August 2007
Accept Payments Online
— Safely, Securely
Hiring Family?
– Don't Hire Trouble
Are You Referring To Me?
How Do You Know What You
Don't Know? – Get A
Business Health Check
 
Accept Payments Online —
Safely, Securely
Websites are now capable of allowing pretty much the
full gamut of customer experience that a bricks
and mortar business can - apart from that sheer
"hands on" feeling. But that lack doesn’t seem
to be proving any hindrance to the popularity of
shopping online.
What does act as a turn off for would-be shoppers is
how secure they perceive your website to be and
how diligent you are in guarding credit card
details and the other personal details they hand
over as part of the transaction.
For many businesses the process of accepting payment
online is one that can no longer be ignored.
Internet buyers expect a speedy, uncomplicated,
full service transaction. Initially that meant
doing away with the "print this order form, fill
it in and mail it to us" approach to ordering
and replacing it with an online order. Now it
means the ability to use a credit card to
complete the transaction by paying right now
instead of going through the rigmarole of
waiting for an invoice to turn up in the mail
and then having to pay by check.
The process is advantageous to the seller as well
because they can cut out extra processes of
invoice production and mailing and at the same
time minimize the waiting time for cash inflow.
A number of innovations - both new technologies
and new ways of doing business - have done much
to make even small value transactions (micropayments)
less expensive for merchants and extended the
range of products that can be sold on a website.
But as transactions have become more ubiquitous, they
have also become the targets of fraudsters.
These days few buyers would be unaware of the
dangers inherent in putting their credit card
details onto the Internet. Even if they aren’t
familiar with the technological tricks that
fraudsters use to collect this information from
the unwary user, they have developed a natural
suspicion and wariness of openly providing their
card details. As a trader relying on them to do
just that, your site has to offer one major
incentive – a sense of security. There are two
areas that need protecting – the Internet
connection and the data that ultimately comes to
sit in the databases on your computer.
Providing a secure connection
Standard Internet connections do not provide a secure
mechanism in which credit card and personal
details, such as delivery address and phone
number, can be transmitted. This information
should only be transmitted over a connection
that actively protects this data to keep it
secure from hackers. The mechanism that allows
this is called ‘encryption’ or Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL). Enabling SSL requires special
programming, special set up of your web server
and a website certificate from a Certificate
Authority (an organization that certifies that
your business exists and that you own your
domain name). Your ISP or web developer will be
able to organize secure Internet submission
facilities for you.
The way to recognize a site with encryption is in its
url – it will start with https:// rather than
the usual http:// and the web browser has a lock
shown at the bottom of the screen (log in to
your online bank site and check). Don’t rely on
just those hints though. An obvious screen
message telling your potential online shopper
that your site is secure and that your online
payment systems, such as credit card processing,
are safe to use is also a must.
The reality of online transacting is that using SSL to
transmit credit card details is less dangerous
than handing over your credit card in a bricks
and mortar shop. There, and at ATMs, fraudsters
have come up with a range of methods to observe
and capture people’s credit card details that
can make transactions at these places more
dangerous than over the Internet. However it is
the perception – that online transactions
provide the most danger – that you have to deal
with. Installing SSL and advertising the fact
should remove any hesitation on the part of the
customer about going all the way online.
Protecting the data on your
computer
SSL ensures that credit card details and other
confidential information remains secure as they
cross the Internet. But once it’s on your
computer the data is open to hackers. In fact,
while customers may worry most about the
transmission of their data, really the data is
much more vulnerable once it is on your
computer. Hackers rarely have the ability or
access facilities to reliably capture data on
its way through the Internet, so their preferred
target is the destination computer.
The only way to protect data from hackers is to ensure
your website developer is conversant with the
latest methods of building security procedures
into the design of the website itself. They may
have a great talent for eye-catching design and
making navigation around the site easy but in
areas that will hold confidential information,
pulling in an expert to build the code is
essential.
In the online environment the ability to provide an
end to end transaction is now a must have as far
as customers are concerned. To make it work for
you and them though you will need to put the
time and effort into developing a secure
procedure for both the transmission of customer
information to your computer and for maintaining
it securely in your database.
To Top 
Hiring Family? – Don't
Hire Trouble
It’s very tempting in family businesses to hire from
within the family group whenever possible. It’s
not just a case of blood being thicker than
water. It’s often about wanting to get the
preferred successor(s) involved so they can
begin to get a handle on the business, the
desire to help out a family member who can’t get
employment elsewhere, or to avoid a family
argument. A host of pressures can be placed on
you to take on someone because they are
"family".
