Linux is simply known as the number one alternative for Windows operating systems and is also popularly used by many small and big companies all over the world. Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991and it features a system similar to the Unix system, a system known to replace Minux. Linux is also known for its open source system operation wherein a particular user gets a specific source code with their operating system’s copy. Linux also comes with different ‘flavors’ and some of the popular ones include Ubuntu and RedHat.

Linux LAMP – all Linux plans come with LAMP, a software bundle that provides lots of options to users like Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, and Python. All of these features are great for advanced websites that need any sort of database.

Security Performance – Linux is considered as a safer alternative than Windows operating systems for web hosting. Since security is well-observed, users will have the best privilege to expect more uptime and greater reliability with Linux. Linux can also run for a longer period of time so this will not require you to keep on rebooting over and over again.

Price – there is a great significance in looking at the price of the two operating systems; this is especially true for average users or consumers. In reality, there is big difference between the two systems as Linux often comes with cheaper and more affordable price than the other. With a cheap price combined with great reliability, Linux is truly the best choice for you.

Autocratic management style
An autocratic management style is exactly how it is described. This style is grounded on a set of presumptions about the employee’s behavior and attitudes, these set of presumptions encompassed in a theory entitled “theory X” formulated by the late Harvard business school professor Douglas McGregor. Theory X takes a rather cynical view towards the lowly employee, its assumptions being: the employee doesn’t like to work, is a feckless follower, acts purely for the benefits of oneself, narrow-mindedness and shows foolish naivety. From this basis, it is expected that the employees are to obey their manager unconditionally, the employee’s views on how the company can be improved are seen as worthless. Managers who adopt this set type of behaviours and thought patterns feel elation due to the absolute power they wield which in turn inflates their egos and makes their employees feel resentment due to their manager’s oppressive behavior much like a tyrannical monarch or emperor in the days of old. This practical application of theory X is called the hard approach.
There are two types of an autocratic manager, one being a “directive autocrat” and the other being a “permissive autocrat”. The “directive autocrat” is one who makes decisions entirely by themselves and holds a firm grip on the activities of their employees. The “permissive autocrat” is one who makes decisions entirely by themselves but gives a small measure of freedom to their employees to go about carrying out their orders. The autocratic style is best suited where obeying the decision of the manager is of prime importance especially when the subordinates have little experience themselves (professions such as those in the army or the government) or when the manager is dealing with subordinates who lack the motivation and passion.
The major disadvantage of the autocratic management style can be observed when McGregor combines theory X with Maslow’s theory of human needs called ‘the hierarchy of needs” (note: Maslow’s theory of needs will be explained a little further on in this article). McGregor claims that once a human need has been fulfilled, there is no motivation or will. In the context of business, theory X hinders the employees to work at their full potential because their higher needs such as social interaction (e.g. love intimacy) and self-development (e.g. sense of purpose) are not being satisfied. To counter this deficiency, money is used to inefficiently fulfill the employee’s lower needs (e.g. self-validation, security etc.) Thus the employees are unhappy and are hesitant to work effectively so the autocratic management style is not efficient.

Paternalistic management style
Paternalistic management style is similar to the autocratic style in that the manager has overall control of the company and expects his/ her orders to be obeyed when given to the subordinates. However one important criterion of paternalistic management style that separates it from an autocratic style is that while an autocratic style demands that subordinates submit themselves to the will of their manager and in doing so generate resentment among the employees, a paternalistic style of management avoids this as the manager will listen to the needs of their employees to an extent and will issue commands on the basis of benefiting their subordinates and the business as a whole. Paternalistic management style can be considered to be the soft approach in the practical application of theory X. This type of approach has links with the psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory in which Maslow theorised that humans, in particular workers of a business have a set category of needs placed in order of priority with the lowest being basic needs e.g. eating, sleeping etc, the next need being safety e.g. the need to feel self- validated such as accomplishing a university degree, earning high salary etc and the next two category of needs being of a social and self developmental nature (an example of the former being love, intimacy etc and an example for the latter being to formulate a unique moral code, finding one’s own purpose in life etc.). It is at these two stages at a particular stage in an employee’s life that the paternalistic style of management is best to be employed to help fulfill the employee’s social and self-developmental needs by the manager providing close supervision to them while they work and forming a close relationship with them by exchanging views.

