Building a Business on Trust, the Job of Estate Liquidators

By Jessica Haynes On April 2, 2012

 

The foundation of an estate liquidators business is built on trust. Trust is paramount for homeowners or estate heirs to feel comfortable throughout the estate sale process. It goes without saying that doing business with trustworthy individuals should always be a top priority, but it’s even more important when dealing with estate liquidators. The estate sale process is more intimate than most businesses because people are dealing in the sale of personal property, which often have sentimental value.

Getting Intimate with Estate Liquidators

Professional estate liquidators are in people’s homes everyday, either prepping for a sale or conducting a sale. Once you visit other estate sales, you quickly realize a lot can be learned about somebody’s life. Indications of personal interests, personality, quality of life, and economic status are revealed throughout a home. This often makes for a very intimate experience for the survivors of the estate. When hiring an estate sale liquidator, people want to feel confident the personal property will be handled with care, appraised appropriately, and sold honestly and transparently. Estate liquidators operating under the highest standards of practice and service will always prevail in the long run.

Trust Your Instincts

When estate liquidators enter your home during the initial consultation, take careful note of your instinctual reaction to them. It takes courage to listen to your instincts. Many people ignore their inner voice for fear of offending others. Even if you have a bad feeling about them at the door, don’t hesitate to turn them away even before entering your home. In the interest of your personal safety, security, and well-being – trust your instincts! There are many wonderful, honest, and cordial estate liquidators building a business on trust that there is no need to even consider those that engage in unethical behavior. Based on our experience, you’ll know when it’s a good fit.
Take your time in finding the right estate liquidator for you. Poor decisions can be made in haste. Do your research and trust your instincts, you’ll do great!

How to Build an Ethical Business Culture

BY Gwen Moran|September 19, 2012

 

image credit: We Create NYC

Are business ethics in danger? A 2011 report from the Ethics Resource Center found that "ethics cultures are eroding and employees' perceptions of their leaders' ethics are slipping." Employees are experiencing increased retaliation against whistle-blowers as well as more pressure to break rules.
That doesn't surprise Michael Josephson, president and founder of the Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that delivers services and materials to increase ethical awareness, commitment and behavior. When the stakes are higher, such as they are in today's tough business climate, people may feel more pressure to act unethically to produce results, whether it's lying to customers, bad-mouthing competitors, or undermining co-workers.
That kind of behavior can cause significant problems with morale and could even lead to legal issues. Josephson says that it's critical for business leaders to take a stand when it comes to ethics and offers these three tips to do so.

1. Make your expectations clear. Teach employees what you mean by ethical behavior -- there's no simpler way to do so than to write down your expectations. Include your expectations when it comes to ethical decision-making in your employee handbook or in other documentation that employees receive during their first days on the job.

In addition to mapping out the behavior you expect, give employees some guidelines to help them when it comes to making ethical decisions, including when they should turn to their managers for guidance and how to report unethical behavior they see around them.

2. Enforce your policies. When ethical breaches happen, there should be consequences, says Josephson. If your top performer is cheating on an expense report or lying to customers, you're not just tolerating the behavior -- you're teaching your other employees to be unethical, as well, he says.
The behavior will likely multiply when others see what you'll overlook. Josephson also cautions that if your top performer is lying or mistreating others, it's likely only a matter of time before he or she does the same to you.

3. Be your own change agent. The best-laid ethics policies won't matter if you don't walk your talk, says Josephson. Employees watch you for cues about how they're expected to act. When you cut ethical corners, they notice and are likely to think the behavior is okay.

"Instilling ethics into your organization is probably going to cost more than you want to pay," says Josephson. It's tough to be a model citizen and rein in behavior that, while helping your business earn, isn't on the up-and-up. In the long run, however, the damage that ethical lapses can cause may cost you far more than letting go of an unethical employee or some bad business habits, he says.

