The Tak Team Blog

The world of business startups is rife with option. You can take on a franchise or start your own business from the ground up. each approach has its pros and cons.

The world is rife with franchise opportunities.Your local town center is probable full of franchises. Franchises are typically founded on a tried and tested business model. When you buy into a franchise, many aspects of the business including marketing are taken care of off. There are many different franchises available. Some will give you the business name, equipment and everything you need for start up, others only give you the basics and you still have to buy or lease a location, purchase equipment and the inventory you will need.

Some key drawbacks of buying a franchise however are that they are typically inflexible in terms to making it your own, and you must pay for the privilege up front. Visit the Key Mergers website for more information or if you would like to f you would like to buy a business or even to sell one.

Building your very own company from the bottom up however means that you can grow the business organically over time, you can limit your initial outlay and you can be as creative with the direction of your business as you like. Depending on how novel your new enterprise is, it is possible that your will have a steep testing curve and will have to make all of your own connections.

At the end of the day, the rational for choosing whether to buy a franchise or start a business from scratch are dependent on what your want to get out of the enterprise. There is no one size fits all advise.

Here in the Jean’s Restaurant Supply Service Department, we have compilied a list of service and preventative maintenance tips to help your restaurant succeed in it’s business venture. Your heating, cooling, cooking and food preparation equipment is a huge investment that should be kept in good, clean, operational order.

• Commercial Ovens:

• Wipe out spills from your oven cavity daily- this will cut down on rust and corrosion in the oven cavity, while also reducing the possibility of fire hazards.

• Walk-In Coolers and Freezers:

• Keep the doors closed when not in use- if doors are left open for any extended amount of time, ice can quickly build-up on the evaporator coils and cause cooling problems. Keeping doors closed will help cut down on any unnecessary service calls.
• If doors must remain open, consider adding an Air Curtain or Air Door to the doorways. Ask one of our sales representatives about energy-saving Air Curtains and Air Doors.

• Steam Tables/Warmer Wells:

• Some units require the heating element be immersed in water at all times. It is important that the water level in the well never drops to a level where the immersible element is exposed, as this can cause premature failure.
• Keep the heating elements clean and free of any mineral build-up as this can also decrease the life of your equipment.

• Air Conditioning/Heating System:

• Have your Air Conditioner Filters changed or cleaned monthly. This will help save immensely on your electricity bill, as air conditioning can be a considerable percentage of your electric bill (20-30%).
• Be sure to get your Air Conditioning/Heating system checked by a qualified professional at least twice yearly, to be sure both the Heat and Cool cycles are operating safely and efficiently.

• Condenser Coils:

• Keep condenser coils clean on all refrigeration equipment, such as: ice-making equipment, refrigerators, freezers, salad coolers, air conditioning units, etc…
• Keeping condenser coils clean and free from dust and grease will help prevent breakdowns and costly repair bills, and will also save on electricity.
• Dust can usually be brushed of the coils or blown off with compressed air. Grease build-up sometimes requires a service company to clean it thoroughly with a coil cleaning solution.

• Ice Machines:

• Ice machines are one of the most important pieces of equipment in your restaurant/bar. Keeping it clean will make it run better, it will make more ice, and it will cause less wear and tear on component parts, therefore saving money on electricity, as well as excessive repair costs.
• Let us keep your ice machine in good working order with a high-quality, properly installed water filtration system. Change those water filters every 3-6 months. Both of these suggestions will help extend the life of your ice machine, cut down on costly repairs, and finally, make cleaner, better tasting ice for your customers.
• Ice-making equipment must be properly sized for your particular establishment’s needs. Here at Jean’s Restaurant Supply, we can analyze the size, seating capacity, and expectations of your business, so that we can suggest the proper size ice machine for your establishment.

• Ventilation/Exhaust Hoods:

• Keeping clean air filters in your exhaust hoods will keep them working more efficiently, the motors running cooler and with less stress and strain, therefore extending the life of the motors and belts.
• Have your exhaust hood and fresh air fans checked quarterly for proper operation and belt tension, which allows for peak performance.
• As one of the only privately owned, independent manufacturers of Commercial Exhaust Hoods in Texas, we, at Jean’s Restaurant Supply, are proud to be able to custom-build and install quality stainless steel exhaust hoods to meet your restaurant’s exact needs and specifications.