Family members can be just what you need in certain
circumstances. At startup they might be the ones
with the motivation to work hard and long for
small returns to get the business established.
Ongoing they might be valuable as part time help
for your rush periods or when they are between
jobs or on college breaks. And it’s estimated
that about half of all spouses play some part in
a family business, from sharing management
responsibilities, to doing the bookkeeping, to
just helping out occasionally.
Nevertheless, for all the positives that can be argued
for employing family, it’s equally possible to
argue the opposite side of the coin. Family
loyalty is great when it’s working but family
feuds can be more bitter, divisive and
ultimately harmful to the business than any
worker-to-worker dispute could be. Employing
family can create expectations about their
future role in the business that may not be in
line with what you had in mind when hiring them
and the disappointment can rupture
relationships. A family member can easily feel
slighted if one of their relatives is given a
pay increase or a promotion. And the decision to
fire a family member is unlikely to be anything
short of a major trauma.
For positions in the business that require expertise,
talent, and real commitment, hiring family
members whose only qualification is that they
are family is not a businesslike approach.
The ramifications go way beyond the fact that hiring
in a family member who can’t demonstrate the
requisite level of skill for their position will
create immediate feelings of resentment among
those employees who have won their position on
the basis of merit. If you don’t apply the same
rules when hiring family members as you would to
any other employee, you can find yourself with
serious morale problems that are likely to
effect productivity as well. So it makes sense
when considering hiring a family member to put
them through the same process you would an
outsider – make them apply for the job, do an
interview and go through the same induction any
other employee would.
In some cases it may be better to resist the
temptation to bring family direct from school or
college straight into the family business and
insist they do a period of work in another
business where they are just another employee.
Working elsewhere provides family members with an
education in how other companies think and
operate and removes the safety net of family
privilege so that when they do enter the family
business they'll bring with them wider
experience and more real life perspectives on
working relationships. They may even decide that
the family business is not what they want and
that is a decision better made earlier than
later.
When family members do come in to the business they
should be treated as much as possible like other
employees. Visible signs of favoritism will ruin
morale. They’ll have to understand that their
relationship to the owner doesn’t extend any
special privileges during working hours. Like
any other employee, a family member should have
specific goals to accomplish and be given tasks
with measurable outcomes. They’ll need a clear
description of their job and details of their
responsibilities.
Where the family business is large enough to provide a
career path through a number of roles, promotion
up the ladder should only be on merit, the same
as it would be for any non-family employee. That
protects both your relationship with those other
employees and the viability of your business –
relatedness is no substitute for aptitude in
keeping a business financial and competitive.
The potential for family relationships to
inappropriately influence business decision
making makes hiring, managing, and maybe having
to fire relatives, one of the most difficult
issues the family business owner faces. To
approach it in anything less than the
professional manner you would adopt in managing
an outsider is to invite serious longer term
problems for the business and maybe for family
relationships as well.
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Are You Referring To Me?
Getting other people, your customers, suppliers or
other business associates you have dealings
with, to recommend your business to others is
one of the most economical ways to grow trade. A
referral comes pre-qualified as a hot lead
because of the positive recommendation they have
received about how good your product or service
is.
Encouraging referrals should be an active process. You
can do nothing and just hope people will refer
you - or you can work on making it happen. Here
are some ideas on how to make it happen.
Make it easy for people to refer
you
Make referral a convenient and simple process. Instead
of requiring referrer businesses to keep your
details in mind or go to a directory to find
them give them some materials such as a bunch of
your business cards or a small brochure to
display.
Now you don’t put your referrers on the spot over
explaining what you do or why you do it or how
to contact you – it’s all there in the brochure.
Brochures and business cards out on display also
keep you front of mind with the referrer.
In professional services firms one of the best
strategies is to let potential referrers know
exactly what sort of person you would like
referred to you. The person being asked probably
doesn't have a clear idea of what a great
referral would look like for you and so don’t
feel sure about who to mention you to. Think up
a short clear statement describing the type of
client you service best. For an architect it may
revolve around the type of work they are best at
- building dwellings or factories; doing
sensitive restorations; creating energy saving
homes.
Reciprocate - prudently
When another business person refers someone to you a
tacit understanding of reciprocity is set up.
They will likely expect referrals from you in
return.
