The Power of Personal PR

Ten seconds is all it takes to make a first impression –
whether it's your personal presentation or the first
contact a potential client or customer has with your
business through the telephone, website or other
communication collateral.

When they walk through their door – or you walk through
theirs – your image is imprinted in the first moment.

Research has proven that 67% of first impressions are
accurate. Your personal image tells the world who you are
and where you are going. Your business image says the same.
Every email, voicemail, and phone call you make creates
first impressions that build your brand.

But it's not just your logo or your business stationery
that needs to look good. How you present yourself in person
also says a lot about your brand. For many small business
people or business entrepreneurs, you are your business and
how your project yourself is vitally important to the
success of your business.

How you shake hands, make eye contact, conduct yourself in
social situations and the clothes you choose to wear
contribute to your personal brand. Your image is like the
weather. People notice when it's extremely good or
extremely bad. People shouldn't judge us by our outward
appearances but of course you know they will. First
impressions can indicate to a potential client, your sense
of style, ambition and self-confidence level.

Another measure of your success in dealing with people is
due to personality.

Your voice, way of talking, body language and the way you
develop relationships with your clients all count towards
giving you a 'manner'. Your personal manner speaks loudly
to other people. You may need to do some self-analysis on
your plus and minus personality traits before establishing
a self-satisfying public image.

Sometimes things like aggravating speech habits, lack of
good manners, sloppy dress or grooming can be your worst
enemies.

Punctuality, your tone of voice, these are the things about
you that speak loud and clear to others. Make sure that
they're working for you.

I'm sure you've seen many examples of people who have had
too much to drink at the office party and regretted things
done or said. Perhaps not such good personal PR for career
progression.

Maybe that date who sounded so promising on the telephone
really let you down when you met and saw how badly dressed
and untidy they were.

I'm not suggesting you need to have a complete makeover and
invest a fortune in new clothes – but it is those little
things that people notice.

You've no doubt invested a lot of time, effort and money
into setting up your own business and learning many new
skills – why not invest some time and effort into yourself
– you're worth it!

* Business image – brand all letterhead, newsletters,
email messages for a professional

* Personal image – establish a strong visual image –
develop your own style and personal brand. Be aware of
grooming and professional dress sense.

* Self image – get rid of bad habits, develop
self-confidence and charm, walk tall and smile!

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Sue Currie, the director of Shine Communications
Consultancy and author of Apprentice to Business Ace – your
inside-out guide to personal branding, is a business
educator and speaker on personal branding through image and
media. Sign up for free monthly tips on personal and
professional PR at
http://www.shinecomms.com.au/contactmanager/default.cfm
and learn more about how you can achieve recognition,
enhance your image and shine.

Medical Billing Services: What To Look For

Apparently, many people have been promised things that were
never delivered when dealing with medical billing services.
Sadly, I don't know of any companies that I really feel
comfortable recommending. What I can offer is a few tips
when looking for a billing service:

Experience: Personally, I put this at the top of my list. I
don't want to spend time and money dealing with someone
trying to climb the learning curve.

Investment: What are they doing specifically to stay ahead
of the ever changing world of medical billing? If they are
paying for people to take classes, ask to see some
certificates.

Size: I don't like to go with massive companies, but I
refrain from hiring one man shops as well. Basically, I
want the company to be small enough that if I call, I am
never on hold for more than one minute. However, I also
avoid being the only client a company has.

References: I take this part very seriously. It isn't just
about verifying that the references exist, I like to ask
the references specific questions. I would ask, for
example, if the billing company had ever fallen behind. If
the reference says no, I know right away they are not
telling the full truth (everyone falls behind at some
point).

Reports: Don't just ask what types of reports they can
produce. Ask what they have experience in doing and then
request to see two examples from a past month. If there is
any delay in producing this, I'd begin to wonder how
truthful they were being.

HIPAA: What metrics have they taken to meet with the
necessary guidelines? Many people feel that outsourcing the
work to other countries creates a liability. I don't agree
that non US citizens are any more or less likely to violate
HIPAA standards when standards are in place.