To Encourage Innovation, Eradicate Blame

By Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard

August 20, 2012

Leaders who take a more constructive approach to failure can begin eliminating the fear, reticence, and inertia that plagues many organizations.

There is a big difference between identifying the cause of a negative outcome and looking for someone to blame it on. Identifying the cause of a negative outcome is productive. You can use that information to avoid the situation in the future and also help people take responsibility for fixing it and moving on.

Finding fault and assigning blame, on the other hand, creates a situation where people become stuck and paralyzed. It’s a negative approach that assumes neglect or malfeasance that requires punishment. This type of attitude produces a risk-averse organization where people play it safe instead of stepping out and trying new ideas.

Now your organization takes on a culture similar to the classic arcade game, Whac-A-Mole, where most employees keep their head down except for the unsuspecting novice who pops his head up only to have the oversized mallet pound him or her back down if their initiative fails. Once an organization develops that type of culture, it is very difficult for innovation to take hold.

We know that the most innovative environments are those where people are allowed to learn from past mistakes, grow, develop, and improve. That's what evolution and innovation look like. That's how Thomas Edison was able to learn from the thousands of times he failed due to using the wrong material for his light bulb filament. Each time, he recognized that he was one step closer to finding the right material.

It’s also the approach used by WD-40 Company--manufacturers of the ubiquitous “water displacement” product of the same name--whose closely guarded formula was discovered on the 40th try back in 1953.

As CEO Garry Ridge has describes it, part of WD-40’s ongoing success with innovation can be traced back to a culture where employees share the positive and negative outcomes of any situation. As Ridge explains, “At WD-40 Company, we don’t make mistakes. We have learning moments. We give people permission to have a conversation about things that go wrong.”

Three steps for moving forward
When people’s fear of making a mistake becomes a problem, you are cutting yourself off from the necessary ingredients for learning and innovation. For leaders interested in creating a culture that sees mistakes as learning opportunities instead of fault-finding exercises, here are three ways to get started.

Examine your current attitude toward mistakes. As a company, what’s your typical reaction to mistakes and failures? Are they seen as an opportunity to learn or to assign blame? Look at this from an individual aspect also. How are you wired internally? Are you overly critical, or do you learn from your mistakes and move on? It’s important to learn from your mistakes, but don't live in the past. If you tend to dwell on negative thoughts about yourself, consider how this negativity might be spilling out into your perceptions of others. Negativity is a habit. Consider the impact.

Consider your impact as a leader. What you are doing to encourage people to take risks and try something truly innovative? Are you celebrating the vigor of their pursuit even though the outcome is uncertain? Keeping new ideas alive is hard work. It always takes longer than you think it will, you run into problems, and it very rarely goes as originally planned. Are you recognizing the efforts of people who take risks in spite of the threat of failure?

Find ways to engage in positive practices as a discipline. It's so easy for things to turn negative. That’s what keeps a lid on so many organizations. As a leader, it’s important to move from fault and blame to cause and responsibility. Typically, when something goes wrong, the immediate response is find out who was at fault, punish them, and then bring in someone new to be responsible for moving the organization forward. Why not give your current people the same benefit of the doubt that you would a new person? Instead of assigning blame, look to assign responsibility for moving the organization forward given what was just learned.

Leaders who take this more constructive approach can begin eliminating the fear, reticence, and inertia that plagues many organizations. Develop practices that accentuate the positive and help people feel secure in knowing the organization wants them to step forward and try new things confidently. With practice, you’ll see the difference you can make in the generation, pursuit, and adoption of new ideas.

