Mistakes You Should Never Make

Post by pjungwir » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 6:52 PM UTC

slg wrote: post #83

I know this is a minor point of the article, but as someone with a degree from Harvard Extension I need to weigh in on that part of the story. I hate people who make this lie of ommission. Harvard Extension isn't Harvard College or Harvard Business School, but it still provides a very good education with great flexibility at an even better price. However, there is a small minority of people that continuely try to pas…

Post by billmalarky » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 6:56 PM UTC

danielweber wrote: post #74

matthewmacleod wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What. How is this even remotely acceptable? If discovered it destroys your credibility. Among your employees it destroys your credibility. If I was an employee and found out that this was happening, I'd be extremely upset. I wouldn't trust a thing you say. If you'll lie to customers, you'll lie to me. Your optimism is endearing, but the vast majority of companies I've done business with do this. Often companies I've…

Since you are competing against people who will tell you that the feature they want already exists, people who are too honest in this area will quickly get filtered out of the marketplace. It sucks, but there are lots of markets where the customer says "please lie to me" and gives their business to the person with the most reassuring lie.

Post by seank » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 6:59 PM UTC

otterley wrote: post #84

jacquesm wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would result in mass unemployment in some sectors of industry. The problem is that as long as your competitor says 'yes' and you say 'no' the competitor will get the customer. Customers should be firing companies that provide false information during the lead-up to a sale. Then the sales people can stay employed and everybody comes out ahead.

> That would result in mass unemployment in some sectors of industry. Are you making an implicit suggestion that we should tolerate fraud because it employs people?

Post by raverbashing » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 7:01 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #124

jacquesm wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very dangerous, no matter what the reputation of the firm. The thing to do is to use separate accounts for reserves like these and to pay directly into the coffers of the tax man, lest the party that you do business with unexpectedly goes bust (they do) and you end up being liable again for the same amount of tax that you already paid to the payroll company. Don't for one second think that you're off the hook…

This may be good advice in NL, but it's sort of diametrically the opposite of best common practice in the US. Payroll being handled by payroll firms is the norm in the US, and the stories about terrible payroll withholding screwups hurting companies are, as far as I can tell, invariably the result of people trying to handle this themselves, paying "directly into the coffers of the tax man".

Post by marcosdumay » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 7:03 PM UTC

methodover wrote: post #9

> In the early days I would often let potential customers think we already had a feature they wanted What. How is this even remotely acceptable? If discovered it destroys your credibility. Among your employees it destroys your credibility. If I was an employee and found out that this was happening, I'd be extremely upset. I wouldn't trust a thing you say. If you'll lie to customers, you'll lie to me.