The Line

I know a lot of people who have issues with the line: those who are terrified to go near it; those who can't seem to do anything but dance around it; and those who can't quite figure out that it exists.

The rules regarding 'crossing the line' have not changed and never will, because quite frankly the cliche means what it means. However, I do believe that the line has been relocated, and in some cases, drastically.

It used to be that, as a vendor with very important client relationships, there was a hard line that existed between the product / service you provide and everything else on the client's end. If you provide peanuts to the circus, you don't comment on the color of the tent unless you're saying it's great. While you still don't give your two negative cents, a strong relationship now allows for constructive criticism followed by action, with the assumption that the peanut guy can, in fact, help solve the ugly tent problem. Sure, you may step on ugly tent guy's toes, but that's largely his problem.

The great part about businesses offering a broader scope of service and by and large being more useful than just a peanut vendor is that it changes the game for everyone; ugly tent guy can no longer sell ugly tents at the lowest common denominator because peanut guy can do that on the side and call it ancillary revenue. Ugly tent guy becomes attractive tent guy, or he goes away. In turn, peanut guy better offer some bulk incentives or else attractive tent guy will be right behind him offering a great tent, cheap peanuts, and a new type of sno-cone, and he'll have the economy of scale to do it successfully.

Let the line change, just be sure your business is changing with it.

What do your credit card statements look like?

Lifehacker explains why you should be mindful of your credit card purchases:

LINK