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WALL STREET JOURNAL – Lots of grumpy customers take potshots at companies in forums, review sites and social networks. But what happens when a rival makes anonymous digs at you? Experts say these situations don’t come up often, but when they do, they need to be handled with an especially light touch. Rivals may be trying to draw you into a nasty public fight that could alienate your customers. Their advice: Avoid those kinds of showdowns, and don’t try to be sneaky by posting anonymous comments of your own. Both approaches are likely to backfire. Here’s the smart way to handle the situation. Be alert for signs a rival is hounding you. In most cases, they’ll simply cut and paste the same messages across multiple online venues. If they don’t do that, they might use similar phrases from site to site, as well as the same links or photos. On forums, they might show up as a collusive gang of brand-new posters, without a track record on the site. Take your suspicions to site administrators. Creating a fake identity for deceptive purposes—sockpuppeting—is against the terms of service at most forums and review sites, and most administrators will be willing to work with you. If the overseers can trace the posts back to a rival’s Internet-protocol address, you can ask them to remove the posts, shut down fake member accounts or even—in extreme cases—block the IP address. Once the posts are gone, follow up on forums to dispel any lingering suspicions. You might provide company experts, for instance, who can clear up false claims. This is a vital step, since many forum messages will keep coming up in Google searches, especially when specific terms are mentioned. If you respond after the fact, you can get the truth on record. If any of the attacks gain traction with concerned customers, supply a response in a Q&A on your website or social-network page. But don’t call attention to the false claims by referring to them directly. For instance, if a rival wrote falsely that your products are made in China, just make a point of saying that your goods are made in the U.S. Whenever you counter claims, keep your tone helpful and neutral. Don’t be as nasty as the company that slammed you. Discussion sites can be very close-knit places with peculiar social dynamics. If you come in and sour the tone—particularly if you seem to have an agenda—users will get turned off. Start early. Before you run into trouble, establish a presence on forums and maintain goodwill there by answering questions without trying to give users a hard sell. If you build loyalty, users will be suspicious of random attacks on you and stick up for the company. You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323628804578348053624870418

WALL STREET JOURNAL – After working for more than six years as manager of digital licensing for Warner Music Group in Burbank, Calif., Michael Locke, 34, felt like he wanted more. But there wasn’t much latitude for change within his job and department. So Mr. Locke formulated a unique way to expand his role. He offered to represent unsigned and independent-label bands through Warner and promote them as a cheaper music licensing option for film, television and commercial deals. His boss allowed Mr. Locke to work on the venture alongside his regular job and the new business grew quickly. A year later in 2007, he submitted a written plan to create a new division called Rhino Independent and was made director. He left Warner Music Group to start his own business three years later. Everyone can relate to hitting a wall at work. Whether it’s feeling unchallenged or underappreciated, most of the reasons people get stuck in their role can be resolved with planning. But you must understand the nature of the problem and determine whether it’s a workplace issue, such as being topped out in the company, or a psychological impasse. Shelly Curt, 41, got stuck while managing a casino restaurant in Reno, Nev. The trained sommelier was very good at her job so she was kept in a role that she felt underutilized her talents. So Ms. Curt volunteered for extra projects that went beyond her job description, including choosing wine and dessert pairings at events. Her managers were impressed by her knowledge and created a new job for her that involves developing the menu for seven restaurants and working at special events. Start to formalize your personal-discovery process by writing an action plan that details how you are going to make a change. The idea is to acknowledge your problems, including those that may have become too painful to address like losing confidence in your abilities, says Timothy Butler, senior fellow at the Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass., and author of “Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths.” Also have a discussion with your boss and let him or her know that you are ready for more challenges. Be ready to answer some tough questions about why you’ve been stuck. “You’re going to have to change people’s opinions about you, which isn’t an easy thing to do if you have a bad or blah reputation,” says Stephen Xavier, CEO of Cornerstone Executive Development Group, an executive coaching firm in Chapel Hill, N.C. “It may require time and persistence so stick with it. Make it a long-term plan if you have to.” Employees that get pigeonholed may find it difficult to move out of specific roles, which is why it helps to have a prepared transition plan — with replacement suggestions — when proposing job changes to management. You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304203304576450462678081034

