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Stop: Think About It!

This thought might seem like a bizarre topic but, when you do stop and think about it, there are far too many decisions you make as a business owner that you probably don’t take the time to think through completely.

Okay, the first question you raise: Can you ever think through an issue completely? No … unless you have identified all the concerns related to that issue and have all the answers clearly defined.

Here’s a scenario: Someone who knows someone in your company comes in to ask for a donation to the youth baseball league in your community. Odds are you make that contribution at a level you’re comfortable with, unless you’re not a baseball fan or a supporter of youth activities. It’s kind of a guilt trip when you’re asked. How can you be against baseball? Or young people who want to play sports?

If you think about the request logically instead of emotionally, you weigh the variables, such as whether you have the budget allocated for that level of donation. Can you lessen your tax burden through the contribution? Will you gain any market visibility or brand awareness with the donation? Is it a cause you want to be identified with as a company?

That’s one example of the importance of taking a few minutes to weigh your options when asked for a charitable contribution, rather than just handing over the cash. Whether it’s financial or an in-kind gift through employees donating their time and expertise to the cause, take some time to think about it.

A suggestion that might prove helpful: Develop a decision making check list to stimulate the thought process when it comes to making critical choices for your company.

#1 might be – Will the choice help us make more money? Sub-factors for this check point might be: How soon? How much? At what cost?

#2 could be – Will this decision increase our brand awareness? Build customer loyalty? Or possibly detract from our brand identity?

#3 – Will this enable us to increase market share in the community or other markets?

#4 – Do we have the budget for this expenditure/donation/expansion?

#5 – What is required of our company to fulfill this obligation or complete this project? How much time will be required of our employees?

When we’ve conducted fund raising projects for clients, there is often a desire to conduct a volunteer project such as a bake sale or car wash. These are good events for getting people involved in a cause, but when one stops and thinks about it, these relatively simple events require loads of time for a small return. If your company or organization had to pay for the volunteer’s time, odds are the event would lose money!

A decision matrix such as roughly outlined above can reduce the risk of making bad decisions, and save money that might be invested in the wrong venture. And there are times when having an independent third party to provide counsel on the concept is well worth the investment.

Take the time to think it through!

Thanks go out to the community following this blog. We appreciate your comments and support and hope to continue providing valuable content for you.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Communicating – Part 2

A recent post covered texts, E-mails, and F2F methods of communicating with your clients. Now it’s time for delving into some other methods of getting your message through to the right people.

Phones. Smart cell phones now comprise 56% of the United States cell phone market. Land lines – yes, those phones you plugged into a wall socket – are heading toward extinction, along with phone directories because individuals now have access to the Internet, E-mail, and so much more … through their phones.

Hard to believe this is how cell phone industry began.

Keep in mind, however, that talking to someone on the phone is still a vital part of the communication process. You should know what you intend to say when you call someone, whether it’s a simple opportunity to catch-up with a friend or relative or an important business discussion. Be prepared. If you know your business, you should be able to answer any questions that arise off the cuff.

Time is precious, especially in business. That means when you call another business person, respect their time and try to keep the conversation on point. If you are calling a customer or client, be considerate of their time but take the time you need to take care of the reason you called them. Be patient, and listen, especially if they call you. It’s okay to tell someone you don’t have the answer, but if you promise to get it for them, do it! Find the answer as quickly as possible and get back to them … or they’ll find the answer somewhere else, probably from a competitor.

If you put them on hold, respond back to them within 17 seconds that you’re still looking or with the answer. That’s a short amount of time, but anything longer may lose them. If you have an automated on hold system, make sure there’s a message that expresses appreciation for remaining on hold that comes up every 17 seconds.

There’s an old saying: “If you don’t have time to do something right, when will you have time to do it over?” It is applicable to phone conversations, so take the time to slow down and get clarity from your phone call.

Website. What is all too common is the business that spends money to build a website and when it’s finished, the company figures the site is done, nothing more needs to be done with it, so it’s forgotten. What many business owners fail to realize is that the world wide web is constantly changing and web users – potential customers – are more likely than ever to check out a business online first … before they make a purchasing decision.

Your business website needs to be kept current and relevant to the consumer. Focus on the consumer first! The key to communicating with clients and prospective clients through a website is RELEVANCE. Your website’s content needs to be relevant to the search engine criteria people are using to find your products and/or services.

