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Thursday, December 22, 2016

How Doxxing Threatens Your Small Business

Mousepad linked with social media handles.

Every day, as the Internet deepens, the lexicon also deepens. That is how Doxxing is suddenly becoming very popular even though it has been around for quite some time. As gleaned from the Internet, “The term Dox or Doxxing is derived from the word “Document.” It originates from the practice of researching information about an individual. Doxxing is often defined as an Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information (such as names, addresses, phone numbers, spouse, children, relatives, financial history and much more) about an individual.”

In fact, such information usually forms a total very sensitive package online about any individual. If it gets stolen or falls into wrong hands, such information can be used for real time impersonation or even identity theft. If you own a small business online and somebody steals your identity through Dox packages, that business could easily be taken over (even if temporarily) and misused by using it to perpetrate fraud or scams. That is how dangerous Doxxing can be to your business.



Very commonly online, when it comes to privacy issues, people focus much more on companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and suchlike social media sites. Quite often, that focus often ends up overlooking the real culprits. Many of these social media sites claim to be self censored and boast of being able to secure the personal information of their users. Even if we accept that to be true, many of their users may not be that careful with their personal information. In addition, other persons who post on their sites freely could be reckless with sensitive information when they take full advantage of the fact that many of such social media sites are interactive and very free to use. These careless postings could actually serve as sources which feed the practice of Doxxing and can lead to many different types of assaults on your business.

Now wait for it! Some companies using people-finder websites even now specialize in collecting sensitive information online and selling it to other companies. I bet you can you see the danger in that. Even though Doxxing in its earliest form was meant to gather marketing intelligence information for businesses, criminals have since latched on to it to perpetrate various forms of cyber crimes. That is why it is now a real threat to many small businesses online. Many of such businesses can easily be wiped out completely when hit real hard by cyber criminals.

Any viable remedy? Yes indeed! What to do is simple as ABC. Just protect your personal information online like never before. If you can help it, don’t allow your sensitive personal information online unless you have absolute guarantee that it will be securely protected from predators.
 

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

7 Ways to Automate Conversations with Your Customers

Digital marketing sign on laptop screen, flowers and folded newspaper.
Maintaining an open line of communication with your customers is key to any successful business relationship. There is real customer satisfaction when your customers know that you’re behind them and are ready to support them every step of the way. This is a win-win relationship which does not necessarily mean you’ll need to spend extra man-hours to keep your lines of communication open. Even if there are a lot of customer service requests, you may not need a human being to handle them all. That is where automation comes in.

Putting automation to work in your business frees you and your employees up to continue to move your business forward, while still keeping a level of support that your customers expect. Here are 7 cost effective ways you can automate that process.



01. By Making Use of New Technologies: The commonest technologies that might assist in the automation process are the use of mobile apps. The most effective of these apps are those which help to walk customers through common issues so they can fix problems themselves without the need for your involvement. Others might use SMS to text a code to a number to get information on their account, a balance due, or to automate the payment process.

02. By Using Technology for Follow-up: Even after you’ve made a sale, it’s still important to keep the lines of communication open to your customers. The follow up helps to increase customer satisfaction by merely letting your customers know that you’re out there if they need you. That helps to address potential problems early on by addressing issues early. Common problems are easier to fix early on. For instance, using a simple automated email might be all that is needed to open a line of communication between you and your customer.

03. By Automating Your Social Media Presence: As many business owners have come to realize, Social media outreach is an important part of their business’ public face. It helps to give potential customers and customers a sense that they’re connected to you. Promotion of what your business offers through social media channels may open up new sales leads, while customers may turn to social media to contact you about issues. There are many social management systems such as HappyFox that can actually filter social media contacts based on the content of the message itself. That helps to take out the work of a middleman to direct queries to the right person. These same systems can also automatically post to your social media accounts, allowing you to automate your marketing strategy and give your content maximum exposure.



04. By Using Surveys: Surveys are fairly common methods of automation. Granted you’re not always going to get a high response rate, the data obtained from well designed surveys are great ways to not only spot potential problems, but also initiate a dialogue with your customers. It helps to keep them short, relevant, and to the point. You may also find it necessary to use your survey answers to initiate further automatic emails to gather additional feedback on areas where the responses might be a cause for concern.

