The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Making Graceful Business Apologies When You Need to and More
Our research ninjas at Credit Suite got ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! To be a great entrepreneur, you even need to know how to make graceful business apologies.
Fortunately, we show you right here, so sit tight.
Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.
And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!
#10. Save the Planet!
Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about a half a dozen ways small businesses can help fight climate change. Salesforce laid out some great ideas on how your business can do its part.
We really loved the tip about watching your waste. But we weren’t so sure it went far enough. Now, of course, by changing from bottled water to a pitcher with cups (even if those cups are single-use) will cut waste, why not go to the root of a lot of waste?
Packaging.
Just how delicate is whatever it is you’re shipping? Can you get it drop shipped from nearby to cut fuel costs and maybe some of the padding? What about making a package tamper-proof? Does it need three layers of protection, or will two suffice?
And what about the space after contents settle? Maybe contents could settle earlier – is that at all possible? After all, if a box of cereal is 12 inches tall but the fully-packed product only comes up to 10 inches, think of all of the cardboard, ink, glue, and other manufacturing and packing that could be saved by lopping off those two inches? And that doesn’t even get into shipping, as you can ship more packages when they’re smaller, thereby using fewer trucks.
Think both inside and outside the box; your business might just save the planet!
#9. Protect Your Brand the Right Way
The next awesome tip is about the kinds of brand protecting mistakes your business might be making now. Small Business Bonfire offered four ways you just might be messing up this vital part of business.
We particularly liked monitoring reviews. And it dovetails so well with tip #5, don’t you think?
What happens if you start amassing a ton of bad reviews? Now, we are all aware there are people with axes to grind. And there’s also any number of kinds of online mischief people can get into. But this isn’t those issues.
Rather, what happens when your product or service is just accumulating one-stars?
Don’t Panic
Sometimes negative reviews aren’t about your product or service at all – but you should still monitor them. And, as we show further down in tip #5, you should address them.
Have you ever seen a bad Amazon review where someone never mentioned the product at all, but complained the external packaging was torn? Or maybe they said the product was late arriving. Another such complaint might revolve around customs fees or the like.
Even though many of those aren’t your fault, they may still tar your product with a negative brush. And, by extension, your business as well. A well-placed apology (see tip #5, yes, we really mean it!) or a word with your supplier or distributer might go a long way.
#8. Solve Your Self-Employment Challenges
Our following life-changing tip concerns solving problems of self-employment. Zen Business gathered together some stellar tips of how to fix some things which you may not think of immediately when you decide to go it alone.
In particular, we were happy with the one about saving for retirement. It’s a lot easier to save when you are employed and your 401(k) or pension money is just a pre-tax payroll deduction. You never see the money and so you never miss it. And if your employer kicks in a percentage, then so much the better.
But when it’s just you, you will need to be more disciplined about this. The article advises regularly paying in, and we agree. But we advise taking it one step further – talk with your bank. Set up an automatic transfer every week or month in a retirement savings account so you won’t have to remember to do this.
#7. Go with the Flow
For our next sensational tip, we looked at devising a content creation process flow. Process Street detailed just how to do that.
Their best tip (we thought) was about writing down the process in detail. For example, it might be to start with requesting research. Then the next step might be expanding on the research. And then the following step could be to write the first draft.
We use Asana for this, and we have found it to be exceptionally helpful. In particular, we love that you can assign subtasks to various team members, and you can copy tasks. That way, if Jane is the editor, her name is on the editing tasks. She can get dates assigned and even notifications of new tasks.
You can also use BaseCamp or other project management tools, with varying features and costs (some even free!). Or wing it without a tool, but at least, for the love of content, write down what you want done.
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#6. Get Up, Stand Up
This tip is so out there, and it works! Kim Garst says to stop sitting around and get a standing desk.
We’ve probably all read about how a lot of sitting is awful for you. So, what to do? Two great solutions are standing desks and bicycle desks. Ms. Garst reviewed a FlexiSpot Desk Pro, and she loved the results. We suggest you check out her review (because she did find some flaws with assembly) and also shop around if this interests you.
But there’s another thing you can do. And it doesn’t involve a special desk.
Walk this Way
Yes, you read right. Get up during the day. Of course we all have deadlines and the weather doesn’t always cooperate. But if you can get outside, even for 5 to 10 minutes and stroll around the block, then you’ll get some benefit from that as well. This isn’t necessarily a power walk to try to burn calories. You could even window shop if you’re downtown. Just … get out of the recycled air and move a bit.
You may find you’ve got increased concentration. Plus it can help with seasonal affective disorder if you get that. And you just might save your eyes a bit. Hey, it can’t hurt.
#5. Graceful Business Apologies
Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! Because it’s vital to know how to make graceful business apologies – before you think you’ll ever need to.
