Surviving in an Economic Downturn

The author of this article is unknown; it was sourced from an online repository called ‘Small Business Notes’. Given today’s economic climate, and the prevalence I have seen recently of small business owners tending to “bury their heads in the sand” and blame their woes on the economy, I thought this article was an excellent opportunity to provide an alternative thought process. In tough times the best thing a small business (or any business for that matter) can do is to go back to the basics. If you actively run your business every day, think thru the issues so you can make smart decisions, and utilize the ideas in the following article, you should be well on your way to insuring that your business survives today’s economic challenges and is set up to thrive when things turn back around.

 

The belief that small businesses fare poorly in economic slowdowns is a common misconception that is not generally true. Solidly run small businesses actually hold their own during downturns. While we all like to believe our businesses fit the definition of “solidly run”, let’s take a look at what are some commonly cited best practices for all businesses to be following during a time of economic downturn.

Revisit Your Business Plan
The number one recommendation, across the board, is to re-examine your business plan. Your business plan should be the working base for your company. Have you strayed from it in any way? Does it need revision in light of new information? Should you be considering whole new directions that are not included in it? Sit down and read it from the perspective of someone about to invest in your business – and make any revisions that seem appropriate. You may even identify additional information you need to know in order to make decisions about the future of the company.

Seek Supporters and Advisors
If ever there is a time to network, this is it. Many companies set up advisory boards that include a wide spectrum of professional expertise that they can draw on for advice. Such board members often are attorneys, certified public accountants, civic club leaders, owners or managers of businesses similar to yours or whom you do business with, and retired executives. The latest jargon for these types of boards is “Power Circles.” An apt name because the members should be power connections for you – knowledgeable about the environment in which you do business and able to connect you with the information you need to make good decisions. The purpose of the board is to offer you objectivity. They should be people you can be truthful with and who will keep your disclosures confidential. Most groups like this discuss specific business problems you have, using the meeting to brainstorm possible solutions.

If you don’t belong to civic and professional organizations, do it. Here are groups of people facing similar challenges to you. Their joint expertise and resources can be a powerful support mechanism when times are tough.

Make Customer Satisfaction Your Priority
Your customers are your lifeblood in any economic climate. In a downturn they are what keep you in business. Treat them very well. Spend time listening to your clients to hear what they like and do not like about the services you offer. Change those things that you can. Take time to be innovative in meeting your customer needs. Perhaps taking the time to computerize customer information would allow you to more easily access their particular preferences and respond quickly to their needs. Perhaps taking time to call special clients to discuss how you can serve them better would be productive. Maybe an extra telephone line would speed the service time. Do whatever you need to do to keep your current customers loyal and to position yourself to win new customers.

Expand Relationships with Existing Clients/ Sign More Long-term Deals
Given that your customers are satisfied, they should want to do more business with you. Find out if there are ways you can expand what you do for them, perhaps by offering more products or services or fulfilling other needs that they have. Long-term deals add to your security. So, if you have happy customers, offer a discount to those who are willing to sign a long-term contract or who are willing to pay cash up front for a contracted set of services. Cash up front is particularly attractive because it makes you look good on paper and can allow you to lock in favorable financing from financial institutions.

Advertise/Sell
In a downturn one of the first places many businesses cut expenses is in advertising – a real mistake. As part of the philosophy of expanding your base and recruiting more customers, you need to advertise and sell more than ever. People are looking for better ways to do business. If you have established strong customer satisfaction, this is the time to get the message out.

Seek New Business Opportunities (Diversify)
A downturn sounds like a terrible time to diversify, doesn’t it? But there are opportunities out there to be taken. And given that you have done your homework in establishing yourself on a solid financial base, this is an opportune time to broaden your base. Diversification gives you more stability because a down market in one product may be compensated for by another product. The tricky part is, of course, finding complementary products that face differing market challenges. You don’t want to stretch your expertise by producing totally different products, yet you do want to target different types of markets so that softness in one may not be mirrored in the other. A simple example of a way to seek new opportunities is to establish an internet business for a retail store. You have provided a new way to service your regular customers and expanded the audience you reach.

Form Alliances
Alliances with your vendors or with closely aligned types of products is always a good way to strengthen your customer base. With the right alliance you are reaching a broader spectrum of possible customers and you have more to offer each potential customer.

Diversify Your Customer Base
It may be possible that you have been selling to a limited sub-group within the community and you can expand the appeal of your product to a wider audience. For instance, you may be primarily selling to a specific age, ethnic, or gender group and with different advertising or a slight modification in the product; you can reach a broader spectrum of the population. Simple things like instructions in another language or wording advertising slightly differently can have a major impact in who your business attracts.

Find Ways to Save Time and Money
Collections are a great place to start in tightening your belt. Not only do you need to be providing incentives to your customers to pay on time or even early, but you need an efficient collection system that gives you advance warning of problems as they develop. Similarly, you need to be paying your bills on time and taking advantage of every possible discount that you can.

