensive, allows no customization and lacks efficient client service (according to my clients). I have lots of other reasons too, acquired from former PayPal clients.

Now they want your personal ID number and checking account number! C'mon...

Now a few words from guest blogger Doug Campbell

As a CEO Coach and Business Owner, I am constantly looking for ways to make businesses more efficient and easier to operate. About 9 years we began accepting credit cards for our tutoring business (Sylvan Learning Center in Darien CT). It seemed like a big step at the time, and it was also potentially costly because our average charge is $100+. Nevertheless, it has been widely successful. Within 6 months 70% of our clients were using credit cards, and it is now close to 85%. The time spent preparing bills and mailing each month has been cut by 6 hours. The money is in the account almost immediately each month. Cash flow is less of a worry, and the rent check can go out on the 3rd of the month.

If you are a small business and still not using credit, reconsider the benefits in time, administration, and cash flow when you think through your strategies. If you are using credit, you should also periodically review your vendor – we lowered our fees substantially after 3 years with the first vendor and now receive better service. There are also incredible new tools to help you with cash flow and profitability in your business that are constantly being developed. Don’t let your competitors get a leg up on you. Make the time to talk to a credit expert – you will be surprised on the upside.

All the best.

Douglas Campbell III "The Success Coach"
203-975-0320 cell 203-952-1161
www.thesuccesscoach.com

Speaker * Author * Entrepreneur * Executive & Career Coach

Coaching Top-Performing Executives & Business Owners to Achieve Even Higher Levels of Success

The Success Coach on Networking (7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boKH8yfYFNk

Business Conference Speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b61rV19JAk

The Success Coach, Business Expert, for Wells Fargo Bank on Onboarding New Employees

https://wellsfargo.imaginationdigitalmedia.com/business-insights/?episode=C7 (5)

Author Where To Go From Here: Reinventing Your Career, Your Business, Your Working Life (2009). It is available through Amazon, at Barrett Bookstore (Darien), Elm Street Books (New Canaan), and through the author as a book or ebook.

Would you like to save $4000 a year?

It pains me to meet a nonprofit to find out that their credit card rates and other online donor services are so out of the market that they could realize savings of $4000 a year, that's a 50% savings! It happened again last week in Stamford.

Not that they are foolish or asleep at the wheel; on the contrary. It's just that my trained and objective eye can find new ways to give them the same functionality (actually better!) for less.

Once a controller came up to me after a presentation meeting at which I won their business and said, "You don't realize what you've just done-you saved us enough money to take one of our staffers and make her a full time employee."

Now that's good for the employee and for the organization. And it makes me feel good too, that I am able to help out in a new way.

What can we do for you?

Flattery will get you everywhere

Funny how things happen in pairs.


First, at the Thanksgiving table, several of us got into a discussion how bad customer service has become. We all agreed that our businesses would die if we gave the same lousy customer service to our clients that we receive as consumers.


Then, I received this accolade from Fred Klein, guru of Gotham City Networking, a nationwide social-business networking organization that he founded 10+ years ago and runs as a labor of love. His Thanksgiving posting on the Gotham blog was arranged as an acrostic, and I was mentioned in the "H" line (quoting Fred below):
...
As I have said many times, we are a social-business networking group which is more akin to a tribe than anything else. It is fun for me and I hope it is the same for you. We pledge to keep innovating,invigorating, pushing the envelope, waving the wand and one last note--feel free to make a suggestion (and you will own it).

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the Tribe from A to Z:
...

H-Marc Halpert for being our service obsessed credit card maven.


Thanks, Fred, for recognizing what we do differently than the rest, in front of over 500 other Gothamites, for the unique service quality we give to you as our client. AND thanks and for the opportunities Gotham has given me as a member of such a great organization.


Folks, just ask me about Gotham! Got an hour or so? As we say in Gotham, what goes around, comes around. Today, the thank-yous are flying.