The Perfect Rewards Program (Small Businesses)

I have always been a customer oriented person when dealing with customers.  The reason being is the customer is the person directly responsible for getting paid.  It sounds like a shallow way of thinking, but it’s true.  Anyone who owns a business is completely dependent on their customers to buy the service or product being offered.

The thing about customers is they are people.  Sadly, I find a lot of businesses these days that seem to have forgotten this fact, and it’s so obvious to see too.   Each customer is an actual person, and because of this, each person deserves being treated like a human being with dignity and respect.   Therefore, I have set out to design the perfect rewards program to be completely customer oriented with respect to the business at hand.   As many of you know, I have a soft spot for small businesses that are locally owned so this program is going to be tailored to them.

The Perfect Rewards Program

• Cash:  Simplicity at it’s finest.  Instead of a points based system, this rewards program is based on cash that can be used at any participating business or at the customers disposal.

Points can receive whatever value a business wants to give them, while cash is consistent with the economy’s value on the dollar.   However, using a dollar value (or another currency) will allow for easily transferring purchasing power to the customer.   A good example would be a customer earns $50.00 and instead of spending it back at your store, he decides to take a pay-out and take his wife on a date with the money.  The customer should have every right to do whatever he/she wants with the rewards obtained, and while it may seem like you just lost out on $50.00 worth of business; The customer is going to know that entire night that you provided him and his wife with that night.

• Profit:  Let’s give a portion of the profit to the customer for the items or services they have purchased, and another portion of profit from purchases the customer referred to you.

Advertising is the name of the game, so why not let your customers do it for you by giving them 30% of your profit.

• 10% to the customer themselves they can either take off the purchase amount or save for a later date.   (This will allow you to bring up the rewards program with every purchase, and the customer has an AWESOME choice.)
• 10% to the customer who referred to you this customer.
• 10% set aside for customer appreciation promotions.

The first thing to do is calculate the profit ratio and apply it to the rewards program.

1. For the past calender year find your “Net Income After Taxes”, and if an accountant does it for you, it’s probably going to be on the last line of the income statement.
2. Next, we need the figure for “Net Sales” for the past calendar year.  (Total sales minus discounts or other losses related to the sales)
3. If you divide “Net Income After Taxes” by “Net Sales” you have your profit ratio.

To make things easy let’s say their is a 10% percent profit ratio.  So 1% of the price of every item or service you offer will go directly to the customer either saved or used at the time of purchase, 1% will accrue on the customer’s rewards account for all the purchases of friends and family that customer has referred, and finally 1% will go into an account for the manager/owner to put on some type of a customer appreciation event.

It’s time to argue as an advocate for the customer.  The customer is actually earning money from you now, so whatever bank handles the rewards program, you will need to make sure they get the best deal possible.   Whatever positive attributes you can’t handle yourself, it’s up to you to make sure the bank upholds their end for the customer.   That simply means getting them a good interest rate of return for their rewards account.

The 1% for all customer’s spending that you get to have fun with is very important.  You can host a party with free food, prize give-aways, hold a lottery, or give the sum to a customer who has a kid with cancer.  The possibilities are endless, and you now have an account specifically to have fun with, and spend on the customers which makes budgeting for it a snap.

Last, but most certainly not least is the newsletter.  With this type of rewards program in place, customers will want to receive the news letter, and share it with their friends.  What better headline can a business have that puts 30% of the profit right back into loyal customer’s hands?

Special Thanks to: Charles Ehlert, Greg Kugler, John Gros, and Hendra Setyadi Putra for helping me create the perfect rewards program.

 

 

Bookus’s Reply to Why Charging The Homeless is a Good Idea by Jonathan Berr

 

This is my reply to Why Charging The Homeless Is A Good Idea by Jonathan Berr at WalletPop.com

If an establishment is running low on money, then they have the right to charge. It’s their establishment, and I have no problem with that. They want to charge $7 a day, $5 for the shelter and $2 saved for the resident. That $5 will help cover the cost of housing an individual, and it will help offset whatever budget cuts are imposed by either less donations or pullbacks from the state.

