Michigan Business Beat | Nakia Mills, BBB - Torch Awards & Protecting MI Businesses from Scams

Originally uploaded July 29th, fixed static glitches reuploaded April 11th. Jeffrey Mosher welcomes back Nakia Mills, Director of Marketing Better Business Bureau®, Serving Eastern Michigan & the Upper Peninsula in Southfield, Michigan. Their discussion covered BBB Torch Awards Our Torch Awards are coming up on October 23rd. Nominations will begin being accepted at the end of this month. The Better Business Bureau Torch Awards for Ethics recognize companies that display an outstanding level of ethics and integrity in all of their business dealings. Learn more at BBB.org/Detroit. Value of Accreditation We surveyed our Accredited Businesses and asked them to shed some light on the value of their BBB Accreditation. Thirteen thousand responded. These are some of the res: Nearly 90% of responding Accredited Businesses said the BBB Seal adds value to their business. Reputation, trust, and integrity are the top three driving forces behind BBB Accreditation. When asked about their top reasons for being BBB Accredited, businesses said they are Accredited because it quickly identifies their business as reputable, builds trust with customers, and demonstrates integrity in their business practices. Accredited Businesses identified their top three business challenges this year as (1) managing increasing costs, (2) growing the business, (3) and hiring and retaining employees. Visit BBB.org/BizHQ for helpful tops and resources to run s successful business. Learn more about the survey results at BBB.org/VoA. They also touched on some of the top scams affecting businesses: Fortunately, knowledge is the best protection. If you own or work for a small business, stay informed about these common scams and report them if your business is targeted. Common small business scams: Business Email Compromise (“BEC”). Business email compromise fraud is an email phishing scam that typically targets people who pay bills in businesses, government, and nonprofit organizations. In BEC fraud, the scammer poses as a vendor or other trusted source who emails an accountant or chief financial officer. The email asks them to wire money, buy gift cards or send personal information, often for a plausible reason. Phony invoices. Businesses receive fake invoices demanding payment for products or services never ordered or received. Learn about more scams targeting businesses at BBB.org/BizScams.