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The most recent and most acceptable and proven new business concept is Direct Marketing or Direct Sales. The competition has grown and also the internet has made it so easy to reach the customers anywhere and everywhere.

You think of any product and it is possible to order it and get it on your doorsteps. Neither the customer nor the seller needs to be physically present to execute the trade. This is the power of the internet. But the biggest change that we have seen in last decade is the change in the income and purchasing power of the customers. Products are easily available to the customer but because the purchasing power of customer has decreased, it has become insignificant whether the product is available at a click of a mouse or not.

The only thing that works is approaching the customer and making him realize how much he needs the product. And this is only possible through direct marketing, through meeting the customer face to face and convincing him about the benefits of your product. Product here refers not only to the physical products but also financial products, consulting work, tuitions etc. Any product or service you can think off, can be sold using the direct channel. This gives the customers a sense of reliability in this era of flooding marketing options like the internet.

The best thing about starting a business like this is that you can work from home during your flexible working hours. This gives you a freedom not only to choose your desired working hours and way of working but also give you freedom to do multiple businesses at a time. Network marketing is the most flourishing business in today’s economy.

The concept of network marketing has given rise to innumerable business ideas that can be accommodated in this skeleton of network marketing. The bottom line in today’s world is that nothing can be sold if it does not have a personal touch. Customers want products that are customized for them and nothing except direct marketing/selling can make it possible. Customer wants to be pampered and wants products that specifically suit his requirements. He has innumerable options to buy his desired product from the market but he would always prefer to get the product at his doorsteps with all the desired specifications.

Ever find yourself wondering, “How can I make more money with what I already have?”

Of course you’ve wondered this! Well, I have a solution for you. Craigslist.com

Craigslist is an online marketplace where you can buy, and sell items locally for free! No fees like eBay. There are many ways to make money on Craigslist like selling an item, getting a job, and finding a gig are all different ways to earn money from Craigslist.

Getting a job through Craigslist is a popular way to make money through Craigslist. On your local Craigslist you’ll find many temporary, and part-time job openings. You can apply for as many of these positions as possible. Many people including myself have found work from the Craigslist, “Jobs” section.

Another money-making avenue that is similar to, “Jobs” is “Gigs”. Gigs are events that you attend and perform a service at like: DJing, singing, and playing in a band. But, gigs are not limited to just the musically inclined. Gigs can also be someone looking for people to walk their dog, mow their lawn, and even spend time with the elderly. Gigs are not as reliable of an income as a job, but they can be things that you love to do. If you love animals, dog walking gigs will be perfect for you. If you love music, take your talents to Craigslist. Many of your local coffee shops find their bands from Craigslist.

The final way to make money on Craigslist is to sell items. This is a great way to turn what you’d trash in your yearly spring cleaning into some cash. Anything and everything can sell on Craigslist: vacuum cleaners, drapes, books, DVDs, lawn mowers, video games, cars, you name it! If you can think it, you can sell it! But, rather than sell an item one time for some money I recommend making a business out of buying/selling on Craigslist. Find items at thrift stores, on the side of the road, from friends and from family that you think would sell. Then create an ad, ask a price, and wait for people to come to you and ask to buy your item. If you’re a self-proclaimed ‘handy man’ you can also offer to buy people’s broken electronics, furniture, and small engine equipment. Then fix it up and resell it!

Wise leaders are always looking for an edge for efficiency. They take advantage of what others have done. For example, you copy another credit union’s policies or you obtain a sample from a friend at another 501-C-3. Alternatively, you buy a ‘model’ published by a third part. Those are the subject of this article.

In the eighth century BC, Herod said, “It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.” Providing order is perhaps the best reason for taking on the task of developing policies – guidelines that help people do better work.

Policies generally derive from our experiences. We want to either repeat or prevent those experiences. However, in a lifetime, it is doubtful that any leader will experience everything that a particular policy could cover. That is where third parties come in. Consultants and other third parties work with many diverse clients whose real-life experiences enable them to build content-rich model policies.

What I am addressing are the styles or formats that some third parties use in their models. The models I have seen are generally well constructed and valuable. See if you can get what I mean about style or approach.

In a model investment policy I received recently, the model text often referred to the organization, in this case a credit union, as is it was another entity. For example, “The blank Credit Union will reexamine these polices every year…” That is a commonly constructed statement found throughout many policies in place in organizations, and in third-party model policy documents.

You say you have seen that too but wonder what I am going on about? Well, it is this. A policy is a guideline developed by the leaders of an organization for the use of its inside people. Therefore, its voice should be “first person.”

For example, a board issues a policy expressing its desires and authorizing the executive to act. The executive is that Board’s primary audience. (There are board process policies that the board writes for doing its own things systematically and orderly, where the primary reader is a board member.) Board polices need to be read as if hearing it spoken by a chorus of the directors, in unison.

The more appropriate way of saying the above example is this, “The executive [or CEO, or ED, or Investment Committee] will reexamine these polices every year…” That is a more direct statement from the Board to whomever they are directing through the policy.