05. By Using the Callback System: These days, even though many consumers may show a preference for using the Internet to communicate with businesses, many still appreciate talking to a human being. Call such people “old school” if you like but they are still out there and in large numbers too. It is because of such people the callback is still a worthy option to include in your customer relationship strategy. On the same pages where you might have a “Chat Now” button, a “Call Me” button might be just as useful. For example, MobiForge software has some great examples of Click to Call or Click to SMS solutions.

06. By Initiating Conversation without Prompting: Smart business owners do not wait for their customers to first reach out to them. They easily recognize such actions their customers may take that might be a clear sign of a need for assistance. For example, a website visitor spending a lot of time in your help pages probably needs some kind of support, while somebody looking through your products and services might benefit from talking with a member of your sales team to assure the sale. There are multiple great tools out there which can help initiate any conversation. Tools like LiveChat and BoldChat, both with customizable audience interactions can really be useful here.



07. By Using a Virtual Assistant to Handle the Simple Things: Just because you’re trying to be proactive doesn’t mean you’ll need to hire additional staff. A good portion of customer service requests are simple in nature, and with chat bots becoming ever more intelligent, automated systems can handle those issues quickly and easily. This frees up your employees to deal with more complex problems. Chat bots such as Botsify (for Facebook Messenger and other apps) can answer those simple questions that might arise from whatever actions your customer is taking on your site.

Monday, December 19, 2016

How to Secure the Physical Space of Your Small Business

Hooded burgler breaking into a house.
Granted a lot of small businesses operate online these days, there are still many who traditionally operate in a physical space. Very sadly, thieves are on the prowl every hour of the day looking for businesses hit. As long as there are small businesses, there will always be people out there looking to rob, burglarize, and otherwise steal from them. It’s simply a risk that every business owner must take. The trick is to minimize risk and maximize awareness. Getting out ahead of potential thieves is the best remedy. We all know that robbery is a crime of opportunity. If somehow you are able to eliminate that opportunity, your business, your customers, and your peace of mind will be better off for it.



It does a lot of good if we take advice from people who are trained and empowered to deal with thieves. That is what the police do all around the world. The police know very well that if criminals are determined to steal from you, they’ll find a way to (try to) do it. To stop them, you can set up your business deliberately to discourage would-be thieves. That effort lies in the way you design the layout and equip the physical space where you do business. LAPD and many police departments, routinely advise every small business owner operating in a physical space to do the following among many other precautions they can also take.

ð    01. Provide security system information to employees only on a need-to-know basis. The sad truth is that employee theft and fraud is a major source of loss—amounting to tens of thousands of lost profits for businesses each year on average.

02. Keep minimal cash in the register at all times, and make bank deposits often and during business hours.


03. Most importantly: Cooperate with burglars if confronted. It’s not worth losing your life over.

04. Apply deadbolt locks or metal security crossbars to all outside entrances and inside security doors.

05. Install secure locks and burglar-resistant glass on windows.

06. Keep the cash register in plain view from the outside of your business, so it can be monitored by police as well as spotted by passersby and customers if a robbery occurs during business hours.

07. Install lighting on the inside and outside of your business, especially around doors, windows, and other entry points.


08. Install CCTVs correctly and be sure they are functional at all times.

09. Where practicable, you can link your small business premises with the local police department by way alarm system.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Why You Must do Away with Rationalizing

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure.”-- Norman Vincent Peale.

Excuses for not doing something are never in short supply. You are not in this world to live up to anyone’s expectations. What you do and don’t do is entirely up to you provided you do not infringe on any other person’s rights. Do not look for reasons why you will fail. The only reasons worth looking for are reasons why you should succeed. Maintain positive optimism and a “Can-Do” Attitude always. Avoid “nay-sayers” and negative thinkers. Many people find it difficult to attain their maximum potentials not because they are ill-equipped but because of the attitudes of others towards them. This should not be so. No one can ever achieve anything worthwhile in life if they must wait first for the approval of others. Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved in this world without a significant array of people who think it can’t be done. These are the “nay Sayers” and they are everywhere. Look closely, most “nay-sayers” are either under-achievers or outright failures. This should not surprise anyone. Those who think it can’t be done do not bother to try. They therefore never achieve.



