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Current Article #3

Today, negative reviews of a business are easy to come by with the Internet. Anyone who is not happy can make a negative post for the whole world to see. Sometimes these reviews might not always be true or the truth can be exaggerated. How a business handles these negative reviews will either amplify the negativity or show the world that a negative comment will not wreak the businesses reputation. The article How to respond to negative reviews-business owners guide, written by Frederik Hermann on May 15, 2020, published by Birdeye educates readers on the ins and outs of negative reviews.

The first step in understanding negative reviews is why a customer is posting these comments. Negative comments can come from a customer service problem, shipping, or handling. The problem might not always be about the product being offered. A business might have the best product on the market, however, if the service was not the best then that would be a reason for a negative review. When individuals hear negative reviews, we forget that they can be helpful. Examples of negative reviews being helpful include: showing customers that the reviews are genuine and not made up, show where the business might have a problem within their business, and solutions can be found within these negative reviews (Hermann, 2020).

When a business receives a negative review, and they will at some point, what should they do? Respond quickly, be professional, take the issue off-line, request fake reviews be removed, and encourage customers to write a review (Hollingsworth, 2020). The worst thing a business can do is to not respond or wait too long and have the negative review spread. Responding promptly will be best especially since people like quick response. It is very easy for a business to take offense and be defensive in their responses, however, responding in a professional thoughtful manner will have a better reaction from the customers. Whenever a business can, they will want to take the issue off-line so this will not lead to a more negative response. Not all negative reviews are true and if they are found to be false, they can be removed to not damage the business's reputation. Last, negative reviews will happen. Once the issue is resolved, it is best to encourage customers to leave positive reviews so the negative one will move further down and not be the first to show.

At times emergencies happen with negative reviews and a business needs to do three things in this type of situation that could easily damage the reputation of their business. They are the three T’s; timeliness, transparency, and training (Larson & Draper, 2018). Again, be quick to respond to a situation, especially in an emergency. Second, be transparent by telling everyone that your business was in the wrong. This takes responsibility and does not place blame on anyone. This will keep the business creditable. Last, the business needs to address training. If something went wrong a business can’t keep doing what they have been, they will need to implement new training to prevent this situation from happening again.

Negative reviews will happen to everyone business because, at the end of the day, they will not be able to please everyone. A business can be prepared for these situations by establishing a protocol to follow for negative reviews and emergencies. Even though all situations are different, by implementing a protocol, they will be able to handle negative reviews more efficiently and professionally.

 Reference

Hermann, F. (May 15, 2020). How to respond to negative reviews-business owners guide. Birdseye. Retrieved from: https://birdeye.com/blog/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews/

Hollingsworth, S. (March 11, 2020). 16 tips to handle negative customer reviews online. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved from: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/tips-handling-negative-customer-reviews-online/353470/#close

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital marketing essentials. Published by Editfy.

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It is amazing how much goes into creating a website and all the metrics that should be included to find out how successful a website is. I think the biggest quality of a website is navigation. For me personally, if I cannot navigate through the site efficiently I will quickly find a new site because I am very busy and do not have time to waste. Also, having the correct keywords and doing research on them can make or break a websites SEO. Taking the time to do the proper research on creating a website and then building it will produce greater results in the long run. I think the biggest mistakes that small businesses make when creating a website is the lack of knowledge it take to create one and rushing to get it done. also, not looking at the analytics once the website is established causes a website to fail. Analytics will help improve a website and make it successful.  

Current Article Analysis Blog #2

I found an article on Forbes that discusses “Building a Successful Website for Your Business.” The article is by Jessica Wong, who is a Forbes Councils Member. The article discusses how important it is, especially during COVID to have a successful website. A “great website can not only have a huge impact on your relationship with customers, but it’s also one of the most effective ways to draw people in and build trust. This can help boost your profits and build a solid customer base” (Wong, 2020). Some tips recommended for creating amazing webpages that motivate and drive sales are creating high-quality, engaging content, including images and multimedia, paying attention to your SEO, and making pages easy to navigate” (Wong, 2020).

