One of my pet peeves in business has always been surcharges. These make me angry because it feels that the company is not providing value, just trying to get an extra dollar out of me.

I rented a car last week in Phoenix from Budget. They have a new policy to get money out of the customer during these tough times. Forget all the taxes and other fees that almost double your rental. Forget the car insurance they try to scare you into buying. Now they have a new method:

If you drive fewer than 75 miles for your rental, you must show them a receipt that you bought gas or they will add an “EZFUEL” charge of $13.99 to your bill! What a deal!

When I inquired about this new charge, they said that many cars show the tank still being full even though the car has been driven many miles. Budget says they are just trying to recoup what has been lost to them all these years.

One message I get from Budget is that when I rent their cars, they don’t trust me. If they are losing money on unfilled tanks, then I suggest they slightly increase their rates instead of using this type of policy that screams, “PROVE IT!”

A few weeks back, I was fortunate to present at the ITMI Annual Symposium of Tour Directors and Tour Operators. It is a group that is looking for a big 2010.

I was stuck by the what ITMI taught their graduates and how every small business could utilize these:

1. Listen. They need to listen to their clients on tour, we need to listen to our customers to find out how we can solve their pain.

2. Share. They need to share their stories while touring. We need to share our experiences to others through social media to see how we can help and learn from others.

3. Change the transaction. They need to make it about the experience not the money. We need to make it about value and results.

4. Present Options. They need to always find what the touring client wants to do. We need to give our customers alternative solutions to their issues.

5. Agree on a Solution. They need to agree with their touring clients so they are satisfied on site. We need to agree on a solution with our customer so we can move forward with them.

Ever felt like a tour guide?

Guest Post by Carol Roth

Carol Roth

Everyone loves a bit of recognition.  Can you make it pay off for you?

Hollywood award shows have always seemed a bit bizarre to me. Let’s take people who earn ridiculous sums of money (not to mention get a whole variety of other perks) for entertaining us and give them some more recognition. Even movie credits list every person who sneezed in the general direction of the set. 

 Imagine if every business enterprise did that: you buy some fast food and the wrapper says, “This cheeseburger was brought to you by Farmer Bill who raised the cow, Joe T. at the distribution plant…Rebecca who flipped it on the grill and Mark who rang up your order.”  Sounds ridiculous, right?  Maybe not.

From awards shows to credit lists, Hollywood builds a connection between key players and its customers, the audience.  This means if you go to see a film by a certain director or starring a certain actor, as a customer, you already have many connections to that person resulting from their recognition.  Plus, by listing contributors in the credits, they take advantage of the employees’ (key grip, lighting director, etc) desire to be recognized.

How can you use recognition to enhance your relationships with your employees and your customers?  Several companies do this very well.  Mercedes’ AMG engineers hand-sign each engine and the Longaberger Basket Company’s artisans hand-sign each basket they create.  This creates a sense of pride from the employee, a factor of recognition and a special connection with the customer who realizes that there is a real person who made their product with care, not just some faceless “corporation”. 

The Krystal restaurant chain also turns the recognition towards the customer, inducting its most avid and enthusiastic customers into its Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame.  They even feature the customer’s picture on their packaging.

How can you recognize your employees and/or customers to increase loyalty and enhance the value of your offering?

Carol Roth is an investment banker, business strategist and deal maker, having helped her clients raise over $1 billion in capital, complete hundreds of millions of dollars worth of M&A transactions, secure licensing, joint venture and partnership deals, and hone the strategy of their businesses.  She blogs about issues affecting entrepreneurs and their businesses from her Unsolicited Business Advice blog.

Miss Destructo

Did you ever watch a news program or interview on television and say to yourself, “that ought to be me? I could be an expert like that. They should be talking about my business!”  I get that sometimes. It can be frustrating. My goal in life was always to get a line drawing in the Wall Street Journal without breaking the law. Isn’t it time for you to hit the big time?

On today’s radio show, we focus on how to get the media attention that your business deserves. With so much noise and channels out there for information, it gets more difficult all the time. A series of guests shows us how:

Gayl Murphy is a veteran Hollywood Correspondent, Media & Presentational Coach, Speaker and the Author of Interview Tactics: How to Survive the Media without Getting Clobbered. She works with business people to go one-on-one with the media to get the word out about who they are, what they’re selling and what’s next. As a veteran correspondent, she’s been a frequent contributor for ABC News, SKY News, E! and the BBC, among others, Gayl’s interviewed over 14,000 celebrity and newsmakers.

Miss Destructo, Destroyer of Social Media Boredom. Blue Haired Blogger from Tampa, FL. Recently featured on CNN Headline News and ABCNews.

Jonathan Miller, CEO and Founder of Element Bars who landed on Shark Tank and scored the big win many of us crave for.

Listen now to the show!

BTW, a special call out to a former client, Nick Sarillo who landed on the cover of Inc Magazine this last month!

