digitalbarons.info

Is it really possible?

Is it possible to make any serious amounts of money online or is it just a waste of time? It is really possible to build up an income online however it requires hard work and dedication. It is a fact that about 97% of all people who try to reach success in online marketing are in fact struggling. However that does not mean that you can not be a part of the group of the 3% of successful entrepreneurs. Online marketing can sometimes feel difficult, but it will be worth it in the end when you are starting to generate significant results in your business. The rewards by succeeding will be worth the struggles you might have gone through previously.

One of the most important keys to success

An important part of becoming successful in making money online is to maintain a positive mindset. This is a part of your marketing efforts that you simply can not leave out. You will not reach that big level of success if you do not maintain your mindset. How do you maintain it? By reading books and listening to audio recordings.. Those books and audio recordings should motivate you, and teach you something,maybe even teach you something about yourself. It is so easy to fall into the trap of negative self beliefs and having negative thoughts about your own ability. To keep those negative thoughts away you need to read books and listen to audio recordings daily.

It does not matter who you are

No matter what kind of experience or level of success a person are enjoying, they still need to maintain their positive mindset on a daily basis. Every marketer that takes their success serious needs to read those books and listen to those audio recordings, that is the truth. Even when you have days when you do not feel like reading at all, read anyway. You will be filled with more positive energy and be able to work more effectively if you maintain your mindset. Maintaining a positive mindset is something that some marketers do not do properly, therefore they have troubles with taking their business to the next level. You simply must take the time to read books daily, There are a lot of great books out there to choose from, you can even get hold of eBooks for free. So there are really no excuses to not reading.

As much as online shopping is convenient and breaks down geographical barriers between buyers and sellers, it can be tricky, especially in determining the quality of the product you are about to buy. This is mainly because you do not have the luxury of physically seeing and touching the item before you buy and you therefore need to be extra cautious when making your purchases. You should do everything possible to not only smooth out the buying process, but to boost your confidence levels in terms of the item quality.

1. Choose a reliable online shopping site

The truth is there are now so many shopping sites offering all kinds of products and it can get confusing as to which is best. Start by looking at how long the site has been in operation and the items it has to offer to buyers. Important to consider is how it sources the items; the origin of your item can determine its quality so be sure to check that out. The shopping platform that you choose should also offer you excellent customer service. If it hosts foreign languages, then you should be able to enjoy translation services. Customer service also means that you should have any questions and concerns settled at any given time or day. Ensure that you can fully rely on the shopping site throughout your search and buying process.

2. Always search your item thoroughly

Before you make a purchase, make sure that you get enough details about the product in question. Good shopping sites have lengthy product descriptions that come in handy in letting you know exactly what you are about to purchase. Compare your item from different sellers that could be available on the shopping site before making your final decision. As much as prices do matter, you should be more inclined towards the quality of the product so you do not end up paying too much than the real value of the item. If possible, take the time to check any item feedback that has been provided on the site to give you a hint of how good or bad it is before ordering it.

3. Check out the seller reputation

Some item buying and selling sites accommodate lots of sellers showcasing their products and hoping to make a sale. The site that you choose to use should make it possible for you to check the reputation of the seller, especially those who have sold items on the site before. Positive or negative ratings are helpful because you can use them to make a decision whether to buy from the seller. You can also know how to approach the seller so you do not end up getting frustrated by the purchase using such ratings. The more information you have on the seller the easier it should be for you to make the final decision with the item you are about to buy. If contact is provided and you feel you need more details on the item then do not hesitate to call the seller to make enquiries.

Sustainability is usually a term about environmental issues. Lately it’s become more of a personal finance term as well. That’s because financial decisions need to be sustained over the long term. To sustain you and your family over time, Financial Sustainability means planning and flexibility. Having Plans B, C and D is a necessity.

Here are a few tips for those who want to see their money stay around as long as they do.

