Monthly Archives: January 2015

Is Kim Kardashian just another face, or can you learn about business from her?

January 11, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

There are personal brands and corporate brands.
In the end, a successful brand makes a personal connection. Some people say that Kim Kardashian leveraged her family connections to gain fame and get a foot in the door to have a media presence. Her father’s prestige as a well connected Attorney who was involved with the most famous law suit in American history (OJ Simpson’s case) really helped plant a seed that flourished over the years.

Kim wanted to build her personal brand by getting the attention of the media.
Having a sex tape with a celebrity got her in the tabloids and general media. With one simple tape, she elevated her status from just another pretty face to a potential celebrity. After this bold and decisive claim to fame, she decided to make a name for herself as a trend setter and built this reputation on her various social media accounts. Kim spent a lot of time connecting and engaging with her followers which is absolutely essential in social media.

Using celebrity status to engage the media even more.
Once Kim had attained celebrity status, she built more of a presence with it by having her own show on television. She also posed “au natural” for several magazines to create more controversy and gain more attention. In the media, you can be fun, or you can be interesting, but nothing gains more attention than controversy.

Summary
Additionally, it should be said that Kim understands the entire trademark process. She knows the legal aspects of what to brand, how to brand it, and when, etc.

Finally, Kim partnered with very successful people to create brands. She was part of Shoedazzle, Bell Noel jewelry,a video game app deal, and more. Basically she leveraged the name she created for herself to market products.

To sum it up, Kim is a master of building a success on another success. She used family connections and a sex tape to gain fame. Then, she used it to build even more fame, and brand products using her name. Her innate and natural beauty is also critical to the process as she has a very unique and stunning look.

What can your business learn from Kim’s success?
First of all many businesses are on social media. Most social media accounts are dreadfully dull. You can learn from Kim how to jazz up your social media. Her Twitter account is very visual with lots of sexy and stunning photos. As a business, you will need more meat to captivate your audience, but the dazzle always helps. Your business can also learn to engage with people via social media. However, in general, a successful business is successful because you connect with people in a meaningful way and help them in substantial ways. And if all else fails, you can urge your corporate president to make a sex tape with a celebrity. Sure, it is not an ethical or moral thing to do — but, it’s all part of maintaining an image (not necessarily the one you want though.)

Yelp reviews for Call Centers? What would they look like?

January 11, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Leave a comment

Have you ever thought about what a Yelp review for a call center would be? What would people complain about? What would they say they liked? Which comments would you love to hear, the ones that could help boost your business? Which comments would you dread, the ones that might discourage others from knocking on your door? If you approach your business with the goal of attracting positive Yelp comments, your business and your callers will both be better off!

Review #1 from Sam
* * * * * Jack’s Call Center rocks! I love their agents, and they are always there to help me. I was using them once a week, but now my business has grown and I am ready to expand to using them three times a week!

Review #2 from Jackie
* Jack’s Call Center is terrible. I signed up with them and they gave me the worst agent ever. The girl could hardly speak English and every time I asked her a question she said, “what?”

Review #3 from Patricia
* * The call center service was not bad. But, the incompetent manager called me at 3am. He forgot that California is 12 hours different from India time. Get a clue buddy!

Review #4 from Srikant
* * * * I love Jack’s Call Center. They employed all of my friends and give quarterly performance based wages. It is nice to be treated fairly for a change!

Review #5 from Andy
* * * * I wanted to give Jack’s Call Center five stars. But I was too lazy to tap an extra key.

Oh well. Just make sure your employees aren’t lazy on the job.

What if you could change the outcome of your next meeting using colors?

January 11, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

I bet the Bloods and the Crips would agree with this statement. If it’s red, you’re dead, and if you’re down with the blue, then you’re through. But, if you run an outsourcing business, you are probably not gang affiliated.