Guest Post by Rob Stretch

 As a recent college graduate of a state land-grant university, I thought it would be beneficial to share what they aren’t teaching in the classroom today. I have learned more in my short year of real-world employment and entrepreneurial experience than I have in my four years of schooling without a doubt. Here is my top five list of what business schools should be teaching:

1. The business world is gray, not black and white.
When a competitor changes their strategy and starts impeding on your market share, usually you don’t get to respond with a multiple choice answer. Furthermore, the principles of marketing and management you memorized may act as a frame of reference, but the business world is dynamic and always changing.

2. Read blogs, not textbooks.
In the Web 2.0 era, information can be overwhelming.  But if you can sort all of this information out and keep on top of it, you have a distinct advantage over your competitors. I have learned that an RSS feed is my best friend. To be successful in the online marketing field, I look at others are blogging about. This includes following people on Twitter. Some people are hesitant to join social networks. But if used correctly they can truly streamline the information gathering process.

3. Get to know successful people.
Thinking about starting a business? Who better to meet than people who have stood in your shoes before? Get networking! This can include social networks, angel groups, local entrepreneurship clubs, local college groups, or simply reaching out and contacting people. You never know how much one lunch with a successful entrepreneur can change your perception of a business or industry.

4. E-marketing is the language of successful retail today.
Ok, so maybe there are some exceptions. But by far the easiest way to break into retail today is picking a niche and marketing it online. With globalization on the rise, e-marketing is the way to go. What used to be limited by geography is now available to millions of people all over the world. Take advantage of technology!

5. Getting your hands dirty is better than reading 100 textbooks.
You can have 100 business ideas but if you never go out and try them then why does it matter? The only way to really learn a business is to go out and get it started. This is the best advice I could give any budding entrepreneur.

About the author: Rob Stretch is a blogger and search engine optimizer for VA Mortgage Center.com.  His main personal interests are e-marketing, small business, and entrepreneurship.

We have a great tradition in America never to give up. We hear the rallying cry that we should “Never Surrender”, “Never Give Up” and that “Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit”.

This is just plain nonsense.

The winners in this would know when to quit. One of my favorite quote is from that old cowboy, Will Rogers, “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging!”.  But how do we know if its time for us to quit?

1. Have you lost the passion for what you are doing?

I have been taking Karate for 8 years and I am not progressing very fast, but I still come back after traveling and injury. Why? I still want to learn and I still have passion for Karate. As long as my body and teachers will allow me to keep coming back, I am not quitting.

But are you in a business which you dread going to every day? Are you in a job that has become a nightmare? Have you lost the passion for what you are doing? If you answered yes to any of these, it’s time for a change.

2. You have run out of money or cash is dwindling fast.

Very few businesses can sell their way out of a cash shortage. If your cash flow statement shows that your cash reserves are being depleted and their is nothing that you can forecast that will change the direction, it is better to start planning now for an orderly end (and not dig yourself any deeper).

Remember, the key to success is being able to let go. Celebrate the success. Mourn the failures. Then get ready for another chance at success.

With the current fundraising and lending climate, entrepreneurs need to be innovative for their businesses.

Jason Manning had an innovative idea to fund his company. He was writing a book called Save My Company, Buy This Book. As Jason says on his web site,

“It started as a book about my life and the struggles that I endured as I built a thriving company. I was not going to complete it until I had done just that, and I was well on my way. Then everything that I had accomplished began to crumble due to a business relationship gone bad. This sent me back to the beginning, only this time I did not have the money to start again. I had to start looking for investors. I found a group that is showing alot of interest and may very well agree to invest for a large percentage of the company which is fine with me if I have to do it, but I needed a back-up plan as well. One thing I have learned, is that nothing ever goes as planned. So I came up with the idea to finish my book, and use the proceeds to fund my company.”

Sales of the books will be used to pay for patents and produce industrial safety equipment he  designed for hospitals. Jason admits that he did not meet his goal of selling 50,000 books ($1M) to fund his company, but woud still like to sell 5,000 more copies before bringing on investors.

What other innovative ideas have you had for funding your company during the great recession?

It’s my 50th birthday, so we focus on one of my favorite topics, movies. You have to understand that a perfect day for me is seeing a double feature, then having dinner and then seeing another movie!

I love movies and have frequently quoted them in my books and speeches. So on the radio show today we talked about what business lessons have you learned from movies. Hundreds of people wrote me and I will be featuring an article on others favorite movies on smallbiztrends in the future. But for today, talk about does art imitiate life of does life imitate art? So grab that popcorn. I talked with:

Michael Sansolo, the co-author of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies (enter RADIO to get a discount on the book) and two other experts, Carol Roth about Twilight and Ane Powers on Up In the Air.

Listen now!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I felt honored to speak at the famed Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Every major political and business person has spoken at the club. The format was a Question and Answer with Cassie Phillips, founder of Failcon. Here is a sneak peak of our prep session for the event. (yes and I spelled Commonwealth Club wrong!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

I turn 50 this week and I never expected to be on the cover of the AARP bulletin as a results.

See the cover shot and the behind the scenes of the photo shoot. I am the one next to President Obama. Look at the props AARP allowed me to use!