Save Before You Invest

It’s a good idea to secure at least nine months of living expenses saved before even thinking about investing. As you plan your savings strategy, make sure you contribute enough to your retirement funds, particularly if your employer still offers a 401(k) match. Once you have your emergency fund, keep on saving. A good goal is to put aside at least 10 percent of your earnings each month (or as you can afford it). By retirement, you’ll have a nice chunk of money to nest in.

Keep Credit History Good

Being a habitual bill payer signals to banks and issuers that you are a risk worth taking. Paying credit cards or mortgages late will lead to negative consequences that damage your credit score and overall credit health. Banks and issuers consider payment history when evaluating your credit risk. A long-standing history of on-time payments suggests you are responsible and reliable borrower; a poor history suggests you many not repay debts and could result in a costly loss. Remember that a credit report is like an adult report card.

Spend for Retirement

A simple trick for saving: spend less than you earn. That might not be easy if you are already having trouble keeping up with bills. A spending plan would take care of that. Some people call this a budget, but since we’re referring to retirement as something to buy, a spending plan is more appropriate. Think of a budget not as a means to the end of buying a 60-inch television but a budget that will sustain over decades that will put you out ahead financially once you’re deep into retirement.

Savings Plans Are Still Good If You Can Get Them

If your company still offers a traditional retirement plan like a 401 (k) plan, it’s a good idea to put in your money up to the point where the company stops matching your contribution. Even if the funds within the 401 (k) don’t make great gains some years, at least you know you have the company match that doubled your contribution. A fairly high interest rate will come out of that. You might not have doubled your money by the time you are allowed to take it out, but it’s going to be a lot higher than what you could make on any other investment.

Make the Most of Income Sources Other than Savings

Choices of when to start taking Social Security can cut your retirement income by 25 percent or boost it by an additional 32 percent. Married couples can use strategies like claiming spousal benefits to increase income substantially. Factor in maintenance expense if your income comes in the form of rental properties. There’s a tremendous amount of benefit that some smart planning can do for you that will help over the long haul.

Google marked the 10 year anniversary of its stock market debut in August of last year. Since IPO Google has achieved almost unmatched business and commercial success and it now ranks amongst the largest and most respected companies in the world. Investors in the IPO haven’t fared badly either – one dollar invested then is now worth around 12 dollars. At the time, however, the IPO was considered a failure on a number of fronts as Google sold a lower number of shares than originally expected at a price towards the bottom of its guided range. The Dutch auction mechanism used for allotting shares to investors caused a great deal of confusion and has been rarely used since.

It wasn’t all Google’s fault; market conditions in 2004 weren’t exactly ideal (dot com scar tissue) and Google had an unproven business model. Looking back over the 10 years since August 2004 the IPO could be considered a low point from a financing and treasury perspective in what has since been a spectacular performance. This article looks at Google’s growth and commercial success through a “treasury lens” to better understand some of the key metrics behind what has grown to be one the largest corporate treasury and investment operations in the world.

To put the Google numbers in context we use comparative figures for two other ICT heavyweights, IBM and Microsoft. IBM IPO’d over 100 years ago and Microsoft went public in the mid-eighties.

Fact 1: Google’s Asset Base has grown by 1,200% to $130bn in 10 years

Google’s asset base has grown by close to 1,200% over the last 10 years and by 3,800% since IPO. In contrast IBM’s assets have increased by 11% and Microsoft’s by 140% over the same period. Some assets require more active management than others. For example goodwill and intangibles are passive from a treasury perspective but cash, on the other hand, requires management on a day to day basis.

Fact 2: Google currently has a $60bn Cash Pile

Every organisation manages cash flow and in some cases surplus cash. Few manage a cash mountain. Google’s latest 10-K showed cash plus cash equivalents totalling close to $60bn which has grown by close to 3,000% since IPO. While Microsoft hasn’t experienced the same growth in cash reserves as Google it remains massively cash rich – ranking second only to Apple in the corporate cash reserve league table.