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Shoppers increasingly are ditching their desktops and doing their buying on mobile phones. But many small businesses aren’t making it easy for them. Of the 64% of small U.S. businesses that have websites, says RBC Capital Markets, only 33% are optimized for mobile viewing. The result? It can be like having a “closed” sign on the door, says John Scheer, founding partner of Herman-Scheer, a creative design agency in Santa Monica, Calif., that works with many small companies. “More often than not, people start on their phones,” says Mr. Scheer. “If you have to pinch and zoom to find the address or phone number, that’s not an easy user experience. People are likely to leave that site.” Making the leap to mobile takes a couple of basic steps, the experts say. Businesses must examine how customers actually use their site and meet those needs as soon as visitors arrive at the main page—without adding unnecessary frills to make the site tough to navigate on a small screen. From there, companies must find mobile-friendly ways to generate traffic, such as contests that allow people to snap photos and upload them to the site for a chance to win prizes. How people work Looking at how people actually use sites is crucial, because there can be a big disconnect between what companies think and actual user experience. Companies may think users prefer complex features, or they might assume customers are browsing on big monitors. “You might be surprised to see customers using your website in ways that you never realized or planned. You should design around the user experience as opposed to what you want the customer experience to be,” says Luke Wroblewski, a product director at Google. Take the case of Musicbed, a Fort Worth, Texas, company that licenses stock music to independent filmmakers and videographers. When Musicbed launched in 2011, the founders went with a traditional website because they figured that most of their customers would be searching for music on the same desktop workstations that they used to edit video projects. To the company’s surprise, they started getting a lot of requests for better mobile access. Customers were playing sample music tracks for clients on mobile devices at video shoots. Customers also wanted to send playlists of possible music choices to clients through social media and to wirelessly stream tracks for presentations, says Tanner Hearne, director of product for Musicbed. The traditional website made searching the catalog more difficult on mobile devices. The company responded in 2013 by releasing an app that gave users access to the music library on their smartphones. Musicbed also redesigned the website to be more mobile friendly and subsequently saw significant increases in mobile traffic. Customers are still mostly fulfilling purchases from their desktop computers, but the additional mobile options have increased engagement and the time spent on the website overall. “We’re now seeing up to 20% of our total traffic and music streaming coming from mobile,” says Mr. Hearne. A similar overhaul took place at YourGreenPal.com, a website that connects homeowners with local lawn-care professionals. When co-founder Bryan Clayton started the business in Nashville in 2012, he and his partners built a flashy website designed to be viewed on big monitors. “It didn’t feel like a lot on desktop, but for mobile, it was a tremendous, arduous journey to go through,” Mr. Clayton says. They also didn’t realize that a fair number of the small businesses that ended up using the website’s a la carte business services, like scheduling, record keeping and route planning, didn’t even have desktop computers and were relying on their mobile phones to conduct their business while on the go. Mr. Clayton had a completely new mobile website built in 2013. The quick-loading design now automatically adjusts to work with any device, has bigger, easier-to-read fonts and can be fully accessed on mobile devices by both homeowners and providers. Mr. Clayton also had a dedicated app created. “Today, only about 15% of our users are now on desktop” and most of those also use mobile, says Mr. Clayton. Everything up front As for the actual design of mobile sites, experts advise keeping things simple and giving customers what they want at that moment that they land on the page. A restaurant, for instance, should put its contact information up front with a dinner-reservation form. And all businesses should make phone numbers clickable so they will trigger a call. Beyond the basics, one-click contests and promotions are good ways to engage customers, and the interaction can provide social-media fodder. YourGreenPal.com invites customers to submit photos of the overgrown yards of homeowners who can’t afford lawn-care service. Mr. Clayton will then pick a photo each month and reimburse his lawn-care vendors to tend to the neglected yard. The effort has attracted press attention, which in turn has drawn new customers, says Mr. Clayton. “This has created buzz for us since we can tell the story of why this single mother broke her push mower and how GreenPal came by and mowed it for free,” he says. “It’s all worked out well for us.” You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-key-to-making-a-mobile-site-customers-want-1479697201

WALL STREET JOURNAL – After working five years as a regional director at a large health insurer in Oakland, Calif., Daniel Eddleman felt ready to move up the ladder. So he found a mentor within the company who agreed with Mr. Eddleman that his performance and leadership ability merited the promotion. But he’d need to work on a few soft skills to clinch the job. “It can be a challenging environment to get noticed in because it’s such a big organization,” says Mr. Eddleman, who connected with a job coach who helped him identify and work on three weak areas—including the ability to self-assess, manage his emotions and brag. “I realized that I can sometimes come on too strong. I learned to let the moment pass so I could have the space to make a calm decision. I also learned how to acknowledge my own accomplishments to the right people by feathering them into conversation, which is something that I’ve never been comfortable doing,” says Mr. Eddleman, who ended up getting the promotion to vice president. Most people are terrible at self-assessment, a core skill that is needed to succeed, says Peggy Klaus, an executive coach from Berkeley, Calif., and author of “Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It.” “It’s not easy to turn the mirror back on yourself and be absolutely honest,” she says. “And it’s hard for other people to give difficult feedback. But you need to encourage honest feedback from third parties…who can help give you a more objective viewpoint that you can act on.” Although hard skills like sales and software knowledge can get you through the door, more companies are asking for soft skills as well from job candidates, finds a recent study by Millennial Branding, a consulting firm in Boston. Soft skills refer to personal aptitudes and attitudes, such as being a good listener and communicator, that affect how people perceive you in the workplace and strongly influence workplace relationships. Fortunately, most soft skills can be adjusted or learned on your own time with some feedback from peers. Here are a few day-to-day skills that can play a big role in determining whether you get promoted, hired or even fired: • Compile two lists to use as an action guide. One should itemize what you do