The $2 I have a huge problem with. Homeless people are still people and they deserve basic human dignity and respect. They can save and manage their own money. There are plenty of view points one can take to argue that. But if it were my money, I would want to manage it. No one but me has the right to manage my money. This obviously excludes those with a mental illness who needs someone to manage their money for them. But homelessness does not automatically equal mental instability.

Some people will say that a homeless person will spend their money buying alcohol or cigarettes. It is their money, and therefore I would respect their choice on what to do with it. However I do not believe this to be the case. I believe that most homeless people are down and out. Not lazy drug addicts that could get a job if they wanted to. Granted, we do have those.

I was homeless once. It only lasted a couple of days when I moved to Arizona. I got there with no place to stay. With $200 or so and the first day after spending a night there, I went to a park to wash up in the park restroom with a rag. I shaved, and even got checked out by a park worker. However, he didn’t bother me, and let me continue to make myself look presentable. I immediately went out looking for a job. You would never have been able to tell that I was homeless. I didn’t beg for anything.

If a homeless person wants to learn to budget then someone can volunteer to teach them how. I would like to volunteer the person who suggested to do it for them whether they need it or not. It’s the old “Teach a man to fish.” adage.

In 30 days or roughly one month a homeless person will pay $150 dollars to the shelter when paying the shelter $5 a day. To a person who is going through a hard time, it may set them back a month or two in getting a new place. Since the article states it cost about $25 a day to house a single person, this may or may not make sense. To a person who is trying to get back on their feet as quickly as possible, this is a bad idea. To a person who is milking the homeless shelter for a cheap place to stay, it is a good idea to help cover the costs.

For a family of four paying $5 each at $20 a day is $600 dollars a month. They can have their own place for that, but if they get caught in the shelter paying their dues, they won’t be able to get into an apartment very easily. So basically for the people who are just in a rut, it will cost more to charge them than it will to let them save their money and get out of being homeless. This is just using the information the article is giving.

To quote the bottom “Most are not destitute and have possessions such as cars. Those people should have to pay something toward their housing, even if it’s a nominal amount. It teaches them self respect and that there is no such thing as a free lunch.” What kind of prejudicial crap is that? The next line says something about most homeless people are willing to pay their own way. Most people do have self respect, and if they can help they will. I agree completely with that.

NOW HERE IS THE TRICK!!! This entire article is a manipulation. The first sentence of the last paragraph is “There has to be a limit to taxpayer generosity”. Targeting the taxpayers right there, and everyone is concerned about their pocketbook.

Right now the government is doing cutbacks all over the place. One of the easiest places to cut is homeless shelters. Who cares about the homeless? So why not convince tax payers that we can “Help” the homeless “learn” good money saving values and other such things. That way the burden doesn’t fall on the taxpayers as hard as it does now?

This is all a money ploy, and the article was written to ask the public for permission to tax the homeless a little more. Anything that can be exploited will be exploited. Please allow me to put on my tinfoil hat for a moment. With all the home foreclosures from the recession and high unemployment rates, there is a larger number of homeless people. Not drug addicts, but people going through a hard time. How many people did BP lay off?

According to the article, the homeless shelter admitted that it costs $25 a day to house a homeless person. So that is what they are asking from taxpayers.

$25X30=$750 a month. I’m no genius but I think some people actually live on $750 singly. However, the shelter has only 1 electric bill, 3 HUGE meals a day for everyone, and reusable things after people move on.

Lets say that a person pays their dues of $5 dollars a day and pays $150 dollars that month. The lack of funding makes them stay homeless for an extra 2 weeks. That’s an extra $375 dollars the homeless shelter gets from the state for that one person alone. That means the tax payers have paid more money keeping this person housed, than the person paid to be housed.

Lets say that the homeless shelter has room for 50 people, and we already said that one person gets the shelter $750 a month. That would make the income of the shelter $37,500 per month.