Mr. Stanley Kirk Burrell a popular rapper known as Mr. Hammer started showcasing his talent in Oakland Baseball Stadium in the United States. He sold home-made tapes to people going into the stadium and exhibited his dancing and rap talents for all to see. Many people dropped coins into his collection box more out of pity than anything else. His friends laughed at him and generally ridiculed him because his genre of music was strange. They tried to discourage him and called him an embarrassment. He ignored them and kept on rapping and dancing. Ten years later, Mr. Hammer was listed in “Forbes Magazine” as one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world. Many of those friends who laughed at him became some of his employees as Drivers and Body Guards.



Prior to 1900, two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright thought of constructing a “flying machine.” By 1903, at Kitty Hawk, USA, when they were to test their first “flying machine”, there were people in the crowd who said the thing will not get off the ground. Some others said if it ever gets off the ground it will never land without a crash. The New York Times Editorial on December 10, 1903 vilified the Wright brothers and tried to question their sincerity. It tried to sway public opinion away from the legitimate and genuine efforts of the Wright brothers to invent an airplane. It questioned their wisdom on the choice of such a project and wondered how a machine heavier than air would fly. The Wright brothers ignored these comments. One week later, they flew the machine for a few minutes and it landed without a major disaster. The end result is that we all travel the world today in the bellies of comfortable airplanes and people have made millions for themselves in the airline business. Many thanks to the Wright brothers who learned to ignore “nay-sayers” and “dream-busters.”

Rationalizing is a Loser’s Past Time

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure.”-- Norman Vincent Peale.

Rationalizing is a loser’s past time. The best way forward is never to rationalize, you should analyze. Rationalizing is a way of finding excuses while analyzing is a way of finding solutions. Henceforth, you will do yourself a world of good by banishing from your thinking excuses like:

I am too old.
I am too short.
I am too young.
I am not lucky.
I am not educated.
I am not beautiful.
I am handicapped.
My parents are not rich.
I have no connections.
I am not strong.
I have no opportunity.
I am not smart enough.

These excuses are endless and they can never get you anywhere. Anytime any of these excuses crops up in your mind, banish it immediately. None of these excuses or any like them is strong enough to stop you from realizing your dreams. None can stop you from becoming somebody. Only your actions and or inactions can. It is you and only you who can stop you from realizing your dreams.


Always Think and Dream Big

Graphical display of business growth.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.” –Les Brown

“Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”-- Napoleon Hill

All through civilization, those who have made the most difference are those who started as dreamers. They dreamed and acted on their dreams and the world has never been the same again. “The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time, a dream.” If you dream big, you achieve big. Many dreamed what may have been at the time taken as impossible dreams but with the help of man’s creative imagination, the impossible became the possible. The story is now being told all over the world how Henry Ford who was born in 1863 in a farm near Dearborn, Michigan, USA started the Ford Motor Company. He was a mechanic and dreamed of one day building a “horseless wagon” and mass-producing it. This appeared then to be an impossible dream because all forms of transportation were mostly by horse-drawn carriages. He followed up this dream by experimenting at his leisure hours. By 1893, he completed the construction of his first automobile. By 1903, Ford Motor Company was born and his dream of “belting-the-earth” with automobiles began. This led to the production of the popular Ford Model T. By 1927, about 15 million of the cars had been sold. The impossible had become the possible and Mr. Ford became very wealthy as a result. It is pertinent to mention that Mr. Ford had limited education, was of average intelligence and just as human as you and I.



Any successful venture began as an idea. Dreams metamorphose into ideas. It takes just one good idea followed by action to change your life forever. Just think about it. Is it money, power or happiness you want? Anything, all you need is to think about it. Put your mind to it and follow through with action. You can never miss the mark. We are what we think, period! A long time ago, my favorite poet Walter D. Wintle captured it all perfectly in the following verses.

 “If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost.
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will—
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
 Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN.”



 “One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind”, these were the words of Neil Armstrong an American astronaut and the first man to walk on the moon. This was in July 1969, a few years after President J. F. Kennedy who before his unfortunate assassination in 1963, sent notice to the world that America will put a man on the moon within 10 years. Today, man practically “lives” on the moon, thanks to the great American dream. You too can dream, act and be someone.