It is a proven fact that colors change your mood. Restaurants that have the right amount of maroon red seem to prosper. Red is the color of the fire element, and restaurants prosper when their innate element is present. Restaurants use fire to cook which is why its metaphysical color is red. But, the maroon shade of red seems to work miracles at Italian, Chinese and Japanese restaurants that I’ve been to.

Certain colors are good in advertising materials. Blue has a tone of stability while green stimulates creative thought. Pink makes you feel good while red is exciting and stimulating.

But, what about meetings? Does your meeting room have white walls? Maybe you need to paint the room every time you have a meeting to adjust what you want the mood to be. If you are having a meeting about creating a new marketing scheme, then green might help. Or perhaps having green plants in the room might help as plants have an amazing growth energy (if you remember to water them.)

Red is a good color to stimulate strong emotions. People might get all fired up or even angry if there is too much red around. I’m not sure being too robust at meetings is a good idea though. Red is a very strong color in feng-shui. A little goes a long way. The fire element can also stimulate other energies in a positive or negative way. So, be careful in how you use red!

Orange is a happy color. Also a fire element, but not as strong as red. Orange can stimulate enthusiasm, creativity, and determination.

Aqua is a very relaxing and calming color. If you want a meeting that is not too intense you could try aqua.

But, what if you could experiment with color at meetings. What if you could see if color theory really did affect your meetings in a small way, or even in a huge way. You could even have meetings by the beach, in a forest, or while walking just to see how the meeting went. There is a lot of experimentation you can do with meetings which can affect the output. My astrologer actually picks days for me to have meetings with various people. Certain days are good for business while other days are good for meeting with programmers if Uranus is in my chart on that particular day. It is complicated, but astrology has actually helped me plan my life. I avoid doing important things on days with negative constellations. So, experiment with astrology if you are using a professional. Experiment with color at meetings and with sales literature. Track the results of your experiments and see if color makes any difference.

What metro is right for your business in America or India?

January 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

Many people don’t get it. They think they can run their business anywhere. Or they look to see where the best labor resources are if they are a large corporation. Neither answer is correct. Forget about the physical universe here and look at buzz, mojo, vaastu, or the feng-shui of particular areas.

I notice a lot while traveling. I love Los Angeles but complain that it is not so friendly here. I enjoy driving through the desert to Joshua Tree, Tucson, and many parts of New Mexico. What I noticed is that folks in New Mexico sure are friendly. However, I don’t feel like working more than five hours a day in New Mexico while in Los Angeles I feel like working almost non-stop. The “energy” or momentum of particular areas is good for different things. New Mexico has a great vibration for art. If you are an artist you will get plenty of clients and support in the loving state of New Mexico. If you run a casino or bar, you will get many clients. But, for the restaurant business things are usually very slow. Even most of the top notch restaurants have only 20% occupancy in the wonderful enchanted state of New Mexico. So, what am I trying to say?

If you run a business, you need to be in a city where you feel like working, and where your type of business thrives. You can import workers from other cities at a cost if necessary, but you cannot duplicate the supportive energies of your city somewhere else. I feel that Bangalore is a great place for technical businesses while Mumbai is great for commerce, wheeling and dealing. Los Angeles is great for creativity and getting lots done while Santa Fe is wonderful for spas and art galleries. Texas is great for herding cows, but Georgia is great for meeting neighborly people. I have not been to every part of the world, but you can investigate as many places as you like. To find a home for your business, the city you choose needs to support the type of activity you will be engaging in.

Most of my readers are involved in some way in BPO or office work outsourcing. Big cities in India seem to support this business although rent and transportation are miserable in most Indian Cities. While in the USA, it is the more remote states that support back office tasks like Call Center, Data Entry, and Medical Transcription. You’ll find lots of call centers in Alabama, Oklahoma, Colorado, and other square states. I guess if you need a square job, you should do it in a square state. California is more for more interesting work as the costs are higher and the talent pool is larger. I’ll leave the rest to you!

More San Francisco Startups

January 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Quotes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Here are even more San Francisco Startups. We published a list a few days ago, and here is the sequel.