Failing to do any preventative maintenance on your restaurant equipment or allowing things to go until they break, ends up in more costly repairs and/or replacement.

Rusty Chapman is the Service Manager at Jean’s Restaurant Supply and is a thirty year veteran of the restaurant equipment service industry. He is a factory authorized service technician for many commercial restaurant equipment manufacturers. He can be reached at 800-840-3610 Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm, Central Standard Time and on Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm Central Standard Time. Or check us out on the web at http://www.jeansrestaurantsupply.com/.

Shopping on the internet has blown up extraordinarily in the last decade. People are using their computers now for much of their shopping needs, instead of their cars. Likewise, many people are looking at the internet as a possible employment opportunity. A problem arises here, when too many people are looking for the same thing. This problem is those who know what to tell these people to “dupe” them out of their money.

Internet marketing is an extremely profitable career path. And with affiliate marketing associated with this, it can prove to give experts “rags-to-riches” stories. Here’s where the situation starts to get a little sticky. Those people considered “newbies” are looking all over the web for answers about exactly how to strike it rich using their computers. The internet/affiliate marketers see these people desperately looking for advice, and see easy money. With all of these people promoting the same few products, it is easy to see why newbies are completely happy to shell out cash for something that is going to leave them unsatisfied. In this time of viruses, worms, scams, schemes, etc., there needs to be a way newbies can find what they are looking for without being tainted by all of the scammers on the internet.

Money Method Review was launched in 2005. It is a service that does the research for people. They are a people who have been in the situation these newbies are in, and know how frustrating it can be to find yourself lost in this dizzying world known as internet marketing. All of the reviewers at Money Method Review have experienced the bombardment from internet marketers, and decided the time had come to lead the way for newbies. Money Method Review is a free service that only posts reviews of tried and true products.

What Money Method Review offers is truthful, unbiased reviews of trustworthy products on the internet. They are not forceful, though they do provide links of the products they review as an easy tool to reach the products you desire. In no way does Money Method Review coerce people into doing something they do not want to do, they don’t offer so-called special offers, and they never try to sell anything. If readers feel comfortable with what they read in the review section, Money Method Review can forward them to each respected product page.

It is time now to look past the clutter that internet marketers have put in front of consumers, and see there are people out there trying to level the playing ground. Money Method Review is the light guiding people out of the cave of affiliates surrounding them.

Do not let internet marketers sway your opinions, get truthful, unbiased information, before you buy.

http://www.moneymethodreview.com

Unlike Google, which allows you to use sitemaps as a way to get your site indexed and spidered, Yahoo uses several different approaches to indexing content.

It can take a little while to get indexed, but if you are persistent, you’ll see your site indexed on Yahoo in no time.

First, you need to understand the different ways that Yahoo indexes content because there are both free and paid versions.

However, since Yahoo no longer uses Google for its backend results, and Yahoo Directory listings are now mixed with search results, paying $299 a year to get included in the directory may not be the way you want to go.

Of course, if you have a personal, instead of a commercial website, you can get included in the Yahoo Directory for free. This will take some time; however, it is well worth the effort.

Now, before you submit your site to Yahoo, you will need to make sure that it is properly prepared, and that you have a Yahoo account. You can sign up for free.

The easiest way, of course, to get indexed is to have an RSS feed that has been correctly formatted in XML. Then all you have to do is log into your Yahoo account, add it to your My Yahoo page, and your site will begin to get indexed almost immediately. This works especially well for blogs, as well as sites that are updated frequently.

If this isn’t a viable option for you, then you can submit the traditional way.

You will need to log into your Yahoo account to get started (it’s free), and then you can visit the submission page:

http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

There are two ways to submit your site: you can submit your site feed, or you can submit your main url for your website. When you use this form, you will be submitting your site directly to the crawler, which is free.