Look at fixed and variable costs. What among the variable costs can you cut back on or put off for later? What among the fixed costs can you find a better deal on or negotiate more favorable terms for? And, pay attention to your banking relationships.

Keep in touch with your banker, apprising them of any company developments. If you face a tight situation, having your banker knowledgeable about the positives of you and your business will make them much more amenable to helping you through difficult times.

Watch for Signs and Act on Them
Look for changes in psychology and behavior in your clientele. They may be spending less or putting projects on hold. They may not be paying their bills as quickly. If you are in touch with your customers, you will be aware of differences in buying habits. Contact them before they contact you about what the problems are. Can you help them in some way? You can gain a long-time relationship with a customer by approaching them pro-actively with the view of being there to help them through their own hard times.

Mobilize Your People to Save Jobs
Economic downturns are scary times for employees. Many firms cut personnel and add to the workload of the remaining employees. Involve them in cost cutting. Let them know they are important to you and that you are committed to keeping them. If they know that they are perceived as an active part of the solution, they can identify sources of savings that never occurred to you.

Find rewards that are not costly yet acknowledge their efforts. As hokey as it sounds, one successful businessman placed post-it notes on the restroom mirrors every evening noting positives that had been reported about various individuals during that day. It became a delightful, early morning ritual for the employees to discover each morning what the CEO had noted from the day before.

Whether or not the economy is in a recession, any of these methods can strengthen your organization – and your bottom line. This is what makes a “solidly run” business. It means returning to the roots of your business and making certain that everyone is healthy. All of these principles are worth revisiting at least annually, in good or bad times.

The New Basics of Marketing

What you need to know about: websites, email, mobile phones, social networks, viral video, blogging.

Inc. Online, February 2008

By: Leigh Buchanan, Max Chafkin, and Ryan McCarthy

The world of marketing is radically different than it was only a few short years ago. From viral video to text-message campaigns and avatar sales reps, marketing tools that only recently seemed rare and futuristic are quickly becoming commonplace.  They’re the New Basics.

Mainstream marketing was invented by big companies to convey simple messages to the masses. New marketing, in contrast, is about complexity and individuality. There are, for example, 100 million blogs worldwide. No matter how small the market for your products or services, one of those blogs probably serves it.

But though today’s marketers have more choices in terms of the tools they use to reach customers, their jobs aren’t getting any easier. With an explosion of new offerings, it’s hard to know when and how best to spend your marketing dollars. In compiling this report, Inc. looked for developments that are new and creative but also effective and affordable–and, of course, well suited to nimble, entrepreneurial companies. Use them creatively, and you just might transform your business.

Related Content

• Your Website: How to Jazz Up Your Site
  
• Your Website: Age-Old Problems; New Age Solutions
  How to get maximum impact
  
• Mobile Phones: A Pocketful of Marketing
  The future is calling. Pick up!
  
• Social Networks: Ready to Join the Party?
  Selling yourself on Facebook
  
• Social Networks: Up and Down the Social Register
  
• A Digital Makeover for the Modeling Business
  How Ford Models became the hottest thing YouTube.
  
• Viral Video: Get Ready for Your Close-up
  Three more case studies of success
  
• Blogging: More Than Idle Chatter
  Do it–and do it as if you mean it.
  

The Small Business State of Your State

For those of you interested in working with other small businesses in some capacity, or needing small business knowledge to help with the development of a business and/or marketing plan, some very useful information has recently been issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The data is provided in a national and state-by-state format. A brief overview of the report is shown below. Click on the “compiled data” link and it will take you to a PDF document which provides you with that state-by-state information. Additionally, the links at the bottom of the article will take you to additional small business resources that may be helpful to you.

 The Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy has compiled data for each U.S. state and territory, giving an excellent snapshot of each region’s small business activity (in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available).

For example, California had 718,220 small businesses in 2006 and created 87.6 percent of the state’s net new jobs from 2004 to 2005. (The SBA defines small businesses as employing fewer than 500 people.)

The health care and social assistance industry was Louisiana’s largest small business employer in 2006, while the construction industry was Virginia and Maryland’s biggest small business employer that year.
The report pulls together information on each region’s number of firms, demographics of business ownership, small business income, banking, business turnover, industry composition and employment gains and losses by business size.

It’s worth a visit to check out that status of small business in your state.

By Sharon McLoone, The Washington Post |  January 27, 2009; 8:00 AM ET   Data Points     Small Business Resources

Survey Indicates CMOs Not Tracking Social Media Well. How About Your Company?

As most of you are likely aware, the use of Social Media Marketing is on a tremendous upswing today, particularly among small businesses that typically have minimal marketing budgets – and even less staff. This being the case, it seems prudent to provide information that small businesses can use to understand the pros and cons of using social media, as well as how best to effectively measure ROI to insure that monies available are put to the best use.

A recent article in Advertising Age reviews a study conducted by the CMO Council which indicates that companies overall are not yet doing an effective job of tracking the results and impact of social media. The article further discusses who in the corporate environment should be charged with this responsibility, as well as providing examples of how some of today’s largest companies are beginning to implement social media tracking strategies. This article is shown in-full below.

