Over a year ago, a friend of mine was associated with an event company that specialized in wedding planning and bridal showcases.  She raved about the lady who ran the company and how talented she was at what she did.  People loved the events that the company put on, and they were wildly successful.  The showcases were held in nice hotels and banquet halls, not like some of the “events” that are held at the local HoJo’s, so everything seemed great.  I was offered a chance advertise at one of the biggest planned events, and at reasonable rates, so I did.  What happened leading up to the supposed event threw everything completely of course…

There was supposed to be a bar sponsorship–where my company’s logo would be all over the bar, as well as a 1/2 page ad that was being distributed to all of the suppliers & vendors.  In addition, I went out and purchased 1,000 new business cards to be placed in the gift bags that all of the ladies would receive as part of their admission.  I was super excited (which by the way, isn’t really my nature) at the prospect of having my business put in front of hundreds of potential clients, both individuals and businesses.  Granted, I had started paying in September, and the event wasn’t supposed to go off until the February-April range, but I was still pretty excited.

As the days and weeks started passing, a strange thing began to happen.  I kept hearing stories of how this lady would miss events, simply not show up.  It happened on more than one occasion.  It really didn’t give me any doubt, though, because I saw all of these other events going off without a hitch.  I even attended the grand revealing party for her newly started venture, Room 121 Events, LLC at one of my favorite sushi restaurants.  It was a very popular affair so I figured nothing could be wrong.

Boy was I wrong!

As more time passed, more events were cancelled or simply ignored.  The owner wasn’t handling the business end of the events.  My friend simply had reached the point of utter frustration and walked away from the situation (there was no contract or formal alliance in place–lucky for her, so she had no responsibility there).  It got so bad, she was the one virtually running the whole show.  It got so bad, that she walked still being owed money for prior events and services.

Yet more time passed, and the complaints started rolling in. Advertisers had paid money up front only to be left with nothing.  People who purchased tickets were left with a worthless ticket in their hand.  I discovered a Facebook post about an MTV casting call to be held during one of her events:

When I tweeted to MTV asking if they knew anything about it, I got a response from the hotel’s event manager stating that not only was there nothing doing with MTV at their hotel that day, this even was cancelled, yet it was still being promoted.

Several people started getting very frustrated (myself included).  Calls went unanswered.  Emails went ignored.  My faxes probably went into the trash.  I even sent a certified letter documenting all of my attempts to reach her, and get my money back.  Know what happened to my certified letter?  It was returned as being undeliverable!  Other people I spoke to had the same issues, and these people had significantly more money invested than I did.  

The funny thing is that she was actually owed money by a company who was trying to reach out to her, yet she ignored them too.  That alone shows that there was something drastically wrong with the picture, as she knew the people who ran that business also had relationships with the people she stole from and was probably scared of what would happen next.

Afterwards, I did my research.  Turns out the owner was evicted from her residence at the same time my letter was first delivered.  She also has been taken to court, although the county public records don’t display much background information.  She never updated anyone with the new address.  Not the Division of Corporations, not any of the businesses profiles, not her website registrar.

Out of nowhere, I got a message from the original friend who was screwed over by this lady.  She received a message on LinedIn to join this person’s network.  Now, that takes balls!  And, that prompted me to take a look aroundand I discovered that she was back posting on Facebook after a long hiatus, which I still maintain as her hiding out period, so I posted a message on the company’s wall.  Needless to say, after a couple of days, my message mysteriously disappeared.  Not really sure how that happened, though.  Maybe it was the Facebook gremlins who ate it?

The story isn’t completely written yet.  This just brings everyone up to date on what I (and others) have been dealing with, and I felt a responsibility to put this out there for others who may be in the same situation in their own businesses.

The lesson here?  Even if something seems on the up and up and the people you want to do business with appear to be reliable and qualified, that may not always be the case.  Sometimes, these images are only fronts, and after some time, the people behind the businesses can no longer maintain those fronts, and their true natures are revealed.  Tread carefully, and always make sure you protect yourself in case something like this happens to you!

Photo credit: © All rights reserved by William (tectum macula) Walsh

This article, When Good Businesses Go Bad was originally published by DollarVersity, and may have been used without the owner's permission.

Not long ago, I told everyone that advertisers view you all as suckers.  Nothing represents that view quite as well as a day on which people are urged to go out for extravagant (supposedly romantic) dinners, purchase expensive jewelry, and spend up to triple the regular price for flowers due to inflated demand.  And for what? Nothing more than to pump up the sales for greeting card companies, jewelry stores, flower growers, and anyone else who can find a way to profit from a sham of a holiday.  Valentine’s Day has become little more than a commercial holiday for many.