High quality, engaging content is important if you want people to take the time on your website. One suggestion is to “show people their benefits quickly and clearly using headings and bullet points” (Wong, 2020). For example, “blog articles that provide how-to tips can also be popular with readers. They can help you capture the attention of those who are looking for solutions your company provides” (Wong, 2020). Using images and multimedia throughout your website breaks up content. According to Wong (2020), “the right image can show people exactly what your webpage is about. Using multimedia such as videos, slideshows and photos is another great way to keep your audience engaged.” However, make sure you are careful when using video assets as they “may slow down the load speed of your website, depending on how the video is embedded, as well as its quality and its duration” (Wong, 2020).

As we have talked about throughout our marketing course, a websites SEO is crucial. Wong states “you don’t have to complicate things too much, just make sure to mention the central topic on each site page” (2020). “For example, if you want to attract customers looking for air conditioner installation services, make sure to mention the term “air conditioner installation” a few times on each page” (Wong, 2020). Finally, people hate having to search hard to find things, so making your pages easy to navigate is so important. “Online, you need to do this with smart web development. Make sure each topic has its own page, and organize things in a logical way” (Wong, 2020). That way, people can easily find what they are looking for. Three tips for smart web development are “clear navigation, prominent call to action, and mobile-friendly website” (Wong, 2019). We have already discussed the importance of clear navigation, but making sure to have a prominent call to action is something that will “guide your visitors forward to the next stage of the funnel” (Wong, 2019). In addition, having a mobile-friendly website is crucial because “having a mobile-optimized site or a website with a responsive design will maximize your customer’s digital experience on mobile” (Wong, 2019).

This directly related to the chapters in our textbook because our textbook discusses how to optimize a website and the importance of analytics. This is the same for the article. If anyone wants to make sure they have a strong website, using Google analytics is a great testament to that work. According to Larson & Draper, there are basic and calculated metrics that can help to tell you how your webpages are optimizing. The basic metrics include “pageview, session, user time on page, entry, and exit” (Larson & Draper, 2019). The calculated metrics include “average page depth, average session duration, site bounce rate, page bounce rate, exit rate, and unique pageviews” (Larson & Draper, 2019). Wong stated that “your conversion rate, average order quantities, revenue per order, page views, click-through rates and other key performance metrics will tell you how well your website performs” (2020). Wong showed us that there is always a mix between the basic and calculated metrics to get a true understanding on how your website performs.

  References

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2019). Internet marketing essentials: A comprehensive digital marketing textbook (1st ed.). Idaho Falls, Idaho: Stukent.

Wong, J. (2019, October 31). Council Post: Improve The UX Of Your Company’s Website In Three Ways. Retrieved June 01, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/10/31/improve-the-ux-of-your-companys-website-in-three-ways/

Wong, J. (2020, May 27). Building A Successful Website For Your Business. Retrieved June 01, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/05/27/building-a-successful-website-for-your-business/

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Current Article #2

Website Design

 For any business that is just starting up or is established, needs to focus their attention on their webpage. Having a great webpage with specific qualities will help increase their digital marketing and ranking. It can be overwhelming when diving into the digital world personally, let alone all the rules that you need to follow for a business. In the article 9 General Principles for Good website Design!, written by Tanu N Prabhu on January 12, 2020, and published by UX Planet, they discuss what a good website design should achieve. 

The nine principles that the article talks about are all key points that a business should follow. Touching on a few of the most important concepts and expanding on them will be a start to your business’s success. The very first concept that will make users stay on your site for a longer period of time is having easy navigation. Having easy navigation by having a simple layout and quick access to move throughout the site is a feature that 94% of people say it is the most important feature (Prabhu, 2020). How can a business achieve this most important feature? First, thinking like a potential customer and what a customer would like or dislike on a website helps when designing. Having a website that has so many clicks to get to what a customer wants is too time-consuming, distracting, and frustrating. Customers today shop online because it is efficient and fast and that is the world, we live in. Our textbook touches on the philosophy of designing a website that anyone can use, especially below-average users, who do not have to put in the effort or get lost by making a wrong click (Larson & Draper, 2018). This all comes back to navigation and the importance of ease. Another concept that is simple, but overlooked is the color scheme. Colors make a statement and they all have meaning. When selecting a color scheme, it is important to do your research and have the colors represent what the company stands for. A great way for a company to find out if their color scheme will work is by sending out a survey or test to get feedback because whatever colors are selected will need to be consistent throughout the website (Prabhu, 2020). Remember that the color scheme is not just for your website, it should be integrated throughout your company in everything. A study was done on color schemes and how people react to colors. This studied showed that “a product’s color influences 60 to 80 percent of a customer’s purchasing decisions” (n.d). Color schemes are a very important concept when designing a website and company. Selecting the wrong colors could lead to low revenue. Taking the time and effort into researching colors and making the correct choice for a company will pay off in the long run. Other areas in web design that should be looked into include; having a responsive design (mobile-friendly), comfortable UI, content, performance, feedback, and errors (Prabhu, 2020). Each concept needs to be thoroughly researched and planned before executing it on a website. Having a strong presence online with a website that represents a company will be the key factor in having a strong digital presence.