Think of your website as an online billboard or store. If your prospects are looking to purchase stainless steel water bottles, they’re going to use their web browser – Google, Bing, Torch, Safari, Yahoo, or whatever – to search for “Stainless Steel Water Bottles.” The spiders that do the searching will pull up references to “stainless,” ” steel,” “water,” and “bottles.” If your site has those key words and other search engine optimizing information, your odds of coming up on the first page have increased. If you also have relevant content about stainless steel water bottles and images of those bottles, along with pricing, shipping information, colors, and everything you ever wanted to know about stainless steel water bottles, your website is far more than likely going to come up on page one of the search results. Add some videos, a blog, and other social media mentions and links and your website will generate some business for your business.

Your website should get your customers’ and prospects’ attention, clearly communicate with them about what makes your business different, and provide them with the information they need to make a decision to go with your company.

These are two more ways to convey your message effectively.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Managing Priorities

You own a business. You need more customers. You have to complete payroll. You need to manage inventory. Invoicing to be done. Bills to pay. And, oh yeah, you have a family that likes to see you once in a while.

These are all priorities in one sense or another, and they can add stress to your life when everyone of them is due … today!

An easy solution: Delegate. However, what if you’re it? The owner, sole proprietor or only member of the LLC, sales person, order filler, and, basically, the only employee? How does that alter your priorities? What if there isn’t anyone as well trained or as knowledgeable about the task to get done as you are? What if you lack trust in someone you could delegate it to? All kinds of challenges for managing priorities.

You bear the ultimate responsibility, so broaden your shoulders, delegate what you can, and get what you can accomplish done. What you are unable to delegate effectively become your priorities for the day.

Two schools of thought.

1) Do the easy, simple and quick tasks to get them out of the way so you don’t have to worry about them. When they’re done you can tackle the larger, more important tasks that require more time and energy. You will still have to deal with interruptions.

2) Tackle the most important task first. If it truly is the most important job and must get done, then it doesn’t matter if the smaller tasks don’t get done because the big job has to get finished.

The first school of thought may seem inane, but if you have more energy and fewer interruptions later in the day or after you’ve cleared the small jobs, it can be a viable method of managing priorities.

The second seems more logical, and could be, depending on when you have the most energy to tackle that type of work. And, if you procrastinate on the big one, the other tasks will pile up and frustration will decrease your overall productivity.

The magic formula lies in assigning priorities to the tasks on your plate. A #1 or “A” priority should require your attention before a #4 or “E” task. Again, delegate if you can. What also helps is an understanding of approximately how much time the tasks on your To Do list are going to take. If generating a report for shareholders only requires a few key strokes and a review of the information, bump that up on the priority list because it is going to shareholders, and they like information in a timely fashion.

Each day is different, so keep that in mind, along with the realization that procrastination is also a decision … to do nothing about the task. Perhaps it wasn’t a priority after all.

Somewhere in this mix needs to be a priority on yourself and your family. Schedule yourself some “Me Time” and have some fun for a change. Go out to dinner, or catch a movie you’ve been wanting to see. Take a road trip. Go see your parents or grandparents and visit for a few days. Life is too short not to enjoy it.

A good friend, Jay, shared a saying that is appropriate: How likely are you to say to someone on your death bed: “I wish I had spent more time at work.”?

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Put The Right People In The Right Position

The right strategy for positioning your employees can add to your bottom line.

Managing employees is an art form in business that requires an owner or manager to take the time to think things through. Avoid rash decisions. While it is often difficult to retain good employees, placing them in a fulfilling role with a certain level of responsibility can reap benefits and keep them challenged.

One of the keys is understanding each of your employees. What motivates him or her? What makes them tick? Is it money, autonomy, authority, interaction with customers or other employees, or a steady paycheck? The more you know about your employees, within legal guidelines, the better expectations you can set for them and the more accountable they will be. Most employees want to make a difference and have an impact on the world, so if you – as an owner or manager – know what their expectations are and how they might fit with your corporate objectives, the easier it becomes to provide them with an outlet to achieve their goals and contribute to the company’s mission at the same time.

Make sure your mission is clear to every member of your team, and share your passion for the business so your vision becomes everyone’s vision.

Your best sales person may be ill-suited to become sales manager. A sales manager may be the wrong person to be promoted as head of production. Your graphic artist may be inappropriate for filling the shoes of the company’s social media manager.

Here are some simple steps to get you closer to puttng the right people in the right place:

1) Create a description of the work responsibilities and expectations, including anticipated customer interaction;

2) Compare the candidates’ qualifications, ambitions, and goals to the description;

3) Take some time to think through the implications of selecting the person who’s right for the position, including how long they’re likely to last in that job; and,

4) Trust your gut.