Don’t think you’ll ever need to? That’s tons of other businesses thought, until they were confronted with a crisis. The best way to handle a crisis is to be ready for it. So here’s how.
Conversion XL offers the perfect sequence of operations for how your business can say, “I’m sorry.”
Express Regret
This is so important, and we were so glad it was #1 on the list. After all, we all know people skim-read all. The. Time. If the apology doesn’t lead with “I’m sorry” or “We’re sorry” or “___(company name)__ is sorry”, then you’re missing the point. And if your audience just skims, then they’ll miss it, too.
Explain What Went Wrong
- The weather in Kuwait made the almond crop fail.
- Our manufacturing process suffered during our transition to more automation.
- Our notifications went out late because there was a problem with our scheduling app.
Clear, concise information goes a long way with graceful business apologies. This means no technobabble and no corporate double talk. The paradigm didn’t perform in a substandard fashion; your process didn’t work.
Acknowledge Your Responsibility
Don’t point fingers, and don’t shift blame. And that means, yes, that if the almond crop fails due to circumstances beyond your control, well, let’s face it, you could have had an alternate means of growing most crops. Forget that it’s not feasible or economical. Just go with it being possible, if you must find a way to own up for something beyond your control.
- We have been slow to address these problems.
- Unfortunately, I was out of town at the time.
- This level of service is not acceptable to us.
Declare Your Repentance
Sounds a bit religious, doesn’t it? That’s because apologies, regrets, and mea culpa’s are all rooted in religion. Why do you think Yom Kippur and the confessional exist, anyway?
- We will work to make this right.
- Our company will strive to be more sensitive in the future.
- As a result of this incident, we are stepping up our anti-discrimination training across the board, for everyone in the company.
Offer Repair
This goes beyond the repentance and how you’re going to fix yourself so the incident doesn’t recur. It is, instead, how you’re going to make the customer whole again.
- We would like to offer you 10,000 airline miles to keep our promise to you to do better next time.
- As a part of our commitment to improvement, we are enclosing a full bottle of our bestselling shampoo.
- To help make up for our goof, we are making shipping free for you all month long. Just use code IMSORRY when you check out.
Request Forgiveness
Still sounds a bit religious? Well, sure it does.
- We would greatly appreciate your feedback on this and any other aspect of your experience with us. Please email ___ (or fill out this survey, etc.).
- Thank you for letting us know; if there is any future trouble, please tell us! We want to make things right.
- We are still looking into this matter and expect our findings by ___. We’ll be sure to share with you what we found. Because we don’t ever want this to happen again.
These steps, plus sincerity (yes, really!) make for dynamic, graceful business apologies which can save your company’s collective bacon. And who knows? You might even get more customers based on such stellar customer service. And that’s nothing to be sorry for.
#4. Presenting… Your Business
Check out this spectacular tip, all about customized presentation designs for your business. Infographic Design Team offered some great reasons why you should ditch the templates and hire a design team.
For those of us who are design-challenged (raises hand), it may sometimes seem like any design is as good as another. But such is not the case. Instead, good design can put your customer front and center. This can potentially increase sales.
Another aspect we really liked was all about breaking down difficult concepts into simpler forms. You may have trouble explaining your product or service’s value proposition. But good design, specifically tailor-made for your business, can help to solve that issue. And it may also save you on customer service costs. If your product and how it works is more readily understood, you just might get fewer support calls.
#3. Sign Up Here, Please
It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can get more people to sign up for your product, service, or mailing list. Red Website Design made it clear how to increase signups. One stellar idea is to eliminate unnecessary form fields. And we are all for that – hurray!
Seriously, do you need the customer’s middle initial? Unless you’re engraving something, that would a big ole nope.
This works well with another tip, which is to eliminate distractions. If your prospect is filling out your form, you don’t want to also be hitting them with your video or sidebar notification.
We could all use straighter paths in our online lives.
#2. Business Virtue Rocks
Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on business charitable giving. Score covered how small businesses are golden when it comes to supporting local charitable efforts. Did you know small businesses give 250% more to local nonprofits and community causes than bigger businesses do?
That’s a lot of cash.
Small businesses are most likely to sponsor youth organizations and give to local charities. Other popular options include donating to local first responders and volunteering at soup kitchens.
And if that’s not enough, business charitable giving also favorably influences perceptions of a business. And it’ll make your employees happier. So doing the right thing can even make you money. Pretty neat, huh?
#1. Don’t Run from Failure – Embrace It
We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on the bugbear of failure. The Lazy Reader outlined how to embrace and maybe even celebrate failure just a little bit.
After all, failure is a learning tool. Edison said he didn’t fail – he just found 10,000 ways something didn’t work. And nearly a decade ago, measurement guru Avinash Kaushik said, “God created the internet so we could fail faster.”
So make mistakes. Take chances. Learn and grow. And conquer the world.
So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?