This is no guarantee that you site will be accepted. If you don’t get indexed the first time, add more content to your site, as well as optimize it, and resubmit.

The real secret to doing well on the search engines is to offer real value to your site visitors. Offer real value to your site visitors, and you won’t have any trouble getting indexed in the search engines.

There are also other ways to get indexed by Yahoo depending on the type of content you offer and how newsworthy your site is. Google also offers several other paid ways to get indexed like Product Search, as well as travel and sponsored search.

To see a complete list, start here: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Although Yahoo isn’t the largest, or the highest ranking search engine on the internet, it is still one of the most important, and if you want use search engine optimization and promotion as a main technique in your marketing arsenal, you definitely need to get listed here.

Jinger Jarrett will show you how to market your business on the internet for free. You can get free articles, tools, and tips, as well as subscribe to her ezine, when you visit her site at http://www.killermarketingarsenal.com.

Niche marketing has always been a key any success in marketing
but lately it has become quite a prominent force in the online
marketing world. Many books, manuals, courses, and web sites
have been developed that focus on niche marketing. It is easy to
find solid resources on the Internet that can teach you how to
make money with niche marketing.

Niche marketing online is a distinct segment of Internet
marketing and is the quickest way to get maximum exposure if you
know how to leverage the search engines to draw attention to
your niche web site.

There’s many things to learn to be successful and profit from
niche marketing and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) will
dictate exactly how to plan your attack to successfully market
to customers in your niche.

If you plan to use niche marketing to draw visitors to your web
site, here’s a few tactics that you can use to make money:

Niche Marketing Tactic #1, “Research” Fully utilize all of the
research mechanisms that you can find in order to make sure that
you truly understand your niche and all of its nuances. This
requires understanding what tools are best to use so you can
understand what your target niche market does day to day, where
they spend their time online, and what makes them tick from a
personal and business perspective.

Niche Market Research offers free reports and articles to help
you make the most of your research time.

Niche Marketing Tactic #2, “Define your paying niche” Clearly
define who will make up your niche market and make sure that the
people in that niche market are willing to pay for the solution
that you provide to their problems.

A niche is a clear subset of a larger category.

An example of what a niche market is not: “People who want to
learn how to shoot better scores in golf.”

In this example, there are far too many people within the main
category (golf) to make this a true niche. Virtually everyone
who plays golf will want to play better and shoot better scores
so this wouldn’t qualify as a niche, much less a category worth
pursuing.

An example of a niche market: “Women who play golf who want to
learn how to drive the ball longer and straighter.”

This would be a niche because it clearly defines and segments
who you’ll cater to and why they would need your service.

After clearly defining your niche market, you should make sure
that they are willing to pay for your services. The easiest way
to determine this in the online world (other than using common
sense) is to find web sites that may be close to, or even in
your niche, and see if those web sites charge a fee for their
services.

In addition, you should look to see if there is a reasonable
level of competition between those web sites. If you see more
than a few sites listed on a SERP (Search Engine Result Page)
that cater to female golfers for a fee, chances are the people
who are your target customer will pay for your services for
solving their problem - women who can’t consistently hit long
straight drives in golf.

Niche Marketing Strategy #3, “Choosing keywords and domain
names” Research and choose your keywords carefully so you can
acquire the best domain name for your site. Niche marketing most
often includes maximizing the way search engines work to make
sure that your web site gets listed on the first page of the
SERP’s from your chosen keywords. Your domain name contributes
to getting those first page results.

Go to Digitalpoint’s keyword suggestion tool and type in
keywords that you feel people would use to find the product or
service that you offer within your niche. Look at the number of
searches performed per day for those keywords and review the
other keywords listed.

Type the keyword phrase that you think best suits your USP’s
target customer into Google and assess whether or not you can
reasonably compete with the sites that are listed on page 1 of
the SERPs. Can you get a page 1 ranking knowing that you’ll have
to compete with the sites already listed?

Repeat the process until you have decided what your main
keywords will be for your product or service within your niche.

Those keywords should be in your domain name and preferably,
they should be your entire domain name.