I find myself asking “why” quite often when I start hearing and seeing all of the noise surrounding Valentine’s Day lately:

Why should Valentine’s Day be such a big deal?

Why do people think this one day can make up for all the other days of neglect and mistreatment?

Why is that particular day given more emphasis than any other day for showing how much you care?

Why are material objects the prevalent sign of how much one cares?

Why are people more desperate to not be alone on this particular day?

 

It just amazes me that something as important as love and emotion can be so misconstrued, trivialized and manipulated.  It makes me wonder how so  many people can be suckered into the idea that this day, and not any of the other 364 (or 365 in the case of a leap year) days, is the one that will make you look like a hero to your significant other.  It makes me sad to know that some people put so much weight on this one day that they will forgive all other wrongs against them.

Isn’t August 18th just as good a day to make a big deal for one’s feelings toward another?  Can’t any any old Tuesday be turned into a celebration of love?  Maybe it’s just me, but I just don’t see why all of this pressure and false sense of importance is placed upon a day of the year that means relatively nothing and holds no real significance to most people.  Oh yeah, that’s right, it is this way because once again, most people are suckers and will follow what the big marketing machines will tell them!

This article, Valentine’s Day Is One Giant Scam was originally published by DollarVersity, and may have been used without the owner's permission.

I’d like to thank Money Supermarket for this guest post at what is always a “taxing” time of the year for me!  You work very hard for your money, but does the way you spend it suggest that it isn’t valuable to you as much as it should be?

Whether you’re using a high interest credit card for purchases or leave all of the lights on in your house, you are literally giving your money away.  Here are a few simple ways you can make your money go further this year:

Monitor Your Spending

Save all of your receipts for every little purchase and review them after thirty days.  Consider how you can change your spending habits to save money.  Can you go without the non-essential luxuries, such as buying coffee at coffee shops, satellite TV service or eating out at restaurants?  Be sure to cancel any unused monthly memberships, services and subscriptions.  Cutting back on all of those little expenses will help your money go further this year.

Create a Budget

You can stretch your income this year by creating a budget and sticking to it. Write down all of your necessary monthly expenses, such as mortgage payment, utilities and groceries.  Now write down all of your reliable sources of income and total up your monthly earnings.  Your income must exceed your expenditures for you to be within budget.  Be sure that you pay for your essentials before spending anything on little luxuries.

Use and Compare Credit Cards Wisely

If you’re paying a high interest rate, then use an online tool that allows you to compare credit cards so you can find a card that offers a lower rate.  Watch out for the cards that offer low introductory interest rates, however, since they often hike up the rates dramatically if you’re late with just one payment.

If you don’t have a card with an introductory 0% rate, try to make sure you pay off the whole balance in full each due date.  By doing this you’ll avoid having to pay interest, saving yourself a lot of money.

Save on Transportation Costs

You can save quite a lot of money on gas, auto insurance, maintenance and car repairs by leaving your vehicle at home as much as possible.  Consider setting up a car pool, riding public transportation or getting in shape by walking, biking or skating wherever you need to go. 

If you must drive your car, you can increase the efficiency of its fuel consumption be removing any unnecessary weight, such as the roof rack or all of the stuff you lug around in your trunk.  Re-examine your car insurance policy to see if it includes any expensive features you’re not likely to ever use.  Raise your deductible to lower the cost of your monthly premiums.

Save Money on Utilities

Turn out the lights when you’re not using them.  Switch off the heater or air conditioning when you’re leaving the house.  Take shorter showers and turn off the water while you brush your teeth.  Taking those small steps will add up to make your money go further this year.

Rethink Your Grocery Shopping Strategy 

Always write a list before you go to the grocery store and stick to it while shopping.  Use manufacturer and store coupons combined with sales to save a bundle.  Buy multiple items when you find a great deal. Avoid buying items in convenient packaging.  Those 100-calorie snack packs might be great for your diet, but they’re not so great for your wallet.

Avoid Automatic Renewals 

Never allow any company or service to automatically renew your account. Check out your policy and compare it to others to see how much you could save by switching to another plan or even another company.

These are just some of the small steps you can take that will add up to big savings.  Bear in mind that the more you save, the further your money will go this year.

Photo credit: © Some rights reserved by Truthout.org

This article, Make Your Money Go Further This Year was originally published by DollarVersity, and may have been used without the owner's permission.