Cash comprises approximately 50% of Google’s asset base. This is roughly equivalent to Microsoft’s cash to assets ratio but about five times larger than that of IBM. While both Google and Microsoft operate in different fields (advertising and business software) the one thing they share in common is their remarkable ability to consistently turn revenue and profits into cash. This has led to a situation in both companies where the underlying business has generated more cash than it can re-invest in business activities.

Fact 3: Google Traded over $100bn of Securities Last Year

We’ve defined trading volumes as the sum of the investment purchases and sales shown on each company’s cash flow statement. While it may not give an entirely true picture of the work involved in managing investments it does give a good sense of the scale of investment activity undertaken by each company. Most large organisations now operate “bank” like structures involving front, middle and back office activities as well as compliance and risk. Google buys and sells almost one hundred billion dollars’ worth of securities on an annual basis – more than their revenue from business activities.

Fact 4: Google Invests Heavily in Property, Plant and Equipment

Google’s spending on Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) has increased dramatically in recent years with the treasury team directing over ten billion dollars towards such investments in 2014. Google has ramped up investment in data centres and other cloud related fixed assets as it competes aggressively with the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce to gain the upper hand in what is still a fledgling market. This trend is set to continue into the future. Google’s Q4 2014 earnings release stated that “we expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures.”

Fact 5: Despite being Cash Rich Google Still has some Debt

It may seem unusual for a company with such vast cash reserves to have any debt on its balance sheet but the international nature of Google’s business has meant that a large portion of this cash is actually held overseas, out of reach of the head office treasury team due to the tax implications of bringing it home. At the moment, total debt levels are very low at approximately 5% of equity.

This high level glance at Google’s financial statements gives a telling insight into the scale of the company’s treasury operations. It now ranks on a par with mid-scale financial institutions from a treasury activity point of view. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Google treasury story has been the speed of growth since IPO and the positive challenges this has presented. Google is truly a world class organisation, no doubt supported by a world class treasury team.

In total assets, the largest banks all over the world start from three billion dollars as of number one in the list, and end with two billions and a half. Chinese banks take a big bite of the world finance, Japan and America follows next. Let us have a look at the largest banks in the world as estimated by relbanks.

10 Barclays PLC
Barclays is one of the big names in Britain. It was founded in London in the beginning of the 17th century. Still, the bank has branched all over the world. Nearly there is no one type of transactions Barclays are not working in from investment to wholesale and retail.

9 Credit Agricole
The bank’s headquarter is located in France and was founded in 1885. Credit Agricole service is friendly as they have founded the Point Passerelle in which customers suffering from any problem like threatened with getting their accounts suspended can find solutions and a helping hand.

8 Bank of China
Founded in 1912 in the Chinese capital Beijing, the Bank of China has different branches around the world.

7 Agricultural Bank of China
Built in 1951 in Beijing, the bank branched out in Japan, U.S, Australia, German, Korea and Singapore. It has around hundred million customers across these branches. It has an advanced rank among the top ten in the world, in number of transactions. The bank witnessed a number of bad circumstances that affected its presence, however it continued to be.

6 JPMorgan Chase & Co
Known as Chase, JPMorgan Chase is a public bank that was founded in 2000 in the United States of America. Chase is the largest bank in the States. Its total assets are estimated to be around above $2 trillion.

5 MUFG
The Mitsubishi UF J Financial Group is based in the Japanese headquarter, Tokyo. It was founded in 2005 and has an average of $2.5 trillion in assets. Although it was founded only 20 years ago, it was able to precede other banks in number of transactions. As usual, this big bank merged with other important bank in Japan; Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and. Such merging always increases the bank’s scope and power and adds to its security.

4 BNP Paribas
Founded in France in 1848, BNP Paribas had enough time to spread its branches worldwide. Like Barclays, Paribas is stretching a hand in every transactional sector like retail, investment and wholesale.

3 China Construction Bank
Founded in Beijing in 1954, is one of the four biggest banks in China as a whole. In addition to the various branches around the world, the Bank of America staked around $3 billion in 2005 and holds above %10 of its shares as well. However it decided that it would sell half of those shares.

