I’ve had the ideas for this post running around in my head for a couple of weeks now, but just haven’t really been compelled to write them until now. Every time I think about writing this post, it grows to gargantuan lengths before I even get it out of my head. I’ve thought about dividing this post into smaller chunks, but I’m not sure that works either.

But then my friend Lynette Chandler posted a commentary on customer service that really illustrates one of the points that I want to make. So I’m going to jump in and we’ll just see where this goes.

Over the past few years, I’ve searched the internet for commentary on customer service. I’ve found forum posts in which customers and even business owners have stated that it’s better to work at a loss than to have a dissatisfied client. “The customer is always right” is the mantra and it’s called good business.

Alternately, I’ve read blog posts in which business owners have stated that the customer is always right — except when they are wrong. The business owner should then try to educate the customer, and attempt to bring her over to the side of right. Of course, this assumes that the customer is honestly uninformed and that communication efforts will lead to an agreement that is equitable to both parties. Once the customer is brought up to speed, she is right and all is well.

Unfortunately, I think both of those attitudes fail to encompass all customer service situations encountered in the real world — and most certainly not the case that prompted Lynette to write her diatribe.

Here is my theory, in a nutshell: Customer service is a partnership. You could even call it a relationship.

As in any relationship, you must have mutual trust, respect and honesty. The business owner has a product or service she is especially equipped and willing to provide. The customer has a need for said product or service and the money to exchange for it.

Additionally, the business owner sets the tone and boundaries for the relationship, for online businesses, through the content on the website — the policies and procedures in particular.

The partnership begins when the customer selects the business owner, preferably after doing some research on said business and determining based on word of mouth referrals and a perusal of goods or services. At this point, the customer extends respect and trust to the business owner by purchasing the product, and asking any questions or making in requests in a respectful manner.

The business owner extends trust and respect by accepting payment, providing the product and answering any questions or responding to any requests in a respectful manner.

Unfortunately, this partnership is not always this idyllic. Problems occur when business owners fail to provide what they have advertised — or when customers expect the owner to set aside boundaries they have established. Or when a customer is dishonest and is attempting to get something they haven’t paid for.

Additionally, either side can blow a partnership through abusive language, overstepping boundaries and generally untrustworthy and disrespectful behavior.

For example, a business owner who takes the money and never does anything is violating the agreement between herself and the customer, which destroys the partnership through dishonesty. Likewise, a customer who pays for a specific service, and then expects the business owner to provide additional services at no extra charge is overstepping the boundaries of the agreement.

Customers who fail to provide necessary information to troubleshoot issues with products or services, or who immediately assume that the business owner is untrustworthy the moment trouble arises and responses in a verbally abusive manner are violating this partnership.

Business owners and customers alike will benefit from being 100 percent honest about expectations, from being perfectly clear in what is to be delivered and what is not. Written agreements are always better than verbal ones.

So what does this mean? It means that while the business owner is responsible for setting the tone and boundaries for their business relations, the customer has an integral part in building and maintaining the partnership. Problems on either side can cause a “bad” customer service experience. Often, only the parties themselves know who is really at fault. In some cases, both parties may be at fault, and in others, neither.

Of one thing I am certain: You cannot judge a business or a customer by one bad experience, nor can you make an accurate judgment after hearing only one side of the story.

What can you do to improve your customer service — regardless of what side of the fence you are on?

1. If you’re a business owner, make sure your policies and procedures are clear. Make sure you describe exactly what the customer is getting.
2. Maintain professionalism in your communications. Get your agreements in writing.
3. Customers, make sure you know exactly what you want, that the business is providing what you want, and that you maintain professionalism in your communications.

As I’m sure you know, even the best of intentions lead to … you know where. If you’re a business owner dealing with a dishonest customer, I recommend you get out ASAP. If laws have been broken, contact authorities. If you simply suspect the customer is out to get as much out of you as possible, do the best you can to professionally and courteously extract yourself from the relationship. You deserve to be paid for any time or products that you have put into the partnership — but you should not continue. If you’re uncertain of what you can do, call your attorney to make sure you’re taking appropriate steps and are doing what is legally right. I’d also recommend talking to a business advisor to make sure that what is legally right is also ethically right.

