But many of these banks are still desperate for increased income and are looking for other, less obvious ways to increase fees. Readers of our various Silkin Management Group blog sites should be aware of some of these potential new or increased charges and see if their bank is implementing any of them. Here are some of the potential new or increased charges we ran across:

• Charging for replacing a lost credit or debit card. (Bank of America is now charging $5 for this, $20 if it is a rush delivery).

• Bank wires. These are often charged for, but many banks are greatly increasing the per-wire charge. I’ve noticed as much of an increase as 3 times the previous amount.

• Increased charges for ATM cash withdrawals.

• Charging for sending paper statements.

• Overdraft charges.

• Raising minimum account balances to qualify for some fee waivers.

• Higher monthly fees on many checking accounts.

Banks have recently lost about $12 billion a year in income due to recent rules reducing fees for credit card swipes and overdraft charges. They are also making less money on loans due to lower interest rates being charged. Losses are estimated on this at $8 billion. That’s a lot of money to make up for. It looks like they are going to try to get this money back one way or the other through the types of charges noted above. I’m sure they will be looking for additional “less obvious” charges as well to sneak by us. That’s why many people are changing to smaller banks that aren’t “too big to fail” and credit unions. As Alan Greenspan once said, “if they’re too big to fail, they’re too big”.

Silkin Management Group clients and other readers of our Silkin Management Group blog sites should keep an eye out for what their bank may or may not be doing that could cost them and their patients and clients more money.

Jack Hennessy
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group, visit www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

Silkin Manaagement Group blog sites normally present articles that are relevant to the majority of Silkin Management Group clients – small business owners who are primarily health care practice owners. We’ve presented numerous articles concerning health care legislation, job descriptions and office policies, dealing with employees and other matters relevant to small business owners, whether Silkin Management Group clients or not. Today, though, I read an article in the New York Times that was so wild, I thought I’d pass it along as relevant information to where this country is at.

Four men, ranging in age from 65 to 73 were arrested in Georgia for conspiracy to blow up government buildings as well as potentially poisoning large numbers of people. One of the men, Ray Adams who is 65 years of age, regularly played Santa Claus for the local Masons. Friends described him as a mild-mannered, elder gentleman. They couldn’t believe he, or the others, were involved in such a plot.

Unfortunately there was ample evidence against the four men (Ray Adams, 65, Dan Roberts, 67, Sam Crump, 68 and Fred Thomas, 73) including a recording by
Thomas which stated, “There’s two schools of thought on this: go for the feds or go for the locals. We’d have to blow the whole building like Timothy McVeigh.”

Additional evidence presented included several dozen castor bean plants that produce ricin, which is fatal if taken even in small doses, a dozen guns, toxic plant guides, knives and notebooks with relevant information including involvement in militias.

Either the feds have this all wrong by arresting a bunch of old guys, or the state of this country is deteriorating faster than I thought. For much more information on this situation you can link to the entire NY Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/us/georgia-men-held-in-plot-to-attack-government.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Gary Crawshaw

Silkin Management Group Consultant

Visit Silkin Management Group’s website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com or give us a call at 800-695-0257.

For starters, there are no exact rules published by the IRS on this matter. It is up to the individual to make sure that any deductions are legitimate and be able to defend them to the IRS. Always consult with your accountant regarding this before taking any deductions.

As a general guideline your home office space must be used regularly and exclusively for business purposes. For example, paying bills while sitting in front of the TV doesn’t qualify your living room as a business space. At the same time, if you have a specific area of a certain room that is used regularly and exclusively for business purposes, that area can be deductible. For example, in my household, my wife has a built-in desk area in a corner of our kitchen that is used all the time by her exclusively for her business. We are therefore able to deduct the costs related to the space.

The types of costs that can be deducted are determined by what percent of your home the space takes up. If, for example, the space takes up 10% of the square footage of your house, you can deduct 10% of related costs such as utilities and taxes. You can also deduct direct expenses for the space such as painting, wallpaper, furniture, etc.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the area must be used regularly and exclusively for business purposes. And again, as we regularly tell Silkin Management Group clients, always consult with a good tax accountant before declaring any such deduction.

Dave McKevitt
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

Today I read an article in the New York Times that presents an interesting twist on the use, or lack of use, of national surveys in a communist country – China. The article was all about China cracking down on media and Internet freedoms that the people of China have had the privilege of for some years now.