2 HSBC
The world known bank HSBC is mainly British with its headquarter in London, the bank was founded in 1865. The bank’s total assets are above $2.6 trillion and big revenue of $68 billion. This is mainly because of its wide scope that covers many countries in America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

1 ICBC
Founded in 1984, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China is the major bank in the country. Take into consideration the amount of transactions made with China, now all this money comes here! The ICBC as a company ranked first in Forbes list of biggest companies in the year 2000. Unlike the widespread of HSBC branches all over the world, ICBC is doing it timidly. Only four of its banks are built in the Middle East in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Kuwait.

Is your company a home for one of those banks above? It could be a yes if we speak about multinational banks. Let me hear from you in the comments’ section below!

Over the past few years, SEO has evolved faster than the previous decade. And this has made it harder for users to keep up with most recent updates. The launch of Penguin and Panda changed the way things worked in the past. In short, the way Google used to rank website has changed a lot. But if you want to reach your objectives, make sure you avoid some common SEO mistakes.

1. Avoiding RELEVANT CONTENT

In the start, Google said that it would rank websites that have the most relevant content on its first page. This statement is still valid. What has happened is that the search engine has become a lot better at achieving the objectives. In other words, now, Google is in better position to know what is relevant and what is not.

So, what you need to do is offer content that is relevant and avoid content is not relevant to your niche. Of course, the content should be informative and unique.

2. Following Tricks

People have been using many illegal ways of cheating the search engine algorithms for traffic, exposure and backlinks. Some of these tactics can still give you a temporary edge, but they are bad for your blog or website for the long-term.

So, you should avoid using low-quality, duplicate content, keyword stuffing, questionable redirects or cloaking for traffic. It may be tempting to go for these short-cuts, but they will just hurt your ranking, and may even get you banned for good.

3. Overloading your site

It has been a common perception that photos, videos and other graphics make a website more appealing for the viewers. To some extent, this perception is true; however, there should not be too much of it or your website will take ages to load. Your viewers don’t have all day to wait for your site to load. If your blog takes longer to load than other websites, the viewers will just click away. You will not only lose viewers, you will also lose ranking against other websites.

4. Making navigation difficult

Navigation is one of the most important factors for any website. It’s important for both viewers and search engines. Ideally, your viewers should be able to get the desired information from your website in one or two clicks. This may not be an easy task for you. So, what you can do is put important content on the main page of your site. This the users will be able to get what they want more easily.

5. Misunderstanding THE BACKLINK PROCESS

You may not want to be obsessed with obtaining a lot of backlinks. Although you don’t have to have backlinks from authority websites to establish your credibility, it helps a lot. However, what you need to do is try to get backclinks in a nature fashion. But it’s not a good idea to buy backlinks. This is one of the worst mistakes that you can make.

Quality content is the key to SEO success. Content doesn’t just mean your text contents. Images must be an integral part of your content strategy. At times, single images can be far more effective than your 1000 word blog post. It also helps you improve blog post quality and performance.

Images, Infographics, Videos and all other multimedia contents on your web page will help you in increasing the user engagement on your site and makes the visitors stay on your site for longer duration which helps in reducing the bounce rate.

Not just adding images to your contents, you should also optimize those images for better SEO performance. Optimization of images must be the one important aspect of your on-page SEO process.

If you are using images in your content, there are many aspects to be considered related to SEO.

Relevancy

Using images doesn’t mean that you should fill up your content with loads of pictures. You should use it only when it is required and also you should use images that are more relevant to your content.

Placement of your images is an another important aspect. It should be placed at a relevant location in your content according to your text content.

Use original images

Originality always helps in improving your user experience and your authority. Usage of original images will be helpful in improving your SEO performance. You can create original images with a graphic designer or you can take your own photographs with a quality camera. It is the reason top White hat SEO companies employ talented graphic designers for creating quality images.