well and the second should list improvements others would like to see in you, says Gabriela Cora, an executive coach in Miami. “You have to be open for that feedback and willing to work on those points. And don’t just ask people that you’re friendly with. Ask a couple of people that you’re always competing against or people that you butt heads with.” • Learn to control your emotions, and you should see a quick improvement in your working relationships. Uncover what your emotional triggers are so you can predict and head off any potentially rash or embarrassing responses to peers or bosses. Emotional outbursts aren’t viewed favorably in most workplaces, which is why you should just excuse yourself from meetings or work if you feel emotionally overwhelmed. • Know your limits. This can not only preserve your health and sanity, it can keep you from exceeding your limits and making mistakes that can hurt your career. If you can only handle five of seven tasks, for instance, that’s something you need to talk to your boss about, says Ms. Klaus, who had a client who got saddled with two jobs and ended up hospitalized because of stress and overwork. “Your manager may not even know how swamped you are if you keep taking on additional work without question,” she says. “You need to outline very specifically what’s on your plate, how much more you can handle, if any, and prioritize what needs to be done.” Most people are uncomfortable with self-promotion, but hard work doesn’t always get noticed without a little help. There are plenty of mediocre employees who get promoted because they’re good at letting the bosses know how good they are at their jobs, says Ms. Klaus. “You simply want to let other people know who you are and what you’ve accomplished in a very gracious and artfully skillful way.” For example, don’t just boast, tell stories that frame your achievements in an entertaining narrative way. Illustration by WESLEY BEDROSIAN. You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324715704578481290888822474

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Rolando Herrera was a teetotaler until he discovered he had a good wine palate. The native of Michoacan, Mexico, was working as a laborer before discovering an interest in winemaking. He is now founder and sole proprietor of Mi Sueño Winery, and his wines are poured in restaurants throughout the U.S.—and even at a 2001 White House event honoring former Mexican President Vicente Fox. Mr. Herrera grew up in Mexico. He left his parents when he turned 15 in 1982 to look for new opportunities in California’s Napa Valley. He went to live with his older brother, a prep cook at an upscale Napa restaurant, and enrolled at Napa High while working after school as a dishwasher. A year later, he found a higher-paying job as a prep cook at Masa Restaurant, 49 miles away in San Francisco. Odd Jobs During his summer breaks, Mr. Herrera took odd jobs to help pay bills. That is when he met Warren Winiarski, founder and former owner of Stags’ Leap Wine Cellars, who hired him to help build a stone retaining wall. Mr. Winiarski says he was impressed with the teen’s work ethic and offered him a part-time job. Mr. Herrera quit Masa and spent the next two years working as a “cellar rat” washing wine barrels and cleaning floors. He enjoyed the workplace and says the strong oaken smells of wine-steeped barrels made him feel content. But he had no desire to participate in the winemaking process or even to drink. “I cursed alcohol because back home I had a lot of family and friends with drinking problems,” he says. Things changed in 1987. Mr. Winiarski spotted ambition in Mr. Herrera and wanted to promote him. “I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was interested in doing more than cleaning up,” Mr. Winiarski says. So he asked him what his impressions were of the wine. Mr. Herrera took a sip—his first in years. He didn’t care for the taste, but he was able to identify citrus and floral flavor notes. Mr. Winiarski was impressed and encouraged him to develop his palate further. Over the next few years, Mr. Herrera sat on wine-tasting panels at work and joined local tasting groups. “Wine grew to become an important part of my life,” he says. Making the Leap He was promoted to cellar master, where he assisted winemakers with the production process and also trained cellar workers, and enjoyed the work. He decided to make winemaking his career and enrolled in a winemaking certificate program at the University of California at Davis. Mr. Herrera left Stags’ Leap in 1995 in search of a more hands-on experience. He became an assistant winemaker at Chateau Potelle Winery, which was a traditional winery that employed all-natural fermentation. Mr. Herrera was involved with every stage of the process, including harvesting and handling the fruit, crushing, bottling and running analysis. The work inspired him to experiment with his own batch of wine on the side. He tapped his savings to purchase four tons of green-skinned Chardonnay grapes from his father-in-law, who owned the small nearby Robledo Family Winery. He then rented the facilities of a small winery where he crushed the grapes himself. He intended to sell the 18 barrels he made to the bulk market, where wineries buy surplus wine inexpensively to sell under their own label or to blend with other wines. His friends convinced him to bottle it instead. He named his new label Mi Sueño, which in Spanish means “my dream.” His company would become one of the new crop of Mexican-American-owned Napa wineries to open during the 1990s. Building Up Business Mr. Herrera continued building up Mi Sueño in his spare time while working as a consultant for about a dozen different wineries. He moved his business into a warehouse in 2001, which he purchased five years later, and leased the land he needed to produce 90% of the grapes for his winemaking program. With the help of 15 to 20 employees, Mi Sueño now produces 5,500 cases a year, most of which are purchased by restaurants, wine clubs and other wineries. When looking back, Mr. Herrera, who is now a U.S. citizen, can’t believe how his career has unfolded. He never intended to become an entrepreneur. He says that he is happy that he was able to turn a newfound passion into a viable business that is able to support his family. “I have no doubt that my business will continue to grow if I continue producing the best product that I am able to make,” he says. This story was written for the WSJ Second Acts column. You can read the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204563304574314412150876366