Posted by admin on January 27th, 2010
I know a good Christian lady who cuts hair for a living. That’s her occupation. That’s how she makes a living. She is very good at it. Why is it that when Christians come to her shop they expect a “discount” just because they go to the same Church that she attends? There are some who refer to this practice as a “believer discount”.
Now I am not opposed to finding discounts and deals, but not at someone else’s expense. If someone decides that they want to give me a haircut at no charge, or half price, out of love, then that’s fine. But to just expect that Christian businesses are supposed to give discounts to all the “brothers and sisters” is not love. It’s actually an indication of a poverty mind set. I’ll explain that later.
For me to think that my Christian brothers and sisters are obligated to give me a cheaper price is selfish and it takes money away from them. Suppose you couldn’t find a Christian for the service or product you needed? What would you do? You would end up paying someone the price they charged.
I know some Christians who are very good at doing car repairs and some of them even do it as a business. And hardly a week or two goes by that another Christian asks them for help in fixing their car, expecting to pay little or nothing for services rendered. That is very selfish and, again, an indication of a poverty mentality.
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Posted by admin on January 26th, 2010
You’ve very likely heard of someone who is making a good living as a medical transcriptionist. He or she might even be working from the comfort of their home. And you’ve probably asked yourself if this might be a career option for you.
It may well be. Let’s take a look at the facts.
What exactly is medical transcription? In the course of their work, doctors and other healthcare professionals make dictated recordings of various things including physical examination observations, patient history, operative reports, referral letters, discharge summaries, observations regarding imaging data and so on.
A medical transcriptionist listens to these recordings and transcribes them into medical reports, correspondence, etc. She listens to a segment of recording, pauses the playback and keys in what is said before moving on to the next segment. She may do some editing for better grammar and clarity.
The transcribed document is sent back to the health care provider who then reviews it for accuracy and gets it signed. These documents become part of the patient’s medical history records and perhaps insurance records.
To be effective at this job, you should understand medical terminology well. That includes anatomy, pharmacology, diagnostic procedures, treatment assessments and more.
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Posted by admin on January 25th, 2010
Branding is no longer simply about visual appeal (or the cherry in the apple pie example, as given in my earlier article). Unfortunately, many graphic design firms who position themselves as advertising agencies believe that branding your corporate identity is all about developing great looking visual solutions.
However, there is much more to branding than just looking good. Particularly in this web 2.0 eras, where a powerful web presence has become a vital ingredient of your branding strategy, developing the right media mix holds the key to building powerful brand equity.
In other words, a right media mix would mean:
• Creative design solutions (the design, color, and content of your ads, marketing collateral and website enhance your brand equity, attract customers, and generate sales)
• Web development (every product/service worth its name has a web presence these days, some have truly interactive, animated sites encouraging customer involvement),
• Viral marketing (vitally important in today’s age of social networking, tagging, podcasting, blogs, forums, wikis and what have you)
• Television commercial production, print media advertising (traditional media cannot be overlooked)
• Strategic films (have become necessary elements of roadshows, exibhitions and other promotional campaigns)
• Corporate video production (a very important tool for branding your corporate identity)
• Direct marketing (marketing collaterals need to be just as effective and resonant with the overall branding scheme as the communicate directly with the customer)
• Outdoor advertising (hoardings, roadshows, participations in business fairs, exhibitions, etc)
There are some interactive advertising agencies that have recognized the need of the hour – developing creative design solutions that employ user-centric investigation and involve critical and systematic thinking. User-centric means understanding of needs and priorities of end user; the clients’ customers, their channel partners, users, and brand communities.
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Posted by admin on January 24th, 2010
An answering service is what every small business needs. Anyone who has ever worked for a small business, or has owned a small business knows that the answering service is a true God send. Every time you are not able to answer the phone, you take the risk of losing business. With an answering service, you don’t worry about missing important calls. Whether its an emergency or just an important client that needs a fire put out, answering services can meet your need.
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