Product Hunt
https://www.producthunt.com/
Product Hunt helps buyers to identify some of the hottest new products. This company started being a newsletter for products and evolved into a big company.

Gigster
https://gigster.com/
Gigster helps programmers get connected with companies. The unique factor is that Gigster will analyze the request and output a guaranteed price for a specific and well specified request. The computer program Gigster uses is self-learning, so it learns to be better at estimating jobs the more it does it.

HackerOne
https://hackerone.com/press
HackerOne is a marketplace for bug fixing companies. They will find some hackers to identify and fix your site’s weaknesses and in exchange take 20% of the payments.

Shyp
https://www.shyp.com/
Why Shyp, just take a picture of what you want to send. A driver will come and pick up your package without all the hype. Shype comparison shops to find you the lowest charge for shipping and then adds on $5 to your cost. All I can say is that I hope the Shyp drivers carry bottled water and snacks like the Uber drivers do.

Eero
https://www.eero.com/
Eero uses blue tooth and mesh networking to optimize your web connection for flawless wifi.

Eaze
https://www.eazeup.com/
Eaze helps you find medical marijuana and get it delivered to you without leaving your desk. Now you can get high without dealing with any shady medical marijuana dealers or getting arrested. Now, it’s as “Eaze” as 1, 2, wow, like look at that door… I just noticed that… It’s just — there…. It just IS there… I never saw that door that way before. Oh, what was I talking about? Oh, right. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Eaze turned the cannabis trade into a canna.biz!

Postmates
https://postmates.com/about
Postmates lets you get anything you want delivered in less than an hour. They can go shopping for you, pick up food, foot cream, kung pao chicken (easy on the pao, please) or more whenever you want it.

Sano
http://www.sano.co/
Sano helps diabetes patients to no longer need to prick their fingers by using a patch.

Medium
https://medium.com/
Medium is a publishing medium where anyone from a publisher, political activist or house mom can publish whatever they want. However, Medium has some major new competition from a company called Large.

6SensorLabs
http://6sensorlabs.com/
This company has a gluten tester that helps people find out what is in their foods. I hope they can tell you if the gluten is genetically engineered or not as well. Perhaps that will be the next generation of machines — and by then they’ll have genetic engineering for machines and for the humans that create them.

Shift
https://shift.com/
Shift wants to reinvent the wheel when it comes to selling used cars. This system will include photographing and price setting. Shift will also have someone bring the car to you to test drive. Sounds like a plan to me.

Operator
https://angel.co/operator
Operator helps you book flights, buy flowers, pick Christmas presents and more. Take the work out of shopping with Operator and operate like a pro!

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Thinking outside the croissant – a guide to making better business decisions

January 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Leave a comment

We have a local coffee house in our complex. They have a very pleasant staff and make decent coffee concoctions. Their downfall is that they fail to understand very simple business concepts such as inventory management. In a cafe, you have coffee drinks which require storing beans and milk which can be kept for days in a refrigerator. You can also sell cold drinks which keep well. But, pastries just don’t taste the same the second day. So, what is the solution?

What is Perishable & What is Not?
There are items such as cookies which can be stored longer than pastries. It might also be possible to buy more pastries mid-day if you prematurely ran out. Biscotties are a type of dry bread that cafe goers love that keeps forever. However, our local cafe owner employs none of these strategies. He has a huge surplus of pastries in the winter at the end of the day, and runs out at 2pm in the spring and summer. He fails to base his purchasing on sales and refuses to adjust his habits or even think about the matter. His management style is pure madness and very stubborn.

A Pastry Algorithm
I suggested to him that he create a pastry algorithm. His ordering practice would be based on a combination of how many he sold last year during the same month — but, also based on how things have been going over the last two weeks. Maybe his business picked up recently because there are more neighbors who enjoy his coffee.