That was $37,500 per month in expenses they asked the state for because that is what they claim it costs to house 50 people.

This is looking more and more like a con rather than philanthropic endeavor. What if it is a con? What if it only costs $15,000 dollars a month to house and feed 50 people in a controlled environment. That’s a profit of $17,500 a month. Which is of course a guess, but my point is clear.

Now that I have actually ran the numbers. I’m appalled and outraged that the government has figured out a way to make money off of the homeless. After that they have figured out that they can make more money off of the ones that have jobs, and are getting out of the rut. Making money off them keeps them homeless for a little longer thereby making them more money.

This is dirty unethical business, and I’m outraged. Simply put, this is a business plan to keep the money coming in. A different plan could put these people back into society quicker thereby strengthening the economy faster. Worse yet, it would be cheaper for taxpayers to pay for an apartment for each individual and family than it would be to pay the shelter. I’m not saying that’s what we should do, but it would be cheaper.

Disclaimer: There are true philanthropists that help the homeless. However, this article does us the favor of showing us how our corrupt government can even take advantage of people in the worst of situations.

The History of St. Patrick’s Day

 

St. Patricks Day. Is it really a day of Green, pinching, and green beer? BUT OF COURSE IT IS!!! At the same time, I think I’ll fill in a little blind spot about how St. Patrick’s Day came into existence.

St. Patrick’s real name is unknown because the poor guy got kidnapped from the Roman Colony of Britain a few hundred years AD. The Pirates that stole him sold him into slavery in Ireland where he was a sheep herder for 6 years or so. He then escaped and went home to Britain to become a priest. This is where he had a dream to preach Christianity to the Irish who were mostly made up of Pagans and Druids. After studying for a few years, he set out to convert the Irish.

Needless to say, they had no need of a new God and fought him every step of the way. There were a few Christian Missionaries in Ireland, but apparently none so devoted as St. Patrick. He preached for 30 years, and is accredited with bringing the written word to Ireland through the bible and a few other texts.

The stubborn old preacher keeled over on March 17th and so we are celebrating his life by the anniversary of his death. When wearing Green today, or Drinking that Green Beer. Please raise a glass to the life of a holy man.

This story is an approximation in it’s entirety as it has been re-told for almost 2 mellenia. There are several variations, and now there is this one.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Bullying

Being bullied can be an extremely degrading experience. For a bully it may seem like they just enjoy that little moment of control over you. For the bullied, the bully will take away their self confidence, make them worry, make them feel ashamed, and steal general happiness.

As you have probably guessed, I was bullied all through school. Looking back, I wasn’t bullied by very many. Just a select few who targeted me because I was a big strong kid who turned the other cheek. I could hold my own a fight, and did a few times, but not in school where people saw. After two years of being bullied by a certain guy, I accepted his invitation to fight. We set up a time and a place, and I was the only one who showed up. After that I was left alone.

Bullies will pick targets based on a few different things:

1. Unpopular kids.
2. Soft spoken kids.
3. Shy kids
3. Smaller or weaker kids.
4. Kids with a noticeable difference such as race, disability, sexual orientation, or other such flaws.

The reason for these picks is because the bully has already evaluated whether or not they will win. With unpopular kids, their friends aren’t going to be coming to their aid. With soft spoken or shy kids, they will not counter act their hurtful quips. Smaller or weaker kids will not be able to win a fight should they fight back. Kids with a noticeable difference are just easy to make fun of.

Oddly enough, bullies will start small to test the water on each target. Usually just with a few degrading insults to see what kind of a problem will result. Once they find an easy target then it’s fun and games from there.

What is bullying?

Bullying actually comes in several different forms.

Verbal

A joke here and there at someone else’s expense is bullying. Name calling, and more forceful jokes are meant to single out a single person. Another form of this is anonymous bullying such as sending emails, texts, and other things anonymously.

Exclusionary

Spreading rumors or being the subject of a nasty rumor is a form of bullying. This makes the subject of the nasty rumor live a life of pure hell. It can also excise a person from social groups because they hear that this person did this and so they are avoided.