Since the majority of people who will be reading this blog will likely be somewhat social-media-aware, I thought this would be a good audience to ask to review the article and then provide commentary on what your company is doing to insure the effective tracking of your social media strategies and the monies being spent on that endeavor – from a small business perspective. I would ask readers to provide Comments in this blog on the following questions in order to assist other small businesses who will read it and who have not yet addressed this issue:

• Do you currently have in place a social media tracking mechanism for your company? If so, please provide a brief description of your tracking methodology.
• Who in your organization (by title) is responsible for implementing/monitoring your tracking mechanisms?
• Are you measuring ROI as part of your tracking? If so, what is an appropriate social media ROI per your company?
• Please provide any additional input you believe to be relevant to the discussion

After reading the article below about social media tracking, you might have interest in going to the following link http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/marketing/Marketing-Information-Resources_I12.html to learn the basics about An Introduction to Social Media Marketing and how to put it into effect.

 

Few CMOs Think They’re Effectively Tracking Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

Survey: Marketing Execs, Not Other Departments, Should Be in Charge of Monitoring Customers’ Conversations

by Jack Neff

Published:
January 26, 2009

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Who in corporate America owns the consumer relationship, the customer experience, word-of-mouth or social media? The answer appears to be nobody.

For all the talk about listening to consumers, few marketers think their companies are doing so effectively and even fewer are monitoring what people say about their brands in social media, according to a new survey by the CMO Council.

The survey of 400 executives found that 56% said their companies have no programs to track or propagate positive word-of-mouth; 59% don’t compensate any employees based on improvements in customer loyalty or satisfaction; and only 30% rated their companies highly in their ability to handle or resolve customer complaints.

Few have a system in place
Despite all the hype about social media, only 16% of respondents said their companies have any routine system in place for monitoring what people are saying about them or their brands online.

The survey comes, however, as big marketers are paying growing attention to monitoring and leveraging social media. Procter & Gamble Co. has a Social Media Lab that’s about 18 months old, and Unilever last month hosted a word-of-mouth summit at its U.S. headquarters dedicated largely to understanding how social media affect its brands.

Another big marketer, Johnson & Johnson, became acutely aware of the trouble social media can cause when complaints on the micro blogging site Twitter led it to pull the plug on an ad campaign for Motrin in November.

One problem for marketing executives is that they’re not clearly in charge now of managing the customer experience, customer loyalty or social media today, given that public-relations, sales, consumer-affairs and research-and-development departments all have a stake in those areas now.

Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, said marketing should take the lead in overseeing the customer experience and satisfaction. And he said addressing deficiencies in tracking and analyzing consumer feedback and buzz may be the key way CMOs can stake a claim to leadership.

Buck stops with CMO
“From our standpoint, if there’s anybody who needs to be accountable for the customer experience, it’s the CMO,” Mr. Neale-May said. “Clearly what marketing needs to do to cover a lot of ground we’ve lost in the organization is more analytics, predictive modeling, and data integration and aggregation.”

How three big package-goods marketers are addressing social media, however, shows just how varied functional ownership even of that aspect of the customer experience can be.

P&G’s Social Media Lab has been led largely by corporate digital-marketing specialists. Unilever’s word-of-mouth summit last month appeared to be spearheaded by market research. And J&J last fall appointed corporate-public-relations executive and part-time corporate blogger Marc Monseau to focus full time on social media, both monitoring how J&J is faring and reaching out to help exert corporate influence.

Regardless of who’s in charge, the CMO Council survey suggests “companies generally still aren’t very sophisticated at capturing or managing either positive or negative word-of-mouth,” said Laura Brooks, VP-research for Satmetrix, the company behind the “Net Promoter Score” and a sponsor of the study. Aside from the leadership vacuum, she said corporate silos mean that disparate data streams are never brought together in a way that could help identify and solve problems.

But Pete Blackshaw, exec-VP of digital strategic services for Nielsen Online, isn’t sure separation of duties is such a bad thing.

“You could argue that tension is positive,” he said. “It’s probably a good thing that the consumer-affairs department is freaked out that the digital-marketing team is doing listening. It’s probably a good thing that the research team is kept on its toes by the social-media team.”

Database problems
He also said marketers, even those with extensive customer-relationship-marketing programs, are hamstrung by databases that don’t take into account the word-of-mouth potential of consumers by asking whether they blog, participate in social networks or post to message boards. One exception, he said, is beauty marketer Coty, which does ask consumers about some of those things.

On the social-media front, while Ted McConnell, P&G general manager for interactive marketing and innovation, generated controversy late last year with his dismissal of Facebook and other so-called consumer-generated media as places for P&G ads, the company remains intently focused on tracking and working with social media.

P&G’s Social Media Lab has worked with 15 P&G brands and 70 external partners in an effort to better understand and leverage social media. Among the more interesting projects has been working with Ripple6, acquired last year by Gannett, to develop tools for monitoring social-media buzz and building online communities. Among other things, Ripple6 is helping P&G Productions’ soap opera “The Guiding Light” develop a new online community.