What Else can he Sell?
Our local cafe could easily sell sandwiches, fruit bowls, and dinner items. People would buy them. They used to sell them and it went okay. However, if you have the same old thing all the time, people might get sick of it. It is important to have the same old things that sell like crazy, but to also have new things so that your long-term clients don’t get bored.

It’s not hard to make big money
Some cafes are always packed. They have a vibrant social scene, a great staff, and great coffee. Other cafes just don’t do as well. The consciousness of the owner has a lot to do with this as well as the overall quality of everything else. But, if you don’t think outside the box or the croissant here, you will be limiting your success. Why put a damper or lid on your potential? Try some new ideas on a small scale and see how they work. But, don’t just try the ideas, really think about them and ask your clients how they feel about your need ideas and their experience with them.

What is your entrepreneurial IQ?

January 10, 2015 by admin
Categories: Startups, Success | Leave a comment

Are you an entrepreneur, or do you want to invest in one? Better check their entrepreneurial IQ first. Have them take the EIQ test. There is no such thing yet, but there should be. But, what types of questions would you ask an entrepreneur to see if they have what it takes? Most entrepreneurs are failures and will never amount to anything. What separates the winners from the rest of the pack?

Note: If an entrepreneur is poor at even one of the skillsets below, they are likely to fail in business and you will lose your investment money.

1. Problem solving skills
Perhaps the same types of questions you see in math class as a kid that you do for extra credit. Or your dad might buy you a book of these from a bookstore to keep your mind active. This is exactly the type of thinking you need as an entrepreneur because entrepreneurs face endless problems of varying complexity.

2. Prioritizing skills
It is easy to work everyday, and not that hard to be good at something. However, learning how to prioritize your skills and be good at that is not so easy. How do you measure the value of each skill, and when the optimal time to do it is? A good entrepreneur should know what to focus on, otherwise their time will not be used profitably and neither will their resources! Additionally, you will need to put your work ahead of friends, family and girlfriends or boyfriends. If you are too socially comfortable, you won’t make a good entrepreneur. You’ll be too busy socializing to make business a priority. It helps when you start off by being socially ostracized. That way you don’t have to choose. Being in business becomes more of a way to fill the void at that point which is one of the tickets to success.

3. Time Management
None of us are good at time management. I read a Harvard Business Review article about time management. It said to avoid visiting your email. I did exactly this and saved tons of time. Two weeks later my email was filled with irate customers asking me why I didn’t answer their email. There is a time and place for everything. Emails perhaps should be the first thing you do every day, but perhaps only once per day so you can focus on projects! But, the point here (and yes I have a point) is that entrepreneurs who are poor at time management will fail for sure.

4. Honesty & Integrity
An entrepreneur who cheats, or is not loyal in relationships is a disaster. Unfortunately, these days 99% of people I meet lack integrity. It is always refreshing to see someone who has been in the same job for 15 years. That shows a type of integrity called commitment. You need that in a marriage and an investment in an entrepreneur is similar to a marriage (but, hopefully without the sex.)

5. Work Ethic
It is hard to test work ethic in an IQ test, but you need to test it. A good entrepreneur will work until 3am if they need to get something done. If you want to leave work at 5pm and play with your kids or take your girlfriend out, you will be popular with them, but not your investor which in most cases — is yourself!

6. Hiring & Firing
Do you have the right stuff to hire the right people and fire them at the right time? The problem is that the right people seem not to exist which is why I do most of my work myself. Being good at spotting someone who will do good work, be nice, and not quit is essential. I’m not sure how you could incorporate this into a multiple choice test, but if there is a will, there is a way. In real hiring, there could be three hundred applicants and you have to choose the best one, plus a few backups. If are Warren Buffet, you might go through ten thousand. After all, you want someone who will be with you for twenty years, so why would you make a twenty year decision in twenty minutes? Good decisions take time!

7. Technical Skills
Obviously, you need to be good at your core competency whatever that is. Since I don’t know what you specialize in, I can’t comment.