Physical

Most bullying is not physical, but it does happen a lot. Pushing, kicking, scratching, swirlies, and anything to hold physical power over someone is physical bullying.

All bullying is nasty in form and action. So how then do we stop bullying? There are several different viewpoints on this. “Turn the other cheek” is the most popular. I’ve read and read how you are supposed to stop a bully. They say, don’t bully back. Half of everything I read is complete crap.

Bookus’s List on Stopping a Bully

1. Make friends. It’s not that hard to do, and other kids have just as hard of a time making friends as you. All it takes is talking to people. Once you are in a crowd, two things will happen. The loneliness will be gone, and you are less of a target.

2. Defend yourself. If they are slinging words, sling them right back. If they are swinging fists, swing them right back. Yes, I am advocating defensive violence. There is no need to hold back either. Kick hard, swing hard. Everything you do, do it specifically to hurt your opponent, and to hurt them very badly. If you get your tail end kicked around, return with a weapon. Preferably a beat stick. Then the next time you get attacked, you have a fresh new ability to beat the living tar out of them.

If you do end up fighting. There is a rule of etiquette. Be prepared: Have a prepared statement for the fight in which you prepared for. Which should go a little something like this.

Dear Principal or Teacher,

I have been bullied, and I have told you. I am still bullied so I defended myself. The punishment I will receive is worth the freedom I just won. I am not a violent person, and I wish nobody any harm. However I do not want to be harmed either. Thank you.

The Victor

Preparing for a fight is pretty easy. You know how you are bullied, and therefore you can plan accordingly. If it is verbal, then prepare a list of insults that make them feel small.

If you know it is going to be a physical fight, then practice some very powerful and disabling moves. If the bully is a lot bigger than you are, feel free to use a beatstick. It should be small and heavy. About a foot long and blunt. Practice using it first. When the time comes, you’ll have to launch yourself and hit as fast as you can.

However, it’s a good idea NOT to hit them in the head or in the back when they are walking or running away. Despite the torture they put you through, they don’t deserve to die or be paralyzed. And you don’t deserve to go to prison for the sake of a jerkhead.

MOST IMPORTANT: When the bully is running away, you have won. There is no need to follow. The bully didn’t get the satisfaction of overpowering you and instead got overpowered. This will most likely take you off their list of targets, and anyone else who wants to bully you as well. Verbal insults take a few times, while a physical fight will usually only take one time. Then you will be bully free.

This list only works with verbal and violent bullies. Rumors and innuendo are a little tougher. It’s usually impossible to find out who started a rumor. And even if you did, would you be willing to sacrifice your honor and lie about them to other people? Further more, what if you found out that the rumor you spread in retaliation was against the wrong person.

The best way to fight against rumors and innuendo is to live your life in a way that you find morally acceptable. If you are living up to your own standards, then you are doing it right. This won’t stop rumors and innuendo, but if you exude confidence, you can learn to live with rumors. Which is good, because rumors will be spread all throughout your life. It’s sad, but it’s true.

Humility, Confidence, and Arrogance

Confidence is a wonderful attribute to have. It truly is, and I wish everyone were able to evaluate themselves with positivity. Reflecting confidence can be mistaken for arrogance, and worse yet, some people humble themselves in order to placate the masses. However, Confidence and Arrogance are two completely different things. Confidence is a good thing while Arrogance is a bad thing. Let’s examine shall we.

Definitions:

arrogance – overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors
Confidence – belief in one’s own abilities; self-assurance
humility – a lack of false pride

paraphrased definitions from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Humility

Being humble does not have to mean that you think you are lower than dirt. A lot of religions preach this, and it bugs me. Humble simply means that you know what your limitations are. For example: Lets say I can stand on my head, but I can’t stand on my hands. I’m confident that I can stand on my head, but I’m humble enough to know that I can’t stand on my hands. If I were an arrogant person, I would think anyone who can’t stand on their head is inferior to me.

