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Sales Receipt - Printing the Full Credit Card Number is Against the 2003 Law
My local Sears store may get sued one of these days because it is still printing the full credit card numbers on their sales receipts.According to the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which went into effect on December 4, 2006, the retailers are not allowed to print their customers' full credit card numbers on the sale receipts in an effort to prevent consumer fraud and identity theft.Some claim card expiration dates should also not be printed but the law is not clear on that point.Big merchants such as Rite-Aid, Wendy's, FedEx, TJX, and Ikea are already being sued for doing exactly that.100 class-action lawsuits are already filed at the federal courts and district courts (in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas) for continuing to print full credit card numbers on sales receipts.The lawsuits contend that the retailers are "wilfully" violating the law, which carry a $1,000 penalty per transaction (not per person). So, if a consumer has bought 10 sandwiches from a store with 10 different receipts displaying the full credit card number, the penalty sought would be $10,000.To prevent the onslaught of these new lawsuits, VISA started to demand its vendors back in 2003 to accept new machines that print only the last four digits of a credit card number. That sti

Of course, you can always find team building companies that will take your money and promise you the moon within a half day or even 2 hour time frame. Buyer beware. You have been warned. Of course, if your goal is strictly recreational, that is doable in half a day or two hours.

When determining an appropriate time frame, consider if there are items other than team building that you need to include in your agenda. A number of the companies with which we work have included vendor and client presentations, departmental presentations, and presentations about plans for the upcoming year into their corporate retreats and team building sessions. The key is to determine the content THEN select the appropriate time frame, not the reverse. So, what are some realistic time frames and formats for team building. Here are some ideas:

Half Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation

1 Hour - Mini-Simulation or Recreational Activity
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1/2 Hour - Preparation for Application Exercise
1/2 Hour - Breakout Group Presentations ( Maximum 2 - 3 Groups - 10 - 15 minutes each)

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour

Sell More Accessories - Jimmy Ralph's Tips to Build a Successful Accessory Sales Plan
"For many wireless retailers, accessory sales are an afterthought - a category that provides some incremental sales and profitability, but one (whose) true potential remains untapped," said Jimmy Ralph, in a Dealerscope article published last year.The President of Retail Business Development, Inc., an independent wireless retail consulting firm, Ralph insists accessories are both needed and wanted. But in order to fulfill such customer needs and wants, he says, “You’ll need a plan.”Before putting together a plan, a retailer must first take stock of what his/her store is currently doing, in terms of total accessory sales, sales per location, and gross profit from accessory sales. From this information, Ralph says, you build your accessory sales plan.1. Accessory assortmentTo determine which accessories you plan to sell, it’s obviously best to look at what handset models you carry and match accessories to them. “This process will identify why items are missing from your current assortment and which items overlap,” explains Ralph.It is also important to organize accessories based on categories (i.e. utilitarian versus fashion accessories, car accessories, Bluetooth, etc.) and also carry a range of items that clearly vary based on features and price. “Look at it from the consumer’s point

There are many benefits to offering team building sessions and corporate retreats. At the end of a particularly successful corporate retreat that I recently facilitated, I overheard employees making comments the following comments:

"It's because of sessions like this that this is one of the best places to work."

"This company must really value its employees to invest so much time and money in us."

Here are some tips to help you ensure that your next team building session or executive retreat is just as successful.

Clarify Your Objectives

Before you plan your team building session or corporate retreat, it is important to be clear about your objectives. Far too often, companies end up disappointed in the results because expectations were not clearly identified and articulated. Ideally, outcomes should pinpoint the desired impact on the business and be stated in measurable terms. Unfortunately, many organizations treat team building as a discretionary event and don't attempt to link it to the needs of the business:

Examples of Team Building Objectives

Improve customer satisfaction by 15%
Improve employee satisfaction by 10%
Reduce churn by 5%
Improve the closing ratio of the sales team by 12%

Even "softer" outcomes like these could be stated in measurable terms if one takes the time to think through the specific impact on the business:

Forge stronger alliances between geographically dispersed teams
Fine-tune your marketing and sales strategy
Reduce friction and "turf wars" between organizational levels and departments.
Improve communication between teams and departments
Improve your decision making process
Identify strategies to reduce red tape and duplication of effort
Brainstorm and generate new strategies to resolve business issues and overcome challenges
Manage projects more effectively even within tight time frames

Planning Considerations for Team Building

Once you are clear about your objectives, it is important to determine:

number of participants
positions and levels of participants in organization
physical disabilities and constraints
budget
time frame

If you are using an external team building consultant for your corporate retreat, identify a clear decision making process and decision making criteria. Ideally, you should be in a position to make a decision no more than 2 weeks after contacting prospective vendors. You should allow at least a month, preferably 2 months for adequate planning of your session. It amazes me how often we are contacted with companies who want to pull together a complex team building session in a two week or less than one week time frame.

Select the Right Locations for Team Building and Corporate Retreats

Your choice of location can make or break your team building session or corporate retreat. Let your objectives and theme drive the location selection decision and not vice versa. I recall a time when a prospective client had blown most of the budget on a high end conference facility. The result? There was little left in the budget for a facilitator.

Determine if you will require assistance with location scouting and be fair about it. An experienced team building firm should be able to help you find a location to fit your budget. However, it does take time to call around, check availability and come up with just the right fit. For foreign locations, long distance charges are often incurred. It is not kosher to expect consultants to do your location scouting for free. It is also not appropriate to do the event on your own and use the location suggested by a team building service provider.

If your budget is limited, scout around. You may be able to find some unique and cost effective locations for your events. You can stretch your budget by using summer camps during off-peak season, amusement parks, acting studios. the catering department of community colleges to save on the cost of refreshments, movie theatres, camp sites, and conservation areas. 3 looking to save money on location, it is important to book your session WELL in advance.....3 - 4 months in advance. To book a group camp site and shelter, you would need a 5 - 6 month lead time.

Select Your Theme

One of the best strategies for "spicing up" your team building sessions and corporate retreats is to come up with a theme. Based on your theme, you can select an appropriate venue, energizers, session starters, music, video clips, graphics for slides and handouts, and menu items. The key is to let your objectives and content drive the theme. To come up with your theme, create a mind map. Put your content and topics in the centre and come up with as many themes as possible that relate to your topics. If you want to fine-tune your sales and marketing strategy or prepare your team for "uncharted territory" and change, a Survivor team building sessions would be the most appropriate choice. If you want to hone project management and leadership skills or help them improve their effectiveness in pulling projects together within tight time frames, a team building session based on the TV show the Apprentice would be a perfect fit. If your team needs to improve its ability to cope with a fast paced environment, a surprisingly affordable polo team building sessions would fit the bill.

Set a Realistic Time Frame

Sometimes, companies are totally unrealistic about the time frame for a retreat. It is surprising how many people think that they can do a full blown simulation with debriefing, application exercises, and a presentation by a member of the senior management team in half a day. Let me stress this in bold. A half day simulation with adequate time for debriefing and business application exercises is just not doable. The only way that it can work is if the simulation or activity is very simple or short and you have one very clear and specific objective or core message that you want to convey. Of course, you can always find team building companies that will take your money and promise you the moon within a half day or even 2 hour time frame. Buyer beware. You have been warned. Of course, if your goal is strictly recreational, that is doable in half a day or two hours.