Example: if you’ve concluded that ‘blue widgets’ best suits your
USP and you feel that you can compete for page 1 listings on the
SERPs with the sites that come up on page 1 for the keyword
‘blue widgets’, then a good domain name for your niche marketing
site would be ‘bluewidgets.com’.

Niche Marketing Tactic #4, “Posting keyword rich articles or
reports throughout the web” Niche marketing doesn’t differ from
any other online search engine marketing, posting relevant
content is the best way (bar none) to get the right type of
traffic to your niche site.

Writing keyword rich articles or reports and posting them to
high traffic web sites is a great way to make sure that you get
maximum exposure within your niche market. People will use your
keywords to search for information about the topic that they
have interest in, and they will come across your web site on the
search engines results.

To learn how to write articles that are optimized for the search
engines for better rankings, go to Article Optimization.

Niche marketing caters to a distinct and select group of people
who need what you have to offer. If you define your niche
properly and make sure that your ability to solve their problem
is something that they will pay for, you will have established a
“money maker”.

Utilize the search engines to make it easy for your niche market
to find your service or product. Niche marketing is the easiest
way to be successful on the Internet if you do the proper
research.

Be humble, work hard, work smart.

Karl Augustine

Silly grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, typo errors are few mistakes which are common in any content writing. But if they are not rectified then it brings bad name to your company. And the end result is that your potential customer is gone. That’s why foolproof editing and proofreading is an important aspect of all good content writing. This helps you to revise your article before publishing and also make sure that it is error free. Also in today’s world errors are really costly, thus it is must to have a proofreader.

Proofreader makes sure that all the quotation marks and parentheses are in place. After that comes punctuation. While proofreading any content, all the unnecessary crowding or extra spacing should be removed. Also special attention should be given to the addresses and phone numbers and it is wise to double check the addresses, phone numbers, and spellings of proper names. This helps in avoiding any future embarrassment. Furthermore, it is important to update calendar listings and check bullet placements. Photograph placement is one area which requires thorough attention. It is always said that content writing should be done by keeping content placement in mind as it helps in the correct placement. This makes sure that content is in tandem with the photograph and doesn’t give a jarring effect. Proofreading content isn’t tedious and unexciting job and neither time consuming. It’s the interesting one as by this one get know the latest information along with improvement in their vocabulary.

As per the experts the content written should be proofread just to ensure that your site has professional, organized web content especially company brochures, product information or data sheets and other publications intended for your customers as well as, reports in the public domain. By seeing the emergence of content writing, a sudden rise in proofreading is also noticed. That’s why all those companies offering content writing now also offers proofreading services. This makes one stop shop for all your requirements. Almost all the web content writing companies have expert proofreaders who do the editing and proofreading of the content that eliminates grammatical and syntax construction errors, defects in the flow of the text and smoothes out any glitches in the language.

If you already have written articles, then proofreaders in content writing companies can carefully scrutinize it for spelling mistakes, errors in usage of language, grammar, and other inconsistencies. They’ll not only mark the mistakes but also rectify them so that you get the well edited and perfect content. Apart from that they’ll also highlight the problem areas so that you don’t repeat them in the future. So if you’re hunting for a content writing services then proofreader will also be there just to assure you that you’ll be getting the edited and polished content. Moreover you don’t have any doubts when it comes to expertise and attention as these content writing companies will draw on their expertise to for each web content writing project.

Let’s face it - a lot of web pages and web sites out there could
use a little improvement in the copywriting department!

>From boring prose to bad sentence structure, from poor logic to
inadequate copy optimization, I’ve seen it all. And this is what
your customers are reading as they jump on to your site! If they
have to sludge through bad writing, they will get a negative
feeling about your product or service. Is this the impression
that you want them to have? Definitely not.

The bottom line is that bad copy means fewer sales. That’s how
important it is. Don’t discount it. And one other point - an
impressive site design can never rescue poor copy.