Humility is an AWESOME trait because it allows a person to make a checklist of things they need to work on. Nobody is perfect, and those that know where their imperfections lie can eliminate bad behaviors or practices one by one. For practices that people are just bad at, they can avoid them. For example, I’m bad at fashion. No seriously. Thank God I have 4 sisters because all I need is cloth to cover myself with.

Confidence

Confidence is understanding what your good at. At first glance that would seem to be an antonym of Humility, but nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than being opposites, Confidence and Humility work hand in hand. A confident person usually knows what they are good, and bad at. Imagine a fighter pilot. They are only the coolest breed ever to walk the planet.

Arrogance Arrogant people contrast confident people because they focus only on their strengths and disregard their weaknesses. An arrogant person is often insecure, and therefore pushes everything good about them on everyone else.

Confusion

Don’t you hate that all knowing know it all. They are constantly telling you how things are or are supposed to be. They always know what the correct course of action is. Is this person confident or arrogant? Confident people have an opinion, and are easier to approach to get it. Arrogant people on the other hand will shove their opinion down your throat. In truth, it’s all about insecurities.

Arrogant people view other people as betters or lessers. “I have this, this, and this, and therefore I am better than you.” or “You have this, this, and this, and therefore you are better than me.” The grass is always greener, and the arrogant and insecure will fight to have the greener grass. If that means mowing the neighbors lawn to make it less green, then so be it.

Confident people on the other hand view other people as other people. They know what they are good at, and excel at it. Meanwhile they can also support and encourage others to be at the top of their game as well. A confident person does not have to stand on other people in order to put themselves on top.

Humility is often a value taught to discourage arrogance. Confident people have humility, while arrogant people do not have it. An arrogant person always strives to be the better, and will hurt anyone who they perceive to be the better. If they can’t hurt them, then they will worship them, and scheme until they can hurt them.

God Bless Rev Phelps and Westboro Babtist Church

The Westboro Babtist Church just won’t quit. Every other day they are spouting off some new bit of nonsense, and are finding more and more ways to be extremely repulsive. Funerals are their favorite ploy at the moment, and now there is a group that is creating a wall of people, flags, and patriotic noise so that the families of fallen soldiers do not have see the protesters when laying their loved one to rest. The Freedom of Speech works both ways.

Freedom of Speech

I admit this scared me for a bit. Luckily eight out of nine Supreme Court Justices decreed that it was within the right of the Westboro Babtist Church to do what they are doing. The attack on free speech was eloquently planned. An army of gay people were shouting to end the bullying without thinking of the consequences of destroying the right to protest. Supposing they succeeded, then in 10 or 20 years, they might lose the right to fight for their rights. Especially since LGBT people have always been a minority, and they always will be. 90 percent of people will always be straight.

Religious Doctrine

I am amazed at how Christians and other religious sects by and large have denounced the Westboro Babtist Church. Let’s face it, they are crude, hateful, and just plain mean. At the same time however, what are they preaching? The exact same message that most people get in Sunday School. Therefore I guess people agree with the message, but disagree on people actually stating it.

Let’s examine this for a moment. Sodom and Gamorah was destroyed because of homosexual activity. Haven’t we all been taught that nations fall because of homosexual activity? Aren’t we taught that homosexuality is an abominable sin? Therefore, the Westboro Babtist Church honestly believes that our soldiers dying is God’s wrath for our tolerance for homosexuality. They are desperately trying to be heard so that we will know, so that we can repent.

Hmm? I’m at a loss? Is it OK to keep the LGBT community as substandard citizens, and blame them for acts that which they are not responsible for. At the same time, it’s NOT OK to vocalize it? You either agree or you don’t agree with the message of Reverend Phelps. This message also happens to be the same message taught in almost every North American Church.