Democratic management style
The democratic style of management is a multilateral approach that involves the manager empowering his /her employees to share decisions with the manager listening to all views and finding the best overall decision from the amalgamation of the views he/ she deems useful for the company after much deliberation and time. However, rather than the democracy of Western countries, democracy in the context of business management requires the ability to form well informed opinions on the part of the company employees. Due to the employee’s views and input being taken into account for a business process e.g. being instrumental in designing or implementing improvements of a product or service i.e. innovation from a broad spectrum of people and at the same time realize the significance and effect their decisions may have on the company’s future may well feel obligated to put more effort into completing their assigned roles. Not only do empowered employees feel obligated to work harder but they also required less supervision by managers as they are encouraged to collectively think together. Hence it could be said that the democratic style of management can be likened to laissez faire style of management in some respects.
The drawbacks of the democratic style of management is that the time taken to make a decision and enact is far longer than the other systems and there is a possibility that the manager may lose importance towards the employees as the manager is seen to be unable to make a decision for himself/ herself. The other problem is that there is such a diversity of viewpoints given to the manager that it initially perplexes him/ her and makes it harder for the manager to formulate a decision.

Laissez faire management style
The laissez-faire style of management involves the manager having minimal control of the activities of their subordinates. The style of the great American business man, Warren Buffett is what best exemplifies the effective use of this management style. It is best employed when the subordinates are highly trained and motivated such as doctors and PhD students where the progress of their work is monitored by the supervising manager and given feedback and advice. The disadvantage of a laissez-faire style is that the employees may feel neglected due to lack of guidance most likely as the manager is incompetent and doesn’t intentionally employ this style for the benefit of the company. The employee is also seen to be not recognized and rewarded for superb work they might have done. Another crucial disadvantage is that since a certain amount of autonomy is granted from the overseeing manager to the employees and lower ranking managers, unchecked discretion is given to them in dealing with disputes and other matters within their respective branch or organization. If in the case that a small dispute grows uncontrollably, it will damage the overseeing manager’s reputation and the company as a whole (as in the case with Warren Buffett).
Not only are the autocratic, paternalistic, democratic and laissez-faire management styles available at the manager’s disposal and discretion but other factors are involved that are crucial for a manager to successfully manage his/ her own business, these factors being the ability to adopt an unorthodox approach, good judgment when making and acting on decisions at key phases of the company, awareness of external factors that have a considerable effect on the company as well as to structure their systems in the most simplistic way as well as encourage their employees to simplify problems.

Unorthodox management style
Normally, mainstream society tends to not have a favourable view towards individuals who do not conform to what mainstream society expects of them. This is due to these special types of individuals being misunderstood in terms of their different way of thinking, behavior, appearance etc and so are consequently shunned and ostracized. However, it is in the realms of business, science and other spheres of interest deemed exclusive by the majority that these rare breed of people excel in. It has been known that preeminent businessmen were or are rich due to the unique way they thought and approached their business such as John D. Rockefeller.
What is the most popular or favoured by the majority does not necessarily mean it is correct as shown by the flaws in modern democracy and so it can be said for business where in cases in which a non-conformist manager experiments with new ways of handling a business, this leads to success as a result of implementing these novel ideas. Recognizing an improvement or a set of improvements within a business system should be seen as a good thing as it can lead to lower costs and more efficiency instead of shrugging off these proposals which conservative managers tend to do. A good business manager is one who recognises these improvements, asks himself/ herself what are the disadvantages and advantages of such a novel idea being implemented and if advantages outweigh the disadvantages, the manager implements them immediately. Being unorthodox also spares the manager from having to worry about following conventions or spending more money due to these conventions.

Types of CRM
The types of CRM are sales force automaton, marketing, customer service and support, appointment and analytics. Sales force automaton is a software used to minimize the time sales representatives spend on each phase of the sales process as well as minimizing the number of sales representatives required to manage clients, marketing helps businesses identify and target potential clients as well as to generate ways of finding new clients, Appointment is a software used to create and schedule appointments with customers via email and Analytics is a software used to understand client’s actions and preferences by looking at sales forecasting.