So what’s the process that a copywriter goes through when they
are re-writing a site? Good question. There are lots of
different methods and approaches, but here’s what I look at when
I first set my eyes on those broken letters and words:

1.The Copy Itself - What’s written? 2.The Copy and how it
relates to the design - How does it look on the page? 3.Search
Engine Friendly - Is the copy optimized?

The Copy Itself - What’s Written?

The first thing that I look at when I’m analyzing a page of copy
is the copy itself. In this day and age, there really are two
fundamental things that most people do when they are reading
copy on a web site: First, they “scan” read - they don’t read
every word. And second, it’s better comprehended when the copy
is written the way people speak. Here are the other things to
look for when you’re analyzing the copy:

Are bullets and lists utilized? The copy can’t be in
standard block paragraphs like you see in books and magazines.
Remember, you’re competing for their time. If they don’t get the
info they need fast, they’ll jump to the next web site.

Is there too much copy on the page? If you have more
than 450 words per page, you have too much. How many times have
you seen the never-ending Home Page as you scroll forever to
find where it ends? This technique only works for those cheesy
direct sales letters you see on certain sites. And they only
work sometimes.

Does the copy grab you? Is it interesting and
informative? Does it address your needs? And does the copy have
a rhythm to it? It should.

Is there variety in the writing? Are all the sentences
long with multiple adjectives and adverbs? The goal is to
combine short sentences with a few long ones. The trick is to
make the copy flow. Using fragments is not a bad thing. Quite
the contrary actually. The occasional fragment or sentence that
starts with “But” or “And” can re-capture reader interest and
keep it lively. Try it out. You’ll like it. And your customers
will too! (See how effective it is?)

Are Headings and Sub headings utilized? If not, get them
in there fast. You gotta have them there to break up the page
into digestible parts. It also helps the eye focus. There are a
ton of sites out there that have absolutely NO headings or sub
headings. That’s a bad thing.

Are you using AIDA? Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
I’m sure you’ve heard it before: Grab the reader’s attention,
build interest, and create a desire so they will take action.
Are you closing the deal with your customer? This is the
ultimate goal of any copy. Make the reader do something. Fill
out a survey, submit a request, sign up for a service, or buy
the product. Whatever it is, you must have a call to action in
the copy.

The Copy and How it Relates to the Design - How Does it look on
the page?

What good would the copy be if it was placed on the page in long
lines and block paragraphs?

Not too good.

Recently, I was working on a Home Page re-write for a financial
services company who was having a conversion problem. They had
no issue getting people to the site. They just couldn’t make
them buy once they got there.

After taking a look at their site, I was struck with one
startling reaction - the copy was placed on the page like it was
a college essay with no variation or eye catching design
elements integrated. Clearly, it was a web site template and no
customization was used at all.

Their competitors Home Pages were very different. They all
employed easy to read charts, testimonials, and other design
elements. And my client had none of these. Obviously, something
had to change, or his conversion rate would continue to suffer.
Here are some of the things you want to look for when you
consider the copy and how it relates to the design:

Is there contrast in the type of fonts, the size of
fonts, and the colors that are used? Some of the most
eye-catching web sites use lots of contrasting fonts, with
various sizes, and complimentary colors. This can only help the
copy, as it wraps it up in a great looking package and truly
brings it to life. Here are three examples of great copy wrapped
up in brilliant design: http://www.omniture.com/s2/index.html
http://www.6smarketing.com/ http://www.zephoria.com/

Is the copy broken up into readable/scanable sections?
…or is it simply placed on the page haphazardly without regard
for the needs of your customer? Like my example above, you need
to ensure the web page can be scanned in 30 seconds or less.
Remember, we’re dealing with short attention spans.

Are the areas that you want your customer’s attention
drawn to clearly visible? If you’re using a “Learn More”, “Buy
Now” or other clickable button, is it obvious? Make sure it
stands out on the page and can’t be mistaken for something else.

Is the design simple and easy to navigate or is it
cluttered? Some of the very best web sites are really very
simple in appearance, even if they do have lots of content.
Don’t “drown” your copy in a complex design structure or have a
million different web pages on your menu. White space is
important. Let the copy breathe!

