Category Archives: Review

The Young Entrepreneurs of Finance and Trading

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Below is a sponsored post.

The Young Entrepreneurs of Finance and Trading

The new entrepreneurs making an impact in the world of finance and trading offer lessons to us all. Many of these high flyers are well on their way to achieving their dreams of financial freedom. Trading coaching organizations like Knowledge to Action, found here, offers their list of the young entrepreneurs of finance and trading currently operating at the top of their game. All of the entrepreneurs listed below are not yet thirty and are already distinguishing themselves in financial and trading markets around the world.

Tracy Britt Cool

This young entrepreneur grew up on a farm in Kansas, which she credits with shaping her commitment to seeing a job through, and the evolution of her underlying work ethic. Hired by Warren Buffet in 2009 when she was just 25 and newly graduated from Harvard business school, Tracy currently works as a financial assistant to the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. At just 29 years of age, she shows remarkable financial acumen. She also chairs the boards of Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries Benjamin Moore, Johns Manville, Larson-Juhl and Oriental Trading, as well as sitting on the board at H.J. Heinz. Warren Buffet paid her the ultimate compliment in January of this year when he spoke of her in a magazine interview and said ‘she thinks as I would’.

Eric Eisner

Another young entrepreneur making his mark is Eric Eisner, Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Banking and Markets. This 29 year old is credited with revolutionizing low-beta sovereign debt trading markets. Previously, this sort of market was viewed as unprofitable and a little dull. Eisner put paid to all that when he turned his business unit into a top revenue generator for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, trading in bonds worth over $30 billion. He currently oversees all Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s low-beta sovereign debt trading for Latin America, where his transformation from low performing business unit to one of the top-three revenue performers ensures he has made his mark.

Sam Shikiar

Currently, a Vice President at Goldman Sachs at just 28 years old, Shikiar leads a trading team devoted to electronic commodities, zeroing in on energy options and metals. He made his mark in asset management for hedge funds and also has skills in equities trading. Like Britt Cool above, Shikiar was hired right out of university, where he completed a double major in Science and Accounting the perfect background for someone making money for by trading in electronic commodities.

These young entrepreneurs of finance and trading are all under 30 and currently at the top of their specialized fields. There is inspiration in how much they have achieved in so short a time, and their commitment to themselves and their industry commands respect. Along the way they have learned from excellent mentors, from their own experiences and, from perhaps the most important teacher of all, the market itself.

What do you think about these high achievers doing so well at such a young age? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.

Why Customer Service Matters When Selling Products Online

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Customer Service Matters When Selling Products Online

 

Your e-commerce website is your business. It’s your place, your store, and the home base for your customers. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that you put an enormous amount of time and energy into making it the best that you possibly can. Your plugins all work, you catalog looks excellent, and it’s all set up to work for you in all the ways that you hoped it would. That’s not the entire process, though. Your website may handle all of your transactions, and you might even have a distributor that sends your products and services to the customers for you, but there’s still more that you need to maintain. Customer service still matters. You’re smiling face is not there to greet customers and tell them to “have a nice day” on the way out, but there are ways that you can ensure that your customers feel important. You can ensure that their experience is special, giving you a loyal customer base and viewers who truly enjoy their shopping experience on your website.

CustomerFirst

Means of Contact

One of the best ways to instill excellent customer service when selling products online is to have several means of contact that your customers have access to. Make it easy for them to voice their opinion.

  •  Include a section for customer comments or reviews at the bottom of each product description. Give them a place to tell others about their experience. When customers shop in a brick and mortar shop, they can talk to fellow customers when they’re deliberating over whether or not to buy a product. This section gives them the illusion of doing this.
  •  Respond to negative comments with positive feedback. There’s a good chance that your customers will remember you even more if they voice a problem and you fix it promptly and satisfactorily. It provides a way to show off your professionalism and give anyone reading the comments the impression that you care deeply about your customers’ experiences.
  •  Utilize social media by reaching out to customers with your posts. Ask them questions about their experiences and ask for input about changes and new products that you plan to introduce.
  •  Provide the option for customers to sign up for an e-mail list. You can send out coupons and special offers for this special group, making them feel like VIP customers for being loyal to your site.
  •  Give incentives during holidays and other special occasions. You can run a contest or poll that gives customers the chance to win a prize. You’ll get feedback from them in the form of their entries and they’ll get the excitement of possibly winning something that they want from your catalog.

