Business Tips

A new law covering all companies doing business in the European Union (EU) requires a comprehensive privacy policy and prominent warning to be placed on websites and other electronic means of advertising, marketing and eCommerce.  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  went into effect May 25th, 2018 and covers all entities that have access to consumers or clients in the entire EU, from Ireland to Greece, from Portugal to Finland.  While it is not a tax, GDPR requires due notification to consumers and clients regarding all types of personally identifiable information (PII) that may be purchased, discovered or set by simply visiting their website.  That of course includes cookies and other online means of tracking consumer or client behavior, location, or internet browsing habits.  For example, cookies are routinely set and used in the operation of the website, for visitor tracking, shopping cart customization, customized welcome messages by name, and for many other reasons.

You don't have to be located in the EU to be affected, and there is no limit to company size.  You must comply simply if you have a potential commercial presence in the EU, even if only online.

In the United States, California was the first state to follow the EU's lead, with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that was signed into law on June 28th, 2018.  Other states will no doubt follow suit.  While the CCPA has company practise and size restrictions to ease the fears of small to medium size businesses below $25,000,000 annual gross revenue.

At Insight Business Coaching, not only are we pleased to announce the addition of the GDPR notice on our website, but we encourage any business - large or small - that intends to do eCommerce and not restrict their market to the other 49 states, to do the same.  Our website hosting and SEO partner All Web IO Divison of Coin SEO Company LLC is one place you can access a simple add-on notice and draft privacy policy for your website.

DISCLAIMER:  We are not attorneys nor accountants, and any information provided or linked herein is offered for informational and educational purposes only.  You should always consult with an attorney or accountant when dealing with any legal or fiscal matter such as this.

Our privacy policy is as follows:

A. Introduction

1. The privacy of our website visitors is very important to us, and we are committed to safeguarding it. This policy explains what we will do with your personal information.
2. Consenting to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit our website permits us to use cookies every time you visit our website.

B. Contact information

Insight Business Coaching

7 W Square Lake Rd, Bloomfield Twp, MI 48302

(248) 449-5100

[email protected]

C. Collecting personal information

The following types of personal information may be collected, stored, and used:

1. information about your computer including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, and operating system;
2. information about your visits to and use of this website including the referral source, length of visit, page views, and website navigation paths;
3. information, such as your email address, that you enter when you register with our website;
4. information that you enter when you create a profile on our website—for example, your name, profile pictures, gender, birthday, relationship status, interests and hobbies, educational details, and employment details;
5. information, such as your name and email address, that you enter in order to set up subscriptions to our emails and/or newsletters;
6. information that you enter while using the services on our website;
7. information that is generated while using our website, including when, how often, and under what circumstances you use it;
8. information relating to anything you purchase, services you use, or transactions you make through our website, which includes your name, address, telephone number, email address, and credit card details;
9. information that you post to our website with the intention of publishing it on the internet, which includes your username, profile pictures, and the content of your posts;
10. information contained in any communications that you send to us by email or through our website, including its communication content and metadata;
11. any other personal information that you send to us.

Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person’s consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with this policy

D. Using your personal information

Personal information submitted to us through our website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website. We may use your personal information for the following:

1. administering our website and business;
2. personalizing our website for you;
3. enabling your use of the services available on our website;
4. sending you goods purchased through our website;
5. supplying services purchased through our website;
6. sending statements, invoices, and payment reminders to you, and collecting payments from you;
7. sending you non-marketing commercial communications;
8. sending you email notifications that you have specifically requested;
9. sending you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter);
10. sending you marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you, by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
11. providing third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
12. dealing with inquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to our website;
13. keeping our website secure and prevent fraud;
14. verifying compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of our website (including monitoring private messages sent through our website private messaging service); and
15. other uses.

If you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.

Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on our website and can be adjusted using privacy controls on the website.

We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for their or any other third party’s direct marketing.

E. Disclosing personal information

We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers, or subcontractors as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

We may disclose your personal information:

1. to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
2. in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
3. in order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
4. to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
5. to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.

Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.

F. International data transfers

1. Information that we collect may be stored, processed in, and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
2. Information that we collect may be transferred to the following countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Area: the United States of America, Russia, Japan, China, and India.
3. Personal information that you publish on our website or submit for publication on our website may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.
4. You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section F.

G. Retaining personal information

1. This Section G sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations regarding the retention and deletion of personal information.
2. Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
3. Without prejudice to article G-2, we will usually delete personal data falling within the categories set out below at the date/time set out below, beginning November 1, 2019:
   1. personal data type will be deleted upon request and
   2. 1 year after we cease doing any business together
4. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section G, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data:
   1. to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
   2. if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
   3. in order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).