To be sure, wherever there’s consumer data, P&G will try to mine it.

“Aside from technology, it’s almost been a natural thing for P&G to [listen to consumers],” said Stan Joosten, innovation manager-holistic consumer communication. “What technology does for us is truly extend what we can do. For the first time ever with this technology, conversations are visible to us. … You cannot start in social media without knowing how to listen.”

Mobile Marketers Target Receptive Hispanic Audience

In keeping with our recent review of mobile advertising, and our goal to keep you apprised of marketing information that will provide value to your business, we thought that a recent article from Advertising Age Magazine would have particular value to those of you who are marketing to consumers rather than businesses. In this article we are advised that Hispanics are the country’s largest and fastest-growing ethnic minority, and as a result, major brands such as “Continental Airlines, General Mills, Sears, Kmart and Tag Heuer will be working in the first quarter to launch Latino-centric mobile campaigns”.

Making the case to utilize mobile advertising to reach this hot demographic is research that suggests “U.S. Hispanics are more engaged with their mobile phones than Americans overall. Some 71% of Hispanics consume content on their cellphones, compared with the market average of 48%, according to ComScore M:Metrics. Why? Many don’t have subscriptions to internet or landline service, so wireless phones are their sole communications tool. Additionally, the median age among Hispanics is 27.6, compared with 36.6 in the population as a whole, so that may also help explain their propensity toward mobile”.

Read the article at the following link to help you determine if mobile advertising can help your company grow by reaching this hot demographic target group. http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/marketing/Marketing-Information-Resources_I12.html

New Resources for Small Businesses

As part of Strategic’s committment to providing a wide variety of resources and tools for small businesses, we have recently added the following:

• new small business resource links to this blog
• new association resource links to this blog
• new business start-up and operations resources that you can download on our website at http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/services/Business-Start-up-and-Operations-Resources_I13.html
• new marketing resources that you can download on our website at http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/marketing/Marketing-Information-Resources_I12.html
• and new small business events on our website at http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/events/home.html

We will continue to add resources as we become aware of them, and urge you to bookmark this blog so you can check back frequently to see what’s new.  Those with blogs of your own, we encourage you to link to this site so more people can become aware of the tools and resources available.

If you know of resources for small businesses that you believe would be helpful to others, please feel free to provide us with this information at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net.  We’ll review the resource and if it meets our criteria we’ll make it available via this blog or our website.

2009 Events for Small Business

 

Strategic Growth Concepts BlogTalkRadio Broadcasts

Franchising – What is it, and is it right for you?

March 10, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. EST

Featuring experts:       Paul Segreto, CEO of franchisEssentials and 21^st Century Franchise Coach

                                    Jackie Adams, President of JA Adams  & Associates, dba FranChoice

Dave Keegan, Franchise Operations Specialist Associate, Strategic Growth Concepts

 

The Basics of Social Media – How to Use it to Grow Your Business

March 17, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. EST

Featuring experts:  TBD

 

The Legal Aspects of Starting a Business – How to Save Pain & Expense in the Future

March 24, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. EST

Featuring experts:          James Voigt, Attorney at Lavelle Law

                                       Irv Williamson, CEO at Growth Guidance, Inc.

                                       Rebecca Turner, Attorney at Maddin Hauser

 

 

A list of 2009 Regional and National events for small business owners and prospective small business owners has been placed on our website at http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/events/home.html .

Additionally, a listing of calendars of events for several organizations has been placed on our website at http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/events/On-going-Events-Calendars-and-Listings_I29.html .

For those who work with other small businesses, please link these pages to your blogs so that many more people can be informed of these events.

The rest of my readers should bookmark the pages and make sure to check the website often for updates to this Events listing.

Lastly, if you are aware of any events that you believe should be included in either of these lists, please submit the following information to me at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net :

• Name of the event
• Date / time of the event
• Sponsors of the event if you know them
• Location of the event
• Link to a website where event registration information will be located

How to Build a Successful Business

In today’s challenging economy small business owners are looking for inspiration to help them travel the road to success, and examples of the best ways to achieve that success. As part of our company’s promise to provide information and resources to small business, I thought the article below about Sam Walton’s ‘Rules for Building a Successful Business’ would provide some needed insight and the motivation to keep going in spite of today’s economic hardships. Whether you’re among those who love Wal-Mart, or those who despise them, there is no disputing what they’ve achieved by becoming the nation’s #1 retailer less than 30 years after they started and maintaining that position yet today.

I urge you to review the ‘10 Rules’ below and think about how they may apply to your business. Sometimes all it takes is standing back and looking at your business from a different perspective to enable you to “kick-start” your positive attitude AND your business. Can you be the next Sam Walton? Can your business be the next Wal-Mart? The answer lies in your hands!

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sam Walton grew up poor during the Great Depression , yet rose to start the biggest retail store Wal-Mart. In Sam Walton’s “Running a Successful Company: Ten Rules that Worked for Me,” learn Walton’s winning formula for business.