Search Engine Friendly - Is the Copy Optimized?

Of course, the grand puba of them all - Is the copy optimized?
Not the site itself (Although that is critically important), but
the copy. And is it optimized the right way? We’ve all seen
those web sites that use a keyword phrase 59 times on one page.
Who exactly do they think is going to read that garbage?
Exactly. No one.

And Search Engine Optimization is always a moving target. It’s a
complex process that must be constantly fine tuned and tweaked
to keep up with the Search Engine’s changes and your
competitor’s moves. Because you can bet that you have a few who
are jockeying for that first page placement for the perfect
keyword phrase. When it comes to optimizing your web site copy,
here is what you need to look for:

Above all else, keep this in mind: Copywriting for the
web is a balancing act. You want to ensure you have used your
keyword phrases enough times without compromising the
readability of the page. If you’re looking for a quick rule
regarding keyword density, think 5%. More often than not,
staying close to this number will get you where you need to be.

Do your Keyword Research! Whether you use Overture (now
Yahoo) or Word Tracker, be sure you take a look at the keywords
people are using or the keywords you think they should be using
to find you. Then jump over to the competitors web sites and
view their “Source Code”. (Go to their home page, right click,
and select View Source) When you do this, you’ll see their Meta
Tags with the keywords they are using. These may or may not be
the right ones to use. But, you should definitely take a look to
see what they are using. The next step is to see where they are
ranking for those keywords. Try to find them on Google or Yahoo.
That will give you a good benchmark.

Focus your Keyword Phrases. Don’t use more than three
keyword phrases per page. Actually, it would be better if you
used one or two. And don’t include every keyword phrase on every
page. Break it up, and use your Services page to get specific.

Do your Linking Research! The next step is to compare
your links with what your competitors have. Here’s a site to
bookmark immediately: http://www.linkpopularity.com. Along with
Word Tracker or Overture, it will become your new best friend.
Remember, that inbound links are a very important component of
the overall SEO effort. With Google, it’s extremely important.
One thing to know is that optimizing the copy alone won’t get
you the rankings you want. You have to approach the SEO copy
effort holistically. And if a copywriter says they can get you
higher rankings by just working on the copy alone, you may want
to take your business elsewhere. It’s rarely that easy. With
linkpopularity.com, you simply type in your url into the link
analyzer, and take a look at the results. Then do it for your
competitors. Presto! You have just unlocked a great resource.

Use Keyword Phrases in Links, Headings, and Sub
headings. These are all places that you must use keyword phrases
in to get higher rankings. What’s that you say? No Headings and
Subheadings on your web page? That’s a good place to start if
you’re doing a copy re-write (or even starting from scratch)
Also, be sure you definitely link your pages together with text
links. This helps the search engines know your pages are related.

Use Go Rank’s Keyword Density Analyzer. Jump on to
http://www.gorank.com/ as soon as you get the chance. They have
a number of different SEO tools you can utilize for your SEO
copy project. Along with Overture and Link Popularity, I use it
on every client I work with. The best tool is the Keyword
Density Analyzer. Use it and be amazed at what it tells you.

So there you have it! Your Website Copy makeover lesson is
concluded. Hopefully, there were a few tricks or tips that you
may not have known about. You’ll find that if you follow the
advice in this article, you will have a better looking, and an
easier read site. And eventually, you’ll get higher rankings for
your selected keyword phrases.

Good Luck!

Life can sometimes be unexciting if not refreshed by the will to create according to one’s own conscience and freedom. Often, the power of passion fuses into unexciting or appealing activities. One sometimes expects to be free from the demands, the macro-strings of the society, so that one could do what one wishes. In many different ways, one could say that freedom of this nature may bring about towering creativity though it can also breed chaos. How to find a method that could encourage a pleasing freedom as well as bring about the desirable creativity is very important for the society in general and for business in particular. In short, a balance needs to be sought and erected. But the balance, as I will show, is the one that encourages conceptual creativity to soaring heights while it limits dispositions or practice in line with the prevailing macro- or micro-culture.