As one example, two days ago the government agency that controls radio, film and television issued an edict that the 34 major TV stations could present only two 90 minute entertainment shows per week. This is a huge change from what was allowed in the past. Additionally the same agency ordered the TV stations to broadcast every day two hours of state approved news broadcasts, no matter what the ratings were. Ratings are a form of surveying the audience watching shows to determine what they like or don’t like. All broadcasters in a free country use this type of surveying to determine what to broadcast. But what these edicts in China show is that if you are a totalitarian country, you don’t care what your populace wants, you only care what the leadership wants. History shows us that such activity eventually results in revolution, as recently witnessed in the uprisings throughout the Middle East.

Whether you are a government official, elected official, marketing professional, media person or business owner, you must survey those people you serve to find out their needs and wants if you want to be successful in the long run. In the short run, I suppose if you control enough force you can do what you want no matter what the people like. But this rarely works in business and rarely works in the long run even when running a country.

“Know before you go” is the motto of any good marketing person or individual in charge of anything that deals with a customer base (which would certainly include the populace of a country).

For more information about how Silkin Management Group can help you with the marketing of your business including surveying your customers, visit Silkin Management Group’s website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com You can also call Silkin Management Group at 800-695-0257.

Scott Barnard
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Here’s what happened with Netflix. First, during the summer Netflix raised prices which was very unpopular amongst their customers. They had been a low priced ($10 a month) easy to use subscription service that allowed their customers to access movies and TV shows over the internet and/or through DVDs sent in the mail. They had millions of subscribers. But they found their income insufficient as their costs increased to license new material for their streaming internet service. Thus the price increase. But they didn’t properly survey their customers to find out the best way to communicate the price increase and ended up with lots of unhappy customers and a loss of subscribers.

That was the least of their mistakes. Last month, with little to no warning to their customer base, they then divided their movie rental service in two: one offered DVD rentals in the mail (their original business model) and one service offered streaming movies and TV shows over the internet. Did they survey their customers regarding this major change? No. Was this change something that their subscribers would like? Since they didn’t survey, they didn’t know. So they made a huge business decision that severely affected every single customer without talking to their customers.

The result: a loss of 800,000 subscribers and a decline in their stock price from over $300 a share to $76 as of yesterday. In one day, yesterday, their stock dropped by a whopping 32%!

The morale of the story for any business, and something we teach all Silkin Management Group clients, is survey your customers before making any major business decision that will severely affect your relationship with your customers. “Know before you go” is the motto here.

Gary Crawshaw
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For further information about how Silkin Management Group can help you survey your customer base for marketing and/or business decisions, contact us at 800-695-0257. You can also visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

One of the touchiest areas in any business activity concerns firing employees. This is something that Silkin Management Group clients are often confused about, especially when new to our program. When a client is uncertain about how to go about letting an employee go, we always recommend that they consult a good employment attorney before taking any action as this is a highly litigious area of business management.

In any case, after working with many excellent employment attorneys and reading numerous articles on the subject, we have gleaned some important points that any business owner, whether a Silkin Management Group client or not, should be aware of when looking at letting an employee go.

• Documentation. Document, document, document all the errors and/or wrong doings that have occurred. This is most important if the employee violated clear company policy, most particularly a zero tolerance policy.

• When you sit down to let an employee go…keep it simple! Don’t get into long drawn out conversations about what they did wrong or to try to sympathize with them. Keep it simple. You can simply say, “Things just didn’t work out so we are letting you go”. If they ask for reasons why, just stick to the simple answer.

• Have another person there to witness the firing. You want to do this in cases the employee attempts to attack back legally and claim you said something you didn’t.

• Don’t get into arguments with the person. Again, keep it simple. If they object, get belligerent, argumentative, nasty, etc., just stay calm, have a witness and repeat the simple reason they are being let go and escort them out.

The best preventative measure is hiring the right of people. That’s where Silkin Management Group comes in. Through teaching our clients proper recruiting and testing techniques on applicants, we greatly increase the odds of hiring the proper person for the relevant job.

If you’d like more information about how Silkin Management Group can help you with hiring, training and handling employees, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

Bill Hickey

Most clients new to Silkin Management Group want to increase the number of new patients into their office, and we have researched and developed a large number of marketing and promotional activities that, when properly implemented, get results in any practice.

Silkin Management Group clients are primarily dentists, veterinarians and optometrists. Today we’ll present some successful dental specific promotional actions and follow-up over the next few days with similar articles for veterinarians and optometrists.

SPECIFIC DENTAL OFFICE PROMOTIONS

• Do dental screenings on pre-school and private school children.

• Create cosmetic dentistry portfolios and place them in beauty salons and modeling agencies with your business card.

• Create alliances with pediatricians to bring children into the practice. Invite pediatricians and their staff into your office.

