October 2009
Newsletter
Management
Going Beyond Customer Service by Terri Norvell, Property Management Consultant
Excellent customer service in any industry can go a long way in retaining and attracting customers. Property management expert Terri Norvel shares more than 25 years of property management experience to give you the low-down on the value of customer service that cuts across all industry lines. Read her article
Marketing
Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow by Lori Snider
Learn what you can do to survive in a tough economic period with timely advice from professional speaker, author and marketing strategist Lori Snider. Read More
Training
DePuzzling Human Behavior by Karla Brandau, CSP
Gain insight on how to enhance personal productivity, team performance and company success from internationally recognized speaker and management consultant Karla Brandau. Read the article, DePuzzling Human Behavior.
We believe knowledge is power. CallSource is pleased to share business news and trends, as well as insights from a wide range of expert consultants to help keep your business informed and on top.
What's Happening in the News
Media & Publishing
Word of Mouth Marketing Gains Volume
As the recession continues to put pressure on ad spending across most media, word of mouth (WOM) marketing is one notable sector that has bucked the trend and continued to grow.
WOM is still a relatively small sector, but growing fast. PQ Media estimates that WOM spending this year will reach $1.7 billion, up 10 percent from 2008, at a time when outlays in most of the key media sectors are down. Read more:
Healthcare
FTC Issues Final Breach Notification Rule For Electronic Health Information
The Federal Trade Commission issued its final rule that requires some Internet-based businesses to notify consumers when they've had a breach of their PHI.
The rule was issued under the mandate from Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It applies to both vendors of personal health records - which "provide online repositories that people can use to keep track of their health information" - and entities that offer third-party applications for personal health records, according to the release. The rule requires the Web-based entities to notify the FTC of a breach. The FTC offered a standard form for such notification.
Read More
Franchises
Snap Fitness Ranks in Top 20 of Inc. 500
Chanhassen, Minn. - Snap Fitness has 'muscled' its way among the Top 20 of Inc. Magazine's annual ranking of the country's 500 fastest-growing private companies.
The world's fastest growing franchise featuring compact, state-of-the-art fitness centers, Snap Fitness is ranked No.16, based on revenue growth from 2005 to 2008. The company grew by more than 5,900 percent, with 2008 revenues of $31.7 million. Read More
Small Businesses
US Misses Target for Small-Business Contracts
The federal government has fallen further short of its goal of awarding nearly a quarter of its contracts to small businesses, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Federal agencies awarded 21.5% of their contracts worth just over $93 billion to small businesses in fiscal 2008, which ran from Oct. 1, 2007 through Sept. 30, 2008, falling short of its 23% goal set by law.
Hit by the recession, small-business owners are eager to win Uncle Sam as a new customer, and right now there are billions of dollars of extra dollars up from grabs as contracts start to flow from the $787 billion economic-stimulus package passed five months ago. Read More