I wish to drive my car the way that pleases me. I wish to work the way that gladdens my soul. I also wish to work at my own pace, and the work I do does not have to follow any deadlines that will make me work under pressure or needless stress; for I am my own person as is reflected in the claim that my rights and freedom are mine and nobody else’s. The society must not impose habitual order in my creative ability; else, I may choose not to create, or I may create at a snail’s pace or at a pace that does not interest me the way it originally should. And if most or, at least, many people in the society think the way I do - which I believe they do - then they are quite dispirited as I am because they cannot do what they wish or desire. But this kind of unrestricted personal freedom clashes with structured arrangements that are loaded with laws, rules, regulations that tend to organize our daily lives in a direction other than what we would have wished. Ordinarily, we call these structured arrangements ‘culture’. And because, as individuals, we must conform to the requirements of culture, we cannot do what we wish anyhow, any time, and anywhere. For if we can do otherwise, then my wishes may clash with yours and others. What I like, you may not like, and others may not like though I agree that there will be some commonalities with regard to our likes and dislikes. In fact, clashing likes and dislikes contradict the meaning of a society; they hint at disorder, and breed the kind of brazen uncertainties that, nevertheless, some thinkers support and tag the name “anarchy”. Anarchy simply is an enemy to the concept of a society. Anarchy fosters the individual lifestyle, and this also advances iron selfishness.

There is no doubt, then, that the freedom of the will poses a grave danger to the idea of a society. If you grant that I should will what I want and not listen to what the laws, the regulations, the rules of the society say about this will, then I’m the person of the moment, the pleasure-seeker who is not checked by the simulated forces of the society. But I cannot go my own way in a society in which order is the rule and anarchy is a threat to harmony. The job of culture is to check personal excesses and see to it that our doings fit into the cultural scaffold. Our lives, thereby, become orderly, agreeable in the collective or socializable in prominent manners.

We have a macro-culture that is about society in general, and we also have a micro-culture that is about business. Usually, the micro-culture mirrors the macro-culture. The former has to proceed according to the natural movement of the latter. And were it to be that this connection is twisted, then both the societal culture and business face trials and suffer errors that may endanger growth and development.

Businesses face chief snags when they rehash foreign techniques in order to bring about quick developments. A business executive - call him James - sees that a counterpart business is doing better in many areas and strives to copy from the latter. James’ lack of foresight resides in the fact that he ignores the differences between his business and that of his counterpart in the field of culture. He does not realize that the mores, customs of his counterpart’s society are very different from his; that the cultural foundations of his counterpart’s business have been shaped largely by what transpires in that society in the area of macro-culture.

The fact that culture A is different from culture B has to do with differential natural histories, with differential reflexes to environmental stimuli that have shaped all the areas of life in differential ways, including, of course, the area of business. And this process has taken countless many years to get to its present stage and form. As is expected, culture A does business in a way different from culture B. Culture B substitutes nonsense for foresightedness by thinking business has nothing to do with culture. By duplicating A’s method of doing business, B transforms an entire business organization, root and branch, thinking that competing effectively with A tallies with this new approach. B says: “A’s business method, in fact, the structure that has created A’s huge advancement, has to do strictly with business elements, not the peculiar wind that blows from the culture surrounding the seat of business.” B ends the matter in this simple, naive way. Surely, confusion cannot be avoided if B copies from A in the way stated. For a macro-culture has its own unique language, history, belief systems, patterned or habitual dispositions, collective frames of mind that instruct other relatable activities such as business. But in abandoning a previous business structure, or, at least, heftily transforming it, one also stains the new business structure with corrupted ingredients of the said macro-culture. The business hybrid that emanates may not serve the good interest of the society; often, it does not, since it will tend to destabilize the existing macro-culture in assorted ways without an end in sight.