If you need to bounce your choices off an independent third party, consider engaging Brand Irons. If you need to think about the transitions involved, take the time. Better to wait on a decision than make the wrong one. Think, too, about whether your choice makes the most sense or if you need to consider other candidates.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Giving the World a Gift

A recent article in USA Today – http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/19/americans-global-warming/4127803/ – reported the results of a Stanford University study about opinions on global warming. While we realize this is a departure from our usual blogs about marketing your business, protecting our planet is a subject near and dear to our hearts, and when we see news like the USA Today report, we like to share some thoughts.

At this time of year, Christmas, it was interesting to learn through an anonymous source that each acre of Christmas trees generates enough oxygen to support 18 human beings. Adding to that is the knowledge that there are 350,000 acres of Christmas trees in the United States (they’re grown in every state). If we do the math (350,000 x 18) we realize the Christmas trees grown in the United States alone produce enough oxygen to support 6.3 million (6,300,000) of us earthlings.

How much oxygen does an artificial Christmas tree produce?

Okay, you’ll probably ask: “So why should we cut down a Christmas tree and stop it from creating oxygen?” Because the tree growers plant three (3) trees for every one that’s cut. Paper companies do the same, planting at least two trees for every one they cut down. Yes, it’s their business. If we stop buying “real” Christmas trees, the market collapses and tree growers stop planting more trees.

What’s the point of all this? Each of us … everyone on this planet … can do something NOW to have an impact on global warming. Plant a tree!

Do you have room in your yard for another tree? Plant one! Yes, you may have to rake a few more leaves and mow around it, but there are many other benefits to having more trees than simple lawn maintenance problems.

More than two billion acres of land on this planet lie fallow. That means the land could be used to plant crops but is lying dormant because the government gives farmers incentives to keep the fields out of production. Imagine if we could reverse that mindset and encourage our legislators to provide incentives for planting more trees.

Imagine if just 10% of those two billion acres (200,000,000 x .1 = 200 million acres) were planted with trees that could produce enough oxygen for 18 people. That would generate enough of the element (oxygen) we humans need to exist for 3.6 billion of us earthlings. Make sense?

We’ve been thinking about establishing a non-profit organization to save our planet and encourage the planting of more trees. We avoid accepting comments, but we would like to know how you feel about this topic.

We bring it up at Christmas because what better gift to give than to save our world?

Let’s plant some more trees! Merry Christmas.

Focus On Your Customers

One expert might advise that you focus your business on sales in 2014. Another might suggest you focus on productivity. Those may be good suggestions, but your focus should always – repeat, always – be on your customers. You may be able to increase sales or production capabilities, but if you lose your customer base – your market share – what will you have?

Do you know who your customers are? What do they look like? What do they buy?

Placing a consistent emphasis on your clients can be difficult, especially if you have to deal with an employee issue or inventory problems. It is far too easy to become distracted by the inner workings of your business and lose sight of what’s most important – customers! Good management maintains the company’s priority on the consumer.

What’s best for your customers? Is it keeping the sidewalk clean and safe? Maintaining a pleasant, inviting interior in the store? Making sure your website is current and easy to navigate? Offering rewards to loyal patrons? Ensuring your pricing is reasonable and fair? Providing a step beyond exceptional customer service?

You may disagree, but weigh whether a misplaced order for stock inventory is more important than making sure a customer’s problems are resolved to his/her satisfaction. Solve the problem with inventory when the customers are taken care of, or find an employee with the ability to solve it and give them the authority to resolve it.

Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes for these examples:

The line is backed up in a convenience store. One register is open for several consumers while four employees are behind the counter, joking about who’s going to the bank. How likely would you be to return to that convenience store if you didn’t have to go there?

You’re parked at the drive-through window of a fast food restaurant. Your order has been paid for and is sitting on the service table, ready to be handed to you. Unfortunately for you, the drive-through attendant is talking on their cell phone to their best friend. Feel like pulling over and having a chat with the manager? That’s likely to only add to your frustration because the manager is allowing that behavior to happen in the first place.

What do those examples tell us about the company and how well it markets its brand? It is an all-too-often occurrence in the fast food industry, and irritating to think those employees would do better work if they were paid more. Company managers need to spend more time in the trenches, like Undercover Boss, and learn what’s happening on the front lines. Or you can consider engaging Brand Irons as a secret shopper to do the investigating and report back on the findings … provided you’re ready for the truth.