 Reference

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital marketing essentials. Edify.

 Prabhu, Tanu. (January 12, 2020). 9 General Principles for Good Website Design!. UX Planet. Retrieved from: https://uxplanet.org/9-general-principles-for-good-website-design-d9853548f454

What Your Brand Colors Say About Your Business? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.columnfivemedia.com/work-items/infographic-true-colors-what-your-brand-colors-say-about-your-business

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Search Engine Optimization is imperative to have for a company. SEO is what helps to get a better ranking and drives traffic to a company’s webpage. It can be hard to understand everything that goes into SEO. Using appropriate tools will help to simplify the process. Google offers tools to help with achieving a better SEO. Their tool will look at keywords, along with organic searches. Using the Google analytic tool is something all companies should be looking into since Google is one of the top search engines used. Companies should also look into other search engines like Yahoo and Bling to see if they also offer analytic tools for SEO on their search engines. It is also important for a new company to have a great webpage with related content, mobile-friendliness, appealing design, speed, and security. Once their webpage includes all of these applications they can then work on their SEO. If a company is already established, then they should be looking into keeping their webpage up to date and keeping ahead of the game with SEO. As we have already learned, algorithms change often. It is important for a company to be looking into these algorithms and what they can and cannot be doing to beat the competition.  If a company is caught breaking rules, this could make the search engine drop their ranking to a second or third page, leading to a drop in traffic and a decrease in sales. Having a great webpage is half the battle, establishing and keeping a great SEO over time is the other battle.

Search Engine Optimization is a marketing strategy that is focused on growing visibility in organic or non-paid march engines. SEO incorporates both technical and creative elements to help improve search rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness. SEOs provides many aspects that includes links to other sites or simply making sure your site is structured un a way that search engines can understand.SEO isn’t just about building search engine-friendly websites. It’s about making your site better for people too. So, why do websites need SEO? The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines, Yahoo, Google, and Bing Although social media and other types of traffic can generate visits to your website, search engines are the primary method of navigation for most Internet users. This is true whether your site provides content, services, products, information, or just about anything else. Search engines provide a unique service in which it targets what people are looking for and are able to provide for that need. If search engines cannot find your site, or add your content to their databases, you miss out on incredible opportunities to drive traffic to your site.

Unknown. Guide to SEO. May 15, 2020. Retrieved from URL:http://moe.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

Patel, N. Simple Guide to SEO. May 15, 2020. Retrieved from URL: https://Neil Patel. com/what-is-SEO/

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Expert Session Blog #2

Keyword research is important to digital marketing because companies need to know what customers are searching for, through search engines, to find keywords to use when creating their webpages. If a company does not do their research, they might be using words that customers are not searching for, leading to customers not being able to find the companies webpage. In the expert video, George Do first explains different search intent with customers. When a customer is searching for a product their intent might be different from other customers intent. George explains this by showing four different customer intents; research, consideration, purchase, and loyalty (Stukent, Inc., 2016). Each of the stages of intent depends upon the knowledge of the person searching the item. Research is what it sounds like, this person does not know this item and is trying to learn more about it. Consideration is the next stage where this person has some knowledge, however, they need to learn more before making a purchase. The next stage is the purchase, this person knows what they want and has the knowledge and information to make informed decisions about the item to make a purchase. The last stage is loyalty, this person has made this purchase before and they know what company they want to purchase the item from. The most important step for a company to investigate is the purchase stage because these customers know what they want. This person will be typing in keywords into a search engine to find the right company to purchase the item from. That is why a company needs to start its keyword research at this step.