If you are not able to employ an in-house graphic designer or if you are running out of time, you can always use high quality images from the web. But the important factor to be considered is it should be copyright free.

There are many tools available for getting copyright free images without any cost. The most popular ones are Unsplash, Flicker, Freeimages.

Image Size

Images are the main source for damping your site’s speed. And site speed is a crucial factor in your SEO performance. So, you should be extra cautious in using images without compromising your page speed.

It should not also affect your image quality, you should have a correct balance between. You can achieve this by reducing the file size by compression. You can use tools like Photoshop for compression.

File name

Search engine crawlers are visually impaired, it can even interrupt a 5000 word text content, but it cannot interrupt a single image and what the image is about. It is the reason using a keyword rich file names for your images is an important aspect in image optimization.

Google bots and other search engine crawlers can read your image’s file name and if it is named with your target keyword, it gives a signal to search engines about the image topic and thus helps your SEO performance.

For example, if your image is related to selling sports shoes, rather than using the file name as “IMG_89868″ you can use it as “Black_Tennis_Shoes”.

Alt text

Similar to the file name, search engines can read Alt text of the images. Alt text is known as “Aleternative Text”, is an HTML attribute used to describe the content of images.

You should use Alt text which is relevant to your images and it should be clear and descriptive. You can use your target keywords in the Alt text but be cautious about Keyword stuffing.

If you are not focusing on Image optimization, you are missing a huge opportunity in improving your SEO performance. You can use above mentioned best practices in your on-page optimization process.

American youth currently face challenging realities along their way to adulthood. With parents working longer hours and the absence of grandparents and other community adults who used to make up support systems, the intergenerational fabric of community has been frayed. Youth development strategies aim to reweave community fabric in a new way – one that takes the supports and opportunities young people should have, and re-institutes them in the context of young people’s realities today. While many of these realities are harsh ones, we know that young people themselves want to be involved in their communities. The importance of building positive youth/adult partnerships in this process cannot be stressed enough.

The mobilization effort is based on influencing three critical elements: information, attitudes, involvement. The transformation of each of these areas, both in the public and private domains, is a necessary condition for change. For example, in the area of information, the country is currently focused on collecting primarily negative youth information, e.g., teenage births, dropouts, and juvenile arrest rate. Inspiring a 180 degree shift, we need to collect information such as: average number of hours youth participate in after-school activities, computer to youth ratio in non-school hours, and the percentage of youth who hold part-time jobs. The three elements are intertwined, for how information is gathered and communicated impacts attitudes as well as how and if people choose to become involved.

Only through broad community commitment, strong public will, and diverse partnerships can youth development take root, go to scale, and be sustained over time. Ultimately, the mobilization must be supported by partnerships among all of the systems in a community that affect young people (i.e., education, corporations, health care, juvenile justice, religious groups, and recreation). To build these relationships and establish youth development infrastructures to improve developmental paths of adolescents will take at least 10 years.

Localities currently spending their resources on efforts to “fix youth” will need to pool, redirect, and increase their financial commitment to youth development. These additional dollars will ensure all youth equal access to supports and opportunities, especially youth living in economically distressed areas.

Our information on the services young people need, and use, is still hit or miss. Communities do not know what they have or what they need. They usually have no way to tell how well services are being used and what services need to be improved.

Good information is important for youth services for exactly the same reasons it is important for everything else. Accurate, accessible standardized information lets people find the services they need and use them effectively. It lets communities manage, evaluate and improve their services and determine the need for changing them, eliminating them, or developing new ones.

Many national efforts to measure outcomes presently use deficit-driven indicators to assess young people’s condition in society, such as teen pregnancy rates, juvenile crime numbers, and percentages of high school dropouts. Although these measures are important, they do not tell the whole story about young people’s experiences. Measures that reflect positive conditions and experiences of young people are also important.

The accelerated trend of the past decade toward empowering our nation’s young people to succeed has fostered a new awareness and commitment to this most valuable resource. Some basic questions are:

- How much do we currently spend?