Third parties have another style in common. They seem to be the outside telling us, instructing us on what the policy should say. I often see a policy area begin with something like this, “It shall be the policy of blank Nonprofit that…” Well, I know I’m being a little fussy here, but when will it be a policy? When I read that kind of statement, what I hear is, “It will someday be our policy to…,” Alternately, it is more like a report where the consultant is saying, “Your policy should be…” Neither of those perspectives make sense to me when I am reading an official statement that is supposed to guide my actions today.

Remember, I admit I am being fussy. You may simply take the position that we can all interpret the statement to be the policy, and not a future intent for one. However, if policies are supposed to make our work better, we should not have to make all those avoidable translations and give us time to interpret the important stuff.

Here is another area about which I’m fussy. In your own policy document, the one you adopt for use by your own people and which you will read most often within the walls of your own offices, why would you repeatedly use the name of your own organization? Third party policy providers are in the habit of providing blanks for you to fill in the name of your organization. Perhaps the authors intend for you to feel you are customizing the model by adding your name everywhere. What is more important is customizing the sentences and paragraphs to focus the idea, the intent of the content, to say what you want them to mean.

As we do business with companies or with governments, we get numbers and labels affixed to us. It’s the organization’s way of dealing with us. It’s more convenient to them. I understand some need for that. If you have 15 customers all named John Smith, you need an additional way to identify each one. My only question is, Are you trying to deal with me, or are you trying to help me?

I’ve got my driver license number memorized. I’ve got my social security number memorized. I’ve got my library card number memorized. I’ve got my telephone number memorized. I’ve got my banking account numbers memorized. I’ve got all nine digits of my zip code memorized. I’ve got my car’s license plate memorized. It isn’t a huge deal for me to have to spit out some number or label or password to a Customer Service Representative to be able to do business. Those monikers are an extra layer of security and assurance that business is being done in my behalf. I just want to feel that a company values my patronage, or else I want to take it somewhere where it is valued.

I want to feel that my citizenship is valued by the various governments which think of me as a Constituent, but I don’t. I definitely feel that governments–that is, elected people and people working for the government–on the rare occasion of them valuing me at all, value me only as a source of income. I don’t like to stand in line at the Division of Motor Vehicles or at the Post Office for a half hour because only one person is paying any attention to customers while 3 or 4 other people are present but are doing something else, with Closed signs keeping customers’ petty problems from bothering them. I dislike that governments think of me as a Social Security number or as a demographic. I don’t like them threatening me if I don’t give them money. They do whatever they want with the money and feel no responsibility to let their Constituents know what the money was used for and if any good came of it. We the People gave them their jobs, but now they think we are their subjects.

I do not want to be thought of only as a statistic or as a mathematical formula, or as an entry on a spreadsheet or in a database so that someone can keep track of me to try to get me to give them more money. Too often, we are cared about only as far as we can contribute to what someone else wants, instead of them caring about what we want.

I am not a tool to help someone else get what they want. We have to both benefit from a transaction or I am not interested. I have wants and needs. I want to know that when I spend hard-earned money someone is grateful for that. I want to know that I’m getting good value. I need to know that an organization understands that my time is valuable to me, and I want to know that no one will waste it unnecessarily. Once I know you care about me as a person, I’m happy to deal in numbers or labels if it will make the transaction faster and more accurate for both of us. I am happy to make your job easier if you are happy to make my life better.

Simple reminder: Let us all remember that everyone we come in contact with all day long, all our lives, is a person. People need to feel that they are recognized as people, first; then they can be seen as customers or constituents. We can get everything we want–and a lot easier than in any other way–if we will treat people the way they want to be treated.

As a business owner or manager for a company, customer satisfaction is an important part of your job. Of course, ensuring a great experience for all clients or customers is a goal shared by all of your employees, but as the manager in charge it is primarily your job to measure your customers’ satisfaction with your company, services, or employees, and manage appropriately based on the results. A company who recognizes this is often better for it, and usually does a better job at securing repeat customers.

The first step in ensuring customer satisfaction is making it a priority among your employees. Inform them not only of its importance, but give them training and guidance to help them succeed. It is often helpful to appoint one employee as responsible for collecting customer satisfaction information either by sending follow-up emails to customers or calling them to inquire about their experience with your company or the employee who helped them.

Calling or following up with your customers can develop relationships with them and can even be a good time to schedule follow up appointments or services, if applicable. The employee speaking with the customer can take a positive experience and springboard that into future appointments or services. When dealing with negative experiences, it can help to talk through what went wrong so the employee can start talking about your service to them the next time you see them. If you are a small company, as manager this can be a good job for you. When the manager calls them, it can give customers a larger sense that your company truly cares about serving them well.

The most important part about customer satisfaction responses is not to overreact right away. Think about and analyze why a customer may have answered a certain question in a particular way. A good manager sees negative customer service experiences not as a sign that an employee is ill-suited for their position, but as an opportunity to improve that employee’s understanding of customer service, their position, or other factors that may have contributed to the negative review. Your willingness as a manger to work with your employees instead of talking down to them or telling them what they already know-i.e. that they need to improve in their customer service after a negative review-can help improve morale and can even have managerial benefits for you as you develop your relationships with your employees.