Context of CRM
To put CRM into perspective, it is necessary to mention that prior to CRM being conceptualised and put into action, the relationship between a customer and the company was rather simplistic and distant in that the company was represented by a single person that would trade with the customer. In contrast, the current view of the relationship between the customer and the company involves a much deeper understanding and greater appreciation of the complex needs of the customer i.e. the needs of the customer are unique to that customer so customers are to be treated differently, the needs of the customer are to be determined before any trade begins, the needs of the customer are to be kept in mind while communication is being conducted between the company and the customer in order for the company to illicit positive reactions from the customer and as mentioned before the needs of the customer have to be kept in mind when the company aims to maintain a long term relationship with the customer
The consequences of not being able to implement good CRM are that costs to the company increase as more funds are required to gain new customers compared to retaining current customers, customers are frustrated with having to wait for their problems to be solved as well as having to talk to an automated, unsympathetic voice while utilising their customer services.
Effective implementation of CRM will cause the company to change fundamentally in its attitude such as viewing the customer to be of greater significance, the service to customers not being viewed as a burden and interaction with the customer being important.

Basic concept of the relationship between customer and the company in the context of CRM
Like any other type of relationship, the relatioship between the customer and the company (henceforth referred to as the two parties) are to enter an unwritten agreement that is mutually beneficial in that the needs and wants between the two parties involved must be satisfactorily slaked. The needs and wants of the company being that it requires profit derived from the customer to prolong its existence and for the customer’s needs and wants being that he/ she requires a good service or product at a fair price.

Factors and tasks required for using CRM effectively
In order for CRM to be successfully implemented, three key factors are required to be modified or adopted which are: company personnel, company processes and the technology employed by the company.
Company personnel from the CEO to the lowest ranked employee have to fully embrace and believe in CRM and the benefits it will bring, the employees have to always anticipate the customer’s action and habits e.g. customer call centre agents are to be instructed to give consistent answers to commonly asked questions, all call centre agents should have universal, immediate knowledge of the customer’s history and past dealings with the company to quickly and efficiently deal with the customer’s needs and finally call centre agents must undergo rigorous training to refine their performance for the future.

The company’s systems and ideas have to fundamentally change in order to accommodate and augment the use of CRM i.e. customer issues aren’t only dealt with customer services but also other branches of the company being involved as well, call centre agents are to be given the authority to make decisions they think would be appropriate to solve the problems they face and execute those decisions and call centre managers should utilize a software system which integrates all data across different departments of the company to give an overall view as well an overall view of the performance of the company

The last factor is that the technology has to be carefully selected to help the company in maximizing its use of CRM e.g. technology such as “intelligent routing systems” that shares the workload equally between call centre agents to minimize wasting the customer’s time (note that the waiting time of customers mustn’t only be equally distributed to staff members but must also be distributed according to the customer’s needs), the queuing and routing engine used to make an estimate of when peak times occur due to statistical data should be used in conjunction with resource management tools to determine the appropriate number of staff to be deployed during peak and idle times.

As well as these factors, there are additional tasks for the company to do, one of these being the practice of a set number of virtues appropriate within the context of business. These set of characteristics are to be ideally acquired or cultivated if lacking in order to promote good relations with the customer, these characteristics or virtues being: polite, thoughtful, trustworthy, supportive, competent, effusive, receptive etc.
The expectations of the customer must also be determined, constantly monitored and satisfied otherwise this will have adverse effects on the company. An example to highlight the consequences of failing to do these tasks was when a fatal elevator accident in Japan occurred involving the death of a 16 year old boy in June 2006. The incident was due to faulty elevator design. Because the Japanese people expected services of a higher standard as well demanding a swift apology from the CEO of the Swiss company responsible for the faulty elevator, Schindler Group’s Escalator and Elevator division (to which the CEO Richard Hess didn’t do due to wanting to collect facts and evidence before taking any action), Hess’ company lost complete trust in the Japanese public and consequently suffered loss in profits as well as future business prospects in Japan.

Good customers and bad customers
Customers not only can be differentiated by their needs and expectations but also their stance towards the company. Customers who are pleased with the services they have received from your company could be considered as key allies in being able to persuade other newcomers to purchase your services, encouraging further growth for you company. Therefore, these key allies should be treated well and given special benefits to retain them. On the other hand, customers who haven’t or perceive to not have been treated well by your company are to be considered potential enemies who can hamper and damage your company’s prosperity and reputation such as boycotting your products, vandalism etc. As the saying goes, “keep your friends close, your enemies closer”, so too you must attempt to minimize the possible damage they can cause to you by either renewing the former relationship you had with them to sway them in your favour or failing that, end the business relationship with them in the most amiable and civil way possible.

