Welcome to Talk to the Pros. Hi, this is the Talk to the Pros videocast, and I’m
Richard Martin, the producer. Living life and doing business is certainly complex
these days—much more so than in my father’s day. And with that comes a greater
complexity in making good decisions about your life and business. Let me ask you
a question. Have you ever said, “If I only knew then what I know now, I would
have….” What? “Bought a different, less expensive, more efficient car?” Or, “Done
business with that other insurer?” Maybe, “Finished school?” Or, “Learned how
to eat healthier?” How about, “Gone into a different profession?” There are so
many decisions in life we must make every day. And we make them, but often they
are based on incomplete or wrong information. And, consequently, some of these
decisions will be Ok, but others may be very regrettable and ultimately cost you
time, pain, anguish, money, and even your health.
Talk to the Pros is enlisting
professionals to talk to you about the ins and outs of their professions. They
will be sharing some of their mistakes with you in the hopes you can avoid them.
They will be telling you about the actual pitfalls and unforeseen consequences
of some businesses and life-defining decisions and how to overcome them or avoid
them entirely. They will also be alerting you of specific questions to ask and
other new information in order to steer clear of those pitfalls.
Talk to the Pros
has already interviewed professionals from the categories of 1) life and business
coaching, 2) real estate, 3) personal finance, 4) the bed and breakfast industry,
and 5) merchant accounts, who get right down to the nitty gritty of these businesses.
These professionals will be your mentors, your advocates, your champions. They
are real people, not actors with a script to read. You will be able to hear and
see the sincerity with which they speak about their experiences in order to help
you, our viewers.
The navigation bar of our Talk to the Pros webcast lists business
categories. Clicking on the business category will highlight the topics that can
be addressed. For example, the category “Real Estate” may list the topics “Residential
Home Sales,” “Commercial Real Estate Sales,” “Remodeling,” “How to Pick a Good
Contractor,” and so on. Each of those topics may be explored by our selected professional
in one or, perhaps, several segments—however many is necessary to completely arm
our viewers with pithy, helpful, hopefully new information about the subject matter.
For example, the “Residential Home Sales” topic currently features our professional
realtor Lorrie Parker being interviewed in the segment concerning “What a Seller
Needs to be Aware of at Listing Time.” Other segments may include “How to Find
a Good Realtor in Your Area,” or “What Net Return Can I Expect on the Sale of
My Home?”, or “What Upgrades Should I Perform to Make My House More Appealing?”,
or “Should I Sell Now or Wait for the Economy to Increase?”
The format of our
webcast (?)
www.talktothepros.tv is
an easy-to-watch interview-style video telecast of about 3 to 4 minutes for each
segment. We are expecting to add new business and life categories and appropriate
topics continually. We eventually hope to have a telephone directory’s catalogue
of business people giving you insight, advice, and new information about their
businesses to enable you to make better life and business decisions.
Let me give
you an example of what awaits you on
www.talktothepros.tv
. I was interviewed for several segments on the topic of Merchant Accounts under
the Banking and Finance category. A “merchant account” is what allows a merchant
to take a customer’s credit card payment for his goods or services. When I was
in another retail business, I signed up with a merchant account provider through
a representative who, unfortunately, just wanted that sales commission. And, unfortunately
for me, the provider kept changing the rules and was soaking me with hidden fees
in a statement that could not be understood and reconciled with reality.
I eventually
caught on and found another provider whose statements were easy to read and understand.
And his representative didn’t try to oversell me on the minimum equipment I needed
to operate my business. Well, when I sold my retail business, I decided that I
could be a big help to other small-business owners with their merchant accounts
what with all my hard-earned knowledge. I went to work as and Independent Sales
Organization for one of the largest and most well-respected merchant account providers
in the world.
And in my first segment I offer you, our viewers, a list of 12 questions
that every small-business owner should ask a provider’s representative when considering
taking on a merchant account. The list will also help you to compare various providers’
services on a “level playing field” when shopping for the best terms and services.
This is just a small sample of the kind of “now” information that we want to provide
for our viewers--the “plain, unvarnished truths” that seem to be so hard to come
by in some businesses today.
And, maybe you will come to the realization that
you have some information that can be of value to others, too. If so, and if you
would like to participate and lend a helping hand to other businesspeople, call
us. We’ll explore the possibilities. See you all on
www.talktothepros.tv
soon. Have a great day!