Excerpted from “The Book of Business Wisdom”
Edited by Peter Krass

____________________________________________________________________________________

Sam Walton: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Business

Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, grew up poor in a farm community in rural Missouri during the Great Depression. The poverty he experienced while growing up taught him the value of money and to persevere.

After attending the University of Missouri, he immediately worked for J.C. Penny where he got his first taste of retailing. He served in World War II, after which he became a successful franchiser of Ben Franklin five-and-dime stores. In 1962, he had the idea of opening bigger stores, sticking to rural areas, keeping costs low and discounting heavily. The management disagreed with his vision. Undaunted, Walton pursued his vision, founded Wal-Mart and started a retailing success story. When Walton died in 1992, the family’s net worth approached $25 billion.

Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s #1 retailer, with more than 4,150 stores, including discount stores, combination discount and grocery stores, and membership-only warehouse stores (Sam’s Club). Learn Walton’s winning formula for business.

Rule 1: Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you’re born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it. If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you — like a fever.

Rule 2: Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in your partnership. Encourage your associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It’s the single best thing we ever did.

Rule 3: Motivate your partners. Money and ownership alone aren’t enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs. If things get stale, cross-pollinate; have managers switch jobs with one another to stay challenged. Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don’t become too predictable.

Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they’ll understand. The more they understand, the more they’ll care. Once they care, there’s no stopping them. If you don’t trust your associates to know what’s going on, they’ll know you really don’t consider them partners. Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitors.

Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. A paycheck and a stock option will buy one kind of loyalty. But all of us like to be told how much somebody appreciates what we do for them. We like to hear it often, and especially when we have done something we’re really proud of. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free — and worth a fortune.

Rule 6: Celebrate your success. Find some humor in your failures. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show enthusiasm — always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don’t do a hula on Wall Street. It’s been done. Think up your own stunt. All of this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really fools competition. “Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart seriously?”

Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines — the ones who actually talk to the customer — are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. You’d better find out what they know. This really is what total quality is all about. To push responsibility down in your organization, and to force good ideas to bubble up within it, you must listen to what your associates are trying to tell you.

Rule 8: Exceed your customer’s expectations. If you do, they’ll come back over and over. Give them what they want — and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them. Make good on all your mistakes, and don’t make excuses — apologize. Stand behind everything you do. The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” They’re still up there, and they have made all the difference.

Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. For twenty-five years running — long before Wal-Mart was known as the nation’s largest retailer — we’ve ranked No. 1 in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you’re too inefficient.

Rule 10: Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you’re headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long.

__________________________________________________________

The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts with over twenty years’ experience in working with small businesses. Linda can be contacted by email at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net. The company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com

 

The Value of Social Networking – An Example at Work – and a Challenge for Social Network Members

 

Since joining the LinkedIN community I have often made note of postings in many groups I belong to about the members’ frustration with the “self-serving” type of postings that don’t appear to meet the criteria of networking. As someone who has been a strong in-person networker throughout my career, I acknowledge that my opinion has been in agreement with this frustration. However, I found myself absent of an idea that could serve to change things – and then came along a posting by J. Michael Warner of Genesee Crest Ltd.

Michael has started a small business in which he provides online marketing services to help his clients build their brand on the Internet. Because his company is fairly new, Michael put his marketing skills to work and developed a promotional idea he posted on LinkedIN. His promotion involved offering his skills at auction for LinkedIN members – even if the bids were nominal; his thinking being that he could use the auction winner’s marketing campaign as a high-profile way to prove the value of his services, thereby serving as a marketing campaign for himself as well.

SOCIAL NETWORKING AT WORK

When I saw Michael’s posting I was immediately struck with the thought that this was an opportunity for the type of networking I’m used to seeing – networking that can benefit both parties involved in a very useful way. I responded to Michael’s posting with a proposal of my own – if he would select me as the winner of his auction and use his expertise to help me build my company’s brand, I would also use my tools (my website, my blog, my LinkedIN postings, my webinars, and my clients) to help promote his services.

I’m happy to report that Michael has accepted my proposal and we will begin immediately helping each other grow our respective firms – all this being done without any exchange of cash in an effort to help each other, and thereby, help our own businesses – the ultimate in effective networking, and the essence of small business in America, in my opinion.

THE CHALLENGE

In today’s economy it is critical for small business to take up the challenge of creating jobs to help, in the words of our new President, “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of re-building America”. Given that the largest percentage of small businesses are started on a shoestring, networking plays a vital role in that revitalization. Therefore, I’m issuing a challenge to the members of LinkedIN – and every other social network – I challenge you to come up with a way to utilize these social networks to develop a means by which you can help another small business that then results in helping your own business grow. If each of us does this just once, think of the tremendous impact this could have on our U.S. economy and that of our global community!  Will you meet this challenge?

If you decide to take up the challenge, please send me your stories so I can share them with others in the online community. I look forward to seeing the impact of small business and social networks on re-building our nation’s economy and hope that the members of LinkedIN will play a pivotal role in this endeavor! Let’s see the REAL power of small business and social networks!