Brand Irons has some rather simple solutions to remaining focused on your customers, and it starts at the top of any organization:

1) Take the time to think through what your customer service orientation is and should be;

2) Take the time to train your employees on what the expectations are for customer service … all the time, and hold your employees accountable; and,

3) Take the time – whatever it takes – to take care of your customers the way they want to be taken care of … remember and never lose sight of that objective.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand!

Planning for 2014

Now that it’s less than a month away, it’s time to take a few minutes and think through your business strategies for 2014. If you’ve already done this, take some time to review them and make sure you are going to be on the right track.

First step – What is the right track?

Look at where your business is today and try to project out a year from now. Where would you like to see your business in mid- to late-December 2014? Have sales shown an increase or are they holding steady? Will you be in a growth stage? Transition phase? Or will it be time to think about exit strategies?

The key area to consider is what your consumers want and need. You need to know what the market is asking for, and then be prepared and able to deliver it on a consistent basis. Be on top of industry changes. Know your market. Some communities are a year or two behind on trends, and you need to know where your consumers are in your marketplace. You should be slightly ahead.

Second step – Where are your profit margins?

Remember, you’re in business to make money. Consumers understand that, yet still want a good value at a fair price. They also want to know why you’re different from your competitors so they can rationalize buying form you and remain loyal to your brand. If the margin you’ve been operating on has provided your company with good profitability, consider making changes to increase your margins. Those changes could involve cost reductions, if appropriate. They could mean price increases if the market will bear them, at the potential risk of pushing too far and losing market share.

Third step – How strong is your brand?

If yours is the only barbershop in town, you’ve got a good chance of securing 100% of the market share. It doesn’t mean you have a strong brand if the way you treat customers is like you’re the only place in town where they can get their hair cut. You have a strong brand when your customers love coming in, catching up on the latest gossip, enjoying the experience you provide in cutting their hair, and leaving with a satisfied expression because they know they’ve received a good value for the investment.

There are many variables that you need to think through when it comes to strategizing about your business for 2014: Management, competition, pricing structures, overhead, growth, productivity, marketing (including sales, advertising, and public relations), and finances, among others. Call Brand Irons at (920) 366-6334 if you’d like some help.

Take the time to think things through … then act!

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand.

Year End Review

December is a hectic month for most business owners. The Thanksgiving holiday cut short the end of November and, in retail, started the huge push to put black on the bottom line for the year. December adds holiday parties, end of the month, and end of year in the last week without mention of Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, and football games.

December is also a good month to review your performance for the last year. A year end review can be a lengthy process or a quick overview of how your business did. It should be done in conjunction with laying out strategies for 2014 as well, which we’ll cover in next week’s blog. Brand Irons can assist you with year end reviews and 2014 strategies.

10 things to think about as you take a look at 2013:

How much of an improvement, if any, does the bottom line show over 2012?
How does cash flow look at year’s end?
How did sales do in comparison to expectations?
How has productivity been improved during the last 12 months?
What has been the trend in consumer demand throughout the year?
What have been the significant changes or innovations in the industry?
What percentage of customers have you been able to retain?
What areas have been identified where staff or employees may need more training?
What does your profit margin look like?
How well are you doing, personally, on your retirement goals?

The complexity of a year end review depends, primarily, on the size of the company and the diversity of the management team.

Most of the check-points listed here pertain to financial information, so it may be wise to schedule a meeting with your accountant to go over performance indicators. Other items, such as consumer demand, are related to market conditions and may require some research to identify existing trends as well as potential growth areas. Others are management- and personnel-oriented.

What is critically important, either in reviewing a year’s performance or strategizing for the next business cycle, is to know what metrics you want to measure. What is essential for the long-term sustainability of your business? What do you need to know? What else would you like to know? Having this in hand makes it easy to compare one year’s results to the following year and put a pinch of realism into budget projections.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand.

Remember America’s Veterans

November 11th is Veteran’s Day in the United States. Take a few minutes to reflect on what their service means to you and your business.

Clyde in uniform My father served in the United States Navy during World War II. His brother served in the Army Air Force. His brother-in-law also served in the Navy and saw combat in the Pacific. Dad, in my opinion, was fortunate he stayed stateside during the war. He taught electricity to seamen as Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class. I wish there were some way to know how many sailors that he taught who went on to become electricians in America after the war.

As we think about these and other veterans, we need to consider the impact they have had on the world of business.

Veterans surround us in today’s business world. As an employer, you may have hired a few because you trust their work ethic. They’ve been trained to follow orders and do their work without complaining. They have respect for others and stand up for what is right.

