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Focus on Customer ServiceAccording to a survey conducted by American Express, 78% of consumers have canceled or not made purchases intended for poor customer service. Other studies show that some positive customer experiences need to replace negative ones.Given that loyal customers are much easier to sell, make good customer service a priority. Check your current customer service and make the necessary changes to ensure that your small business provides services that are superior to your competitors, whether it is investing in staff training, revamping your return policy, or basic repairs such as responding quickly to voicemail or e-mail from customers.Build Word of Mouth for Your BusinessWhether you are running a business in a small community or in a big city center, word of mouth is more important than before for business. Most consumers turn to the internet to look for business reviews before deciding where to shop, so building a good reputation is very important for the success of your business.How do you get positive news by word of mouth? By providing good, professional services, building and monitoring your local reputation (and online), and getting publicity by giving back to your community by supporting / sponsoring local organizations and charities.Expand Your Marketing EffortsEffective marketing is the key to increasing your sales, but you don't need to damage the bank to promote your business. There are many inexpensive ways to market your products and services, including:Make and use promotional kits.Send promotions with your invoice.Join professional organizations and / or businesses.Involve the newspaper at your opening event, move, or charity.Provide free workshops or classes related to your product / service.Develop business partnerships and carry out cross promotions with complementary businesses.Cold call (yes it still works!).Advertise your business in your vehicle with a vehicle wrap.Build Your Online Presence with Business Websites and Social MediaCreating a website that looks professional can be fast and easy now and your small business needs to be in the online space; Surveys by Ipsos MediaCT and Accenture show that more than 70 percent of consumers conduct online purchasing research before buying in a store (The Globe and Mail).A simple website that describes who you are, what you do, and how to contact you will be enough for many small businesses. At the very least, your site must contain:Your logoName of your businessA summary of what you do - your products and servicesYour Contact InformationYour address, including the Google Map linkYour mission, eg "We make the best pizza in town ..."Testimonials from customersDepending on your target market, social media can be a great way to promote your business.Cut Your Business CostsEven though the government claims "low inflation", the business costs for everything, from office space to vehicle expenses always seem to increase, so keeping expenses under control is an important task for business owners.Tracking expenses is time-consuming and tiring, so use technology to the extent possible to make work as easy as possible. For example, there are a number of mobile applications for expenditure tracking, including some newer cloud-based accounting applications that allow you to automatically add expense information to your accounting system by photographing receipt images with your mobile device.Go MobileIf you don't do anything else for cellular this year, you need to make sure that your online presence, including your business website, is mobile, because more and more people are surfing and searching with their cellphones - even when they are at home.But there are two other trends that really benefit your small business. The first is cellular marketing. There are a variety of mobile-specific strategies that you can use to reach your target market with extraordinary effects, from text message ads and mobile display ads through having applications designed for your own business.Use CloudThere is no doubt that cloud computing has leveled the playing field for beginner businesses, but the serious advantage of using cloud to provide for "ordinary" established businesses is not always discussed.Cost savings and access from anywhere is the biggest advantage to move some of your business processes to the cloud. If, for example, your business changes from a small desktop business accounting program to a cloud-based accounting application, you no longer need to install desktop software (saving IT costs for installation, backup, etc.) and you can access your business account from anywhere, including from mobile devices (in fact, most small business accounting software vendors have moved to the cloud and no longer offer desktop software).Find and Maintain the Right EmployeesAttracting and retaining the right employees is one of the most important things you can do with your business. While hiring and training employees every week might be business as usual for fast food restaurants, most successful businesses rely on hiring qualified staff and maintaining them for the long term.Update Your Business PlanYou did make a business plan before starting your business, right? Right? A business plan is very important for a novice business for various reasons, including testing the feasibility of your business idea and securing debt or equity financing.If you haven't made a business plan, it's not too late. Established businesses that successfully update their business plans each year to review achievements (or lack thereof) and decide on new goals or directions.Useful Wealth Without HealthNo one goes to the grave hoping they spend more time in the office. Too many business owners sacrifice their mental and physical health, family relationships and friends to achieve their business goals.Don't be one of them - find an acceptable level of work-life balance. Getting enough sleep, spending time with family and friends, and exercising regularly will help you stay healthy and allow you and your business to prosper in the long run.Make It Your Best YearIf there is one thing I want you to take from this article, here it is; success is not something that is given. If you want your small business to be more successful this year, you need to make the changes needed to make it happen.The job might be as simple as investing in a new tool or as difficult as changing your thinking about some of your business processes. But you haven't taken your business so far to let it stagnate, right? This is your best year!