--Scott Blanchard is the cofounder of Blanchard Certified, a new cloud-based leadership development resource and experience. Ken Blanchard is the best-selling co-author of The One Minute Manager® and 50 other books on leadership. Both will be speaking on growth and innovation at the Blanchard Summit 2012: Fast Forward: Lead, Innovate and Cultivate.
[Image: Flickr user Roger Bocksnick]

7 Tips...

7 Tips for Avoiding Estate Sale Scams

By Jessica Haynes On March 22, 2012

 

Unfortunately, estate sale scams do occur and they usually occur during an already emotional time. Since the estate sale process can be very time consuming and overwhelming, taking the necessary precautions to avoid estate sale scams are sometimes overlooked. We were so impressed with this recent post from Lori Swanson, we wanted to share it with our community of readers.

7 Tips for Avoiding Estate Sale Scams

We have summarized the following tips below, but strongly encourage you to read the full post below. These tips are so important to follow through on. The time spent upfront will save you additional stress, trouble, and aggravation down the road.

1. Shop Around
2. Research the Company
3. Verify Bonding and Insurance
4. Review the Contract
5. Compare Rates and Fees
6. Understand Pricing the Items and Operating the Sale
7. Demand Immediate Payment

Avoid Estate Sale Scams

Estate sale companies appraise, price, and sell the personal property of people who have passed away or wish to downsize their households. Although estate sale companies routinely handle estates valued at thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, they are not required to be licensed or bonded in Minnesota. In this “buyer beware” atmosphere, it can be difficult to sort out reputable estate sale companies from untrustworthy ones, and consumers are encouraged to take precautions when selecting and contracting with estate sale companies.
“Jane” is seeking assistance selling items and property that her recently deceased father left behind when he died unexpectedly. She locates an estate sale company on the internet that claims it has been in business for decades with thousands of satisfied customers. She contacts the company, and its representatives promise that its “experts” run professional and transparent estate sales so that their clients have nothing to worry about and are quickly paid within weeks. The company promises to provide detailed itemizations of all sales so that the value and sales of all of the property is transparent and easily documented. Jane is grieving and there is so much to do in the aftermath of her father’s sudden death, that she immediately agrees to let the company operate the estate sale without closely reviewing the contract or shopping around. Three months after the estate sale, Jane still has not received the proceeds of the estate sale, which she was hoping to use to defray some of the costs of the funeral. She has received only minimal paperwork regarding what items were sold and for how much, and the company, which initially made vague excuses about the “delayed” payment and accounting documents, has now stopped returning her calls altogether. Now Jane is struggling to find recourse to resolve the matter, and is considering having to hire a lawyer which she fears will only add more expense and worry to her situation.
The Attorney General’s Office provides the following tips for people seeking the services of an estate sale company:
Continue reading more…

EstateLane helps you hire a trustworthy, estate sale liquidator to professionally manage your sale. Our #1 priority is trust and transparency.

9 things you didn't know about email marketing...

9 things You Didn’t Know About Email Marketing...

Is email marketing dead? We don’t think so, and we rounded up a few interesting facts to demonstrate why.

The data covers a range of topics, such as trends, threats, best practices, and so on.

 

1. People are checking email on smartphones a lot. Google says 82% of people who own smartphones check and send email, and Merkle says 43% of them do it four or more times per day.

 

2. Trust issues and a waning youth user base are the biggest worries of email marketers. Several sources reported that a majority of email is still spam, and less than half a percent is malicious, but that’s still enough to scare consumers. Further, email usage down 34% among 18-24 year olds according to Atomic Email Marketing Blog.

 

3. Email subscribers are very conditional. They will unsubscribe PDQ if they don’t get what they are looking for in the way that’s best for them. Hubspot says 91% of people have unsubbed from lists before, while Bluehornet says that 70% of mobile users toss emails that don’t render well on phones.

 

4. Mobile email users love special offers – and act on them. Borrell Associates says that mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of traditional coupons. Special offers and vouchers are consumers’ favorite types of mobile mail to get, says E-dialog.

 

5. Despite spam blockers, a lot of email is still hitting its target. Atomic Email Marketing Blog says that 83% of email ends up in inboxes, but for corporate email accounts this number is much lower, at a still-respectable 19%.