8. Innovation
This is similar to problem solving, except that innovation deals with finding radically new and usually technologically advanced ways of solving problems. Regular problem solving deals with what to do when your customer received bad service and needs help. Innovation deals with finding and building a computer system that can help your customer in ways you never dreamt possible.

9. Financial Planning
As an entrepreneur, you not only have to be able to budget your time and hire the right people, you need to be good at allocating your limited cash which normally starts on a bootstrapped shoestring (or boot string as the case may be.) If you invest too much money in things that are not absolutely essential, or invest money in inefficient ways to solve problems, you will go broke and fail. This is why garage entrepreneurship makes so much sense. Your garage is already paid for. You are finding new ways to use resources you already have — that is called efficiency. Which brings me to my next point.

10. Efficiency Competency
Do you know how to use resources efficiently? Do you have your callers spend too much time on each client? Do you spend not enough time on the important clients? Do you call people when you should email them? Do you spend $20 on lunch when you could get a better lunch for $11 down the street which would save you driving time? (which is worth more than money) Seeing how you handle issues that relate to efficiency is very important otherwise you will waste resources which spells bankruptcy and failure. If you are successful you can spend more on food and luxuries, but not while you are on your way up.

The joke about efficiency is that a space data company decided to have its office in space to save money on rent. After all, space is free in space. They changed the tune they were whistling when they got their oxygen bill. $700 for oxygen? I’m changing providers. So, they called the 800 number and were put on hold. John wondered out loud, “I wonder how long I’ll be on hold with this oxygen company.” His coworker replied, “Don’t hold your breath!”

11. Vision
According to spiritual principles, if you can see it, you can’t build it. You have to envision growth otherwise it won’t happen. If you lack a good imagination and a practical imagination, you can’t do well as an entrepreneur. “Think it and they will come” should be your motto.

12. Ambition
A good work ethic without ambition or vision leaves you being just another top notch grunt worker. You’ll be in the same lousy company in the same lousy position for the rest of your life. Or perhaps you’ll be promoted to management. However, those are the types of people you want to hire. Hire people who work hard but who don’t want to be the owner themselves otherwise they will quit and leave you high and dry only to find out they are your competitor. You can’t be successful unless you can envision success, be ambitious enough to make it happen, have the work ethic to back up your ambition, and have good smarts and problem solving skills of many types. Once again, if you are weak in any of the magical twelve skills to be an entrepreneur, you will fail for sure!

Tweets:
Think it and they will come
Space data company puts their office in space but owner flips lid when he sees their oxygen bill.

Succeeding at blogging is not about having the best resources

January 9, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Leave a comment

Sure, the big guys in blogging such as the Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review and other huge agencies do well at blogging. They can hire the best writers, editors, and have a huge following already. Many organizations that did well on social media already had millions of fans long before blogging was even popular. It was easy for them because the had resources. But, the rest of us do not have resources. We start from scratch.

Some people are good writers. Others are good at hiring the best people. I am not good at either unfortunately and also do not have the largest marketing channels built up either. However, I realized that the more I write, the better I get at it. The more I blog, the more I figure out what is popular and what is not with my crowd. I also find co-bloggers from time to time who can help me. My blog continues to grow and my social media channels continue to grow as well. They work together. My growth is based on me using the resources that I do have rather than complaining that I don’t have the best resources. I use myself, my time, and my ability to see what others are writing about. I often take someone else’s theme and create my own pieces based on my own take of their themes. Perhaps it is like Mozart’s theme and variations a little bit except that I don’t write 23 variations on a single theme!

I had a vision a few months back. I saw that my business blog would become huge and would develop a gigantic following. We get about 3500 visitors per month now. But, I saw millions in the long run. As time goes on, I will improve my personal writing skills and have the money to hire professionals to help me. I’ll know exactly what to publish, when and in what quantity. I’m not sure how long it will take to obtain this type of growth. But, with my social media skills improving daily, I might get there in four or five yeras. It is hard to predict where I will be or where the world will be in a few years.

