10 Tips for Business and Education Professionals

Leave a Comment / Band as a Business, Business strategies, Communication, Sales and Marketing, Small Business, Teaching, Virtual/Local Services / John Gardner

By John Gardner

Social Media post

“I’m fairly certain that you’re the only high school band director in this part of the state that actually responds to e-mails from the public.”

Response

Thanks. I try to respond to most emails quickly. Comes from decades in the BUSINESS world. No matter what business you are in, including the business of education, answering email is basic courtesy-101.

From a business perspective

As a business owner, I am generally responding to a variety of email

– VENDORS. (Educational equivalent = Administrators). You NEED vendors and their cooperation and quick responses can ensure that you continue to get the products, services and support needed. A vendor can cut you off (fire you) and force you to look elsewhere for an opportunity to generate income.

– CUSTOMERS. (Educational equivalent = Students/Parents). You NEED customers to survive in business. An unhappy customer takes his/her business elsewhere. A disgruntled student gossips or quits band. A Parent withdraws support, pulls the child out of the program or contacts an administrator to complain.

– BUSINESS OWNERS. (Educational equivalent = Band Directors). Sometimes businesses who compete can also collaborate. For example, in the fundraising business, I will respond to a request from a competitor who needs some brochures that the vendor is temporarily out of, but I have on hand. And then, when one of my vendors is backordered on a product, I will ask a competitor if I can purchase some of their stock. A Band Director should always respond quickly to another Band Director.

QUICK & EASY EMAIL TIPS

…

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How I use Google Voice for my Small Business

Leave a Comment / Consulting, How May I Serve YOU?, Internet web design and ecommerce, Managed hosting, Virtual Assistant, Virtual/Local Services / John Gardner

By John Gardner

When I started my VirtualMusicOffice, I wanted a phone number other than my home or cell phone. I didn’t want to add a monthly phone bill. I wanted to screen calls and take calls on either my home phone or cell phone, and to know before I picked up that it was a business call. If I missed a call, I wanted a professional voice mail message for my caller and a way to have immediate access to the message from a variety of methods that would

not require listening to it on my phone. Because I conduct my business virtually anywhere, but including locally, I wanted a local phone number. From several options, including subscription and free, I selected Google Voice.

In the signup process, I was able to search for phone number options by area code and zip code. I wanted a local phone number and was able to get a prefix from a small town 5 miles away from Huntington. Some of the calls I get are because people recognize the prefix.

I set my account so that a call would ring simultaneously to both my home AND cell phone. Prior to answering the call, I can see that the Caller ID indicates it is a Virtual Music Office (VMO) call. Google Voice prompts the caller (option) to say his/her name, so the first thing I hear when I answer is,

“You have a call from…..”

…and then I can choose to take the call or not.

Voice Mail and messages. The caller hears the message I recorded for the VMO call — NOT the messages on my cell or phone phones. That’s a good thing.

Message notifications. I have my account for multiple notifications:

…text to my phone that I have a message with a transcript. So I can SEE the message without having to listen to it. That is handy if I am in a meeting or somewhere phone use would be a distraction.
…email to my Gmail address. From that email I can read and/or listen to the message. (Sometimes, especially if the caller fails to speak clearly, the transcription might contain nonsense word(s).
…Google Voice account. From the list of messages I can edit the transcription to fix any nonsense words. From this list I can….
- Call. The system calls your phone and then connects you to the caller, so they don’t see your home/cell number.
- Text. Again, the text comes from your Voice (not your private) number.
- Email.
- Block caller.
- …and more

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I’d like to be your Virtual Assistant. Check me out at VirtualMusicOffice.com/about

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Domain decisions

Leave a Comment / Personal experience, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Social Media, Virtual Assistant, Virtual/Local Services / John Gardner

Domain decisions.

When it is time to renew your domain name, you might want to research options to get a better price.

I’ve experienced enough that I can see a pattern.

One of my clients, huntingtonbaptist.org, had a domain renewal coming due at and the price was going to be over $37. I contacted my current hosting provider and their price for every year, was under $17. So, I contacted the domain registrar and started the process to transfer the domain, which required gaining access to the client’s account. And THAT required updating some information and THAT required sending in utility bills, a photo id and more…. Okay, access gained. I started the process to unlock the domain and request an authorization code.

THEN….I get an offer to renew the domain for 1 year for $10. DONE!

Having learned that, when I got notice from that one of MY domains (virtualmusicoffice.com), that cost me $38.xx last year was up for renewal, I started the process to transfer. Suddenly my price drops to under $16.

“Burn me once…..”

So I continued the process to unlock, get auth code and start transfer process to my $17/yr host. DONE!

While I was in the transfer mood, I went to the registrar for qdpcorp.com and went ahead and transferred it to my current host.

Conclusion / Recommendations:

Service providers involved included: Tucows, Network Solutions, Hostcentric, Register, and iPage.
The initial price is only for those who auto renew. The LOWER price is for those who might leave.
If you have a domain up for renewal, instead of automatically renewing, call to START the process to transfer it to get the super-duper 1-year-only discount price. [Then be sure to do that again next year].If you don’t know how to do that, proceed to step #2.
HIRE ME!

ps If you don’t know the underlined/italicized terms above;

domain registrar
transfer the domain
unlock the domain
authorization code

then….

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Burn me once…..but not twice

Leave a Comment / Business strategies, Communication, Consulting, How May I Serve YOU?, Internet web design and ecommerce, Personal experience, Sales and Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Virtual/Local Services / John Gardner

By John Gardner

I just got a friendly email reminder….

“Thank You for renewing….”

I did NOT want the renewal and called the vendor — and was told that when I signed up for that discounted first year rate that the “terms of service” stated that my membership/subscription would be “automatically renewed” at the regular price. BUSTED!

A few types of subscriptions/memberships that often work this way…