              Finding seed keywords is a starting point for a company to find keywords related to what they are selling. From there keywords have to be expanded upon. There are many ways to do this from researching Blogs and other sites, going to Google Auto Suggest, and researching competitors (Stukent, Inc., 2016). Once this is done a company can come away with many keywords to use to help increase traffic on their site. Once general keywords are found, the next step is to narrow down that list to the best of the best. One way to do this is by using keyword metrics. Keyword metrics will show what keywords are most popular by volume, clicks, traffic potential, and keyword difficulty (Soulo, 2020). To find out the keyword volume, keywords can be typed into Google AdWords to show how many people around the world have typed this keyword into Google’s search engine (Soulo, 2020). From there, the list of keywords can be narrowed down. The second way to measure keywords is by finding out how the click metric. The Click metric shows if a keyword results in traffic or not. Some keywords might be misleading in showing a high demand in the use of a single keyword, however, using this metric may show that high demand of a word results in low traffic because the answer to a keyword might be displayed without clicking on a webpage. Again, this will narrow down the keywords. From this new list, traffic potential can be gauged to show how much traffic this keyword can bring to your webpage. The last metric is keyword difficulty, meaning how hard is each keyword to rank for (Soulo, 2019). To look into the ranking difficulty of a keyword steps to be taken include; content of page, searcher intent, links from other websites, and domain (Soulo, 2019). Some keyword is easy to rank; however, they do not have the quality to back them up. Others have a higher difficulty when ranking, however, the quality behind them is higher. Determining the ranking difficulty is the last metric to use when narrowing down the list of keywords for the company to use in its webpage.

Reference

Soulo, T. (April 5, 2020). How To Do Keyword Research for SEO. Ahrefsblog. Retrieved From: https://ahrefs.com/blog/keyword-research/

Soulo, T. (October 30, 2019). Keyword Difficulty: How to Determine Your Chances of Ranking in Google. Ahrefsblog. Retrieved From: https://ahrefs.com/blog/keyword-difficulty/

Stukent, Inc. (December 21, 2016) Keyword Research 101-Part 1. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymbJmtAI7NI&feature=emb_logo

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Current Article #1

Mobile-friendly websites are one of the top considerations when building a website. More individuals are dependent on their phones for personal, business, and school-related reasons. Having mobile-friendly websites will make that website all the more popular because an individual knows that they can have access where ever they are at. The article, Why Your Website Needs to Be Google Mobile-Friendly, by Adam Uzialko written on January 5, 2020, in the Business News Daily, talks about different aspects of digital marketing related to mobile-friendly websites and the importance of this tool. The article also has suggestions on how to make a website mobile-friendly.

Google used to only rank a website by its desktop functionality. Now with the popularity of mobile devices, Google updated its algorithm in 2016 to rank mobile-friendly websites as a priority first, instead of desktops (Larson & Draper, 2018). Having a mobile-friendly website is imperative and one of the top reasons why Google would rank your website higher. The reason backing this change is due to over half of all web traffic is coming from mobile devices today (Uzialko, 2020). As a potential customer to a business, that customer wants to have the best experience when making a purchase online. That customer wants to easily find the product they are searching the web for, they want quick access to the web page when they click the link, they also want to quickly find what they are looking for on the web page with as minimal clicks as they can. The web page also needs to be easy to read, function well on the device the customer has selected to use, and not wait for the information to load. A web page that provides all of these needs including having the desired product the customer is looking for will result in a purchase being made and if done right acquiring a loyal customer.

Another staggering statistic, 67% of buyer’s decisions start on the web due to individuals being dependent on their phones, using the device for a minimum of 5 hours per day (Thimothy, n.d.). Companies who are serious about increasing their sales revenue need to be implementing a Mobile Marketing Strategy that focuses their website development on mobile devices, apps, and social media channels (Thimothy, n.d.). Steps that should be included in a Mobile Marketing strategy include; testing the website for being mobile-friendly. This step is easy with Google launching a webpage specifically to test for this function. Once the URL is given, it is analyzed, and feedback is produced letting the company know if they are mobile-friendly and if there are any issues. Once a company knows how mobile-friendly they are, they can test for speed, since individuals are impatient waiting for a download. Google also has a testing page for speed updates. The last step included in the strategy is using a responsive design that adapts to all devices and screen sizes (Thiothy, n.d.).

Taking the first steps to develop a Mobile Marketing Strategy will allow for a company to have a mobile-friendly website be ranked higher on by Google, make customers happy, and increase sales revenue. Times have changed to a digital world, and for companies to keep up they have to adapt and strategize to stay on top.