H. Security of your personal information

1. We will take reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of your personal information.
2. We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
3. All electronic financial transactions entered into through our website will be protected by encryption technology.
4. You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
5. You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).

I. Amendments

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you understand any changes to this policy. We may notify you of changes to this policy by email or through the private messaging system on our website.

J. Your rights

You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to the following:

1. the payment of a $25 non-refundable processing fee, and
2. the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity.  In unusual cases we may require a photocopy of your United States Drivers License or passport certified by a notary plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address.

• We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
• You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
• In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.

K. Third party websites

Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.

L. Updating information

Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

M. Cookies

Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.  We use both session and persistent cookies on our website.

1. The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
   1. we use Google Analytics and Adwords on our website to recognize a computer when a user visits the website / track users as they navigate the website / improve the website’s usability / analyze the use of the website / administer the website / prevent fraud and improve the security of the website / personalize the website for each user / target advertisements which may be of particular interest to specific users ;
2. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies—for example:
   1. in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking "Tools," "Internet Options," "Privacy," and then "Advanced";
   2. in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking "Tools," "Options," "Privacy," selecting "Use custom settings for history" from the drop-down menu, and unticking "Accept cookies from sites"; and
   3. in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the "Customize and control" menu, and clicking "Settings," "Show advanced settings," and "Content settings," and then selecting "Block sites from setting any data" under the "Cookies" heading.

Blocking all cookies may have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you may not be able to use all the features on our website.

1. The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
   1. we use Google Analytics and Adwords on our website to recognize a computer when a user visits the website / track users as they navigate the website / improve the website’s usability / analyze the use of the website / administer the website / prevent fraud and improve the security of the website / personalize the website for each user / target advertisements which may be of particular interest to specific users ;
2. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies—for example:
   1. in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking "Tools," "Internet Options," "Privacy," and then "Advanced";
   2. in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking "Tools," "Options," "Privacy," selecting "Use custom settings for history" from the drop-down menu, and unticking "Accept cookies from sites"; and
   3. in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the "Customize and control" menu, and clicking "Settings," "Show advanced settings," and "Content settings," and then selecting "Block sites from setting any data" under the "Cookies" heading.

Blocking all cookies may have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you may not be able to use all the features on our website.

1. You can delete cookies already stored on your computer—for example:
   1. in Internet Explorer v10, you must manually delete cookie files - you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835
   2. in Firefox v24, you can delete cookies by clicking "Tools," "Options," and "Privacy", then selecting "Use custom settings for history", clicking "Show Cookies," and then clicking "Remove All Cookies" and
   3. in Chrome v29, you can delete all cookies by accessing the "Customize and control" menu, and clicking "Settings," "Show advanced settings," and "Clear browsing data," and then selecting "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" before clicking "Clear browsing data."
2. Deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.

Credit  This Privacy Policy was created using a template from SEQ Legal (seqlegal.com) and modified by Website Planet (https://www.websiteplanet.com/)

A new law covering all companies doing business in the European Union (EU) requires a comprehensive quality policy and prominent warning to be placed on websites and other electronic means.  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  went into effect May 25th, 2018.  It is not a tax, but due notification to consumers and clients that cookies are being set and used in the operation of the website, for visitor tracking, shopping cart customization and many other reasons. 

In the United States, California was the first state to follow the EU's lead, with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that was signed into law on June 28th, 2018.  Other states will no doubt follow suit.  While the _______________

At Insight Business Coaching, not only are we pleased to announce the addition of the GDPR/CCPA notice on our website, but we encourage any business - large or small - that intends to do eCommerce and not restrict their market to the other 49 of the the United States, to do the same.  Our website hosting and SEO partner All Web IO Divison of Coin SEO Company LLC is one place you can access a simple add-on notice for your website.

Our privacy policy is as follows:

Do you ever find yourself making that statement? Do you struggle with your staff delivering inconsistent service quality or handling customers with your level of professionalism? Do they sell your products or services as well as you? For many business owners, the answer is NO! So what is the solution?

The default solution for too many entrepreneurs is to work lots of hours and do it yourself. If this sounds like you, how is this “solution” affecting your lifestyle, time with those you love, and your amount of recreation? There is a way out! Put systems in place so others can do the tasks the same way you would, or possibly even better.

