Getting a car insured today has become a matter that requires substantial research. For most people the main criterion of selecting or rejecting a car insurance company is price. Every body seems to be after ‘cheap’ car insurance. But how does one quantify cheap? To accurately compare quotes, you need to make sure the insurers you’re comparing are offering similar types and amounts of coverage, and also a similar deductible amount.Meanwhile, here are a few pointers on how to go about getting a car insurance that will be more affordable:Keeping all your eggs in the same basket may help you lower your car insurance costs. Some insurers give discounts if the applicant already has one or more insurances from the same company. For instance, if you already have homeowners insurance and another auto insurance plan from the company, chances are that you may have to pay less for insuring your new car. You can even ask them to give you a quote and compare it with that of other insurance companies.Keep your driving track record clean. Easier said than done, no doubt, but it really pays in the long run. If you have a couple of accidents to your credit, chances are that you may have to empty your pockets a little more to have your car insured. This is the auto insurers’ way of hedging the risk from your bad driving and safeguarding themselves from a possible claim in the near future.Increase your deductible amount. This is the amount that you agree to pay in the eventuality of a claim before the insurance company pays up. What this implies is that you are taking a risk of paying more if the need arises. But if you are a cautious driver and are confident that you are likely to be so in the future too, it will knock off a sizable chunk from your yearly payouts.Even the make of the car can determine how much you pay for the insurance of the car. Attractive and expensive cars are more theft prone and hence make the car insurance expensive. The inherent nature of the car and the likely profile of the user can also determine the insurance amount. ‘Volvo’, a symbol of safety, is likely to be driven responsibly but a Mustang is likely to be driven by a less cautious driver. Therefore if you are planning to buy a car in the near future, spare a thought on the insurance front too, since a ‘low-profile’ car can have a lower insurance cost.Take precautions to theft proof your car. This can affect your risk profile immensely, apart from giving you a general peace of mind. Cars equipped with anti-lock brakes, air bags and automatic seatbelts are also eligible for insurance discounts.Remember not to just go after the cheapest quote you get in the market. Do your homework, compare quotes and reimbursement track records of several insurance providers before you finalize your car insurance company.
Business Luncheon Manners Always Matter – Ten Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
Every business day of the year, there are business lunches taking place. And every business day there are bad business luncheon manners being displayed and observed. Inexperienced staff members to experienced business executives commit these business manner blunders because too many people forget their manners at the business luncheon table. And these business lunch manner faux pas result in a negative image of the person committing them and the company they represent.
All business manners are essential to building relationships in today’s business world. People, who present themselves very favorably, will maximize their business potential. I am very passionate about business manners and believe very strongly in the results that follow the use of good business manners in every type of business setting you encounter. The potential for negative impacts is considerable in any business meeting and business luncheons are no exception. Improve your business luncheon meeting etiquette and you will witness positive results in such forms as attentiveness, comfort, clear communications, and trust.
Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach would like to offer the following ten (10) tips to ensure good business manners at your business luncheon meetings.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #1: Use strategic thinking in planning your business luncheon meeting location. Think very carefully about choosing the right restaurant because your choice says a lot about you and about how you feel toward your guest(s). If you select a restaurant that is too casual or inexpensive the guest(s) may not feel valued. On the other hand, if you select one that is too extravagant and expensive they may perceive you as wasteful and wonder how prudent you will be with their money if you win their business. The strategic thinking approach is to suggest that your guest(s) select the place. Their choice will tell you a lot about them, too.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #2: Know your guest’s business. Do your “homework” and learn everything you can about their business and current trends in their industry. The most strategic tool to do the homework is to do a Google search. The more you know about the guest’s company the more impressed they will be with you.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #3: Whenever possible, meet at the other party’s office and accompany him or her to the restaurant. Suggesting that you will meet them at the selected restaurant may save a little time and may be okay only if the other party is someone you have met before and will easily recognize. This will help avoid any potential awkward or embarrassing moments such as each of you waiting for the other to arrive when each of you has already been seated.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #4: Never assume your business guest is looking for a social encounter. Although people in a business setting can sometimes appear extremely friendly or open that doesn’t mean they have the slightest interest in meeting up with you after hours.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #5: Always be prepared to engage in some well-informed small talk. Avoid awkward silences by having a few casual, non-business topics in mind. Ask your guest(s) interesting questions and let them know that you would like to know what they think. People enjoy giving their thoughts on things that interest them.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #6: Don’t “bad mouth” the competition. A business meal gives you the chance to talk about the benefits and value you bring to your clients and customers. Saying negative things about your competition always is in bad taste. Commit to building solid business relationships by outperforming the competition, not by putting them down.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #7: Never, ever talk with your mouth full! Unfortunately there are far too many otherwise successful executives who never learned that they should not talk with food in their mouths. Instead of talking with your mouth full, take small bites, so that you can quickly swallow if somebody asks you a question.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #8: Drinking alcohol will impact your judgment; so unless your business guest(s) takes the lead, don’t suggest ordering any alcoholic beverages. If you are in a situation where the guest(s) take the initiative and orders alcohol, you can avoid an awkward situation by ordering something light like a wine spritzer. And then simply do not finish drinking it.