History

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” Chief Justice Warren

In 1967, this was the general teachings regarding segregation, and yet we have this beautiful picture to show us that we were wrong. Society was wrong in the treatment that which African Americans were treated. And after 30 years or so of positive campaigning, African Americans are now generally treated as equals. There are a few bigots, but by and large, they have some solidarity. But have we learned our lesson? I would submit that we have not because Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans, Cuban Americans, and many more are still substandard citizens in the eyes of those that would openly declare themselves loving Christians.

Where is the woman’s place? Perhaps the kitchen? We changed our perception there. Now, men that mistreat women are chauvinistic pigs. Women have become much more equal to men in the past 100 years. I have absolutely no problem with a woman becoming a housewife, raising kids, and enjoying that particular cookie cutter lifestyle. I do have a problem with forcing a woman into that situation. It’s what I like to call Brainwashed Slavery. Convince a woman from the time she’s 3 that she has to marry, raise kids, and always have a sandwich ready for the men, and you have Brainwashed Slavery.

There are still civil rights activists fighting for both African American’s and Women’s rights. We shouldn’t need them anymore, but we do. There are still those that believe that it’s wrong for a cute little white girl to date a black dude. There are still those that believe that it’s wrong for a woman to be the one in charge. I’ve heard all the arguments. Personally, I don’t like anyone telling me what to do. Therefore, I don’t tell anyone else what to do. And I prefer a woman who can take charge of her own life.

Back to Westboro

Our churches teach anti gay propaganda. They used to teach racism, slavery, murder, and other things. According to the bible, it’s OK to murder as long as it’s for God. It’s OK to own slaves as long as they are from a neighboring nation. In other words, we have evolved. Why can’t we evolve to the point where everyone is accepted? Or do we want to teach the same lessons that Westboro Babtist Church is teaching?

How to protest against Westboro

Reverend Phelps is synonymous with an attention hungry two year old. The best way to get them to be quiet is to ignore them. And yet, just like an attention hungry two year old, negative attention is better than no attention. Food for thought.

Accountability

The older I get the more I seem to believe that voluntary accountability doesn’t exist anymore. This makes no sense to me because I was always taught to be accountable for the things that I do. This of course has always gotten me into more trouble when I did something wrong. I guess if I admit to one thing than I must be guilty a slew of other things I’m not willing to account for. The way of the world on this one is very confusing.

Leadership and Accountability

A leader is always responsible for what his/her underlings are up to. This is a tough spot to be in this day in age, because leadership is about building character and leading by example. Not all leaders are ethical leaders, and some put constant pressure on their employees to perform harder and harder. Some even pressure employees to be unethical just like they are. If an employee is caught, they are on their own.

The Group Dynamic

We are taught that we are responsible for our own actions. Yet at the same time, today’s society is made up of groups. If you are not part of a group, then you are an outsider. If you are an outsider, the group collective can set a person up to fail. If this person fails under the group collective’s manipulations, then the person failing is made to be responsible for his/her own failure. Being in a group, you’re not supposed to take responsibility for anything because that can implicate the group.

Groups are also a funny thing, because when someone is acting for the group, they are following orders. So who is responsible for their actions; the doer or the planner? Does the doer have a choice in the matter? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Does the planner have a direct tie to the action of the doer? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Yet no one is accountable.

Policy

Even though we are taught that we are responsible for our own actions, the policy we are taught to adhere to is denial. It’s true. Take responsibility for the good things, and deny responsibility for the bad things. That is what society teaches us to do. What’s more bizarre than that is that society works around those rules.

Blaming and Credit

Whenever something good is done, there are people that will take credit for it. It doesn’t matter if they are responsible for the fortunate turn of events or not. If something bad happens, then it is blamed on someone else. Our highest ranked civilian leader, The President of the United States is a perfect example. Every president blames the one before when something bad happens, and every president takes credit for the good things that happen. The highest authority in the land promotes this way of thinking and acting.

Consequences

Because this is the way the world works, if anyone is a stand-up good person. They will be screwed. If you account for your own shortcomings you will be blamed for others. If you admit to your own faults, you will be punished more severely. It’s the way of the world.