- How much should we spend?

Some progress has been made through new initiatives in education finance reform and services integration, providing more effective delivery of social, health and educational services for children and youth from the classroom up to the government. This document establishes an initial framework and formula for assessing the financial resources and mechanisms necessary to move American society closer to this ideal. The following were found to be potential root causes of these trends in spending:

- Devaluation of adolescents.

- Lack of consensus on youth development.

- Lack of adequate and protected funding. Funds are not protected and dedicated in the manner necessary to sustain the long-term, comprehensive process that is youth development.

We can support the move toward the ideal by:

- Seeking new types of information.

- Building on the after-school momentum.

- Making a sustainable public investment.

Youth development is an investment that must be made by each sector of the wider community – public and private. Examination of the federal-state matching, local dedicated taxes an incentives for business and philanthropy could lead to models for providing adequate and sustainable funding for youth development. National intermediaries must work to cultivate this leadership at all levels of government, and at the grassroots, by creating constituencies.

Several states are taking the lead from California, Oregon and Illinois by offering state-sponsored retirement plans that encourage or require private sector employers to participate.

The plans are referred to as auto-IRAs because eligible workers are automatically enrolled, generally within 30 days of employment. The default contribution rate is typically 3-5% of a paycheck and the employee can stop, restart or transfer plan assets depending on their needs. Referred to as “public-private partnerships” by the Pew Charitable Trust, there is no cost to the employer. Proceeds are managed by a private financial firm management for a pre-determined fee. The plans are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) like other sponsored pension and benefit plans.

This article provides an overview of the states that currently offer savings programs, as well as those that plan to do so in the future.

OregonSaves

Oregon was one of the first states to implement a savings program for employees of small businesses who are not otherwise eligible for a workplace sponsored pension plan. Titled OregonSaves, it is a state retirement program that is available to an employer or an individual planning for the future.

OregonSaves had almost $57 million in assets as of mid-2020. Employee contributions averaged $127 to $135 per month as of that time.

Enrollment is automatic for employees, with contributions being made through payroll deductions. Each employee account is portable and can be moved from one job to another.

All Oregon employers, regardless of employee size, must facilitate the State’s program for their employees if they do not offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan. The plan is working with small employers to make the process as simple as possible.

CalSavers

CalSavers is available to California workers whose employers do not offer a workplace retirement plan, self-employed individuals, and others who want to increase their savings. Plan participants contribute to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that belongs to them.

California employers with more than 50 employees must register with CalSavers by June 30, 2021 if they do not already sponsor a retirement plan. Registration is available to all California employers with at least five employees.

The CalSavers program opened statewide in July 2019 and had $4.3 million in assets as of mid-2020. On average, participating employees contribute $105 to $120 monthly. Like the Oregon plan, the default savings rate is 5% of the employee’s pay and employees are automatically enrolled after 30 days of employment. They can stop, restart or transfer plan participation at any time if they change employers.

CalSavers Retirement Savings Program is designed to simplify employer participation with no employer fees, no fiduciary responsibility, and minimal ongoing responsibilities. Employers that fail to offer participation in the plan as required are subject to fines.

In May 2021, a federal appeals court in San Francisco dismissed a legal challenge to the CalSavers plan.

Illinois Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program

Illinois launched its Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program in 2018. It is a state-facilitated retirement program that is open to employees who work for an eligible employer as well as other employees who want to enroll independent of their employer. Approximately 32,000 Illinois employees saved $8.5 million in the first year of the Illinois Secure Choice program, according to state reports.

The Illinois Secure Choice account is a Roth IRA for the employee. The default savings rate is 5% of gross pay. Employees are automatically enrolled through payroll contributions after 30 days of employment. An employee can opt out at any time. Plan participants are charged a fee of 0.75% of assets per year ($0.75 for every $100 saved), which pays for program administration and operating expenses.

