Archive for 2009

Thanks to Nina Feldman for showing this to me. This is awesome. I should make all new prospects watch it

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY]

My dirty little secret is that I am not actually perfect. I make mistakes, I screw up. More than once in the past six years, I have had to email or call a client and tell them the problem and present them with a solution (and that last part is important, if I have a solution or two at the ready, it shows I actually care). There have been a time or two that it really wasn’t fixable, but I apologized and explained how the error occurred.

I am constantly amazed at how few businesses know the art of the apology. The thing is that businesses are run by humans and humans make mistakes. We all know this and we all accept it. My clients are always understanding when I own up to a mistake (and I am understand when they make a mistake as well). Stuff happens and life is just too short, ya know?

Many of you may know that Tom just got his degree from the University of Phoenix. He went there for 3 years and finished his last class in late April. He ended up with 3.67 GPA in Business Marketing. Not too shabby. We are very proud of him and have been eagerly awaiting actually receiving his degree….

Apparently, there’s a problem. From what we can piece together, Wells Fargo – as part of the bail out – sold his student loan to the Department of Education. This means they basically stopped his loan, but didn’t tell him or anyone else. This means that the school is looking at Tom wanting him to pay them, they are basically holding his degree for ransom.

The big problem, for me, is that his financial adviser missed it – and worse, has known for a month and not told us. It is her job, her responsibility. Instead, she avoided his calls, ignored his emails. I realize they are busy (she made that very clear on more than one occasion), but it’s her job. They claim they called and spoke to him about it, but someone is playing the system and the school is too stupid to realize it. You don’t go into that much explanation with someone for 21 seconds or a minute and 31 seconds. That’s long enough to listen to a voice mail message, maybe leave a message (which we never got any of).

The money isn’t all that much and we’ll pay it next week now that we know there’s basically nothing they can do, but ya know… no one ever apologize for their error. The financial adviser hasn’t (we can’t even get her on the phone) and her boss hasn’t (she basically told Tom it wasn’t her problem).

A simple, “I’m so sorry, this is our fault, but by law we really can’t do anything for you, you will have to pay the difference, I wish there was more I could do.” would have gone a very long way.

How hard would that be? It amazes me that companies are unwilling to just admit their fault. A simple apology would have gone very far. And it would have really saved this customer relationship.

You see, I want to go back to college and I was thinking of UoP, but not anymore. I also won’t be recommending them to anyone else I know. Quite the opposite. And why? Because one financial adviser messed up and no one is willing to say “I’m sorry“. Petty on my part? Maybe, but I give excellent service to my clients. I believe a little bit of customer service goes a long way. Whether it’s writing off a few hours of my time, giving my client a credit on their bill… or just saying I’m sorry.

I just read an interesting article over at Inc.com. We’ve all heard reasons why businesses fail: poor economy, too much competition, the secretary was faxing out bids on the shredder. You know, all those “read reasons” that businesses fail.

But Jessica Livingston at Y Combinator has a different take on the reason start-ups fail,”They all fail for the same reason. People just stop working on their business.” While there may be different reasons for the lack of motivation that makes this happen, the eventual failure starts when the working stops.

Very interesting reading. Check it out:

How Hard Could It Be?: Start-up Static

Are you new to online networking and thinking of getting started on Facebook? Already using Facebook but want to make sure you are “doing it right”? Sally Kuhlman over at Virtual Simplicity has posted some great tips on getting started on Facebook.

Sally covers some of the important basics: Should you really throw that sheep? When is it ok to ignore someone? Should my profile picture be of my dog or of my inbox? (Answer to that last is: neither!)

So go check it out, definitely good “morning coffee reading”:

Facebook Facebook Facebook

Kelly over at Taxgirl.com recently answered a pretty common question:

“I want to ask if scans of receipts are acceptable as proof for the IRS. I’ve got receipts that are only one year old and they are already unable to be read due to fading. If we are somehow able to scan the receipt and save a digital copy of the information, do we still need the physical receipt?”

Does this sound like you? Do you have old shoe boxes overflowing with receipts “just in case” the IRS decides you need a good ole fashioned audit?

Head on over to taxgirl.com and take a look at the answer. You’ll be happy you did.

Ask the taxgirl: Scanned Receipts

Still haven’t filed your taxes? Still looking for advice or have questions that you can’t answer yourself? CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis has compiled an article with answers to questions that viewers asked on “The Help Desk.”

“Question 1: I am interested in the tax credit for first-time homebuyers. Does the home have to be purchased before I apply for tax credit? Can I apply for the tax credit now and get a home by the deadline of December 2009?”

The answer to this question and many more can be seen at:

Q&A;: Tax day, and you still haven’t filed?

If your buying your first house, you may have some options on claiming your tax credit:

“taxpayers who qualify for the first-time homebuyer credit and purchase a home this year before Dec. 1 have a special option available for claiming the tax credit either on their 2008 tax returns due April 15 or on their 2009 tax returns next year.”

For more information, check out the full article on the IRS.gov website.

Expanded Tax Break for 2009 First-Time Homebuyers

At OffAssist we love the guys at www.businesscartoons.uk.co (we even featured them in a spotlight a few years ago, here). We’ve missed their free weekly business cartoon offering. So has the OA newsletter!

We are happy to tell everyone that the free weekly cartoon feature is BACK! Check it out if you have a newsletter, have a client with a newsletter, or just need a giggle.

http://www.businesscartoons.co.uk/free_weekly_cartoon.htm

Ok, so here I am at SxSW. I finally found a comfy chair to sit in. It even has a little fold out laptop stand! One thing I’ve noticed here is that “alternative” is pretty much “mainstream” at SxSW. So here I sit, in my comfy chair with about 10 other people right around me. It wasn’t till I got out my netbook that I realized something:

I, Tom Beauchamp, am officially a rebel!

Every person around me has something “alternative” about them: hair, clothes, piercings, you name it. 5 of them have iPhones out. All 10 have Apple laptops. The little light up logo’s are taunting me!

Here I am with basically a pretty boring guy and I stand out like a sore thumb!

So I figure I must be the trend setter here. Next year everyone will be wearing black leather jackets, using Palm cellphones, and running eeePC’s! Ok, maybe not. But never fear, even if you follow the mainstream there are places where YOU are the “alternative” person in the room.

So here I sit at the world famous South by South West Conference in Austin, Texas. For those that aren’t familiar, SxSW started as a music festival and over the years has become host to entertainment, interactive, and other types of media. Today the conference is split into 3 parts: Music, Film, and Interactive. I am here for the Interactive part.

So, what does Interactive cover? Just about any type of interactive media you can think of: online games, blogging, and many other forms of media (some I’ve never heard of). I laid out my schedule last night and have a fun-filled 4 days ahead.

Since OffAssist has been trying to expand out social media presence, that is the track I am most interested in. I start off with a “How to make the most of SxSW” class and from there jump straight into the Social Media craziness.

Of course, that is once everything starts. For now, I’m enjoying the mix of people here. Colored hair and piercings mix with suit and tie and everything in between. Of course, there are several people with suit and tie, colored hair, and piercings all in one. And I’ve heard 7 or 8 different languages, and at least 4 different versions of English since I’ve been here.

Should make for an interesting weekend.