Reference

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital marketing essentials.

Thimonthy, Samuel. (n.d.) Everything You Should Know (from A-Z) To Attract Customers From Mobile. OneIMS. Retrieved From: https://www.oneims.com/mobile-marketing-seo

 Uzialko, Adam. (January 5, 2020). Why Your Website Needs to Be Google Mobile-Friendly. Business News Daily. Retrieved From: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7808-google-search-ranking-mobile.html

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Hi Rachael,

You mentioned that you would not get rid of insider trading, you would want guidelines set on what a person can and cannot do. I think there are pros and cons to both sides. Having set guideline would help in understand what an individual can and cannot do.  I also think it gets harder and harder with technology to get away with insider trading. Today they are using artificial intelligence to help detect insider trading. Artificial intelligence is used to go through emails instant messaging and other communications to detect insider trading (McMenemy, 2019). Technology is also used to analyze the stock markets to see if big purchases are being made before the release of a public document about a company for investigation to be done. I can see where using technology will help deter insider trading, but I also think that more guidelines should be set under this topic.

 Reference

McMenemy, L. (August 14, 2019). Diligent Insights. How do you Control Insider Trading?. Retrieved from: https://insights.diligent.com/insider-trading/how-control-insider-trading/

Insider trading is used when buying or selling securities (Investor, n.d.). Insider trading happens when an individual uses inside information to purchase or sell a certain security or “tips” off another individual to do so (Investor, n.d.). There are many ways for insider trading to happen, it can be corporate officers using information they learn from their job, family and friends letting each other know inside information, or even government employees using confidential information to trade. Insider training gives that individual an advantage which is not fair to everyone else that has stake in the game as well.

Martha Stewart is known for the most notorious insider trading scandal ever. Stewart was convicted in 2004 of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for selling her shares to ImClone Systems (Backman, 2014). Recently there has been talk of banning the law of insider trading. Yesterday, twelve republican representatives voted nay towards the banning of insider training. Why is that? Since insider trading is very broad and has not been defined it is difficult for an individual to be charged with the crime (Goodkind, 2019). Congress was trying to pass a law to make it more defined so that there would be SEC standards that had to be followed (Goodkind, 2019). As Goodkind states, there was a lot of conflicting opinions during this hearing. Some did not vote yes because they were nervous about the understanding of ending insider trading and everyone that voted against the bill wanted to change some language (Goodkind, 2019).

               So, do I agree with what they are saying? It is hard because they are taking both sides of the case, so it comes down to do I believe insider trading, and do I think that there should be a law that defines it or just gets rid of it all together. I do not think that it should be gotten rid of. The laws that govern insider trading today at least allow it to be some what fair. I don’t think that it is fair for people to be tipping others off and gaining vast amounts of money from it. I do think that there should be more laws that need to govern it though. Overall, insider trading can be tricky and it is most likely best keeping it vague to understand it on a case by case basis.

Backman, M. (2014, June 2). Five famous insider trading cases. Retrieved from, https://money.cnn.com/gallery/investing/2014/06/02/insider-trading-famous-cases/index.html

Goodkind, N. (2019, December 10). Why 12 Republican Representatives Voted Against Banning Insider Trading. Retrieved from, https://fortune.com/2019/12/10/what-is-insider-trading-prohibition-act-republicans/

Investor. (n.d.). Insider Trading. Retrieved from, https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/general-resources/glossary/insider-trading

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Insider Trading

What is insider trading, and why is it a crime?

Insider trading is when a person working for a company and has information about the business, uses that information to make trading decisions based on what they know. An insider is considered by federal law to be “a company’s officers, directors, or someone in control of at least 10% of a company’s equity securities.” (Insider Trading, 2019). The information that these insiders know is privileged to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Insider trading is a crime because it lets the insider have the opportunity to buy most of the shares before the public knows what is going on. Leading to the insider having the financial advantage. The ramifications that come with insider trading are also applied to insiders who tip friends off with the information they know even if that friend does not work for the company. 

Some have argued recently that insider trading should be legalized. Do you agree with the author’s position? Why or Why not? 