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #9: Always be kind to the wait staff. “Anyone who is nice to you but nasty to their server is not a nice person. Be polite to restaurant staff, no matter what happens. This can be tough but it will provide an opportunity to form a favorable impression upon your guest(s).
Business Luncheon Manners Tip #10: Never ever ask your guests to help you figure out the tip. It is hard to imagine anything tackier at a business luncheon meeting than showing someone how much you just spent on them. Anyone who can read a menu will already have a pretty good idea anyway. If you can’t read the check without your glasses, then have them with you at all times.
Start Selling Online With the Shopping Cart
You want to shop for a week’s supply at Wal-Mart and as you enter the store, you notice that all the shopping carts are gone. How would you feel? Of course, you’d feel like not shopping at all and switch to other stores where shopping carts are available. The same applies for online shoppers who wanted to make a more organized and one-way shopping, most especially if they’d purchase multiple items. A customer would always want it the easy way out and one way of letting them shop the easy way is through online shopping carts.
Shopping cart softwares have improved a lot as years passed and as e-commerce boomed to overcome a lot of tangible business out in the business world. Having an Online Shopping Cart Software is important and will reap you a lot of benefits both in short term and in the long run. Through a shopping cart, you would be able to cater the best shopping experience to your online customers like they’re in a virtual shopping mall picking up what they want and stashing it inside the cart for the cashier to bill them out.
Free vs Paid Shopping Carts
There are a lot of shopping cart softwares available; most of them are pay-to-use while some few are for free. Free shopping cart softwares may be very tempting to avail of because they are absolutely free of charge. Take note, however, that these free shopping cart softwares may be a good option while starting a business, when the customers are not that overwhelming yet. But try to anticipate when your business made it into the main stream. Surely, the free shopping cart software won’t be able to handle the demands of multiple customers in the long run. As compared with paid shopping carts, free carts are less stable and have less customer support available for technical difficulties.
Multi-Tasking Carts
There are available shopping cart softwares which come in a package making them more versatile than ever. Shopping cart packages allow for the users to perform multiple tasks at once.
Suggestive carts- Aside from the usual shopping cart where all the items to be purchased are stored temporarily, current carts also generate information about the customer’s history of previous purchases and offers them similar products which could catch their interests- this is through the power of cookies which collect previous information of users and dig them up for future use.
Search Tool- Search tool is also integrated in some shopping carts so shoppers won’t need to scour over the list of items. They can also sort these items out so that they can compare the prices, and all other essential information.
Cross Selling- Some carts can also be designed to do cross-selling such that there would be Hot Listed Items on a part of the cart which could raise the interest of a customer.
Computations of Fees- One important feature of a shopping cart is to make the job of the online seller easier so that before it reaches the Internet Merchant Account service, everything is already ironed out and ready for billing. Computation of taxes, shipping costs, discount rates and all other necessary calculations can be done by a shopping cart and this helps a lot in making the transaction smoother and more convenient.
Reporting- A shopping carts task doesn’t just end once the customer leaves the site and billed out by the IMA. The cart should also display reports to the online seller about the hottest items on the list, the overall sale for a certain time, the information about the traffic, the type of customers and all essential information necessary to improve the store.
Customizability of Design
The flexibility of the shopping carts is important so that it could be well adapted and customized according to the design or layout of the online store for which it is designed to work. By this feature, you can easily change the look of your store if it starts out to feel dull and monotonous. You should also see to it that the interface is user-friendly so that those persons with no idea about HTML or web designing can easily tweak the design up. There are also some shopping cart software providers who can customize the carts for you- all you need is to give them a logo of your store or tell them how you want those shopping carts to look like.
Shopping carts are very vital in the functioning of an ecommerce website. It gives heaps of benefits for both the seller and the customer. For this reason, be very careful and strategic in choosing the right shopping cart for your store. Just bear in mind those tips and points which should be looked into and surely, you’ll get the best shopping cart service suited for your business.