The moral of this entry is to use what you have. Continue developing your skills. Keep figuring out what works, what doesn’t and why — and eventually you have a chance at being a popular blogger. It doesn’t happen overnight, but in time you can build your empire!

I do my best business thinking when I’m NOT in the office

January 9, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Innovation | Leave a comment

Many of us are accustomed to thinking that we can only work in an office and that we would simply not be businesslike if we weren’t in an office building. If you are accustomed to working in an office, this might be true for you. But, an office environment can be chaotic and not a good place to think. Writers typically don’t like offices and they are some of the most creative people of all. I work from my home. However, my best business thoughts happen when I am not at home. So, where do these winning thoughts happen?

At a friend’s house
If you are at a friend’s house or workplace chatting, you might stumble upon your best business idea just talking about your business issues. The best business decision I ever made stemmed from dropping by my friend’s office.

At a restaurant
When you get bored waiting for your check at a restaurant and start daydreaming, that might be where your best business thinking happens. It is then and only then that you really have time to reflect on the deeper workings of your business and processes.

At the beach
I go to the beach all the time. But, I don’t go to swim. I go to sit in my car at night and soak in all of the relaxing energies that the coastal spirits give me. In the world of elemental spirits there are water spirits and then there are tree spirits. It is about one to four hundred feet from the coast where these two types of spirits merge to create a hybrid type of spirit I call a coastal spirit. I sleep like a baby with these spirits around and enjoy reading in my car. I’ll read business blogs and think about business topics. I think of fun things to write about and new ideas for managing my business better.

Under a Banyan tree
They say that the Buddha attained enlightenment sitting under a Banyan or Bodhi tree. I like to sit with my back to a redwood tree to benefit from the healing powers that these majestic trees possess. I sometimes have my best business thoughts sitting under a big tree.

At my psychic’s house
My psychic and I have great conversations about business. Sometimes the winning thoughts will come to me while sitting with him. Sometimes we channel from the consciousness of business greats of the 1900’s and even better thoughts come to us.

The office
When I’m in my work space, I get a lot of busy work done. But, work involving deep thinking is never accomplished at my work station. Perhaps in the other desk in my home office, but not at my primary work space which is where I crank out lots of blog articles, thousands of phone calls and more!

Creating a workplace where people actually want to work

January 8, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Have you ever walked into someone’s office and just felt like sitting down and staring into space? Then, there are the hectic offices which are so crazy you just want to get out of there as fast as possible. Then there are “open-offices” with no privacy where desks are all in one big room which is the new trend. There are other offices where everyone chats with each other all day instead of working which might be termed “people-friendly but work-unfriendly” spaces. Google likes to create office spaces where people bump into each other all over the place including halls, restrooms, lunch, billiard tables, and more to stimulate interactive innovative processes which makes sense in their industry. But, what is the ideal type of office for your type of industry?

The BPO industry
Most of the people reading our blog are in industries that have large office spaces for back office tasks and phone work. I have visited such offices and will say that there are too many cubicles, too many people crammed into small spaces, too much noise, and too many people mulling around which is distracting. In short, call center and BPO offices are designed to be stressful, distracting, and cramped — at least in India where I have traveled. So, what is the solution?

Stress
Stress is the number 1 killer of BPO workers. They deal with uptight complaining customers, deal with tough programming tasks that relentlessly go wrong, unreasonable managers, and too many hours. To top this off, they have to work in a very distracting and stressful office space. They have a layer of stress from the work on top of another layer of stress from the customers, with a third layer of stress from management with a final layer of stress from the type of office they are in. My philosophy is to combat stress with the opposite of stress.

If you have a stressful job, do it in an un-stressful environment.
I realize that this is not always possible, but I often take my work out of the office. I work at home in my room. It suits me well as there is almost no noise, no other people, and no distractions. I work well during the day and even better at night. I rarely answer my phone as that will take me off course in my work. But, I found that working from the beach is the best place to make stressful calls. The beach relaxes me. I work in my car near the beach on a cliff actually. But, the atmosphere from being near the water calms me down which counteracts the stress of dealing with dumb customers who can’t answer a question unless you ask the same question four times to each of one hundred people on a list. Dealing with the same type of stupidity over and over and over makes me impatient and mean. So, choosing an ideal environment really helps.

