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Social media disasters that can be avoided – and those that cannot

The year 2012 has seen a handful of social media mishaps.  Some of them are just unfortunate wrong-time-wrong place disasters while there are a few others that could have been avoided but for carelessness and indifference. In this article, let’s check out a few of those disasters and see what we can take away from them.

Plain unfortunate

McDonalds used a couple of trends on twitter #mcdstories and #meetthefarmers to promote the brand. But unfortunately the #mcdstories trend went wrong when customers used it to recount their bad experiences at McDonalds. This apparently was never anticipated by the promoters.

This could happen to anyone; it’s plain unfortunate.

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Learning time management from the Masterchefs!

Have you watched the MasterChef series? It’s a popular reality show on Star World and many people’s favorite, mine too.  Contestants are required to not only make tasty food, but they are required to make tasty food quickly.

There is a time limit for every challenge – even if the food is tasty, they might be out of the game if they do not complete the challenge on time. A chef would be out of business if he does not prepare food for customers on time, right? People don’t like to be kept waiting when they are hungry.

Not just in the restaurant business, time management is important for any task you deliver.

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Facebook: You won’t make billions with these type of sales emails!!

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3 ways to retain your employees for life

The other day I hailed a taxi to get to office. A few minutes into the ride, I heard someone singing and it was the driver. As I observed him, he was slightly whistling and singing to himself and when I watched him, I understood. He was obviously enjoying what he was doing. I asked him if he liked his job and he replied that he loved it and driving is what he would choose again if he went back a few years.

That got me thinking about the importance of loving the job you do. As a person running a business, I had to make sure that the people I hire love what they do.

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What is SEO? Learn from Little Tim!

Little Tim was very happy!

He had won a game with friends and his reward was a marble. The small round marble meant big to him – he loved to play with it.

But as he was walking home playing with his prize, it suddenly slipped from his small hands and bounced off! He ran behind it trying to catch it, but it was too late! The marble led him to a narrow alley.

An alley full of other green round little marbles.

Where did his innocent precious little marble roll off? How does he find his amidst a million others?

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How to calm an angry customer down in less than 30 seconds

“Come, let’s punish the floor”, said Mama to the injured child…
Kids slip and fall all the time, don’t they? They often lose balance while running or walking and fall down. And they get hurt and cry.

What does Mama do? She rushes to the kid and says, “Oh Sweetie, let me see your hand. Oh did the floor do that to you? Come, let us punish the floor”. Sometimes she even speaks to the floor, “Here, how dare you injure my child! Take that, and that and that!”

Now Mama knows that the floor was harmless. The kid just lost his balance.

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Top 5 financial mistakes every business should avoid

You can’t teach an old dog a new trick.
It is almost impossible – because it is adamant not to learn anything new and continues to do what it has learned in its early years.

Start-up business owners are like old dogs. Like an old dog, you would have picked up lots of habits. When it comes to finance, majority of them would be bad habits. If you don’t consciously look into those bad habits and find ways to correct them, it would severely affect your business. Let us look at some of these bad financial habits and ways to correct them.

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Are you committing this fatal error in your business?

If you decide to end your life, God forbid, there are several ways to do it. You could pull a noose around your neck. You could swallow a pill or jump off a hill. (You could take your girlfriend shopping ;) ).
Or you can be careless about your small business bookkeeping.

Because NOT maintaining accurate books of accounts is like committing suicide. An error that is fatal!
Whether you are a contractor, freelancer or a small or large business owner, it is mandatory for you to keep accurate records of financial transactions. Inaccurate bookkeeping creates several problems that could threaten the very survival of your business.

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Has your start-up business fallen for the “Sorry Seven”?

A start-up company is like a premature baby. A premature baby typically spends several days or even weeks in an incubator. An incubator, as you know, is an apparatus used to maintain environmental conditions suitable for a premature baby and it prevents the baby from falling sick due to alien conditions.

Like a premature baby, a start-up business also needs an incubator in its early days. If not, the business can easily fall sick and get into trouble by making mistakes. Let us look into seven of those typical start-up mistakes: the “sorry seven”!

1) Under pricing: Start-ups think that by under pricing, they can easily attract new customers.

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