Advertising is big business. Nothing proves that more than the Super Bowl–the average cost of a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl is $3.5 million!  That just goes to show you the lengths that some companies will go to get their product placed in front of over a hundred million viewers’ eyes.  It also shows that consumers allow themselves to be manipulated by ad companies.  How you ask? Well, out of the more than 111+ million-plus viewers of the game, how many do you think are watching just for the commercials?  Better yet, how many people do you know that are watching just to see the commercials?  Those people are spending hours of their time watching a game they have absolutely no interest in or understanding of just to see major corporations put the most sexy, intriguing, funny and cute commercials in front of them.  

These companies think that by making memorable commercials using enticing imagery, celebrity endorsers, truth-stretching facts, or heart-tugging stories that you will be more likely to purchase what they are selling.  The truth of the matter is they know many people believe any claim, follow what others say and do, and are just waiting for someone to tell them what to spend money on (even if they don’t have the money to waste).  These companies are more than happy to oblige.  On top of all that, they know what sucks people in, and take full advantage of those instances….

Companies Really Don’t Care About You

Many companies claim that they care about their customers and that customer service is their top priority.  They know that people like to feel important, and by telling people enough they will eventually believe it.  Why else do on-hold messages continually tell you how important your call is and that someone will be right with you when you try to call a customer service number?  If this was indeed true, wouldn’t the companies actually put their money where their mouths are and have a staff capable of taking customer calls as they come in rather than make the so-called “important” people waste their valuable time on hold?  At least they can give the customers the option of holing in silence rather than listening to annoying Muzak songs or gibberish talk about the company.

Putting it bluntly, most companies couldn’t care less about you as an individual. Oh, they care about your money and that you spend it with them, but don’t be lulled into a false sense of importance just because they say that you are.  If you want the true test, try calling to see how long it takes to get through, and then ask them to help you with a problem and see what happens.

Preying On Your Fandom

Who doesn’t have a favorite actor, athlete, singer, or other type of celebrity?  Big businesses know that, which is why major companies love to use celebrity endorsers to suck people in.  They know that if a person’s favorite celebrity is pitching a product there is a good chance that it will implant a positive idea of that product in the consumer’s mind.  

Do you think Queen Latifah, Halle Berry, Beyonce, or any number of spokespeople actually use the same drugstore-brand cosmetics they pitch?  How about Tommy Lee Jones or Dennis Hopper: think they use Ameriprise to handle their investments?  Think Sam Waterston has his portfolio at TD Ameritrade?  Do Regis Philbin and Kelly Rippa bank with TD Bank?  What about Dylan Bruno or Patrick Warburton owning the cars they are paid to represent?  Do any of the athletes who pitch Subway actually eat there when so many are known to have private chefs and nutritionists creating custom menus specifically for them in-house?  Do you actually think Jennifer Lopez drives a Fiat and still calls the Bronx “home” like she does in the commercials?!   

I doubt that any of those people actually use the things they tell you, their fans to buy.  Yet, people will take someone they like being the spokesperson as a real endorsement and follow their suggestions, going out and buying those products and services.

You Don’t Pay Attention

You know those speed talking guys and ladies that you hear on tv and the radio? You know the ones I’m talking about; the ones who, when they start, you can only make out one, maybe two of the words from the entire speech?  How about those really tiny words you see on tv and in print ads?  Those are legal disclosures that are required for certain advertisements to have.  Why are they so difficult to hear or read?  Some would say it’s because there is so much information that is required and such little time to do so.  Actually, it’s because the companies know that people won’t bother with them if they take extra effort to hear or read, even though they contain important information.  Drug companies try to have the paid endorser label hidden in the background so people think that the doctors pitching the products are actually endorsing it.  Car companies hide the terms in the small print to make their “low-payment” leases seem more attractive or hide the fact that these are bare-bones models.  Many commercials slyly put up the “actor portrayal” disclaimer in hard to see places. They basically trust that people won’t pay much attention to anything other than what they want you to.

Everyone Is The Best

It seems that every product claims to be the best at what it does in their commercials.  They all seem to have awards and surveys to back up those claims. But, do any of those awards and claims really mean anything?  That may be a question for someone else to answer, but they know people want to have the best things, so if they can convince consumers that they are offering the best it just may work.  Do people really care where the information is from, or do they just hear this award, that award, this ranking among it’s competitors? Companies know that consumers want to be associated with what’s hot an considered to be premier, so what better way to entice them than to throw out all of these accolades, no matter how meaningless or far-fetched they may be.