Develop and Implement a System

Systems are your way of empowering your team to perform the work on a level as if you were doing it personally. View the word SYSTEM as an acronym for: Saving You Stress, Time, Energy, & Money! Systems reduce your hours and stress by empowering average people to do great work. Systems also insure that customers receive the consistency they expect - each and every time. Sound too good to be true? Ask yourself: “How do other businesses grow beyond the owner?” - by creating systems to run the company, freeing the owner for strategic growth initiatives. Below are some simple guidelines for creating systems that work.

Keep them simple

If the system or documented process is complex, then keep working to distill the activity down to its critical essence. When you thoroughly understand something, and present it well, it will become simple for someone else to replicate. When is it truly simple? - when someone else, unfamiliar with the task, can complete it using only what you have documented in the system.

Write only systems that make money or reduce risk

You are not in the business of creating manuals, so only create a system if it simplifies a task, improves quality, or speeds up a service. This will keep you focused. Start small and grow the system(s) with time.

Assure the systems you develop are used

Have you heard of the proverb: “What gets measured or monitored gets done”? As you create systems or document processes, include a monitoring or measuring protocol to insure the systems are used.

Make the system selectively accessible

Not every team member needs to use every system. Your master manual should contain all of your systems. Individual team members should have copies of only the systems that involve them. This makes it easier for someone substituting as backup or when training a new team member.

Get the team involved

Who better to help document the systems than the people who are currently doing the tasks? The team can also help you improve the current systems by identifying redundancies and what’s not working.

Make sure the team knows their role in the overall process

Unfortunately, it is normal for team members to disagree on the sequence of tasks and how to best complete them. Team members need to know their role and how it affects the overall results. Clearly written and agreed upon roles (job descriptions) go a long way toward accomplishing this. So start the systemization process with clearly written job descriptions.

Documenting the systems in your business may seem overwhelming. Don’t try to do them all at once. Document one or two systems, implement them and monitor the results. Once you are satisfied, move to the next one.

So where do you start? That’s easy – select a task that you are currently doing (but shouldn’t be) or one that can fix a problem you are currently facing such as product rejects, low sales conversion rates, poor service or customer satisfaction, etc.

A final thought: take it one step at a time – but just do it!

Imagine what your business would be like if you had 500 raving fans on the street? What would you be able to do? What would you be able to accomplish?

Raving fans are more important than any sales team you could assemble because they have credibility. A sales team has to rave about your business a customer doesn’t. If a customer is a raving fan, people pay attention.

This article will describe a step-by-step process for creating a raving fan strategy, which involves developing the ideal buying experience for your customers.

Step 1: Draft a list of possible touch points that your business has with your target market. Start with advertising, social media, and any other method that you might use to reach out to your potential customers.

Step 2: Detail expectations for each touch point in the process (i.e. how would the customer like the process to work in an ideal world). What matters to your customers most is how you make them feel. In this step it is critical that you identify the emotional factors that you think are most important to the customer.

You should also include a few positive surprises, CNEs, (Critical Non-Essentials). CNEs are little touches that will result in your customer’s experience significantly exceeding their expectations. Obtain input for this section from your own experience as well as customer research and feedback information to which you might have access. A well designed survey will also provide valuable insight.

Step 3: Describe your recommendation for the ideal process that can actually be executed by your company. This recommendation has to be realistic and should address the customer expectations in a way that will differentiate you from your competitors. Your recommendation should be aimed at the best that your company can accomplish, not average or good enough. Provide as close to the customer ideal as possible while still being able to deliver, at a superior level, those experiences that are most important to your current and future customers.

It’s probable that you cannot meet every customer expectation down to the smallest detail, due to organizational constraints or some other very good reason. But keep in mind that if you cannot operate at a level that exceeds their expectations, you gain no competitive advantage.

Step 4: Detail how the new process will be implemented. This section should include a description of the changes required, the new standards to be implemented, who will do the implementation, how they will be paid (if there are financial implications for the change), and how the changes and the reasons for the changes will be clearly communicated to all involved employees. You will also need to ensure that the expectations of your customers are clearly communicated to each employee.

Step 5: Provide the measures and goals associated with each new customer experience initiative. For example: a new measure might be the percentage of deliveries completed as promised to the customer, with a goal of a 95% compliance - i.e. 95% of deliveries are completed as promised to the customer. This section will also indicate who will be responsible for the development of the measurement process and tools (e.g. development of an Excel template to be used by all stores or departments), who will be responsible for the weekly tracking/data entry, etc. This section should also include a sample template for the measurement process.

Step 6: Create an implementation timeline that illustrates when the process will be developed, when it will be implemented on a test basis, when will it be reviewed and fine tuned, etc. Be sure to include human and other resources that will be required in your timeline planning.