__________________________________________________________

The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts with over twenty years’ experience in working with small businesses. Linda can be contacted by email at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net. The company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com

5 Tips to Maximize the First Appointment with a Prospective B2B Customer

It’s often said that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s definitely true when it comes to B2B sales. When you set up an appointment with a prospective customer, you should leave no details to chance.

1. Research:

Know your customer and their needs as much as you can prior to the meeting. It personalizes your customer service, and your potential customer will be pleased that you took the time to find out about their business.

2. Have passion and confidence:
Remember that every appointment is like a job interview. You may be invited back or eliminated from the competition. Remember to show your passion for the business and your confidence in your ability to fulfill their needs.

3. Ask qualifying questions:

Have a list of “qualifying questions” prepared to take with you. Some of these should be specific to their industry, and some to their specific business, so you can identify the problems they are having and come up with solutions to solve them.

4. Sell solutions and benefits, don’t push product:

Don’t try to “sell them” at the first meeting. Use this as an information-gathering session. Take a “consultative” selling approach. Your job is to pull information out of them and then educate them on the solutions and benefits your company can provide.

5. Offer to hold the meeting at their office:
Be on time, well-researched and prepared for any questions. Meet the client at their business location. They will appreciate you taking the time and saving theirs.

Entrepreneur’s Guide to Public Resources

Interesting article in Forbes magazine recently about a wide variety of resources for entrepreneurs. Includes information about gaining access to Angel Investors, programs from the SBA (Small Business Administration) that can assist you with loans and other services, a group that can direct you to the best Venture Capital firms, and information about city and state grant and tax incentive programs. Also links to 11 sectors of business still being invested in by Venture Capital firms and 9 ways to make money online. Click on this link to go directly to the article http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/09/small-business-sba-ent-manage-cx_mf_0109publicresources_print.html

Changes to “Marketing Tools” Page

Those of you that are interested in having access to “Marketing Tools” and may have viewed that page in this blog previously only to find the links not working, please re-visit the page. 

We have made changes that now provide links to our website which is serving as the host for our various marketing tools.  This change will enable us to update the database of tools on a more frequent basis.

We hope you find this change – and the tools – helpful.

Learn to Use Mobile Advertising for Your Business

Given the high level of interest in, and reader commentary on, this week’s earlier posting about Kroger’s new mobile coupons, I thought I would continue our exploration of this exciting new media opportunity. Based on my review of the many comments made in the LinkedIN groups where I posted a reference to the Kroger article, as well as the many direct messages I received, it appears to me that there is a strong level of interest in mobile messaging – as well as a distinct lack of information, and a hunger for learning everything possible. Therefore, I did a bit of searching to locate materials that can provide some basic information and resources.

Attached to this posting you will find a link to a white paper written by IDC Information and Data entitled, “Common Short Codes: The Time Is Now for Mobile Marketing and Outreach”. This document provides a good overview of mobile advertising opportunities, explains the technology, and gives excellent examples of how the technology is being utilized effectively. http://www.usshortcodes.com/docs/Mobilize_with_CSCs.pdf

The second link you will find in today’s posting is to the Common Short Code Administration which has engaged a firm called Neustar to operate the Common Short Code Registry on behalf of the CTIA – The Wireless Association®. Follow this link and you can learn all the steps needed to register a Common Short Code (CSC) for your firm’s use, as well as gaining a broad range of information on the technology and the industry. http://www.usshortcodes.com/.

Take the time to explore mobile advertising; along with all things web-based, mobile advertising is another great technology to give small businesses the same advantages as larger firms. It’s a way to level the playing field to provide small businesses access to customers and opportunities they would not have been able to access just a few short years ago. Make sure you learn how to use this technology to YOUR firm’s best advantage!

If you like this article and this topic and would like me to continue to provide additional information and resources about it, make sure to let me know by leaving a comment on this blog or sending me a message via my LinkedIN profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindadaichendt.

__________________________________________________________

The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts with over twenty years’ experience in working with small businesses. Linda can be contacted by email at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net. The company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com

Kroger Offers Mobile Coupons Nationally

As someone who has worked within the mobile industry, I have been fascinated to watch the continuing evolution of wireless technology applications. I have long felt that the wireless equipment manufacturers and retailers have not been doing a very good job of educating consumers about the applications available, how to utilize the applications, and how the applications can benefit them. I’m a strong believer that in the not very distant future our cell phones will be as useful to us as our laptop computers in that they will have all sorts of software on them that we use as part of our everyday lives. Today, this is simply not the case; while consumers are purchasing increasingly high-function cellphone devices, most have no idea how to use that functionality.

However, at long last a major national grocery retailer is making available a mobile coupon program and since everyone needs groceries, I believe if enough people find out about the program it can go a long way toward increasing the awareness of consumers on this convenient, useful application for their cellphones. In the following link you can read about Kroger’s new mobile coupon program. http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/commerce/2417.html

Once I read the article, I decided to try it out to see how well it worked and I have to say, I was quite impressed! It took about a minute and a half to register for the program, about 30 seconds to download the software into my phone, another 10 seconds to register my Kroger card into the program, and VOILA! I began receiving coupons that were valid in my zip code! I then scrolled thru the offers, selected those I wanted and opted to save them. Once saved, they were automatically loaded onto my Kroger card and I saw photos of the product selected on my phone. Now when I go to the grocery store this weekend and purchase those products, the discount coupons will automatically register from my Kroger card as I am checking out! In this economy where every penny counts, what could be easier?