• Promote Dental Health Month in your office.

• Create pictures and diagrams for specific dental procedures to help educate patients more thoroughly.

• Place before and after pictures of cosmetic dentistry results around your office.

• Send out a monthly newsletter that continually educates your patient base on dental health and dental procedures.

• Call your patients after a major procedure and make sure they are doing ok.

• Have videos playing around the office that educates your patients on dental procedures, dental health and cosmetic dentistry.

These are just a few of the many successful actions that Silkin Management Group consultants use with our clients. There are many, many more that are proven, workable procedures. If you’d like more information about how Silkin Management Group can help you get more new patients, give us a call at 800-695-0257.

Gary Crawshaw
Silkin Management Group Consultant

We have found that internal marketing is the least expensive form of promotion. Asking for referrals is just one aspect of that. Below you will find some other successful internal marketing ideas that Silkin Management Group consultants work with their clients on.

• Ask for referrals!
• Don’t forget to ask for referrals! (But make sure you know how to do it correctly so the patient doesn’t feel hounded.)
• Send patients birthday cards.
• Send out a quarterly newsletter.
• Put up a new patient welcome board in the reception room.
• Send thank-you letters to patients/clients who refer.
• The doctor and staff should hand out business cards anywhere and everywhere that is appropriate.
• Post the purpose of the practice in the reception area.
• Make post-care calls to patients/clients to ensure they are doing well. This shows you really care.
• Give tours of the office to school children.
• Offer family discounts for cash payments.
• Promote patient/client appreciation month.
• Reward referring patients/clients by sending them a gift card for a movie or dinner, etc.
• Put up educational posters or videos in treatment rooms.
• Participate in health fairs.
• Give brisk, on time service.
• Smile on the phone.
• All staff always look patients/clients in the eye…don’t be looking elsewhere as that communicates disinterest. Be interested in the patient/client.

This is only about half of the list of simple, successful promotional ideas that any office can implement for little to no cost. These simple things make your office more known and well thought of. And that’s what brings in new patients. Silkin Management Group clients learn this early on in their Silkin program.

If you have any questions about how Silkin Management Group can help you get more new patients, give us a call at 800-695-0257 or visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

Scott Barnard
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Along those lines:

Did you know that, per the Kaiser Family Foundation, this year the typical health care insurance premium for a family went up by 9% while pay went up only an average of 2%?

Did you know that this same foundation reports that the cost of an average family policy is now over $15,000 per year?

Did you know that nearly one third of the increase comes from new benefits mandated by the Affordable Care Act?  I would use the word “affordable” advisedly!

Did you know that next year insurance premiums are expected to go up by over 5%?

More than likely workers who have some or all of their coverage paid for by their employers will find themselves with significant increases in their deductibles so their employer can attempt to reign in their costs. This will shift more of the cost burden to the individual employees. And those people who pay for insurance out of their own pocket will either face significant increased costs and/or also be forced to raise their deductible to a much higher level. Hopefully, once the Act is implemented, the insurance pools will lower the costs somewhat for all involved, but frankly I’m not counting on it.

Whether you are a Silkin Management Group client or not it behooves you to keep an eye on the implementation of this legislation and how it may affect you, your family, your co-workers and/or employees. We will continue to write about it along with any updates on our various Silkin Management Group blog sites.

Jack Hennessy
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group and our practice management services, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

As noted in our September 23rd Silkin Management Group blog, there have been 4 different rulings on 4 different attempts to overturn this legislation. Two rulings have upheld the law, two have overturned it. One of the strongest rulings against the legislation occurred in August with the Federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. That Court stated that Congress had exceeded its powers to regulate commerce by mandating that every person in the country has to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty if they don’t.

The Obama administration has been mulling over whether to appeal this ruling to the full 11 member 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta or go directly to the Supreme Court. To that end, the Justice Department recently announced that they will abstain from an appeal to the 11th Circuit which could take months and months and delay getting the matter to the Supreme Court until 2013. Forgoing an appeal to the Atlanta court means that the Justice Department can go directly to the Supreme Court and ask for the Court to schedule the case to be heard in its next term.

The 11th Circuit Courts ruling came from a lawsuit filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The administration will argue that the mandate is a necessary regulation to prevent some citizens from taking advantage of tax payers who support the health care system, while the opposition will continue to argue that such a mandate is unconstitutional.

Due to the extreme importance of the outcome of these appeals, we will keep readers of our various Silkin Management Group blog sites up to date on any new developments concerning these lawsuits.

Eric Korb
Senior Consultant for Silkin Management Group

For more information about Silkin Management Group, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com