Try and keep a balance between the number of people a
business refers to you and how many you refer to
them. Where one person is getting all the
referrals without reciprocating a ‘trade
deficit’ occurs and can generate bad feeling or
even dry up the flow as they swap their
referrals to other businesses who do
reciprocate.
On the other hand be sure you really do trust the
quality of service of businesses you refer
people to because if they happen to fail the
customer your business will suffer by
association.
Reward your referrers
Because referring is a reciprocal obligation and sets
up a social bond between the referrer and the
referee it helps to cement the relationship by
observing a few social niceties. When a customer
tells you they have been referred to you by
Business Y take the time to thank your contact
at Business Y. Where your referrer sends a lot
of business your way an occasional gift or even
a referral fee might be in order. For major
customer accounts it might mean sending them a
birthday card or personal note about the birth
of a child.
Don’t become complacent about your referral sources.
Make the people who refer to you feel
appreciated and they'll want to refer you again
and again.
Build your network of referrers
Everybody is a potential referrer for your business
including family members, friends, business
associates and current customers.
Think through who could be a possible referrer for you
and how you can make it your name that comes to
mind when they are thinking of advising someone
about a business that could service their need.
For many small business owners a consistent flow
of referrals has been the basis on which they
have built their entire business. In
professional services firms referrals can be the
most productive source of clients. People want
to do business with other people they know, like
and trust and when that person refers them on to
you, some of that trust automatically attaches
to you. That’s why referrals are so valuable -
having someone’s trust is the very best starting
point for making a sale.
To Top
How Do You Know What You Don't Know?– Get A Business Health Check
All businesses have weaknesses. If you want to sustain
and grow your business it's vital to address
them before they threaten your chances of long
term success.
In many Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) the
manager, while usually acutely skilled in their
particular profession, has only a limited
understanding of the wider range of management
skills that are essential to business continuity
and growth such as strategy development,
financial forecasting, marketing, information
technology and so on.
While their own specialist skills often provide the
major strength of the business it’s the lack of
experience in all those ancillary aspects of
management that create dangerous vulnerabilities
and that can unravel a business. For a business
to survive or grow, all the different parts have
to be working and meshing smoothly.
Managers often become aware of their limitations only
when something starts to frustrate their plans
or a crisis looms up. The business has grown to
a certain point and now there is a lack of focus
or strategic direction and they don’t know where
to take it next; or operational inefficiencies
are starting to show and there is increasing
waste and delays in production; customers are
leaving for no apparent reason and they can’t
seem to win new ones; there are performance
issues with employees that they just don’t have
the knack of coping with to get things back on
track; there’s confusion about what technologies
might improve production or how to implement
them.
Since no small business owner/manager can be expected
to be on top of all the managerial skills that
go towards making a business operate profitably
what can they do to know what they don’t know?
Working with a business advisor to help them analyze
how the business is currently performing over
all its critical operations – often referred to
as a business health check – is an essential
first step. A business health check is a short,
highly focused question and answer review. A
comprehensive diagnostic survey will enable you
to identify the areas of your business that need
improving and the areas that offer the best
opportunities for profit growth. A good business
advisor should be able to perform this service
quickly and provide you with a detailed report
on areas that need attention.
At this stage you have the equivalent of a diagnosis –
you have identified what’s wrong and put a name
to it. But as with your personal health checkup,
while there is some comfort in having identified
exactly what is wrong, what you really want is a
cure. Good advisors can do more than just
diagnose. They have enough knowledge of business
basics to be able to offer advice and suggest
specific actions to improve the areas of
weakness whether it be how to improve the return
on investment in marketing spend, improving
customer profitability, reducing waste or
improving cash flow. And as a bonus, along the
way you become more familiar with general
management principles and gain more insight into
how your business works. Being able to make
informed decisions hands you more control over
taking the business where you want it to go and
improving its competitiveness.
There are many facets to managing a business
successfully and you really can’t afford to
ignore any of them. A business health check is a
painless exercise that can identify your
operational strengths and weaknesses and the
opportunities and threats that exist in your
industry and market. An objective assessment by
our experienced business advisors could make a
huge difference to your business. It will
provide a greater understanding of the issues
underlying poor performance and deliver concrete
suggestions for how to go about improving
things.
Qualify leads: to avoid wasting time on tire
kickers or missing out on a hot lead you need a
system to qualify the leads that come in. It
might be as simple as a checklist of the ideal
customer or the ‘feel’ of the person who took
the inquiry, but it needs to be made so that
response priorities and the amount of time and
effort to invest in nurturing the lead can be
assigned.
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