The Illinois Secure Choice had 5,544 registered employers as of May 2020. There are no fees for employers to facilitate the program and employers cannot make contributions to their employee accounts. Employers serve a limited role as a facilitator. As of November, 2019, employers with 25 or more employees that have been in business for two years or more are required to participate in the program. Employers that already offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan are exempt from this legislation.

New Jersey Secure Choice Savings

The “New Jersey Secure Choice Savings Act,” was signed into law in March 2019, with a two-year time frame scheduled to take effect in March 2021.

The Act requires employers that have been in business for two years and have 25 or more employees to participate in a retirement savings program administered through automatic payroll deductions. Private sector employees of businesses of any size are able to participate in the retirement savings program. Smaller or newer employers could join voluntarily. Failure to comply will result in fines to the employer.

Employees will be automatically enrolled at the leve of a 3% paycheck contribution. The annual contribution maximum is $6,000 for those under 50 years old, and $7,000 for those 50 or older.

Connecticut Secure Choice Savings Plan

Connecticut employers with five or more employees must offer a retirement plan to employees, and private employers with four or fewer employees may choose to do so. Employees are auto-enrolled within 120 days of employment, and employees must be notified of their rights within 30 days. Employers are not permitted to make contributions to the program.

The Connecticut Retirement Security Authority, a quasi-public agency, was formed in 2016 to oversee the program. The state estimates that as many as 600,000 employees may benefit from the plan.

Tales from the Online Marketing Crypt #18

Why being mindful of clients’ perspectives can keep them supporting your business

We all have them.

Days when everything pisses us off.

In fact, I doubt there’s a human being on this planet who hasn’t been in a bad mood every now and then.

I know I sure have my fair share of them!

And for a variety of reasons too.

But there’s one thing we business owners have an unwritten rule about (well probably it’s written somewhere by someone) is that no matter what, we don’t bring our bad mood with us when communicating with clients.

Would you agree with that fundamental principle?

But how many times have you, as a client or customer, been on the receiving end of someone’s bad mood?

It happened to me recently and that single instance literally destroyed a 30 year working relationship.

I had a hair appointment with the same gal that I’ve been seeing for decades. She works out of her home and lives about 25 minutes away from me.

I know exactly how long it takes for me to get to her place and am typically on time, every time.

Except the last two appointments.

The time previous to this last visit, I had an emergency come up just before heading out the door. It was something I had to take care of or faced dire consequences (as in having a very angry client on my hands!)

It meant I was going to be about 5 minutes late for my appointment. I texted her when I was leaving stating I was hurrying over and will be a few minutes late.

She didn’t reply and never said anything when I got there. We had our usual girl talk that I very much looked forward to.

This recent time I needed to do a quick errand before my appointment. I completely misjudged how much time it would take me to get from that other location to my stylist’s place. Plus… I got lost finding my way there since I was coming from a different direction.

I didn’t want to risk taking any time to stop and text her and honestly thought I was just a minute away… except it was more like 15 minutes before I finally got there.

I’ve never been 15 minutes late for anything and I felt terrible. I apologized profusely but unfortunately, she wouldn’t hear any of it.

She was pissed.

So angry in fact, she first lectured me on “always” being late, citing my text from the previous appointment, and that she was sick and tired of constantly hearing, “sorry I’m late” as if I’m the only one that says that every time I walk into her room.

Disclaimer: I’m a Canadian. We apologize for everything, even if we’re 1 minute late!

Stunned at how mad she was, especially knowing I was the last appointment of the day, I apologized again and tried to explain why I was late and even offered to leave with my hair wet to make up for the lateness so we would still end in time.

I didn’t know what else to do to rectify my error.

She was so angry, she gave me the silent treatment and only grunted her “hold your head here” and “move to the sink” commands throughout the entire time there.

I did leave with wet hair, 15 minutes earlier than what our appointment time would have ended at had I been on time, vowing to never return again.

I fully realize I was the catalyst that set off her anger, and I also realize she had to have been having one helluva a bad day before I arrived, and I got the brunt of her wrath.