If you are a customer dealing with a dishonest business, I recommend contacting authorities such as the Attorney General’s office in the company’s state, or at least an attorney who can advise you as to your rights under the law in the situation. Naturally, this should be done after you have made every effort possible to mend the partnership with the company. I would also do this before posting negative reviews on public sites, as you may be hurting yourself legally otherwise. If you truly have a legal leg to stand on, it’s better to handle it through the proper channels than through attempts to harm a businesses reputation. This can backfire on you if you’re interpretation of events is inaccurate and leads you to make libelous statements that could be viewed as malicious attempts to harm a business.

These three steps will go a long way in ensuring that an honest business and an honest customer will be able to build a partnership that is beneficial to both, and that can be easily mended if it gets off track.

Popularity: 46% [?]

If you’ve started a business selling physical products online, you probably aren’t thinking that you have a fear of money.

However, you may learn differently the first time someone asks you how much you charge for your item at a trade show — or the first time someone questions the amount you charge.

I’ve heard many women talk about how they struggle to price their products or services fairly — and I have had my share of these battles.

My friend Carrie at Natural Moms Talk Radio shared similar stories on her blog recently in her post about money and the natural mom.

Still, money and personal finance IS an important topic. People who don’t “deal” with their money well are generally less happy than people who are smart with their money. Their lack of attention to good financial savvy causes them much unhappiness. Money is like your teeth - if you don’t take good care of it now and prefer to ignore it, it will come back and cause you a lot of pain and rottenness later! I am even of the opinion that being a good steward of money is one way to show God how thankful we are for his blessings (remember the illustration Jesus spoke about the talents?).

Right on, Carrie! If people are trying to make you feel bad for wanting to earn some money — don’t let them.  You deserve to be paid for the products and services you provide.

Someone once said that money is the root of all evil. Well, this is not true. The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Make you have your priorities straight and are treating money as a tool and blessing given to you by God, not as the goal for your life and business.

Make sure that the products  and services you are providing enrich the lives of the people who are buying them, that you are using honest business practices and you’re following the plan God has for your life and business. You’ll then have nothing to fear from those who wish to tear you down.

Popularity: 14% [?]

You’ve decided that you’re ready to start selling physical products online — but there are a hundred tasks whirling through your head, needing to be done. Where do you start? How do you keep track of it all?

I’ve worked with dozens of moms who are right where you are, so don’t feel bad. Just print out this checklist that I’m giving you and keep it handy.

Here are the steps you need to take to start your online store:

1. Figure out who your target market is and get to know them.
2. Decide how you want to acquire your products, either through manufacturing them, buying them at wholesale, purchasing them through a dropship program or recommending them as an affiliate.
3. Decide on a product name and domain name. Buy the domain name NOW!
4. Make your business legal, including choosing the form of business you’ll be starting (sole proprieter, LLC, etc) and getting your tax id.
5. Choose a business name. This does not have to be the same as your domain or product name.
6. Setup a business banking account, so that your checks and accounts will have your business name on them and you can keep your personal finances separate.
7. Choose a web hosting and shopping cart.
8. If you’re manufacturing a brand new your product, you’ll need to create prototypes, test them, ask other people to test them and do additional market research to make sure your product will sell.
9. Purchase any cottage licenses you may need for manufacturing products from other people’s patterns.
10. If you’re manufacturing a product from a cottage licensed pattern, you’ll need to test your product to make sure it is up to par.
11. If you’re going the wholesale, dropship or affiliate routes, open your accounts with the suppliers.
12. Begin building your website.
13. Once your website is build, including design and logo created and installed, products uploaded and site live, you’ll need to write a press release and submit it to press release directories and your local news media.

Any questions? Feel free to ask!

Popularity: 39% [?]

How do you define success for your product selling business?

Is it by the number of products you sell each month? The amount of money you earn each month, or maybe the amount of profit you have left at the end of the year?

Perhaps you measure success by how happy your customers are at any given moment, or by how few complaints you have received.

I submit that if you measure your success in these terms, you may often become discouraged and weary.

My friend Marlo from Business By Grace reminded me this week that we will often face oppression, hardship and “bumps in the road,” even when we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We should expect it.