There are obviously many other details to consider, but
these are a few that I always like to keep an eye out for.
They may also apply to other types of services as well.

Our billing staff is small in our office, so when accounts
go past due for more than 120 days, we send them to a
collection agency. It is the ugly fact of modern medicine
that some people cannot pay for proper care, so it is with
a heavy heart that we do this.

The agency we use charges 30% of what's recovered, and they
have a pretty good track record. They have recommended that
we cut our collection time to 90 days, as the longer you
wait, the harder it is to collect.

I recently read a survey that said after 90 days, a
business has only a 69.6% probability of recovering its
money. After six months, the odds drop to 52.1%. Those are
daunting numbers, but I am less than sanguine about
squeezing every patient dry. We make a healthy profit, and
often the people who don't pay can't. Officially, I cannot
condone such behavior, but privately, I am sympathetic.

Often, I will take delinquent accounts home with me and
review the history. If a person is elderly and without
insurance or a means of support, or if they have paid
something but seem genuinely unable to complete the
payment, I sometimes make a judgment call. After all, we're
in the business of making people healthy, not bankrupt.

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VIVA Transcription provides medical transcription services
to hospitals and clinics across the United States and
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Embrace Office Politics

"Bodacious" means to be bold, outstanding, and remarkable.
Take those attributes to work and you're on your way to
building a fulfilling, bodacious career. Does having a
bodacious career sound exciting to you? It is! After
starting as an $8 an hour customer service rep, I rose
through the ranks of AOL, accepting four promotions and
surviving over six layoffs to become the head of corporate
training for 12,000 employees. Along the way I learned I
needed to be bodacious to achieve the career I wanted. Out
of that experience I created my "cheat sheet" of the
essential Bodacious Career Builders. Here's another:
Embrace Office Politics

I try not to dwell on this too much. But had I known this
sooner, this little bit of intelligence may have prevented
a lot of angst and propelled my career to even higher
levels: Office politics can be a good thing.

Surprised? Me, too. If I had been a little more savvy
about how I could make office politics work for me, I might
have avoided the glass ceiling and stayed at AOL a little
longer. I might have achieved the title of Director or
even VP. But no. For 10 years, I operated as though my
job was to get the work done with passion and to be a team
player in helping AOL realize its big vision.

In my noble naïveté, like a good foot soldier who's not
completely concentrating on where she's going, I tripped
and fell on my own sword. Was I skewered by someone else's
scheming? Was this something to blame someone else for? I
don't think so. I was just so focused on the greater
mission of the work at hand that I didn't take steps to
show my boss that I was also capable of strategizing a plan
for the future. You don't need a nasty conniver to be on
the losing side of a political game. Sometimes you just
have to be dedicated to your work.

I finally realized that office politics is simple -
relationships plus power. Now, I'm all for good
relationships at work, most women are. I strove to create
deliberate relationships for my Bodacious Career that could
help me move forward. Sometimes this is a challenge, but
all in all, it doesn't press my 'good girl' buttons.

But, power, that's another story! It's evil, right? Well,
it can be. It's not as if we don't have enough stories
about power being abusive, harmful or strictly
self-serving. Admittedly, that's one side of power. But
there's another side of power.

Let's be real. Every workplace is political, and the
higher up the organizational chart you go, the more
political the workplace gets. That's because there's more
at stake. The higher up you go, the more things get
accomplished by virtue of relationships and positioning.
Bodacious Women know that the higher up you go in an
organization, the more office politics you get. They also
know that the question isn't whether to play, but how.

Consider that, on a day-to-day basis, office politics can:

-Allow people at all levels of the organization to move up
and around, because politics can give individuals the
opportunity to get recognized.

-Help managers support their employees through acquiring
the resources they need to get the job done and serve as a
buffer between the employees and pressures from higher-ups.

-Help the company as a whole succeed as senior level
leaders use politics to cultivate support and enthusiasm
for company initiatives.

