Outsourced Accounting Services Save You Money

Think about it, in a digital age where people are willing to work for cents on the dollar, do you really think that hiring a full-time accountant is actually going to save you money in the long run? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Here are 3 reasons why you should definitely consider outsourcing your financial accounting needs.

Reason # 1. Productivity

You are only paying for what you get. They only work when you need them to and you aren't going to waste money by paying them for doing nothing. Most accounting companies online have a pay structure where you pay per document, submission, or worked number of hours. It all depends on what your company needs.

Reason # 2. Go Paperless

Going paperless not only, helps your business by saving space and time by not having to file documents. Also, less paper usage helps to ensure a green friendly environment. Companies that go paperless and practice green-like activities increase their company's philanthropy. Having a great business reputation is always a plus. Plus, the amount of money you will save on paper can be into the thousands per year.

Reason # 3. Ease of Use

Most of these companies have their own software, where you can either, scan in paper documents or submit documents through an up-loader on their website. Some allow you to scan all your documents in at once and they will sort them out for you. Also, there are scanners for sale that will let you insert any kind of document and allows you to scan both sides of that document at once. Any business that happens to have a professional scanner will be the ones to benefit the most. Just throw you documents in the tray and press start.

Outsourcing your accounting needs saves your business money, money that you can invest in other things that are more important like marketing or franchising. Find a trustworthy company that has references and have been in business for a while. Don't just jump on the first low ball offer you hear and make sure and check out their web reputation.

Five Keys To Improve Your Sales Closing Ratio

To improve your sales closing ratio you need to focus on working smarter and harder. Once you have proven to yourself you can produce consistently at an acceptable level most good sales people want to sell more. Since sales is a numbers game, doing more of what you do now to make sales seems like a good formula for success. Unfortunately, sales is also a time game, and there is only so much of it in each day. There comes a time when you are maxed out and this is when working smarter and harder can come in handy.

Three ways to work smarter would be to find accounts that bring in more business for the time invested, have your existing accounts buy more frequently, and improve your closing ratio.
Here are five keys to improve your sales closing ratio.

1. Be more selective with who you approach

Evaluate your best customers or clients and create a profile called "My Ideal Client." What are the most obvious characteristics that you could look for in new prospects? The more you drill down the closer you will be to creating focus. It can start with a vertical industry or business size, but consider things such as culture, decision makers personality or role, referred or not, if the company is strugging or succeeding as well. You need to find the common areas of your best clients so you can go look for more that match this profile. This profile has proven to be a key to success.

2. Be more diligent at qualifying

An early no is better than a late no. Remember you only have so much time in a day so spend it with the most qualified prospects. Quit simply bidding or quoting anyone that wants a price and start qualifying harder. Have they expressed their pain, problem, goal or objective to justify making a purchase? If no, walk away. Do they have the resources to purchase or are they simply shopping? Do they fit your ideal customer profile?

3. Slow down the b2b sales process

Once in a great whiile we run into a prospect that is ready to buy yesterday with check book in hand. The rest of the time they might say they are in a hurry but things usually slow down once it is time for a decision. Keep things moving but don't let your fear of losing their interest or your hope for a quick close compromise your sales process. Be thourough with you discovery process. Taking short cuts will always come back to bite you.

4. Work a referral system

We all know referrals are our best prospects. I would also tell you that most sales people do not proactively help their customers or clients produce more referrals for them. Create a referral system. The link will take you to an article on referrals.

5. Go beyond the traditional selling process and become part of your prospects buying process/system/culture.

This last step is really the masters' course in selling. It is not required to make some increase in your closing ratio, but for those who want to push their closing percentage up in the 75%+ range need to learn about this step. It is hard to explain but Sharon Drew Morgen in her book, "Dirty Little Secrets - Why buyers Can't Buy and Seller Can't Sell, and What YOU Can Do About It!", spells it all out. In a nut shell it is taking off your selling hat and becoming a consultant who can ask questions that allow decision makers to explore the internal systems that help buying decisions along and ones that slow or stop them in their tracks. Let me just say this, it can be as simple as one person not wanting to deal with an attitude of another manager or employee that stops a smart business purchase from taking place.It is not all about business, as there are hidden interpersonal agendas that never are spoken of that kill many deals.