We need to examine what we are doing to make sure that we are on the right path. To me, that means I need to ask myself, “Am I on the path that God wants me to be on?”

For several years, I was on a path that included plenty of money. But it wasn’t the right path, because I wasn’t doing what God wanted me to do. When I stepped off that path (Well, God pushed me off!), I lost the money. But when I think about it, I realize I’m more successful now than I was then, because I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing now.

So, making lots of money, selling lots of products and having few complaints are not necessarily true indicators of success.

Then how do you know if you’re successful?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing?
• Will (or does) what I am doing help other people? (For example, are your baby slings making taking care of babies easier for Moms?)
• Am I persisting in spite of opposition or hardship?

I submit that if you can answer yes to those three questions, you are on the path to success, even if you aren’t making millions of dollars, even if you have a week full of complaining customers, even if you are just starting.

I’d love to read your thoughts on this topic.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community. You may not realize it, but it is also an effective way to grow your business. There are many ways to increase your business through volunteering; the following are some tips on how to go about it.

When people think of volunteering, they tend to think of volunteering in person, picking up trash on the side of the road or serving food in a soup kitchen. There are many other forms of volunteering that can actually show off your business skills. If you are trying to break into a field that you don’t have a lot of experience in, volunteering can help you gain experience.

Many types of organizations depend on volunteers to help them with every day office functions, and many more require volunteer help for special events. Perhaps you can volunteer your marketing services for a local non-profit group’s charity auction. If you sell baby slings, you can volunteer your time with a non-profit mom organization teaching new mothers how to use baby carriers.

Volunteer work can be done via cyberspace, as well. You can organize a virtual expo, for instance. You can also do lots of sales and marketing work online. Don’t forget about writing articles for an organization or handling some other type of administrative work.

One of the best things about volunteer work is that it gets you in front of a lot of people who may not have met you otherwise. A fellow volunteer may be in need of the type of services you offer; once they meet you and see what kind of work you can do, they may decide to hire you. In fact, the organization that you are volunteering for may ask you to take on some paid work for them.

Many charity events and volunteer organization receive a lot of publicity. If you are volunteering some of your services, your name may be mentioned in the press. If someone looking for the type of services you offer reads about you in the paper or hears your name mentioned on the radio, that exposure may spur them into checking out your website.

Don’t be afraid to ask the organization you are helping for referrals of people who may be willing to hire you. The person you report to at the charity may have several friends in other companies that routinely need your services. You can also ask your fellow volunteers and other people you meet while volunteering.

You may also start to receive phone calls from people, letting you know that you were recommended to them. The organization you volunteered for may pass your name onto many other people.

Popularity: 20% [?]

As the owner of a home business, you will more than likely start to outsource some of your tasks. This is smart business. It helps free up some of your time and allows you to work on tasks that need your specific attention. However, when you start to hire people, you will need to develop leadership skills for proper business management.

You should always lead by example. This is true even if you are working with virtual assistants who never see you in person. People will see the way you do things, and they may emulate them. If you take several days to respond to an email, don’t expect your assistants to respond the day you email them. If you consistently miss deadlines or send late payments, don’t expect your assistants to be on time with their work. On the other hand, if you answer emails in a timely manner and are always prompt and respectful, you should expect to be treated in the same manner.

You need to have confidence in your self, your decisions, and in your actions. If you are constantly second guessing things, it will be hard for your assistants to take you seriously. If you find yourself wondering about a decision or choice you made, consult a mentor or other business associate. You can certainly ask your assistant’s opinion on things that haven’’t been decided yet. But once you make a decision, do not ask your assistants if they think you made the right choice.

Leaders need to be good at communicating. If your assistants do not understand what you want, they cannot complete the task in a manner that will make you happy. Be clear about the project’s details. If you have an example, send it to them. Let them know it is okay for them to ask you questions. If they are working on a project that will take several weeks to complete, ask to see a portion of what they have accomplished each week, just to make sure they are on the same page.

As a leader, you are a manager. You will need to organize tasks and set deadlines in order for things to be done on time. This means that you will also need to be organized. If you want your assistants to turn a project in on the 20th of the month, you need to give them enough time to complete it. You cannot put off forming the idea until the 19th.