It was either the late 70s or early 80s but i attended a big surgical conference as a resident. It was held in San Francisco and since i didn't make much money i got the cheapest hotel the conference offered. It was on the edge of the Tenderloin district which seemed pretty rough. The hotel itself looked like it had once been very nice but had seen its best days. i was nervous being a small woman in such a rough area but being in the “big city” i did want to go out and experience it on my limited budget so i bravely decided to hit the bar next door to the hotel. It was very dark and narrow and i was blinded by the light outside when i entered. i just headed blindly in looking for a place to sit and was in pretty deep before my eyes adjusted. i had never seen so many rough characters and leather and tattoos in my life which at that point was pretty short and naive, lol! i am supposing they are bikers because i belatedly remembered motorcycles outside but knowing San Francisco who the heck knows? Suffice it to say, these guys were rough and i was certainly not a member of the tribe. i asked for a wine cooler which caused the bartender to snort but they did find a very dusty can for me and i drank it undisturbed. If that would’ve been the end of the story, it wouldn't be much but a few nights later, i was returning in from a fancy reception wearing a lovely gold lame outfit and i was making my usual run from the taxi into the safety of the hotel. Just as i finished paying the driver, a drunken lady from the bar staggered out, swayed a bit and then passed out cold, striking the back of her head with a thickening crunch onto the sidewalk in the brisk fall night. i ran over to her and she was OUT and bleeding as well. As this was before the days of cellphones, i went into the bar to advise them that one of their patrons had passed out and needed an ambulance. i was informed that she was named”Pat” and she “did this all the time.” No, this time i told them she was injured and i was a doctor so please call. Whereupon the entire bar came out to gather around Pat. i persuaded them not to move her until the ambulance came and simply cover her and keep her warm while i monitored her vitals. Pat came to after a few minutes and started to moan and try to sit up. One of the patrons leaned over to yell at her,”Don’t move, Pat, you’re hurt real bad but don't worry, there’s a doctor here!” whereupon Pat began to scream, grabbing first her bloody head and then my outfit with her bloody hands! It took quite awhile for the ambulance to arrive and i was impressed that it was driven by what appeared to be policemen! When i tried to give them a quick summary of her condition, prefacing it with the “i’m a doctor” shtick, they rolled their eyes and basically said, “Riiiight!” i did get a much better reception from the bar in that i was practically carried in and plied with beers all night in appreciation for “saving Pat.” Haven't forgotten that!

NUCLEAR BOMBS DON’T DO ANYTHING IN SPACE. They make a lot of light and heat, but NO SHOCK WAVE. There’s no air in space to make a shock wave. The destructive power of a nuclear bomb on earth comes from the shock wave, not from the light and heat. And shock waves are made out of AIR. It is a solid wall of extremely high-pressure air that spreads out in all directions.If you are wondering what is destroying this building, it is AIR that is destroying the building. If the building were in a vacuum, it would not notice the exploding bomb.But we would not do anything, because there are no “planet killing” asteroids left in our solar system which cross earth’s orbit. There are a few city-killers, at best.You can model any asteroid (or comet) impact yourself using the same tools that NASA scientists use. This impact effects simulator was developed for NASA and the European Space Agency by a joint effort of Purdue University and Imperial College, London.Imperial College hosts the original version of this simulator, which I often prefer: Earth Impact Effects ProgramPurdue University hosts the same simulator but with a fancy graphical interface: Impact: Earth!Asteroids are floating in space and there is nowhere for them to "hide" from our telescopes. Very few of them cross earth's orbit, so they could never possibly impact (Mars could never possibly impact earth, for example; our orbits never cross). NASA/JPL maintains an automated tracking database called Sentry, where you can see the 919 objects that cross earth's orbit that we consider worthy of our attention (we simply ignore many thousands more because they are too insignificant, including 2,315 objects (as of this writing) which have been removed from Sentry: Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring).Here is a link to the NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab's Sentry database: Sentry: Earth Impact MonitoringIf you sort the Sentry database by object diameter, you see that the largest (by far) asteroid is designated 29075, or 1950 DA: Sentry: Earth Impact MonitoringWe estimate a 0.00012% probability of earth impact in March of 2880 (861 years from now). Here are the complete orbital details:JPL Small-Body Database BrowserOf that body of data are the relevant stats to plug into the Impact Earth! Simulator to calculate the effect of the largest earth-crossing asteroid in our solar system:Impact Velocity: 17.99 km/sDiameter: 1.300 km (0.81 miles)Mass 2.0e+12 kgI was curious what would happen to me, living in Portland, Oregon, if the largest asteroid that EVER crosses earth's orbit hit the nearest large city, Seattle WA, about 200 miles away (and very near the 45-degree latitude line that is the “average” impact angle). Well, tapety-tapety into Impact Earth! (I used the Imperial College version, and here we go):Calculated Results (click this link for the complete summary of the impact effects of the largest asteroid in our solar system that crosses our orbit)And, according to the same simulator used by NASA and ESU engineers, here is what would happen to me, living in Portland, OR if the largest earth-crossing asteroid in the solar system hit Seattle, 200 miles away from me:The fireball could cause first-degree burns to exposed skin (ie, a mild sunburn; wear a hat)Seismic effects may cause some plaster to fall off of old walls. Plaster is outdated anyway.There will be 1 cm (1/3 of an inch) layer of fine dust ejecta with occasional larger fragments (average diameter 1/4 of an inch, or about the size of a pea). This would be comparable to a minor hail storm. Get a broom.Air blast of 98.5 MPH max (barely a Category-2 hurricane, by 2 MPH); could break windows and blow down 30% of trees. Get a saw and a rake.Under the section, “Major Global Changes” for the largest earth-crossing asteroid in the solar system, the Impact Earth! simulator tells us:The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth's axis (< 5 hundreths of a degree).The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.So, if the largest asteroid in the whole flippin’ solar system, the largest rock that could EVER possibly hit earth, actually hit Seattle, WA, it would matter to Portland FAR LESS than the 1980 eruption of the Mt. St. Helens volcano (which dumped INCHES of ash onto Portland, BTW).