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The Business Review

Are Your ListeningEars On?, Page 4

Women in BusinessFeature Page 2

April - June 2012In This Issue....

InadvertentInternet

Insults, Page 6

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It started as a one-time, over-the-top event; a farewell tothe show that defined sass and style, HBO's "Sex and theCity." Today, Success in the City is comprised of some ofthe most influential business leaders in the Metro D.C.Area. The uniqueness of Success in the City has not goneunnoticed since it launched as a bona fide memberorganization in 2008. The Washington Post called Successin the City The Pink Collar Network. Since the launch ofSuccess in the City in 2008, the organization has grown tomore than 4,000 avid followers and is looking forward tolaunching chapters in cities across the U.S. and eveninternationally in the coming years. Cynthia is the host of“Chick Chat” an internet television platform focusing onsuccessful women business owners.

www.successinthecity.net

omen in BusinessThese Women mean Business!

Cynthia De Lorenzi, Success in the City

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Selena Townsend, Homewatch CaregiversSelena Townsend is truly passionate about her ownershipof Homewatch CareGivers. She has earned the JointCommission's Gold Seal and was recently nominated forthe prestigious 2012 Women in Business Award. "Let ourfamily care of yours" is the motto she stands by, alongwith her mission to preserve dignity, protect indepen-dence and provide peace of mind to her patients &their loved ones. Selena is proud to announce her latestproject & passion: "Pathways to Memory”, a specializeddementia care program consisting of individual, person-alized sessions, conducted by intensively trained care-givers. The patient is able to exercise their brain andbuild self-confidence in a "failure-free" environment, im-proving their quality of life". Homewatch CareGivers hasbeen selected as a winner of the 2012 Best of Jackson-ville Awards in the Home Health Care Nurses category bythe Jacksonville Award Program committee.

www.homewatchcaregivers.com

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Marsha Doll is the host of Magical Makeovers withMarsha Doll on ABC27HD, President of Marsha DollModels and Promotions, Inc. and it’s subsidiaryPromogirl.com. What started out as a modestagency based out of Tallahassee has grown into alarge promotions agency with over 40,000 modelsnationwide. From Los Angeles to Jacksonville,Marsha’s models can help promote your products.Growing up in Perry, Florida Marsha accompaniedher family many times to the Atlanta apparel mart,springing a love of fashion. Some of Marsha’s dis-coveries include Brittany Bower from America’sNext Top Model. Marsha is the host of NYCModel/Actor Summer Camp and the author ofModeling Totally Exposed, a book on how to getstarted in modeling.

www.marshadollmodels.com

Marsha Doll, Marsha Doll Models

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Kerry Heaps, Omega ImageOmega Image is a full service image consulting firmbased in Jacksonville, Florida. After a brief career inModeling Kerry soon found herself on the other sideof the industry, teaching modeling and acting class-es and booking talent at a major modeling schooland agency. Omega Image focuses on helpingboth Men and Women finding their best colors forclothing and makeup. Omega Image boasts itsown cosmetic line, K|Kouture. Kerry is proud toannounce that Omega Image is re-launching theironline color analysis program. Customers can findtheir best colors in the privacy of their own home.The color analysis includes results within 24 hours, adetailed assessment and a color card that easily fitsin your wallet or purse, easy and affordable!

www.omegaimage.com

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Quite often, this isbecause they areuncomfortable with thesales process. Thisuneasiness causes themto focus on how they arecommunicating, feeling,reacting. They aren’t ‘inthe moment.’ But goodlistening skills are essentialto successful sales efforts.It is essential that youmaster the ability to useyour ‘listening ears.’

Whenever you are havinga conversation withsomeone, focus on whatthat person is saying.Really absorb their words,intonation, and bodylanguage. Capture whatis truly going on with thatperson. This may takepractice. It is well worththe effort. The better youget at listening, the moreconfidence others willhave in you. The morethey will believe that youare genuinely interestedin their needs, wants, anddesires. And, therefore,the more willing they willbe to do business withyou.

So, watch yourself.Practice better listeningskills with your friends andfamily.

Anyone who has hadchildren in daycare dur-ing the past 15 years hasheard the term ‘listeningears.’ Children are askedto put theirs on all thetime. Interestingly, weforget that rule as adults.

What ears do you listenwith? To your co-workers,clients, prospects, family,friends? When it comesto the sales process, thiscan be a minefield. Toomany salespeople havetheir focus in the wrongplace and therefore,their listening ears aren’ton. They are usually think-ing about the next ques-tion they want to ask, orthe next point they wantto make.

The problem with this isthat they miss importantinformation. Not only dothey not hear vital infor-mation, but they leavetheir prospect with theimpression that they areonly interested in thesale. They don’t reallycare about the needs,pains, desires of theirprospect. This can bedeadly. This same issueapplies – on a greaterlevel, I believe – to smallbusiness owners whowear the ‘sales’ hat.

Remind yourself to putyour listening ears on atthe beginning of theconversation. Keep aneye on how you listen.Make any necessary ad-justments during a con-versation – especially ifyou find yourself thinkingabout your next state-ment or question. Re-peat back to the otherperson the things theyjust said. This is a greatway to confirm for your-self that you are listeningwell. The better you getat using your listeningears, the more you’lllearn about other peo-ple. You’ll be amazed atall you discover aboutthe people and worldaround you.