Half Day Team Building Format

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour -

The 4 Secrets Of Expert Salesmen
"This radio was purchased in 1926. It doesn’t work." So declared best window display I have ever encountered. Next to the antique radio was a well worn pair of brown wingtip shoes, with its own, carefully lettered, small announcement: "This pair of shoes was bought at Brophy’s in 1926. Still being worn."More passers-by were attracted into the shoe store by that small, simple display than by any other combination of merchandise arranged in the window. Why? Because the owner of Brophy’s was a sales expert and employed the four secrets every sales expert knows:What’s the next Yes?Know the Customer’s NeedKeep it SimpleCreate an ExperienceWhat’s the next Yes?Sales experts know what they’re selling. Sounds obvious, but most salesmen miss this entirely because they forget that sales is really a series of small "Yeses," only the last of which is the decision to fork over hard-earned dollars. In the shoe store example, what was the window display selling? Not shoes! The next Yes was getting prospects into the store.Most sales calls cover a number of Yeses, from "Yes, I trust you enough to do business with you" to "Yes, I agree what you are saying is a benefit for me" and many others, each of which should be identifi

tune your marketing and sales strategy

Reduce friction and "turf wars" between organizational levels and departments.

Improve communication between teams and departments

Improve your decision making process

Identify strategies to reduce red tape and duplication of effort

Brainstorm and generate new strategies to resolve business issues and overcome challenges

Manage projects more effectively even within tight time frames

Planning Considerations for Team Building

Once you are clear about your objectives, it is important to determine:

number of participants
positions and levels of participants in organization
physical disabilities and constraints
budget
time frame

Select the Right Locations for Team Building and Corporate Retreats

Select Your Theme

Set a Realistic Time Frame

Half Day Team Building Format

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour

Power of Lean Healthcare
As health care costs increase at a faster rate than other products or services, health care providers, in particular hospitals, are under continuous pressure to dramatically improve service, reduce costs, improve patient safety, reduce waiting times, and reduce errors and associated litigation.However, hospitals are not making the necessary improvements in cost, quality, and safety. A report by the U.S. HHS Office of the Inspector General finds that 20% of consecutive inpatient stay sequences were associated with poor quality care, unnecessary fragmentation of care, or both. The current organization and management of hospitals is an imperfect system that cannot effectively address these issues. Major projects to restructure hospitals, dramatically reduce cost, and improve customer care have had little impact on quality or cost.In simplistic terms, current healthcare systems are not designed to make the process or ‘value stream’ of care flow smoothly. Healthcare services are often ‘batch and queue’, with patients spending most of their time waiting until the Healthcare Professional is ready i.e. push versus pull. As the population matures, patient cycle times in the hospitals, post-care facilities, and laboratories become key measurements that need to improve.Our belief is that Lean Healthcare can p

heme drive the location selection decision and not vice versa. I recall a time when a prospective client had blown most of the budget on a high end conference facility. The result? There was little left in the budget for a facilitator.

Select Your Theme

Set a Realistic Time Frame

Half Day Team Building Format

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour

Quiz: Where is Your Marketing Message?
Wondering if your marketing message is dancing in the spotlight right in front of your target market or is busy cowering by the punch table nowhere near your customer base? Take this quiz and find out.1. Overall, you would describe your marketing as:A. Going strong. You consistently get lots of good leads and sales from your marketing efforts. B. Getting better. You're seeing some positive results, but you're always looking for ways to improve. C. Flat. Your sales are neither growing nor shrinking. D. Don't ask. E. You don't do much marketing. Or any marketing for that matter. Customers pretty much find you. 2. Your last marketing campaign was:A. A huge success. It exceeded your expectations. B. No complaints. You're pleased with your results. C. Not sure. You didn't notice much change with your sales. D. A waste of good money. E. You can't remember your last campaign. In fact, you don't think you've ever had one. 3. At the last Chamber of Commerce meeting, you bumped into a woman who you felt would be your ideal customer. Her response after you introduce yourself is:A. "I'm so glad I ran into you. I've been meaning to talk to you in more detail about how your business can help me out." B. "Oh

te venue, energizers, session starters, music, video clips, graphics for slides and handouts, and menu items. The key is to let your objectives and content drive the theme. To come up with your theme, create a mind map. Put your content and topics in the centre and come up with as many themes as possible that relate to your topics. If you want to fine-tune your sales and marketing strategy or prepare your team for "uncharted territory" and change, a Survivor team building sessions would be the most appropriate choice. If you want to hone project management and leadership skills or help them improve their effectiveness in pulling projects together within tight time frames, a team building session based on the TV show the Apprentice would be a perfect fit. If your team needs to improve its ability to cope with a fast paced environment, a surprisingly affordable polo team building sessions would fit the bill.