 

Take Complaints Seriously

When you’re selling products online, you’re bound to get some complaints. It’s the same in every business whether it’s ecommerce or not. The key is not just to take each complaint in stride, but to address them all professionally. Most of the time, these customers simply want to be acknowledged. They don’t only want their problem fixed, but they also want to know that you see that there was a problem and you’re sorry that their experience was less than desirable.

  •  Apologize to the customer. Don’t take their complaint personally and apologize first thing in your response to them. Don’t grovel or tell them that you’re sorry over and over because this makes them feel like they should get more than a fix to the problem than you’re able to give.
  •  Give an explanation. It is important that this explanation does not come off as an excuse. The customer likely wants to know why their experience was sullied and that’s what the explanation is about.
  •  Fix the problem. Do whatever you can to ensure that their problem is fixed quickly. It is important to offer a solution for the problem faced by the customer. If they received a broken item, send them a new one. If they received the wrong color, send them the right color. Usually, the problem is simple and easily solved.
  •  Give an incentive for the customer to continue shopping on your website. If it is possible, give them some credit on your website or an extra gift item of low-cost. Let the customer know that they are important to you.

 

Please and Thank You

These really are magic words and ones that aren’t used as often as they should. One of largest issues with selling products online is that your customers may feel like their experience is impersonal. These two simple phrases can change that for your customers. When you have instructions about how to checkout or provide information necessary for payment and shipping, it is a good idea to start with a “please.” In many cases, customers won’t even expect it and seeing that word will put a smile on their face. When their shopping experience is over, always include a “thank you for shopping with us” on the final page of their order. If you send out a confirmation e-mail for their order, you should include it there as well.

Hope you gained from this,

Chase

Hybrid Smart Phone (Republic Wireless) Review

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Back in December of 2011, I signed up for a Hybrid Smart Phone by Republic Wireless.

Well, I’m happy to say I finally got the phone in the mail yesterday (October 31) for Halloween!   Surprisingly, its a decent phone and not really that scary… well except for the price of the physical phone itself!  So far the plan has been good, but this normally $90 android phone goes for $249 through the plan… ouch!

So to start, the price of the phone really is $249 + a start up fee of $29, but I also went out and spend an additional $13 on a larger SD memory card (the 2G disk that comes with the phone just doesn’t cut it, at least in my opinion).  So for me the phone costs: $291.  I upgraded the SD memory to a cheap 16G memory disk.  I got a cheap card because I don’t care if it goes bad because I’ll be backup up my stuff online anyway.

From my quick calculations, I figure that I’ll have to use the phone for 1 year before the cost savings of it being only $19 per month really takes effect.  So needless to say, the $249 price for a middle of the road phone was a bit of a disappointment.  Okay onto the phone itself…

Hybrid Smart Phone Review

The phone is a Motorola Defy XT and even though it’s a starter to mid-level phone, since it’s my first Android phone, I really like it!  I’m sure if I did have an android device previously though, it wouldn’t be that impressive.

Motorola Defy XT Specs:

  1. 1GHz Single Core CPU  – this made it fast between transitions from one page to the next.  Not bad…
  2. Memory – 512Mb – this is so-so for a smart device… not bad, but not great either…
  3. Camera – 5 MP – not bad and better than my employer’s business-issued Blackberry that I use to use.
  4. Diagonal Size – 3.7 inches – yeah, it’s small
  5. Battery life – 5.5 hrs, not good really, but I’ll live with…
  6. OS – Android 2.3.7 – definitely a middle of the road version, but supported and work well with the single core processor.