Copyright © 2012Seize This Day Coaching.

216-534-2030,Diane Helbig

Are your listening ears on?By: Diane Helbig

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nadvertent Internet Insults:Avoid defamation in Blogs & Social Media

By: Jo-Anne Yau

Sites like Yelp give membersthe opportunity to write a re-view about anything:  restau-rants, health care, and evenreligious organizations.  Whilethe intent is for bona fide con-sumers to give feedback, com-petitors have been known towrite unflattering critiques.  Be-cause potential customerscannot differentiate betweenthe consumers’ and the com-petitors’ feedback, their overallimpression of the business is af-fected by any negative com-ments that competitors mayhave left.

This is not to say that negativefeedback or reviews are all de-famatory.  Everyone is entitledto express an opinion.  As longas the opinion can be substan-tiated in good faith, it is not libelor slander.  Thus, the hard-to-please critique should beready to defend the opinion

with facts.  For instance, thecomment, “Yummy Pizza, Inc. isYucky Pizza, Ick!” is accept-able, as long as the writer canexplain that a soggy crust oracidic sauce led to an un-pleasant experience.  Even ifsome people may enjoy soggy,acidic pizza, those who do notare entitled to voice their sub-stantiated opinions.

Furthermore, the truth can nev-er be defamatory.

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IDefamation can also oc-cur when those state-ments deter others fromassociating with a personor business.  There aretwo ways in which defa-mation manifests itself.Libel is when defamationoccurs in written form,such as in a Facebookpost or in a tweet.  Defa-mation can also be in theform of slander, wherethe injurious statementsare spoken, like in a vid-eo blog.

Well-intentioned effortsto create buzz can back-fire when inaccuratestatements are madeabout another business.A recent case that hascaught nationwide at-tention is the lawsuitagainst Taco Bell, accus-ing them of not using real

beef in their food.  Al-though that lawsuit wasdropped because TacoBell did, in fact, use realbeef, the fast food mo-gul was forced to spendalmost $4 million to com-bat the negative publici-ty about the quality oftheir product.  To date,Taco Bell has not retaliat-ed with a lawsuit for libelor slander.

Creating a name foryourself and your busi-ness has always beencritical.  Catering to thewhims of capricious mar-ket demands has alwaysbeen a challenge, but ithas never been easierthan in today’s techno-logical age.

Most people and busi-nesses use social net-working for theirmarketing needs.  The In-ternet has become afree speech forum, towhich everyone has im-mediate and anony-mous access.  Whilesocial media and blog-ging web sites are virtualsoapboxes for compli-ments and complaints,savvy businesses also usethese media for their cy-ber commercials andvideos.  Accordingly,while promoting prod-ucts, services, and agood reputation, caremust be taken not towrongfully tarnish a

competitor’s image.  Aninadvertent insult canlead to a lawsuit for libelor defamation.

Most commonly, defa-mation is the injuring ofanother’s reputation withfalse statements.

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“Everyone is entitled to express anopinion.  As long as the opinion canbe substantiated in good faith, it isnot libel or slander.”

  If a patient tweets, “Don’t trustthe doctors at ABC Clinic.They’re sick—literally!” thestatement is permissible if thephysician performing the ex-amination was ill with a com-municable disease.

When people compare theirbusiness to others in the industryin blogs or on social media,care must be taken to notmake inaccurate representa-tions about their competitors.While opinions must be substan-tiated, the truth can never belibelous or slanderous.

Controlling Internet Presence

Businesses face a problem inthe anonymous comments andpostings in most of today’swebsites and the lack of ac-countability by the ISPs (Internetservice providers).  Due to theanonymous nature of the Inter-net, millions can post state-ments while hiding behindscreen names and pseud-onyms.  Complaint boards likeRip Off Report allow people topost their complaints, mostly list-ed anonymously, but they usu-ally come across asdefamatory statements.  Thedifficulty lies in the law becausethe ISPs are immune from suit.To date, the only solution is tosue the person who posted thedefamatory comments.

The solution lies in vigilance.Many businesses regularly mon-itor the Internet, searching forreferences to their name, em-ployees, products, or services.

Get away from it all in this excellent location.

While this can be donein-house, standardpractice for almost allbusinesses is to marketthrough Twitter, Face-book, LinkedIn, and in-dustry-specific sites.Since diligent Internetsearches can be over-whelming, outsourcingthis task to online repu-tation management(“ORM”) services isgaining popularity.ORM services not onlycatch defamatorystatements, they can al-so find instances ofcopyright infringement,trademark or brand mis-appropriation, or otherlegal concerns.

ORM services often re-port to a business’ law-yers.

  Those lawyers then usecomputer forensics, IPaddress traces, andother investigationmethods to determinewhether action can betaken against the par-ties who made the injuri-ous representations.The attorneys can helpissue take-down notic-es, send cease and de-sist letters, and get thecourts involved in dis-pute resolution.

Jo-Anne Yau is an attor-ney based in Jackson-ville, Florida.

www.yaulaw.com

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