In many ways, A’s overwhelming success need not unsettle the calmness of B or any other business that faces a similar test or is in a similar position as B. A chief confusion that A must have brought to the field of business is a revisionist approach that tends to belittle and, indeed, scorn the role of culture in business activities. A sees monetary profit as the supreme measure of business success and advances organizational strategies, plans, that wields this ambitious conception into any business-oriented activity. It is in the spirit of money, of profit, that the sense of business has become progressively technical instead of humanistic. And the technical conception of business thrives on the principle that businesses, irrespective of differential cultural determinants, could merge for the purpose of generating more monetary profit in line with technical efficiency. Other prominent elements of the business structure such as the flow of culturalized ethics, the human fibre, so to speak, are sidelined, thrown out of set priorities. A globalized business enterprise that appears more real than ideal is born from this business wrinkle. It wins great favour because, little by little, culture is seen as superfluous in the planning and implementation of business ideas. Since this seems to be the point, culture appears to be dying faster than one must have thought. Business occupies centre stage in all conceivable areas of the society. Humanism recedes as it is taunted into obscurity.

Perhaps, a much more difficult matter to address - though smaller in scale - is about the composition of a workforce that happens to be multicultural; that is, a workforce that has employees from different cultural backgrounds.

Consider business C whose employees are from different cultural backgrounds and who, therefore, react differently to business ideas and will work in dissimilar ways - though not easily visible - if not micro-managed according to structured principles. In what ways should management promote creative ideas from such employees? Should creativity be allowed to proceed according to what each employee desires or wishes without the patterned intrusions of management? Or should creativity be streamlined according to the structure of management such that what an employee creates ought not be related to personal desires or wishes? Suppose the former approach is adopted, then creative ideas that are so desirable for innovativeness in direct production will be much more than expected. In other words, creative ideas will inundate the platform of theories, and management will have the glad freedom to choose which ones could enhance the quality and quantity of production. The latter approach may limit creative ideas to some few patterned ones that, according to management, suit structured strategic plans. Often, numerous creative ideas are preferable to limited ones. One has more to choose from with regard to the former than the latter - richness in business life, is it not?

In matters of practical work, that is, in matters of just doing what management wants in direct production, the multicultural make-up of employees may have to be shunned. In the name of culture, differential dispositions lead to differential consequences in production. This could be chaotic, both in the quality of production and the quantity. Yet, one must not lose sight of the fact that all sorts of culture-based creative ideas enrich the knowledge base of business.

My ultimate conclusion is this: Practical production requires conformity; mental creativity needs no conformity - or so it seems.

Mr. Stephen Ainsah-Mensah is a Canadian who has worked in various capacities, largely in Toronto: Race Relations Consultant, Projects Coordinator, Writer, Post-Secondary Business Instructor, Life Skills Instructor, among others. He is currently the principal of Handan-Lilac Education Group in China.

kamch22@yahoo.ca

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You’ve probably seen web sites with testimonials - they can add legitimacy. But sometimes they are believable, and sometimes they are not. Are testimonials worth the effort?

The answer is “Yes” if they are done right.

When done correctly, testimonials can help you establish credibility and give you an opportunity to prove the claims about your web site.

However, when done incorrectly, testimonials aren’t believable and honest, and can cause more harm than good.

Here are some ideas on how to use testimonials effectively:

1. Do not fake it
Your testimonials should be believable. The best way to make them believable is to not make them up. A fade testimonial can ruin your credibility. Play fair, and get real testimonials from real people.

2. Be brief
If it’s too long, your web site visitor probably won’t read it. If you’ve got a super long testimonial, break it up into small sections and use it in different places.

3. Identify the person giving the testimonial
Ideally, use a full name and title, not something generic like “Happy Customer”. Also, you get bonus credibility if you put real contact information so your web site visitor can actually reach the person giving the testimonial. Usually, the visitor won’t bother, but they want to know that they could contact that real person and confirm the story.

4. Put testimonials throughout your web site
It is OK to have one page with all your testimonials, but you can’t guarantee that a visitor to your web site will go to that page. Put one or two testimonials on each page throughout your web site.

About the Author

Herb and Monica Leibacher operate Web Builder Express. Create a professional web site for your business or non-profit organization with Web Builder Express. At www.WebBuilderExpress.com, you can request your free Quick Start Guide that tells you how to create a great web site.