As you read this article, do yourself a favor and start thinking of ways that your company might be able to start utilizing mobile technology to your advantage – and your customers!

__________________________________________________________

The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts with over twenty years’ experience in working with small businesses. Linda can be contacted by email at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net. The company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com

Five Ways to Fail at Attracting and Retaining Customers in 2009

Earlier this week I offered an article written by Paul Segreto which focused on ways to overcome your fears of business failure and not let them paralyze you to inaction. Today I thought we would explore business failure from another perspective – those business owners who choose to believe that they have all the answers, that the customer should learn to properly appreciate them instead of the other way around, and that their business is so successful that it’s not possible for anything to cause its’ failure. Do you know any of these business owners? Have you worked for any of them? How many businesses do you know that are (or were) successful until the owner’s ego got in the way?

For those of you who can relate to these questions and are right now thinking of a certain business that you are currently aware of (or one that used to exist), you are likely to enjoy the irony of the article I read in a recent issue of the MarketingProfs newsletter; the article was entitled, “Five Ways to Fail at Attracting and Retaining Customers in 2009″. This article takes a sarcastic approach to trying to help you understand the actions you need to take to insure that your business continues to grow and achieve success. I know as I read it I was reminded of several companies in my history that could have been case studies for the article. Read for yourself in the article below, and see how many companies you know that could use this reminder – hopefully you’re not one of them!

 

Five Ways to Fail at Attracting and Retaining Customers in 2009
by Michael DiFrisco
Published on January 6, 2009

Want to really impress your boss, your board, your employees, or your mom? Want to drive your customers to the competition? Then simply fall flat on your face in your attempt to get your business to stand for something in the marketplace in 2009. That will really make an impact—and fill you with warm fuzzy feelings of non-accomplishment.

So, if you’re ready to fail, buckle your seatbelt and engage the air bag, because we’re getting ready to crash and burn.

First, ignore what your current customers and supporters are saying

Go with your gut and forget what the feedback says. Customers don’t understand or appreciate one of your offerings? Too bad. They’re just going to have to live with it.

In fact, practice this: When customers try to share their opinion with you, stick an index finger in each ear and say loudly, “Blah, blah, blah…I can’t HEAR you!” When their attitudes, perceptions, and concerns land on deaf ears, they’ll simply find another avenue for their dollars, and you will have succeeded.

And prospective customers? You’re sure to turn them away with your demonstrated lack of caring and understanding of real customer needs and wants.

Next, have apathy about your brand and your business

To ensure failure, show indifference and lazy attitudes about your business—and your brand—and you’ll be well on your way. Because when you don’t love your brand, what it stands for, and why it matter… others will begin to feel the same way.

In fact, for quicker results, proactively share your negativity with your customers and prospects through your inconsistent messaging, customer disservice, and irrelevance in the marketplace.

There’s a now-apocryphal story of Quaker’s acquisition of Snapple. You might remember when the Snapple brand was super-popular, its commercials were edgy and memorable, and the grassroots owners were clinging to a shooting star.

After Quaker bought the brand, it stopped listening to consumer feedback, the commercials got dull and predictable, and Quaker started using Gatorade-like distribution and packaging methods, all of which flew in the face of the established promises of the once-humble brand.

That episode has been described as a classic case of brand managers’ simply not loving the brand they were entrusted to steward. After having invested billions, Quaker ended up spinning off Snapple at a huge loss.

Then, crank in some pessimism

This is where it gets fun, which is important because managing your company’s brand is complex and multifaceted. In other words, it’s an ongoing, demanding series of tasks. You’ll have to stay on top of consistent messaging, unwavering voice and tone, and dozens of other intricate parameters. It’ll never work, so get used to the idea.

Take British novelist, Thomas Hardy’s advice: “Pessimism…is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child’s play.”

Hope you have a short-term perspective—you’ll need it to fail

Building a successful brand takes time. But we’ll have none of that. We’re driving down the dead-end road to guaranteed failure, so a short-term perspective will be just fine, thank you.

Forget the fact that change takes time to “take,” and that brands are continually evolving. Not only that, but target markets transform, audiences age, and their needs vary. But a short-term perspective will work just fine. Move on to the next thing before you grow stale.

Finally, stay inside the box

Don’t forge a new path. Copy what your competition is doing. Differentiation? Overrated. Developing creative solutions to brand strategy and tactics is a colossal waste of time. Don’t get prospects attention by leveraging creativity. Blend in. Conform and be dull.

It’s been said that dictators often see creativity as a subversive activity because it leads to knowledge—possibly the most revolutionary insight of all.

Stay inside the box and you’ll join the ranks of the world’s dullards.