The factors hindering effective use of CRM
Problems with not implementing CRM well are due to a number of factors such as bad management, the difficulty of balancing customer satisfaction, efficiency and cost reduction and the faults within the CRM systems as well.

One of the most ancient and simplest moral rules being the rule of reciprocality that is succintly expressed in the phrase “never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself” by Chinese sage Confucius is hardly ever followed even in this day and age whether in business, public or academic life. This especially applies in the case of company CEOs and their inability to implement excellent CRM. Bad CEOs and managers don’t treat their customers and staff as fellow human beings like themselves, only tools or objects to further their goals, uncaring of their welfare. It isn’t just the way they treat their staff and customers that is a problem but also the way they prefer to remain distant and far removed with their customers as well as their overinflated sense of self-worth that prevents them from accepting criticism and good advice from their customers and staff, all this arising from their insecurities and inadequacies. The solution to this particular problem would be for the CEO to treat their employees in a much more humane way and in doing so customers will be treated well so as to observe the benefits. Another solution would be for managers to face up to reality and place themselves in the position of their maltreated customers by sampling their own services.

The next problem is the difficulty in having to balance customer satisfaction and efficiency while also reducing costs. Initially it was thought that by automating customer services it would be a cost effective solution as extra staff wouldn’t be required to man the telephones as well as reducing the time allocated to each customer to solve their issues. However it was found that the observed results were found to be different from what the companies expected from these cost reduction techniques, these observed results being a decrease in customer satisfaction and profits. As mentioned beforehand in this article, this problem has been solved due to implementing methods belonging to one of the three factors required for CRM to be implemented effectively.

The last problem lies within the CRM systems themselves. Due to the large amount of data to be analysed when utilizing CRM systems, the user is required to be well trained in its use or else it will prove to be unwieldy and time consuming process. This in turn will cause companies to use CRM systems selectively. Thus companies have to consider carefully the software developed for these systems. Another problem is that customers tend to be quickly dissatisfied with a CRM interface that is prone to malfunctioning as well as being complicated because the developers of such CRM systems are people who are very knowledgeable with computers, hence they assume that other users of their programs would have a similar high level of expertise. The solution to this problem would be for CRM software designers to bear in mind the less knowledgeable users and in doing so design CRM software that is easy to use as well as intuitive. Finally, the problem of having a user friendly and accessible CRM system is that it is vulnerable to attacks by malicious internet users who would employ a number of methods to undermine the CRM system i.e. denial of service (DOS) which would block customer access to the affected CRM system, illegally acquiring customer information for use in fraud and use of viruses, Trojan programs etc.

Conclusion
To conclude, the field of CRM is a relatively new concept that requires improvement as it is still fraught with imperfections from management to its design.

I had a look at the site and said to him that the site does not have much content for natural traffic, so I suggested that he starts blogging about his products and his business in general. But when I mentioned blogging Bill didn’t really look too impressed with my suggestion. According to Bill bloging cannot work for his business and his products. Well my idea was that it may not work but it will defiantly add content to the site which will increase natural traffic. Also because the information will be related to the products it means that the people who visit the site will probably also be interested in the products Bill sells and ultimately this could lead to actual sales. Bill was surprised in my thinking and said that he had never thought about it in that way. Anyway I convinced Bill to give it a try and he did, within the first month there was an increase in the number of unique visitors and as he kept blogging and writing more about his products Bill saw a fast increase in the number of people visiting his site. I haven’t really asked bill about the profit but I am assuming it has increased as he has continued blogging ever since.

So what’s my point?

The point I am trying to make here is that until you give blogging a try you will never know if it works or not for your business. You will be surprised to see that it does work and see traffic increase. I am not going to go into detail about search engine optimisation here but what I do want you to know is that “unique content” is what gets traffic to your website.

1. Create a profile of the ideal candidate

Firstly you need to do a job listing, explaining what you exactly are looking for. This attracts the qualified individuals to give an immediate response and discard the unqualified. Therefore you must be clear when you do the job listing and define your expectations of the job. As a result you can list the key duties as well as details such as salary and hours.