The Different Types of Applications for a Humidity Sensor

Humidity can cause serious problems in a variety of areas if it is not controlled sufficiently. In order to determine whether or not there is a problem with the humidity in a given location, it is important that you have the right kind of humidity sensor. A humidity sensor can be used in several different fields and industries.

Human Environments

Humidity in a place where people are going to be living or working can cause health issues if it is not limited. This is where a humidity sensor is very important: it allows a building manager or property owner to determine whether or not the humidity conditions in a home or commercial building are unsuitable for people to live or work in. Certain medical conditions can be exacerbated by high humidity levels.

Agriculture

In order for some plants to be grown properly, whether they are cultivated in a greenhouse or outdoors, the levels of humidity must be sufficient for their growth. The soil that a plant is grown in also must have a suitable humidity level so that the plant can thrive, whether it is being grown for food or for medicinal purposes. For these reasons, a humidity sensor will often be used by a farmer or botanist while they are monitoring plants.

Healthcare

In the field of medicine, a humidity sensor must be used to keep equipment at the right humidity level so that they cannot become contaminated with bacteria. Some digital medical devices that are not stored at a low enough level will sometimes see a reduction in their shelf life because of the damage that excessive humidity can cause to electronic parts and components. For this reason, healthcare professionals should always follow humidity guidelines provided by the manufacturers of the products that they use.

Beyond just medical devices, medications need to be stored at the right humidity levels as well. This is because humidity levels have an impact on chemical reactions, which can change the way that the elements of a pharmaceutical drug function. Drugs that are left exposed in situations of high humidity could even become dangerous if consumed by patients.

Food Preparation and Storage

Humidity levels and cooking go hand in hand, since these levels need to be monitored for certain cooking devices like ovens or microwaves to function properly. Certain foods also have to be stored at particular levels: otherwise, they will go bad. For example, fruits like strawberries should be kept at low levels, while some vegetables like spinach need to be kept somewhere with higher humidity levels. A humidity sensor will help you determine whether or not your food is being kept safely in a fridge or other type of food storage container.

Humidity is something that everyone has to deal with in various settings, but it can be a negative force if it is not controlled. A humidity sensor is the perfect way to ensure that humidity levels in a home, refrigerator, or garden are where they need to be. Be sure to select your humidity sensor from a company that sells the best quality sensors on the market for your particular humidity monitoring needs.

Why You Should NEVER Sell By Price

You've probably seen hundreds of businesses claim to offer the lowest prices in their marketplaces. Well, maybe they do -- but for most marketers, even making that claim is a HUGE mistake. People who focus on price will never be loyal to you, because the money is all they care about. They'll jump from supplier to supplier, the way hookers jump from bed to bed. You may hate that analogy, but I believe it's something you'll never forget -- which is why I used it. It may not be PC, but it's accurate and memorable!

Price buyers just aren't loyal, and you're looking for loyal customers who will stay with you for the longest possible time and spend the maximum amount of money.

One of my best business friends is my printer, Steve Harshbarger. I've given Steve millions of dollars worth of printing business for almost 20 years, because he's an extremely honest man and I trust him. He'll go out of his way to do everything possible to serve his clients in every way he can. If I had a huge problem at three o'clock in the morning, I have a very small list of people that I would call for help -- and Steve is on that list. He's become a friend as well as one of my most important suppliers.

Steve earned my trust when I first met him, because he told me the truth about my concerns. He didn't BS me, and that really woke me up. I was used to salespeople who told me what they thought I wanted to hear; but when I asked Steve if he offered the lowest prices in the business back in the early 1990s, he said, "Sometimes yes, sometimes no." Then he explained to me why that was.

If it was the kind of job that worked best on his equipment, he told me, he could definitely give me the best price; but if it was something that wouldn't be economical on his equipment, then I could get a better price elsewhere. He just flat-out told me, "Remember, T.J., you can have any one or maybe two of three things: the best price, the highest quality, or the fastest service. But you can never have all three." I never forgot that, and you shouldn't either. That was a valuable lesson; it woke me up like a cold slap of truth. He's been getting my business ever since.

Now, low prices are important to your best customers too; but what people are really searching for is the highest value for the lowest price. So it's up to you to do all you can to educate them on why your products and services are worth far more money than you're asking them for in return. Do all you can to build as much value into your products and services as possible. You can't do that and be the low-cost provider.