 

6. Tablet email users are growing super fast. Hubspot said there will be 21.1 million more tablet users in 2012 then there were in 2011. Knotice reported that in 2011, 97% of all email opens were on iPad, it may happen that new competing products will take a share of that in upcoming years.

 

7. Email remains one of the most popular and well-understood content marketing vehicles. An abundance of research data exists that covers multiple aspects of email.

 

8. Microsoft Outlook is still the most popular email client. It’s holding strong at 27.6%, reports The Best Email Marketing Apps Blog, in 2011. But we’ll see how long that lasts, with the recent launch of the Web-based Outlook and fierce competition from GMail.

 

9. Mobile mail is a very hot research topic. 2012 numbers are numerous, demonstrating marketers’ enthusiasm for the growing number of mobile users.

Overall, email is still one of the strongest marketing mediums out there. The explosive growth of tablets and continued prominence of smartphones will keep people connected to their inboxes. With increased mobile-mailing targets, new Web mailing services, and the diminished effectiveness of non-organic SEO, marketers will depend on tried-and-true email.

Here are some great building contractor tips video.... Enjoy!!

5 Top Reasons...

5 Top Reasons Why it’s Good to have Estate Sales in San Francisco

By Jessica Haynes On February 19, 2012

 

If you are a resident of the Bay Area, you should know you’re living in a great market to have estate sales in San Francisco. There are many reasons why but we’ve highlighted the top 5 for you.

Wealthy Residents
Without question, San Francisco and the Bay Area is one of the more expensive places to live in our country. Silicon Valley, located in the heart of the area, is populated with many wealthy tech entrepreneurs and seasoned investors. As a result of the areas successful ability to continually innovate, the San Francisco area has attracted many thriving businesses which have created significant wealth within the community. This in turn creates demand for high valued antiques and memorabilia. You may have some hidden gems within your estate that could fetch a high price in San Francisco’s thriving market.

Population Density
In order for an estate sale to be successfully run, buyers need to show up to the door with their wallets. San Francisco makes for an attractive location because of its high population density. Not only does the city of San Francisco have a large population of almost 1 million people, but it is closely surround by other densely populated areas such as Berekely, Oakland, and San Jose totaling a region of 7.5 million. The more people within a 50 miles radius the better chance they’ll make the trip to your sale.

Cultural History
San Francisco has experienced many culturally transforming events that add to the eclectic pieces found at various estate sales. In 1849, the California Gold Rush propelled the city into a period of rapid growth. In 1906, three quarters of the city was destroyed by an earthquake and a subsequent fire. In the 1940s, the city served as an essential port for military embarkation during World War II. In the 1960s, the hippie movement originated, iconized by the Summer of Love. These impactful events in turn created a very colorful and culturally rich community. Niche buyers of collectibles and antiques surround the area looking for the next great treasure. Maybe your estate is waiting to be discovered…

Tech Savvy
This may seem out of place in the estate sale industry, but it made the list because the community tends to be more technically savvy and a leader in innovation compared to the rest of the country. As a result, estate sale liquidators in San Francisco are leveraging online resources to more effectively advertise upcoming sales. Buyers are also utilizing the internet to discover estate sales, attracting an audience in varying ages ranging from their 20s to 80s.

Beautiful Weather
Though San Francisco is known for its fog, the area has a mild climate year-round with temperatures averaging between 55 and 75 degrees. Many estate sales will be delayed or postponed in the event of rain or poor weather. San Francisco will most likely provide pleasant weather for buyers to come out and explore your estate sale.
Sometimes you are forced into having an estate sale due to untimely events, other times you may be intentionally planning your sale. In either case, take comfort in running a sale in San Francisco because it’s a great market to find trustworthy estate sale liquidators as well as interested buyers.

EstateLane helps you hire a trustworthy, estate sale liquidator to professionally manage your sale. Our #1 priority is trust and transparency.