The author states that legalizing insider trade helps to move the stock prices. What is meant by this is  a manager of a business starts to purchase more stock in the company, the other investors will see this move and believe that something is happening within the company. Investors would believe that they could make more money by investing more into this companies stock. This leads to these other investors purchasing stock in that company and driving the stock price up. The same would happen if key people in the business started to sell their stock. The article states “large purchases by directors and managers, can be a lucrative trading strategy for sophisticated investors.” (Tang, 2017). Legalizing insider trading would also show valuable information to investors. I think that if you know what you are doing when investing than legalizing insider trading would benefit many individuals. It would not help for people who do not know about the stock market. I can see how legalizing insider trading would help the stock market move more even though it would allow for the insiders to have an advantage over others.   

Reference

“Insider Trading.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, 2019, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/insider_trading.

Tang, D. (2017, April 12). Legal insider trading? This is what it is and how it affects investors. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/finance/328535-legal-insider-trading-this-is-what-it-is-and-how-it-affects.

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Fiduciary

Research and define what it means to be a “fiduciary” or to possess a “fiduciary duty”.

Fiduciary means “a person who occupies a position of such power and confidence with regard to the property of another that the law requires him to act solely in the interest of the person whom he represents” (Fiduciary, 2019). A few examples of a person who holds fiduciary duties would be an executor of someone estate. When someone passes away there is many duties that have to be completed like paying off debts, distributing assets by how the will states and taking care of everything else that comes when someone passes. This person who acts in this duty could be anyone that was appointed by the person who passes. This person trusted the fiduciary to act and respond to situation like the person who passed would. When appointed to this position the person does not act in a selfish way, but in the way the person who appointed them would act. Another example would be in a doctor with a patient. The doctor has to provide medical advice in the best interest of the patient.

Identify and describe the five duties an agent is said to owe his principal.

The five duties an agent is said to owe his principal are:

1.      To act in the best interests of the principal

2.      No conflict of interest

3.      No secret profit

4.      Duty of confidentiality

5.      Duty to use care and skill

(Estate Agents Authority, 2016)

 What it means to act in the best interests of the principal is that decisions that need to be made are thought through. These decisions that are made for the principal are based off of what the principal would want or gain from the decisions being made. No conflict of interest means that the agent taking this position is somehow not connected in any way to the principal and their situation. This way when decisions have to be made the agent will only be thinking of the benefits of the principal and not someone else or themselves. The agent is in no way to make any form of profit from any decisions made on behalf of the principal. Also, all information that is given to the agent has to be kept confidential if it is not known to the public. In this type of situation, agents have a responsibility to the principal. Doing the job right and making sure they take good care of the principal’s wishes is important.

 Give an example where you have seen or experienced the concept of a fiduciary relationship in your own personal or business lives.

I have a money manager who over sees my investments. This would be an example of fiduciary because I am putting my trust in this person to inform me of their knowledge and give me guidance in different investment situations. This person is acting in the best interest for me, there is no conflict of interest, there is also no secret payments. This person also had information of mine that is being kept confidential and he has the care and skill to guide me. Finding the right money manager who I can trust was not easy.

  Have you been involved in a situation where you felt a fiduciary duty had been breached? Were you correct, and if so why?

No, I have never been involved in a situation where I felt a fiduciary duty had been breached. I have heard of some situations, but I was never involved in them.

 Reference

Fiduciary. (2019). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from https://academic-eb-com.proxy.davenport.edu/levels/collegiate/article/fiduciary/34192

 Estate Agents Authority. (2016). (5) Agent’s duties to principal under common law. Retrieved from https://www.eaa.org.hk/en-us/Information-Centre/Publications/Agency-Law/-5-Agents-duties-to-principal-under-common-law

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I will kindly have to disagree with your outcome of this decision being unfair to Able. First, the terms in the contract that Able agreed to were not completed by Able. Able did not go to get a Letter to Proceed and get the approval needed to start the job. In the contract under V. Pre-Demolition Approval, it clearly spells out what Able will need to do before starting any job. Then in VII. Compensation of the contract it states “If the :Letter to Proceed” for each demolished property is not provided, the Contractor forfeits any payment under the terms of this contract.” (Able Demolition, Inc. v. City of Pontiac, 2007). If Able did not like these terms, then before signing the contract to make it valid they should have renegotiated the terms of the contract. Instead Able proceeded to sign and agree to the terms.This specific condition would be a condition precedent meaning that a certain act must be completed before the other party has to pay money (Sukys & Brown, 2016). Able did not complete the specific act, now the City of Pontiac does not have to pay. The City of Pontiac created these terms for a legal safety net for them. If a person who owned the building that Able was going to demolish filed a restraining order or found a legal way to keep their building and Able did not do the due diligence to find out by obtaining the Letter to Proceed then a lawsuit could happen to not only involve Able Demolition, but the City of Pontiac. By having this safety net anyone involved in the demolition processes is safe from a future lawsuit. If these terms were thought about this way, the City of Pontiac was in fact not only protecting themselves, but Able Demolition. This is why I believe that the ruling on this case is fair. 