Step 7: Describe how you will measure customer reaction to the new customer experience enhancements. There are numerous ways to accomplish this, from surveys and refer-a-friend rewards programs to simple POS (Point of Sale) questions.

Step 8: Create a plan to ensure that the changes and new processes will be sustained. These new enhancements should become an integral part of how each store or department functions. Remember, what you don’t measure will eventually fade away.

Never underestimate the effort required to create effective organizational change. Not all employees will embrace the change in the beginning. In fact, some will openly resist it. Clear communication of what is being done, why it is being done, and your expectations for each employee, along with a healthy dose of persistence will lead to success. In most organizational change efforts, setting aggressive, but realistic expectations of all employees is your greatest source of leverage. Employees will rise to your expectations if they understand why the change is important and what you want them to do. Involve employees in the development of the new processes. Many times they will have a different perspective than the owner or your coach. We can benefit from that additional perspective.

The only way to enjoy the benefits of a raving fan base is through continuous improvement of your customer’s experience. We all know that there is no standing still in business. We are either getting better or going backwards. It’s up to you!

When I ask business owners this question, most reply with either “I don’t know” or “What do you mean by conversion rate?” On a macroscopic scale, conversion rate is simply the percentage of sales leads that you convert into a sale. However, there is much more information and value to be gleaned from tracking your conversion rates.

In coaching my clients, I focus on five ways for increasing the profitability of a business:

1. Leads

2. Conversion Rate

3. Number of Transactions per year

4. Average value of sales for the year

5. Profit Margin

Of these five ways, increasing conversion rate is generally the second easiest and most cost effective area for improving sales. Despite conversion rates being one of the easiest areas on which to focus and improve, from my experience as a business coach, it is also the one most neglected by business owners. Here is how to change that!

Why is conversion rate so important?

First, understand its importance and why conversion rate warrants your focus and monitoring. Do you realize that if your business has a conversion rate from lead to sale of 20 percent and we work together to increase that conversion rate to 30 percent the result is not just an increase of 10 percent. It’s a whopping 50 percent increase! This in turn means that your revenues (on average) would increase by 50 percent! Do I have your undivided attention now?

Test and measure your sales gates

Second, the key to increasing your conversion rate is to test and measure it at every level of your team’s sales process. To do this you need to identify and break down your entire sales process into the smallest “chunks” possible so that you have a series of standardized “steps” your team performs with clients as it takes them through the sales process. Let’s call these steps “gates within the sales funnel.” The key to closing a sale is to get each prospect through all of the gates within the sales funnel.

For example, let’s say you are in the IT business. Your sales funnel could look something like this:

Gate 1. Initial contact: begin a relationship with a decision maker from a large list of leads

Gate 2. Discovery: invest time learning about prospect’s issues, and how you can help, as well as meeting others involved in the decision, and determining the timing and budget available for purchase.

Gate 3. Demo of Product: get them excited about wanting to purchase

Gate 4. Proposal: include in the license agreement, if not too complex.

Gate 5. Signed agreement: get down payment. Measuring the conversion rates from Gate 1 to Gate 2, Gate 2 to Gate 3 and so on is key to knowing what your conversion rate is at each critical stage in the sales process.

Work on the bottlenecks

Third, have every sales team member measure their own conversion rates so that you identify the individual conversion rates of each of your sale team members. Then average all of these percentages to obtain an overall team conversion rate for your sales.

Finally, identify where the largest “bottlenecks” are for individuals and the team. Then work on improving the conversion rates between these gates first. Innovate and coach your team to dramatically improve the percentage of prospects they get through that gate. Let’s flesh out this example.

Let’s say that out of 1000 leads your sales force, on average, has discussions with 100 decision makers. That is a conversion rate for Gate 1 of 10%. Next let’s assume that your sales force averages scheduling 30 discovery sessions. Your conversion rate for Gate 2 is 30%. From those discovery sessions your team has determined that they can help a certain number of the prospects with your product and are able to schedule a product demo with 15. Gate 3 has a conversion rate of 50%. After providing a demo of your product, your sales team averages 3 who are interested enough to entertain a proposal or discuss making a purchase. Your conversion rate for Gate 4 is 20%. Finally your team is able to convert an average of 1 out of 3 into a sale, resulting in a Gate 5 conversion rate of 30%.

What is your overall conversion rate? It is 0.1%! Just increasing that to 0.2% will double your revenue! Do you see the value in monitoring your conversion rates for every step in the sales process? Where would you focus your attention to dramatically improve your sales? Instead of wringing your hands and saying “I have to get more sales”, you now have the information enabling you to do exactly that!