I get it.

But as a customer, a loyal one for 30 years at that, there’s no excuse whatsoever to be treated like that.

Never.

When I have bad days like what she must have experienced, I set aside whatever is going on and treat anyone who I speak with that day, whether it’s one of our team members, a client, a lead or even chatting on social media, with the utmost respect and kindness.

Even if they are the reason for my having a bad day.

It serves no purpose whatsoever to make the other person feel worse than what I am feeling.

I found this experience to be so distressing, I posted about it on Facebook.

I received a variety of responses, ranging from my owing her an apology (which I did) to justifying why she blew up, right over to demanding I fire her on the spot (which I ended up doing).

These kinds of responses go to show how we are all human and all look at experiences from our own lens and past history.

For me, I was taken straight back to elementary school when I was the victim of bullying quite a bit. A feeling I never want to experience again!

For others, they empathized with her where time is very important to them and get angry themselves when someone disrespects it. (I’m actually the same way – being punctual is a huge deal for me.)

One thing I have done as a result of this experience is to find the lesson behind it all. For one, I will definitely plan my time better and ensure I give myself enough time to do what needs to be done in time!

I also learned just how fragile our relationships can be.

She lost a client of 30 years – and I lost any further opportunities to visit with someone I’ve known a long time to get some of the much valued girl time I look forward to with each visit.

It doesn’t take much to destroy a 30 year working relationship.

Yes I realize I could reach out and try to mend the fences but I am choosing not to. At least not right now.

At the end of the day, this lesson goes to show how important it is for us all to keep our anger in check. To realize our anger is being received by the other person, and be aware of how they are receiving it with their own personal response. They won’t always understand where you are coming from because they’re looking at things from a different perspective.

So what do we do when we’re having a bad day and business must go on?

If you ever find yourself feeling angry, whether justified or not, here’s eight tips on what you can do to avoid creating irreparable situations with your clients:

Exercise. Go for a walk, head to the gym, box with a punching bag. Whatever works for you to do some venting.
Meditate. Or just sit quietly and practice deep breathing.
Yoga. Nothing is better at centering our emotions and getting back in touch with our bodies than practicing yoga.
Watch a funny show or listen to a positive podcast. It’s amazing how quickly your anger can turn around when you’re laughing or receiving positive energy from someone else!
Use the anger as motivation. If you can control the scenario that’s causing your anger, then you can do something about it!
Focus on something more positive. A great thing to do here is think of something you are grateful for and focus on why you’re so grateful about it. Putting yourself in a state of gratefulness will trigger those happy endorphins and will get you out of that pissy mood fast.
Get productive. Feeling on purpose can be quite energizing. If you have something that’s calling your name, get busy and shift your attention to that.
Write in a journal. A great way to release that negative vibe from your body is to write it out. Keep writing until you’ve vented everything that comes to mind. Even if it’s not the same thing that got you angry in the first place – just let it all out!

I’m curious if you have ever experienced someone either getting angry with you in a business relationship or did you lose your cool and get angry with a client or service provider? How did it turn out? What lesson did you learn? And do you have any other tips on how to let go of anger to share?

To your business success,

Susan

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

READ: Learn effective communication principles from an expert. This book from communications specialist Yvonne Douma is a must-read. It will be available on June 8th but you can get yourself on her notification list and grab some great bonuses if you purchase on launch day: REFRAME: How to Change Your Conversations to Resolve Those Messy Conflicts.
WATCH: Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of customer service from another company and vowed to never do business with them again? And most certainly never told anyone else about them? This is why customer service is so vital to business success as I explain in this eTip episode on why it’s the primary reason we have such a high referral rate: How Great Customer Service Gets You Business Referrals (on our website)
READ: I guess all of us have been on the receiving end of a situation where we are not satisfied with customer service. But how do you respond? Read this great piece from Kindi Gill who shares excellent insights on managing difficult client situations: Five Tips for Managing Customer Complaints (on our website)

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.