2. Search tactics

You need to decide on the strategy that you want to use to employ people. There are different strategies that can be used:

• Recruiting services

• Recruiting firm

• Job sites

• Job center

Of course it is important to remember whatever tactic you decide to use you need to determine what will make it work. Therefore it is crucial that you try different things and see what works the best and throw the rest out.

3. Shortlist and interviews

For some vacancies there may be hundreds of candidates, in this case the applicant forms may be useful. This would allow you to investigate who has the qualifications you need and who don’t. Maybe you could draw up a shortlist of only the best candidates to call for an interview.

4. Understanding Candidates

It is important that when you have interviews with the candidates you think are suitable for the job you understand them. Normally successful candidates show passion, knowledge of the industry, and most of all desire to succeed and learn. A good candidate should be hard working, compatible with other employees and a good fit with the other organizational culture.

Overall you must remember that finding the right person for your job increases the value of your business and helps to ensure your future.

Accounting software packages are split into 3 categories which include the low, middle and high end market. As you would expect in the low end you will find the cheapest software available that will allow you to perform the general business accounting functions but not much more than that. In this market, smaller vendors tend to serve one national market with the same package while larger suppliers supply many national countries. A point to note about the some of the low end systems is that they do not have sufficient security. Now about the When thinking about the Mid Market QuickBooks accounting software springs to mind, their software is pretty good but also not cheap. Vendors in this market are generally orientated towards one market such as hotel or manufacturing accounting software which is also why this type of software is more expensive. On the high end market it is the more complex and expensive software solutions that are available; this type of software is mostly known as Enterprise resource planning or ERP software. It could take up to a year to implement this kind of application and will be designed to support individual company processes.

A lot of the large accounting software vendors do not generally sell directly to the mid or high end market, they first sell to resellers, developers and consultant who then sell on to their customers at a good profit. These resellers normally request a license fee from their customers for the software, but what may sound more interesting is that clients could end up paying up 300% of the software price on fees for consulting and implementation. So it may be wise to shop around when searching for accounting software.

Think about your competition

Being in business means that you are also in competition, so while maybe a lot of your competition in your market may have a website it means that they have a competitive edge over you. If you notice that your competitors are not online yet, then take the first step and go online, whatever your business there will probably many good reasons to why it is necessary for you to be online.

So how can you get online?

You are probably thinking about the fact that it could be difficult to design a website and see that as a major obstacle. Well yes it is a major obstacle if you do not know how to do it. However being in business does not mean you have to do everything yourself, the internet has also brought a lot of web developers with it who are willing to develop simple but unique websites at very cheap rates. For example if you go to one of the major webmaster forums like Digital Point there are a lot of people there who provide quality but cheap services at extremely cheap rates. One of the reasons for this is because they are from India or China, the other reason may be that they are young students who want to earn a bit of extra cash. Nonetheless this does not mean that their quality is bad. Business is all about connecting and communicating so it help getting out there and doing just that. While it may be worth learning something about the internet and websites yourself if it interests you but it really is not a must if you don’t find it interesting.

1. Enable the Customer to complain

What I mean here is that you should make it possible if not very easy for the customer to complain in the following ways:

- On Your website make sure the customer can have a contact form or telephone number where they can call up and make a complaint, you do not need to have a specific number for complaints but the customer needs to be able to contact the business.

- If there the complaint is specific for a certain department in the business then put the customer through to the department, it will show them that you actually care about their complaint.

2. View complaints as free advice

It is important that you view complaints as free advice for your business, it could be that via a complaints you actually improve your consumer service. So question the customer and takes as there will probably be something you can improve in the service somehow.

3. Apologize to the Customer

Even if the customer is wrong it is important that you apologise for the company and for the person who may have made a mistake. However try not to apologise too early as it will lead to further irritation for the customer, let the customer speak and explain first.

4. Identify and Fix the problem

At times you may be able to identify a problem from a customer complaint and it is important that you fix it as soon as possible to reduce further dissatisfaction from more customers.

5. Follow up

After sometime get in touch with the customer and tell them that their complaint was important to you. You could use this follow up to show the customer that you care about their complaint and that you value them as a customer.