By Bill Baylis

As a decision maker in today’s business climate, it’s more important than ever to know your options for success.  One such option is outsourcing.  Whether it’s outsourcing a single specific task, such as collecting on an overdue account, or outsourcing your entire accounts receivable function, the possibilities are endless!

To help you determine whether or not outsourcing may be for you, here are 3 core reasons for consideration:

1. Simplify Your Business – One rule of thumb to consider is to do what you do best and hire out the rest.  Allow yourself to focus on what you originally got into your business to do.  If you’re a medical doctor, maybe it was to heal people; if you’re an accountant, maybe it was to provide sound strategic tax advice and planning for your clients...

By Nancy Friedman

We all know we've left companies due to poor service. And we know, too, there are more than five unforgivable customer service mistakes. These, however, have been culled together from the many emails and comments we received over the years.

While it's all common sense - we know that common sense is not all that common. So we continue to share this information with you in the hopes we can make some inroads around the world.

1.  Not being friendly

Without exception, this is the number one customer service mistake. Customers should be treated as welcomed guests when they call or visit your business. As we've all experienced, sometimes we're treated as an annoyance or an interruption. Remember the Telephone Doctor motto: "Be friendly before you know who it is...."

By David J. Abeshouse

Civility is – and should be – a core negotiation issue.  The degree to which one employs ordinary civility in negotiations often has a marked effect on the bottom line result. It also makes life more pleasant, even in the fundamentally adversarial situations in which business litigators and transactional lawyers often find themselves. Consider the opposing party or counsel who -- instead of working with you to resolve a dispute or problem in customized, mutually acceptable fashion -- prematurely blurts out, “I’ll see you in court.” This knee-jerk reaction usually fails as a negotiation tactic...

Guest Post by David Abeshouse, Law Office of David J. Abeshouse. 

At the dawn of history, human beings resolved disputes in ways not so far removed from those of their mammalian and reptilian forebears. Progressing over the centuries, society developed increasingly sophisticated and customized dispute resolution mechanisms. The American court system has been our forum for settling disagreements. This mostly worked, for a century or so. Early in the 20th century, new alternatives arose in reaction to many of the defects of our judiciary, and others globally. Now, 90 years later, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR – including arbitration and mediation) has a firm and deservedly growing foothold in our business dispute resolution landscape, domestically and globally.

The vast majority of recent United States Supreme Court decisions encourage greater use of ADR in business cases. However, ADR is not yet sufficiently widespread in the opinion of those who see it as a better way to resolve more business conflicts without enduring onerous court procedures before an overworked judiciary...

Guest Post by David Abeshouse, Law Office of David J. Abeshouse.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be telling you this (you’ll see why in a moment), but I think you ought to know. 

Many start-ups, professional practices, and other small businesses lack line-items in their budgets for legal representation.  But they place themselves (and their owners) in considerable peril when they forego having solid written business agreements.  Owners of businesses and professional practices often assume that they have workable understandings with their vendors, associates, and partners.   These assumptions often are misguided, because even the process of negotiating an agreement reveals possible future pitfalls and misconceptions that should be addressed now, before they become mortal issues.  Lack of a written agreement often means there hasn’t been a true meeting of the minds.