Pulling At Your Heart Strings

All of those commercials about the kids going hungry in far-away lands.  The tv spots about the abused animals or the celebrities (2 for 1 special in those) with their adopted pets.  They may all be great causes and do wonderful work, but they are a little shady in their advertising campaigns.  While the work they do is all they need to talk about to garner support, they take things a (king-sized) step extra: the graphic and sad imagery.  They know that people will tune out the words, but many simply cannot get the images out of their heads, and the ad people take full advantage of it.  They purposefully show yo those images knowing that those scenes along can cause people to give to their causes, regardless of anything else that may be going on.  They hope that you are all suckers for a sad story!

All of this just shows that companies are great at taking advantage of consumers.  They spend millions on market research and focus groups trying to get into their heads in order to market to them in more successful ways.  No matter how you feel about it, as a group we are suckers when it comes to advertising and marketing campaigns.  Why else would companies spend millions of dollars to be in front of our faces, put their names on sports stadiums, race cars, or sponsor other events?  As long as people continue to spend their money in the ways they do: basing their decisions on what others do, making emotional decisions, trying to have the “best”, etc. the companies and their advertising firms will consider to play people as suckers.

Have you ever been fooled by a marketing campaign?  Ever been tempted to make a purchase or donation, or try something only because of the ad?

Photo credit: © All rights reserved by hisajp

This article, Advertisers View You As A Sucker was originally published by DollarVersity, and may have been used without the owner's permission.

This is a guest post from Alex Morris, who works for Office Kitten in Manchester where he writes, researches and blogs on the business world.

Innovation cannot occur without some tolerance for failure.  Any company which wants to expand needs to develop a culture which fosters innovation – this means learning from failure rather than dismissing mistakes as a consequence of desperate times.  However, the recession does need to be considered when a business makes a decision.  A mistake in the current economic climate could be fatal.  For examination purposes, here are five examples of major companies making errors in judgement.  Whilst comforting for the smaller businesses, their misfortune can also provide an example of how to garner vital knowledge from them.

Corning: Failed DNA Chip Leads to Epic Success

Corning invested $100 million in a chip intended to print all 28,000 human genes on slides for purposes of research.  A competitor beat them to the punch and began marketing a similar but superior product whilst theirs was still in development.  It was a debacle bleeding a sea of red ink.  However, it was also a critical turning point which ultimately led to a successful project.  The endeavour introduced the company to the marketplace of drug discovery which ultimately led to the creation of Epic, a new drug testing technology.

Intuit: Quickbase Pivots

The Intuit software application called Quickbase was originally designed with a target market in mind of small businesses.  It failed to catch on in that market.  But that did not mean the show was over.  It eventually caught on with a different market segment: Larger companies.  Intuit is a company that does post mortems of failed projects and actively tries to learn from them.  It is clearly paying off.

3M Corporation: A Solution Looking for a Problem

What do you do when you discover a glue that does not stick?  Well, if you are 3M, you invent the Post-it note.  When the engineer who discovered the weak glue was first asked about it, he described it as “a solution looking for a problem.”  The company he worked for had very wise leadership which actively fostered a culture of tolerance for “mistakes” within the company.  Former CEO William McKnight once said: “As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative.  This requires considerable tolerance.  Mistakes will be made.  But if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes management will make if it undertakes to tell those in authority exactly how they must do their job.”

Virgin Atlantic Airways: From One Sleeper to Another

After investing $67 million in trying to design a “bed” option for its business class seats, Virgin was left in the dust by a competitor who, although doing it second, did it far better.  The investment was a flop and customers complained about the second-rate sleeper seats.  Virgin learned from its mistakes and applied those lessons to redesigning its upper class sleeper seats.  This second attempt quickly exceeded financial goals for the project in terms of increased market share.

Nestle: New Cookery Succeeded by Lean Cuisine

After spending somewhere between $100 million and $250 million, Nestle’s product line called New Cookery was such a flop it is hard to even find reference to it on the Internet.  It was intended to be healthier; a low-salt, low-fat and more nutritious food.  Competitors cut prices and ran the line out of business.  A later successor, Lean Cuisine, is a big hit.  Better named, and with better packaging, its timing with a health conscious society turned it into a success.

So it is clear mistakes can happen and that an intelligent, or just perseverant, company can view them as a learning opportunity.  In times of recession a company must be careful, but there is no magic formula to understanding how a business deal will pan out.  Being well prepared for all eventualities is a must.  And if there is no other option then failing can become a didactic exercise; you can understand what they were and identify them early enough in a project’s life cycle so as to keep them relatively small and inexpensive.  A mistake which costs the company too much, whether literally in dollars or metaphorically (such as hurting its reputation), can be the death knell.  But, ironically, “good” mistakes can be its salvation.  Be vigilant, and persistent.

This article, Business During the Recession: How to Deal with Mistakes was originally published by DollarVersity, and may have been used without the owner's permission.