The Verizon Authors Series was designed to bring experts to small businesses.  All this month we gave away featured author, Alan Gregerman’s book Surrounded by Geniuses.  We will give away more of Alan’s book the rest of this week.

On Wednesday, April 27^th at 2 p.m. EST Alan will host a live (free) webinar presented by the Verizon Small Business Center and then be available for an hour on Twitter on Thursday, April 28^th at 2 p.m. EST to answer questions and offer advice.

I urge all businesses to seize these two opportunities to get insights from Alan Gregerman. Consider it a free consultation with a business expert so why not participate? 

How has your week been? Lots of interesting stories in the news these days.  Check out these articles below that may be pertinent to your business.

All business knows customers are key, but some customers are just toxic… this article offers tips on how to handle them.

Your company like my may have a Facebook page… the biggest challenge is to keep your fans engaged and to get more fans.  This article has some interesting facts about when to post and how to engage.

Each of us thinks we’re important (some more so than others) especially when we’re putting money down to buy something or pay for a service.  That’s when we all want the very best treatment.  It only makes sense as we can always take our hard-earned money and spend it elsewhere.

I, like many of you, have experienced excellent, good, mediocre and very bad service.  When my experience is good, it makes me feel all warm inside and I want to tell anyone and everyone about it.

Conversely, when the experience is aggravating or borderline insulting, I get so angry I am more inclined to share my terrible experience with everyone.  That’s why we see so many comments on websites like Yelp; Urbanspoon; Angie’s List and other sites that allow anyone to post a review... which can help your business or break it.  Be reminded that people love to talk and share stories.