I started my first business, a carpet and upholstery cleaning company, in December 1985. I was dead broke at the time, and literally homeless. I was sleeping on the couches and floors of a handful of my friends. Otherwise, I was living out of the backseat of my car. I was cleaning carpets at the time to get by, and then a friend of mine said, "Hey, T.J., let's start our own carpet cleaning business!"

Even though he was dead broke, just like I was, we did it. And because we were so poor, our equipment was in terrible shape. The van we bought for $1,000 (by putting $100 down and paying $100 a week until it was paid off) was a wreck. The only way we knew to get jobs was to offer super-low prices. Over the next few months, we knocked on thousands of doors and practically begged people to let us come clean their carpets and upholstery for next to nothing. Our entire marketing strategy was built around doing the job for the lowest possible price.

We attracted quite a few customers, and slowly built up a reputation thanks to word-of-mouth and the fact that we did high-quality work. Yet, because we were charging such low prices, we never had enough money to buy better equipment or do the more expensive kinds of marketing that would have been more effective. We were prisoners of our low pricing strategies.

Although we did develop a lot of great customers who had us back repeatedly to clean their carpets and upholstery, there were many prospects who took one look at our beat-up van and equipment (and us!) and said, "No thank you." We were turned away by many more people than we actually attracted because we were the lowest-cost provider, and people equate low prices with things that are cheap and tawdry. People don't want cheap, tawdry things; what they want are valuable things for dirt-cheap prices. That's not just a play on words; there's a genuine difference there. So when I say price buyers are like hookers, please understand that it's only a metaphor!

All of my very best clients for my first business were wonderful people, and we gave them top-notch work; but we never had enough profits to build the business. We were stuck with being that low-cost provider, which is one reason to avoid the strategy. Another reason to avoid it is that eventually, someone will come along and offer even lower prices than you -- and then, if you want to compete with them, you start a race to the bottom. Either way, it's a zero-sum game. You never have enough profits to build your business as it could and should be built. In order to do that, you have to charge premium prices. Along with these premium prices, you have to deliver premium services -- and you have to educate your customers in every way as to why the extra money you're asking them to give you is worth it.

Now, fast-forward two decades. My current company is a premium-priced provider. Out of our thousands of competitors from coast-to-coast, we charge some of the highest prices in the industry. In order to start doing that, we had to break out of our comfort zone. It was very uncomfortable at first to charge five or ten times more money than our competitors were charging. Yet, we took that risk -- and once we broke through and made the transition, we made more money than we'd ever made before.

We've discovered some major advantages along the way. First, when you charge higher prices, you get higher quality customers. The people who spend the most money with you will give you the fewest customer service hassles, and tend to be delightful people to do business with. You should charge more money for that reason alone: you'll attract a better quality of customer. Also, you require fewer sales to make more profits. In other words, you can make big profits from bad numbers. What do I mean by that? Simply this: when the majority of your products and services sell for small amounts of money and razor-thin profits, then you need a high percentage of response to make any money. Conversely, higher ticket items mean that you require fewer responses to profit.

This also means you'll need fewer customers to make those profits. You can serve those fewer customers in a much better way than if you were a low-cost provider and were forced to serve a larger number of customers.

Charging higher prices is a risk. I'll never forget how scared we were when we held our first $5,000 seminar in 1996. Prior to that we'd done over three dozen low-cost seminars; so we went from charging hundreds of dollars to charging several thousand. It was frightening, and yet we took the plunge. We surrounded ourselves with a team of great joint venture business partners who helped us pull off that event, and we focused tightly on the audience. We did everything possible to make their experience truly life-changing. Our goal was to make it so that at the end of the event they said, "Wow! That was worth far more than $5,000." We channeled all our fear and insecurities into doing everything possible to give the customer the most valuable experience we possibly could.

That's another thing the extra profits you generate when you charge premium prices allow you to do. They give you the freedom and flexibility to serve your customers at a higher level, which you just can't do when you're selling for low prices.

So: never aim for the low price. If you must focus on price, utilize premium pricing instead. Use this secret well, and you'll end up with a smaller, more select group of customers who will spend large amounts of money with you over long periods of time, making you the envy of your competitors.