Leaders must also be willing to learn how to listen and resolve conflicts. Listen to what your assistants are saying. You may have a deadline of the 5th in mind, but an assistant may be telling you she cannot complete it before the 7th. Or perhaps there will be times when things get mishandled. You will need to know how to keep calm in that situation and get things back on track.

Popularity: 12% [?]

When two or more people work together on a project in order to promote their services together, they form what is known as a joint venture, also known as a JV. This can be on a digital product, such as an e-book or MP3 recording or it can be on a tangible (physical) product. Joint business ventures are a great way to increase your profits and gain new customers.

Benefits of joint ventures include:

• You will be able to offer your current customers a new product
• You can also attract new customers with your joint venture product

For instance, if you have a website targeted to people who want to carry their babies in a ring-style baby carrier, you can team up with a virtual assistant and create an information product that explains the different ways you can hold an infant or toddler in the sling.

Your current clients may never have known how to use that particular style of baby sling; and people who were specifically looking for a ring sling, but didn’t know about your website, may now find you, simply because you are offering that product. Plus, you can become an affiliate for other products parents who carry their babies might be interested in, and offer those products to your customers as well.

For instance, someone who is new to baby slings may not know very much about attachment parenting. You can create a small report that explains the benefits of attachment parenting for the baby and for the parents. Perhaps you can form another joint venture partnership with someone who runs an informational attachment parenting website and they can help you write the report, or possibly offer you a commission per lead affiliate program.

Using the above example, if you wanted to create an information guide on becoming an “attached parent”, you could seek out well-known attachment parenting proponents and send them an email with some information about the project you are seeking a partner for and ask if they would be interested in working with you. You can also find message boards and forums that are devoted to the attachment parenting community and post a message letting people know what kind of joint venture you are seeking a partner for and ask if anyone is interested or knows someone that may be interested, in partnering with you.

Once you have a list of potential people to work with, you can start interviewing them. You’ll want to make sure that your personalities mesh, as you’ll be spending a bit of time working together. You’ll also want to make sure that they are competent and serious about their business. You will be relying on them to meet you half-way; you don’t want to get stuck doing all the work.

When you find the right person to team up with, joint venture benefits can include fun and profitable projects that bring your business to a whole new level.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Outsourcing some of your business tasks to an outside contractor is one of the best things you can do for your business. Advantages of outsourcing include: You will be able to focus on the tasks that require your specific attention; the administrative tasks will still be getting done, you will find you are less-stressed, and will have more free time to enjoy with your family. If you are apprehensive about handing over a portion of your business to a stranger, the following are some tips on how to work effectively with a contractor.

When you start looking for someone to work with, ask your other business friends for recommendations. Ask for the names of people that they have personally worked with in the past; if they haven’t used the type of assistant you are looking for, they may know of someone who has.

When you interview a potential contractor, ask them for the names of people that they have worked with previously. Always check these referrals. Ask questions such as how they liked the contractor’s work, if the work was finished on time, and if they would hire the contractor again.

You should also ask to see some samples of the contractor’s work. Do they have a style that is similar to the style you are looking for? Does the work look polished and professional or slapped together? Are there obvious mistakes?

Since you will be working together a lot, make sure that your personality does not clash with the contractor’s. How do you like to communicate? If you like to talk via telephone and your contractor prefers email, this could pose a problem.

Find out how the contractor likes to be paid before you hire them. They may accept full payment after the work is completed, or they may ask to be paid half of the payment before they start. Many contractors will accept Paypal, but, again, make sure you both understand how the payment process will work before you commit to a project.

In addition to the payment process, you will want to make sure you both understand how the contractor will keep track of time and how you will be notified of their progress. You can use an online task assistant that you can both access. You can put up information such as due dates, notes about the project, etc; and the contractor can give daily feedback on the progress they have made.

If you are worried about the contractor having access to sensitive information and possibly stealing or leaking your ideas, have them sign a non-disclosure agreement. If they do take your idea or tell your idea to someone else, you have legal recourse.

Once you find a contractor that you enjoy working with and you’re enjoying the benefits of outsourcing to them, you may want to consider putting them on retainer. This means that you are guaranteeing them a certain amount of hour’s worth of work each month. They will know you are a consistent client and will most likely give you a price break.

Popularity: 22% [?]