In other words "office politics" is just another way of
spelling "leadership". And that's a good thing! Like
leadership, political acumen is the artful technique of
making people feel good about themselves while they are
helping you. It is a form of plugged-in power that is
created when we are trusted and have built a track record
that says, "You can count on me." We may use the
strategies of office politics to gain a competitive
advantage in our own careers, but in most cases, we gain
from office politics only if what we do ultimately benefits
the company, its employees, and stakeholders.

These are just a few of the positive affects of leveraging
the power of office politics. Perhaps you can think of
more. But, none are possible unless we accept that office
politics is a fact within any organization and that it can
be a good thing. Don't let the 'good girl' hold you back.
Embrace office politics.

BODACIOUS CAREER BUILDER: Accept office politics as a fact
within any organization; embrace its positive potential.

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Mary Foley, author of "Bodacious! Woman: Outrageously in
Charge of Your Life and Lovin' It!" and founder of the
Bodacious Women's Club, inspires women to be courageously
in charge of their lives. You can be inspired, too! Get the
free audio "Live Like Your Nail Color!" today at
http://www.LiveLikeYourNailColor.com .

What's in a Name?

Possibly your entire image – take time to choose the right
name. Think about the last time you named a child or a pet
or perhaps that prize-winning racehorse! How many days and
nights did you agonise over choosing just the right name?
Think of all the baby name books, the names that jumped out
at you while watching TV or listening to the radio. How
they sounded when you said them out loud.

A lot of time and effort was spent in coming up with just
the right name because you knew that you'd have to live
with your decision for many years. Choosing a name for your
company and products can be just as difficult.

A good name portrays personality, stands out in the crowd
and is memorable. A great name is one that is easy to
spell, pronounce or remember and tells the consumer what
you do. A perfect example is Toys R Us. Everyone instantly
knows what the company sells.

You need to think how the business name will translate to a
domain name. What would LTD Enterprises do? Even LTD
Plumbing or Graphic Design would be better – particularly
if people use a search engine to find a plumber or graphic
designer.

What about your own name? Many people would think that's
too "small town" or, what if I want to sell my business?
But think about it. Most business is done by referrals.
People want to do business with people they like and trust.
Would you remember to call Future Success or Luke Hayes
Website Marketing?

Inventing or reinventing a brand can take many forms – new
packaging design, advertising, sometimes a whole new
personality along with the business name. The key is to
make sure all of those elements work together and portray
the same image. Find that one look or message that
describes your business and stick with it. Use the same
colour scheme, fonts and design on all your communication
materials – business cards, letterheads, brochures, web
site and e-newsletters.

However, you can't live on branding and image alone. Public
Relations – relationships – are still the key to successful
business practice. You need to continue to communicate
consistently with your customers and clients. Branding is
more than just a pretty cover – it's about the total
customer experience. Your brand needs to have some impact
to help you generate leads, make sales and develop new
relationships with your clients.

You want your business to leave an impression – on your
customers, your employees, your suppliers, the media and
the public at large. But you still need to have
accountability. You need to follow through with great
customer service, quality of management and products and
services.

Make sure customers are happy with the end product and the
service you provide. Be vigilant with every contact you
have with your clients and help build the overall company
brand and image.

What about personal image? There is no doubt that personal
presentation plays a big part in succeeding in your career
and business operations. They say that 67% of first
impressions are accurate. What sort of first impression are
you making?

Take some time to do a bit of self-analysis and look at
plus and minus personality traits. Things like sloppy dress
and bad manners can be your worst enemy. We invest a lot of
time, money and effort into our establishing our businesses
or upgrading our skills for the job, why not invest a bit
of effort into ourselves. We're worth it!

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Sue Currie, the director of Shine Communications
Consultancy and author of Apprentice to Business Ace – your
inside-out guide to personal branding, is a business
educator and speaker on personal branding through image and
media. Sign up for free monthly tips on personal and
professional PR at
http://www.shinecomms.com.au/contactmanager/default.cfm
and learn more about how you can achieve recognition,
enhance your image and shine.