Why only 6 points for the specs?  because the rest really doesn’t matter since this is a “run of the mill” phone.  It is water resistance and a rugged phone, but the rest of the stats aren’t very impressive.  Since it uses rubber plug to make it water resistance, it kind of reminds me of those old Sony Walkman cassette devices from years long ago.

Hybrid Smart Phone Plan Review

Motorola Defy XT Republic Wireless Phone

Republic Wireless Highlights:

It’s unlimited everything!  Everything means phone calls, web/data access and texting.  This is a huge with many plans costing double or triple the cost of similar services.

How can they do this?  By hoping most of the “community” (Republic Wireless doesn’t refer to the “members” as customers, and calls their client base a “community”) do most of their transactions via wireless routers that they connect to.  So for instance right now my smart phone is connected to my local library network and that’s how I’m surfing.

For what they provided, it seems to be a lot of bang for the buck!

Other Republic Wireless Highlights

Okay, now onto the biggest gripe, if you make a call through your wireless router and continue to talk on your phone while you go to your car and drive away from your house (or wherever you are at), you will lose your phone call, and have to call the person you were talking to back.  This kind of suck, but hey… it’s a beta program, perhaps in the future they will fix this transition problem.

Since this is part of a beta program, my view is that it’s exciting and I’m enjoying being part of such a cheap program that provided such excellent functionality at a reasonable price ($19 per month).  Yeah, I wish the phone would have been cheaper, but most likely it will be in the future after the program goes from beta to production.

 My Favorite Aspect of the Smart Phone and Republic Wireless Plan

Obviously the price and service, but on an Android note, I like the Voice search app!  It’s nice to be able to speak commands instead of typing on the keyboard.  Although I have to admit, I’m already getting fast on the touch screen keypad (much to my surprise).

So do I recommend it?  Yes, based on my 2 day experience it’s a great frugal way to own a smart phone while paying only $19 a month!

Hope you found this review helpful!

Don

 

Are Robert Kiyosaki’s Books a Stepping Stone To Wealth?

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I decided to go back and re-read (actually listen to the audio books format) some of the famous “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author, Robert Kiyosaki’s original books.

Much to my surprise, they are actually very good!  Oh sure, they are lacking in details and the content is not always spot on, but overall they are good and may serve as a motivator to read better books on becoming wealthy!  Sometimes, jumping right into more detailed and truthfully more valuable books is intimidating and a deterrent for the average Joe to read.  The famous “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author’s books serves as a stepping stone to these more complex, step-by-step kinds of books.  Especially if you start early in your life, and you take it slowly and make better choices.  If you are married with kids, it’s still possible, but definitely more risky, consider my first review of his books:  Robert Kiyosaki’s books.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Perhaps I like his books because I like to break things down into the lowest common denominator (the simplest form of an problem) when I’m explaining things to people.  Robert does just that with the following books: “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, “Cashflow Quadrant”, “Retire Young, Retire Rich” and “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing”.  Part of the struggle on the path to wealth is believing you can be wealthy.

While reviewing Mr. Kiyosaki’s books, I listened with understanding on what he was saying this time around, and I actually think I got more from his books than when I read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” about ten years ago.  If you have an audiobook version of the story as I do, listen to it a few times and see if you catch some things that you may have missed the first time around.

For me personally, I’m ready for the next level of understanding from other great authors.  Oh, and while I like the above books that Robert wrote, I’m in no way, shape or form recommending his classes.  Just the books.  I’ve heard some pretty negative things about this classes (which he doesn’t teach anyway), so perhaps do some research before considering something that expensive.

If you asked me what the best message from Robert’s books above would be, I’d have to quote him in saying “Grow Assets not Liabilities“, because this is the central theme of all of his books mentioned above.

Do you have any opinion of the author that you’d like to share?

MR