Reference

Able Demolition, Inc. v. City of Pontiac, Docket No. 273295, (Court of Appeals of Michigan, 2007) 

Sukys, P., & Brown, G. (2016, January 6). Business Law with UCC Applications. Retrieved from https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/business-law-ucc-applications-sukys-brown/M9780077733735.html.

Coates Week 3

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Able Demolition, Inc. v. City of Pontiac, 2007

In your opinion, was the result reached by the courts “fair” in this case? Would you have ruled the same way as the trial judge and the appellate courts in this case? Why or Why not?

In my opinion the results reached by the courts was fair. Able Demolition had a moral duty to get approval for a demolition before the event took place and to give written approval to certain city leaders. It was very specific in the contracting saying “the contractor shall forfeit any payment for unauthorized services performed as a result of his failure to get said pre-approval “Letter to Proceed”. (Able Demolition, Inc. v. City of Pontiac, 2007). With this statement in the contract Able Demolition had a moral duty to deliver the Letter to Proceed to the appropriate city officials before they stated the demolition process. If the contract did not state that they had to get the pre-demolition letter then Able Demolition could be rewarded the money on the 11 demolition sites. If the contract would have stated to give a verbal approval to the city officials instead of written, Able Demolition would still have to carry this through. Able Demolition was fully aware of this condition in the contract if they signed the paperwork. Moral duty is part of a contract when conditions are applied such as this example. A moral duty is when “the party is obligated to perform a given act if and only if the contractual provision addressing the contingency states that the act is to be performed” (Shavell, 2006). The act of getting the pre-approval Letter to Proceed and giving it to city officials makes Able Demolition responsible for this moral duty.

           Pontiac’s legal department put this term into the contract so that any legal liability would not fall on them. The legal liability that could incur if a Letter to Proceed is not delivered is the violation of citizens’ property rights (Able Demolition, Inc. v. City of Pontiac, 2007). With a building being demolished the owner of the building or property could demand that the building not be demolished. There are certain guidelines that must be followed for demolition and these requirements are; there is a direct benefit in income in low- and moderate-income families or a direct benefit for that area (Michigan NSP2 Consortium, 2011). If these two requirements were not followed, if it was a historical site, or if a restraining order was put in place, demolition would need to be put on hold. If demolition was not put on hold then it is not just Able at risk. Pontiac’s legal department in this situation wanted to make sure that restraining orders were not filed at the last minute to prevent demolition of buildings. If there were restraining orders applied then they would be in violation of that order and Pontiac could be held liable.

           I would have ruled the same way as the judge and the courts based off of the terms and conditions laid out in the contract that were not fulfilled and the legal liability this situation put Pontiac in.

How do you think Able got itself in this mess? Do you think it just ignored the requirements of the contract, or was something else at play? If you think something other than ignorance must have been involved, what was it?

I think that someone really messed up in their job. Documents were not doubled checked and secured before proceeding to the demolition. Every complaint that Able filed against Pontiac; breach of contract, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, and quantum meruit are all depended on Pontiac breaking the contract (Able Demolition, Inc v. City of Pontiac, 2007). The reason none of these complaints hold up is because of Able breaking the contract by not getting permission to proceed by the city. Overlooking a small detail in the contract lead to the monetary loss that Able endured.

 Reference

 Able Demolition, Inc. v. City of Pontiac, Docket No. 273295, (Court of Appeals of Michigan, 2007)

 Michigan NSP2 Consortium, 2011. Demolition Policy and Procedures. Retrieved from https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mshda/mshda_cd_nsp2_demo_350623_7.pdf

 Shavell, S. (2006). IS BREACH OF CONTRACT IMMORAL? Emory Law Journal, 56(2), 439-460. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.davenport.edu/docview/215709103?accountid=40195