Some have seen the horrors of war, and pity on those of us who think the scenes in video games come close to the real thing. Far from it! Most veterans find it difficult to discuss their experiences with civilians. I would guess it’s because they fear we will fail to understand or that we will be unable to stomach the truth of seeing death or bullet wounds first hand.

My father-in-law was a bomber pilot during World War II, and doubtless was responsible for countless deaths from the bombs his aircraft dropped on German cities. He flew a full complement of missions and was one of the lucky ones who made it back alive each time. He came back after the war and became a successful business man, operating a machine shop and a novelty business that provided for his eight children. His legacy, and that of my father, continues well beyond his passing.

On this Veteran’s Day, unfurl your American flag and fly it proudly. Put a flag decal in your car window and keep it there. Thank someone you know who is a veteran and, if the opportunity presents itself, do something nice for that person. Pay for their lunch without them knowing who did it. Stand up for them should someone start bashing our military and its veterans. Buy them a cup of coffee. Do something you’re proud of today, and do it to honor a family member who served … and perhaps gave their life to protect your liberties. Say a prayer for those who have served and those who continue to serve.

Freedom comes at a cost, and I – for one- am proud of those who have stepped forward to bear arms to give me the freedoms I enjoy as a citizen of the United States of America!

Follow-Up

In an earlier post, we talked about how to work a room when you’re networking. If you were fortunate to meet an excellent potential client or referral source at that event, your key to success with a networking marketing strategy is follow-up!

Do you have a marketing strategy for networking? For following up?

Assume you had an interesting conversation with an accountant who, you discover, has years of experience working with the types of companies you want to connect with. Assume this accountant has been looking for someone like you to whom they can refer some of their clients who need your services. Assume this accountant also seemed pleased with your responses to her questions and asked you to call and set up an appointment to get together for a smoothie or coffee. That connection alone made attending the event worth the entire evening, in your opinion.

Now let’s assume it’s a week later and you have yet to make that follow-up phone call. In the book of right ways to do things, that follow-up phone call should have been made within 24 hours of the event. The preference would have been to pull up the calendars on your smart phones and make the appointment right there on the spot, but if that wasn’t done, the call needed to be made the next day. Having a time frame for following up, and how it’s done are part of a networking marketing strategy.

How do you handle the fact you messed up on following up? Here are some scenarios:

You make the call and humbly apologize, paying attention to the tone of her voice to determine if there’s a coldness to her response, which is also verified by whether she still wants to meet with you. She may meet, but is likely to be skeptical of your ability to follow-up with her referrals in light of how you followed up with her, meaning she may be hesitant to refer clients to you;
You wait for her to call you and, if she does, express your confusion about whether you were supposed to call or she was. If she calls, she is obviously still interested, so stay on top of the relationship from there on out;
You avoid making the call and anticipate you will run into her again at the next networking event. Be prepared to eat humble pie if she shows up at that one or any of the next events where you may both be in attendance. You may have a ready excuse, but it may carry little weight in convincing her you really are good at following up with people, and she may have already made a different alliance that shuts you out of getting any potential business referred to you;
You call her with a referral for her, and apologize for the delay with an excuse that you were working on the referral before you followed up. It might work if she appreciates the referral, especially if she can convert it into business; or,
You write it off as a lost cause, toss her card in the recycling bin, and kiss the potential referrals business good-bye.

Which scenario would you be most comfortable using a week after meeting someone? Which is most likely to nurture that relationship and lead to referrals?

How much easier is it to carve a few minutes out of your busy schedule to grab your phone, dial the number, and exude enthusiasm for having met the person last night? Make that part of your networking strategy.

Follow-up is easy if done promptly.

Two quick examples of what it can mean for your business:

Trying to scrap an old vehicle, I contacted a salvage yard that had been recommended to me. Several phone calls and voice mail messages failed to get a response. I contacted one I had used before and they were on site within an hour, gave me a fair price and hauled off the vehicle. I heard from the first one an hour after the vehicle was gone. Too bad, so sad.

Looking for a plumber, I contacted two in the community where the work needed to be done. The same scenario of waiting for a call back played out, until I called the second one. The first had been highly recommended so I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. Within an hour after contacting the second, the first finally called after more than a week. Yes, I understand plumbers can be busy people, but a courtesy phone call does wonders to build credibility and that level of trust you expect from contacting a business.

Part of your corporate marketing strategy should be to carve out a brief time period every day to make those follow-up phone calls or to merely follow-up on whatever you need to follow through on. Your customers, prospects, and referral sources will appreciate it.