But, what about your office layout?
You can’t put your office next to the beach unless you are really lucky. But, you could arrange trips to the beach from time to time to do work, or build a mini-office near the beach, or even use someone’s home near the beach to do calls. Another solution is to have an office where workspaces are more private. You could have rooms instead of cubicles and not have more than one person on a phone in any particular room which would cut down on distracting chaotic noise. I realize it would be more expensive to create such rooms and would be less space efficient. However, for senior employees, this would be a great way to reward them for their loyalty and provide a pleasant environment which might entice them to stay at the company longer.

Creating spaces with views or trees?
If you are in a cramped city, this might not be possible. But, what if you can have an office in a more remote spot? I would take advantage of nature and integrate trees, water, and gardens into your office theme. Imagine having office suites where each room has windows overlooking beautiful natural scenes. You could have a Japanese Zen Garden with Bonzai trees out one window, and a forest outside the other. You might design a small waterfall to be 30 feet North of your boss’s window for good feng-shui and grass to be next to someone else’s window. Having windows that actually open is much more healthy than breathing recirculated air. Perhaps we should all be like Google and have customized offices based on our industry’s individual needs.

Retreat offices in the mountains and shores
I think it is a great idea to get away from the office from time to time and work in a completely different environment. This won’t work for those of us who have children. But, for singles, it is wonderful. I work so much better when I can get away to the mountains, beach or desert. Not all remote environments work for me, but some work miracles and make me feel recharged. I can actually get 50% more done in the ideal remote environment just because the energies stimulate me!

What is right for you?
Most managers are very closed minded about what is right. They want to do the same old thing and make excuses about why change is too difficult or won’t work in their unique or not so unique situation. I think the world will learn that companies with Google type consciousness that involves innovation, customization, and optimization of environments (and everything else) to be companies that get ahead while companies that are closed minded have limitations for their growth. A good worker experience will decrease attrition, increase engagement, and revolutionize productivity! It is worth a try at least as a pilot operation. Let me know how it goes!

My psychic told me to partner with a recent grad for startups

January 8, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Startups | Tagged | Leave a comment

I had a 12 hour session with my psychic broken into four meetings. We discussed dozens of business topics that have been difficult for me over the last several years. One of the most interesting topics was growth. I wanted to know what the best ideas for growing my online directory business. We channeled spirits of deceased great business people, and tuned into the consciousness of management departments at some of today’s best corporations like Google, Toyota, and Uber. Although there is no way to prove that those organizations would really recommend what my psychic picked up on, the exercise was fascinating and the results were nothing short of amazing.

Find a partner, but who?
One of the tips we got was when we channeled Warren Buffet. He is so “in demand” that the chance that I’ll ever get to talk to him in depth is slim, but you never know. If he took an interest in me, then he might give me some time. But, for now we’ll have to settle for channeling with Walter the psychic who is excellent — no complaints! The suggestion we got was to partner. But, with who?

Should I partner with a company?
I thought about partnering with social media companies since I am so active on social media. One of the entities we channeled actually did suggest that idea. I thought about partnering with programming companies as I am so reliant on their work. Someone else recommended that idea as well. But, when we channeled Warren, the suggestion we picked up on was to partner with someone fresh out of college. Perhaps someone from a family with a strong work ethic. Perhaps an Asian-American who really wanted to get ahead and wasn’t afraid to work for it. The next thing we picked up on was that the kid would need to have a father who was very influential in his life. If the father told him to do something — that he would do it. Kids are fickle at age 22, but if they are subservient to pushy parents, it’s a lot easier to work with them as the chain of command isn’t broken.

