Recently went to Hudson Street Cafe, one of my favorite breakfast haunts, to treat myself to Donna’s oat bran pancakes with REAL maple syrup. Donna owns the café and creates all the incredible recipes and dishes; checkout their website: http://www.hudsonstreetcafe.com/. As I placed my order with the attentive waitress, this guy named Klaus at the next table broke into my space, affirming what I already knew – my bent for healthy eating. Maybe it was the oat bran pancakes or the poached eggs that triggered his comments, but regardless, my peaceful breakfast was quickly hijacked as Klaus then proceeded to go ‘Oprah’ on me sharing all the ‘miracle working, get rid of your aches and pains, lose 30 lbs in a week, gain untold vitality’ hope and benefits of the acai berry, a palm fruit cultivated for its widely touted health benefits. Yup, you guessed it, Klaus was a distributor and I could become one too!

What can the acai berry do for your staffing firm?

Klaus actually was a nice guy and seemed to believe in the little berry and its miracle working cures. I held off on placing an order, since a case of four bottles of MonaVie juice pulls about $130 a month out of pocket; I could probably lease a Kia for that much! But Klaus and the berry got my attention and I figured there are some things that we could all learn from the acai berry and its tempting promises:

• Lesson # 1: Be suspicious of anything that looks like a quick fix to your staffing business issues, no matter how popular the broader business or staffing industry trend may be. Big improvements take big deliberative changes implemented in smaller manageable steps.
• Lesson # 2: Hope is important, we need it. Hope is what gets us out of bed, it motivates us. It becomes sustained if it puts us on a path of believing that our problems can be solved; it puts us on a path of discovery. And if it is the right path, it will yield even more reason for hope, which you should generously share with your salespeople and staffing professionals.
• Lesson # 3: Fad diets and fad foods do not sustain change. They do not bring about substantial long term results, but we do need to get rid of and keep the fat off.
• Lesson # 4: When the fat goes, vitality and energy show up. Our resources are precious – the right amount of cash, the right amount of employees, the best and most efficient processes and tools within and outside of your staffing software are all important. The top performing staffing operators create vitality and energy in your staffing company and in the marketplace by carefully managing these four key ingredients in your organizational recipe.
• Lesson # 5: Google anything or anyone you’re suspicious of. This was initially a joke, but actually is a good habit to get into; when I got home and googled “acai berry,” Google showed me that “acai berry scams” was a popular search term, which yielded many results including this article on CNNhealth.com, Group challenges acai berry weight-loss claims.

Check out these two websites devoted to popular scams and fads: http://www.popularscams.com/ and http://www.crazyfads.com/.

And contact us about how we can help you develop the most efficient processes and fit staffing business with your staffing software and technology.

Dave Reiss
CEO and Founder
Applied Systems Technology
Don’t forget to connect with me on:

• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dave-reiss/4/37b/218
• Twitter: appliedsystech
• Email: dave@astusa.com