Set a Realistic Time Frame

Half Day Team Building Format

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour

Famous Corporate Name Sell-Outs
There are often individuals and small companies who are in the lucky position of having the rights to names that larger companies want. Where the name is crucial to a marketing concept the owner is in a position to dictate terms and conditions before selling out to the larger company. This is often the result of large amount of research and can be more prevalent on the internet than anywhere else. Often the sell-out can be very public with both parties gaining a large amount of publicity. Unfortunately this does not always reflect well on the smaller company since the sell-out association is a definitively negative one for most people.The recent controversy over what Apple was going to name their new iPod phone highlighted the problems that many companies, both large and small, face. If you’re going to make a big splash with a product then you need to make sure you own the rights to that name, whether it’s a web domain or the actual name. In both cases Apple appears to have been caught short since we all know Linksys had the rights to the name and even brought out a VOIP product with the name attached. This almost ruined Apple’s i-branding run and the only solution was to buy the rights to the name from Linksys which is likely to have cost Apple a large amount of money. The upside is that the tie in with the iPo

Half Day Team Building Format

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour - Preparation for Application Exercise
1 Hour - Breakout Group Presentations ( Maximum 4 - 5 Groups - 10 - 15 minutes each)
1/2 Hour - Breaks
1 Hour - Recreational Activity (Optional)
1 Hour - Evening BBQ (Optional)

TOTAL = 8 1/2 - 10 Hours

These formats are very basic. You will get feedback from some team members that they felt rushed during some of the exercises. Be prepared for this and don't blame the facilitator. An evening BBQ or dinner buys you a bit more time and ends the session on a high note.

Here is a better format that can include an overnight stay at your location or a briefing a week before your team building session:

Pre-Briefing + 1 Day Team Format

Evening
1 Hour - Pre-briefing for Simulation Team Leaders
Dinner - 1 Hour
1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
1 Hour - Simulation
Flexible - Team Recreational Activity or Competition Related to Simulation Theme
Day 2
3 Hours - Simulation (Continued)
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour - Preparation for Application Exercise
1 Hour - Breakout Group Presentations ( Maximum 4 - 5 Groups - 10 - 15 minutes each) 1/2 Hour - Breaks

If you want to lengthen the time for the simulation or give people more time to prepare for their business application exercises, devote more time for outdoor recreational activities, vendor, client or departmental presentations, or other agenda items, we suggest a 2 1/2 - 3 day format. Remember, the briefing session can be done in advance and you can cut your session down to 2 - 2 1/2 days

Select Your Teams

There are a number of factors that you should take into account when you select your teams. Ensure that you:

mix departments
mix geographical regions
mix organizational levels
form team based on learning styles
give team members who don't get along with each other an opportunity to work together
give the newer or more junior members of your team an opportunity to serve as team leaders

Analyze your group and assess their learning styles so that you can make decisions about team composition and a number of other key elements for your session.

Team Building: The Bottom Line

Team building sessions and corporate retreats can be rewarding experiences that pull your team together and bring you closer to achieving your goals and objectives. Careful attention to planning can help you avoid a session that people perceive as "a waste of time" and ensure that you get the results that you desire.

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Designers are a lot like cars, there are a lot of them out there to choose. Some are good and some are not so good, so you'll want to do more than just kick the tires before you invest in one. If you've never worked with an designer before, do yourself a favor and check this out before you start looking.

You have been asked to provide a police check for your new job. How do you go about doing this? What information will be given?

Often sales people make mistakes in thinking that a comment from the prospect that they are not interested at this time, makes them a dead lead. They maybe a dead lead or they might be your very best future customer.

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