How Brands From Starbucks to Mercedes-Benz Are Surviving
Let's face facts, these are difficult times to be marketing a luxury brand. Your patients have lost jobs, defaulted on mortgages, watched their nest eggs shrink, or simply heard too much about all of the above. They're downsizing and simplifying their lives. The bar is now higher for every premium brand they consider buying.
So how do you keep your patients thinking high value and quality with each purchase? Part of the answer is to understand that luxury buying hasn't gone away, even now.
Starbucks, the Morgans Hotel Group (formerly Ian Schrager Hotels), and Mercedes-Benz all believe they have what it takes. They are rewarding their most loyal customers with free products, continuing to advertise when their competitors are cutting budgets, and avoiding discounts.
During these challenging economic times, they're appealing to customer's clearer senses as opposed to their emotions. ECPs are no different. You have to help your patients understand quality, value and special features, along with fashion, to spend more for your product. That reason always exists; the art of downturn marketing is getting consumers to see it.
Source: bNet
Independent Contractor Status
 We've had to lay off some employees due to the economy, but as more work comes in, we'd like to have one of those former employees work as an independent contractor. What kind of written agreement should we have her sign?
 If your former employee does not meet the legal tests to be classified as an independent contractor, no written agreement in the world will make her one.
The most important factor in determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor is whether the worker has a right to control the manner and means of accomplishing the desired result. Courts and administrative agencies will look at many aspects of the relationship, including:
- Whether the worker is engaged in a distinct occupation or business—For example, if the worker will be doing accounting work, does she have her own business performing similar work for other companies? If the former employee is working only for you, she is less likely to be determined an independent contractor.
- Whether you or the worker supplied the instruments, tools and place for performing the work—Was the work performed in your workplace, on your computers or other equipment? If the worker comes to your office to do the accounting work on your computers in the same manner she did when she was an employee, she is more likely still an employee.
- Whether the work is part of your regular business—Is the worker performing the same type of work she performed when she was your employee? If the accounting function is part of your regular business, employee status would probably be determined, even if she does the work from home.
Some of the other factors to be considered include how the worker is paid (that is, by time or by the job), whether the worker can hire subcontractors/helpers, the skills required in the particular occupation and the length of time for which the services will be performed.
If these legal tests are not met, any agreement between worker and hiring party purporting to establish an independent contractor relationship may be invalid.
Improperly classifying employees as independent contractors can expose a company to liability for unpaid taxes, workers' compensation, unemployment and disability insurance, as well as violation of wage and hour laws.
 For over 10 years, Hedley lawson has been a contributing editor to VM, most recently as writer of the monthly column “Business Essentials.”
He is the Contributing Editor of VM's E-Newsletter Business Essentials. Contact
Business Essentials with questions or comments.
Easy-reference to Web resources about human resource policies and rules
Barnes & Company
bNet
Business & Legal Reports Inc.
DOL: Independent Contract Status
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Business Essentials Gets a Facelift
Vision Monday debuted Business Essentials in May 2006 as a monthly e-newsletter addressing the day-to day management issues faced by ECPs and retailers.
At the time, our focus was on giving small business owners and managers advice on managing their people and their business.
With this edition, in response to today's tough economic times, BE will re-focus its mission to include practical and current business advice about bottom line tactics for ECPs
to help them to improve both the productivity the profitability of their eyecare practices.
New features, such as this month's Bottom Line and Practice Builders (coming your way next month) will complement BE's current expertise and exclusive menu of HR articles. We've also taken the opportunity to freshen up the newsletter's design.
If you have a comment or feature article idea for Business Essentials,
tell us about it and we'll consider it for an upcoming feature.
—The Editors
Growing Your Practice Through Word-of-Mouth Marketing
 Keeping and attracting customers requires an ongoing focus on customer service in today's eyecare practice. Growing your practice requires delivering consistent and excellent customer service which results in patients who share their experience
with friends and family. Research continues to show that word of mouth is still your most powerful advertisement because it is the most believable.
Research also shows that the first few seconds of contact with your patient influences their opinion most. It's true—you only have one chance to make a first impression. Today, Americans suffer from "time poverty" where the new currency is time. People now make decisions
based not just on the price of services, but on the time, ease and quality of the delivery of the service.
Successful businesses with customers that rave to their friends about great service share several key elements. Incorporate these elements into your business and watch your practice grow from referrals.
- Create a clear patient-focused vision with all employees' that ties their salaries and bonuses to delivering outstanding customer service from the first moment of patient contact.
- Research what is important to your patients through surveys.
- Train your front office team to understand that making your patients happy is their primary job. Provide ongoing monthly training for employees in patient service, discuss challenges and ensure you have a system in place with flexibility for your employees to meet unexpected or unusual patient needs.
Deliver service beyond your patients' expectations and you will find loyal customers who rave about your practice and patient service, creating new business through word-of-mouth advertising.
Source: Susan Barnes is the owner of Barnes & Company, an award winning California public relations and marketing firm. She can be reached at (707) 664-1027.
Making the Shift From Survival to Growth
It has been only one year since the American investment banking system collapsed, starting a domino-like financial crisis that eventually spread around the world. The good news is that the worst appears to be over and economists are now saying that the recession may be over. The bad news is that the hard work of rebuilding your business still lies ahead.
This shift from immediate survival to planning the next steps is creating a new set of challenges.
 During uncertain times, business owners and employees alike want a clear sense of direction.
If business owners and managers don't provide employees with a plan for moving forward, the result can be a loss of confidence which quickly turns into skepticism and complacency. Once that happens in a business,
there is the prospect that employees will quit and leave. Or worse yet, that they will quit and stay.
When people have a clear direction and a sense that your organization's leadership is focused, energetic and ready to go, it's possible to avoid some of the barriers to rebuilding business after a substantial slowdown.
To help successfully make that shift in your organization, the following guidelines should be of help:
- Maintain a balance.
- Stay focused on action versus inaction.
- Communicate with employees about what you know and what you don't know.
- Hold people accountable.
- Maximize information flow.
- Give people permission to fail.
Blogging: A New Practice Headache or Opportunity?
Web surfing and e-mail are no longer the only problems employers face regarding the Internet. Recently, unhappy employees have been using the
Internet to unload their personal views about their employer as well as disclosing trade secrets and confidential information. As a result, companies are increasingly taking initiative to address blogging in their own employment practices.
 As effective as blogs can be promoting publicity, they can be equally damaging to a company's reputation. Once a blog is posted, it is almost irretrievable. Therefore, much to an employers' concern, a potentially racist, sexist,
discriminatory comment or one that discloses confidential information is left to circulate the
Internet for a very long time.
So what can and should you do?
Consider developing a policy that will help avoid a blogging headache before it starts or gets out of hand.
- Confidentiality. Describe what an employee may or may not disclose, such as company and customer information.
- Respect of dignity. The policy should include a statement that the blogger should respect the dignity of others and refrain from posting personal information about coworkers.
- Identification. Are employees permitted to reference the company in their blog?
- Facilities-Can employees use company facilities to work on their blogs?
- Monitoring. State that the company monitors its facilities, e.g., Internet, computer systems, network, etc. for compliance with this policy and monitors the use of its name and trademarks on the Internet.
- Discipline. What discipline measures will be used if the employee violates the policy?
Source: Business & Legal Reports, Inc.
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