History repeats itself
I remember back in high school, I had a friend from music school. He had never had a job. His father talked to me one day after music school. He wanted his kid to have some work experience. I was doing landscaping in those days. I know it’s hard to picture an amateur cellist doing lawn mowing, bark mulch, and digging ditches for plants — but, I’m a born entrepreneur, and that was the one business that I could easily start as a kid and succeed at. Incidentally, this family was also Asian-American, and they did not allow any slacking off for their kids. The kid I worked with turned out to become a Pediatrician after he finished school. So, basically, the suggestion we picked up on from Warren was history repeating itself — one of the few incidents in my history that actually turned out reasonably well too!

Partner with a college grad
So, I would need to network and find some college grads who want to build a new business with me. Startups are a popular topic on Twitter, and the subject matter does interest me. But, in real life I deal with startups in India regularly and see people falling on their faces in the United States as well. I just read that startups in Greece can barely afford wifi. The truth is that if you don’t have intense drive, money, experience, and management skills, your startup has only a slim chance of succeeding. I started my business in 1999 and started two more web directories around 2004-2007. I didn’t have the time to promote my other web directories until recently. Now, I’m doing the work and it is really time consuming. Getting a web site to be popular requires dealing with programmers, social media, finding good content to put online and more. It is an overtime job! So, if I found a kid who would do the legwork for me, I would have to provide the wisdom and cash to get the operation moving. It is an interesting thing to think about.

What if the partner quit?
If you have a partner, the chance of them quitting is quite real. You need to have a backup plan of who is going to take over the venture if they quit. You need to know how to train people to gain the necessary skills. Unfortunately, in my business it takes time to learn all the skills you need. There are so many skills, and each one takes years to master. So, if I get someone new, they won’t make money in the beginning as they are learning. But, with me as a mentor, they will get an interesting business education. It would be far less erudite than sitting in on Harvard Business School lectures, but a lot more practical and hands-on.

Learning the ropes
If I chose a partner, they would have to be willing to learn the twenty or so types of skills necessary to run a web business. I would be creating a mini-me in a sense. Sounds kind of creepy when you phrase it like that. I would teach them to be just like me. But, should I choose a business grad who wants to learn to run businesses? Or should I choose a tech grad who is interested in business but who can also program. If you hire outside programmers, they never give a damn and the bills are always sky-high! Or do I hire a social media fanatic. To do well in my world, you would ideally be all three wrapped into one human body. But, is it possible? We’ll find out!

Wish me luck & wish my future partner luck too.

Subliminal messages in on hold message – online hypnosis!

January 8, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Humor | Leave a comment

People spend a lot of time on hold. Personally, I lack the patience for being on hold. It can last for twenty minutes or an hour sometimes. I wonder if companies value my time at all? But, maybe there is a lot opportunity here. If you put subliminal messages on your on hold message, you might sell more.

Subliminal messages are a form of hypnosis.
The listener might not be consciously aware that they are receiving messages, but their subconscious will definitely pick up on it. You could have messages that make people want to buy stuff, or just make them enjoy being on hold. I’m not sure how the whole subliminal message technique works, but I guess you can program humans to enjoy or want anything.

I was just at a car dealership.
I commented on how they liked Mo-town music from the 60’s. As usual, the rep claimed he didn’t even notice the music half the time since he was so used to it. But, I told them this was a wasted opportunity. They could play music with subliminal undercurrents worked into the music. Or just play cool songs like, “Baby you can drive my car.” and other songs that make you want to buy a car. Who says that the music needs to be subtle in its message? Songs could be picked with lyrics about cars or whatever else you are selling.

What about your BPO?
Imagine if you had some subliminal messages on the on hold music for your outsourcing outfit? Or what if you just had really pleasant music that people enjoyed listening to. It pays to figure out what type of music your clients like, but how many companies even bother? But, if I ran a call centre, I’d have hypnotic messages saying, “get more seats, get 100 seats in our call center with a three year contract!”