__________________________________________________________

My apologies if this article was a little rough. I’ll just do what some teachers—who believe the term “fail” is too harsh for impressionable students—have begun doing. They’ve come to embrace the term “deferred success.”

So follow the myopic advice in this article, and you’ll be sure to defer success in 2009.

 Michael DiFrisco , founder of How-to-Branding.com, is the “affordable branding guy” and can be reached at miked@how-to-branding.com.

Facing the Fear of Business Failure

Recently on LinkedIN I posted a request in my groups to receive submissions for various topics of interest that group members would like me to write about in this blog and elsewhere. One of the topics that had a high level of interest was ‘what to do if you think your business is in trouble’, likely a topic of wide-spread interest given today’s economic climate. However, before I could even start thinking about what I would write to address this request, one of my networking friends sent me an article that he had written which I believe to be a very strong first step to saving your business. This article is directed toward franchisees, however, it equally applies to any small business owner and I think all will find it of value.

 

Facing Failure

I can personally relate to the trials and tribulations of owning a small business as I have “been there and done that” and have experiences on both ends of the spectrum from achieving overwhelming success to dealing with bitter failure. I have definitely come to understand the fine line between success and failure in trying to nail down the American Dream.

I know it is sometimes counterproductive to even mention failure which is why the subject is always avoided and never discussed. Yet, it’s out there and it’s real. Once business owners face the possibility of failure and its very real consequences they can be motivated to understand that failure is not an option and commit 100% to a plan that addresses immediate problems and provides solutions accordingly. Even if it’s necessary for the plan to be quite drastic or aggressive due to prevailing circumstances, business owners that unequivocally realize that failure is not an option are prepared for immediate action.

Let me emphasize one point. Business owners (entrepreneurs) should not view poor sales and disappointing profits as either potential or immediate failure and stick their heads in the sand. I made that mistake in the past and suffered the consequences. Instead, they should build upon the courage it took to become a small business owner and recommit to success as they did when they first took the entrepreneurial plunge.

They need to remember their wishes, hopes and dreams that prompted the decision to own their own business? They need to remember the admiration of family and friends when they heard about the new venture? They need to remember the excitement when they actually signed their first lease?

Let me clarify something. I failed in business ownership as a franchisee. Not because of anything the franchisor did or didn’t do but because I put and kept my head in the sand and did not face reality. I could go on and make excuses about things that happened around me but at the end of the day I could have turned things around if I got my own head out of the sand, made some difficult decisions and took full, immediate responsibility.

Unfortunately I was scared of failing. I was afraid of what people would think. I was ashamed at what other franchisees, ones I put in business, would think of me. I couldn’t even think of facing my family. All lame excuses for not taking responsibility. Maybe a hard swift kick you-know-where would have helped.

Did I mention that I previously ran the franchise company where I failed as a franchisee? Did I mention I was elected by fellow franchisees, President of the National Advisory Council? Did I mention that I owned and operated five franchise units?

If I had clearly understood the implications and consequences that were looming on the horizon and if I was able to get my big ego out of the way and address things head on, maybe I could have survived. Maybe I could have at least implemented an exit strategy that would have, in some small way, paid back the loyalty and support of my employees, family and friends.

In the end, I may not have survived because it may very well have been too late when and if I finally took action and responsibility. But maybe I could have at least exited with some dignity. Also, I could have saved many innocent people a great deal of hardship, embarrassment, wasted effort and ill-spent resources if I did face reality. This includes my family, my employees and yes, my franchisor; all who believed in me. Yes, it was a tremendous learning experience but not one I would bestow or wish on anyone.

As we’ve entered 2009 in the realms of economic uncertainty, I’m certain already difficult situations have been compounded but I’m confident a snap back to reality could only help. By facing the failure head on, the path to success will be clearer than it’s been for some time. I once read “the greatest achievement in life is to stand up again after failing.” How very true.

Paul Segreto is Founder and President at 21st Century Franchise Coach with over twenty years’ senior level management, marketing and development experience exclusively within the franchising industry. Paul can be contacted by email segreto.paul@gmail.com. Company website can be viewed at www.21stCenturyFranchiseCoach.com.

Would You Like to Live in the Mall?

As most of you are probably aware, retail in this country is currently in a great deal of stress. This is hardly news. What you’ve likely not thought about is the effect these retail challenges are having on the Shopping Mall itself. How many of you have a Mall in your area that has 50% or more vacancies, or a Mall that has actually closed? It’s likely many of you have seen this. As someone who spent years working in the Shopping Center industry, I’ve seen a lot of it – in fact, two malls that I previously marketed have since been torn down – and they weren’t that old, nor were they run down – but they were in areas that were “over-malled” and where the demographics had changed around them!  I’ve attached a photo of one of them – from after its closing but obviously before it was leveled.

This trend of retailers moving away from enclosed Shopping Malls tells us a number of things about today’s consumer and the retail environment, but the most important thing that it tells us is that the model itself is broken – and has been for quite some time. However, the front-runners in the industry saw this coming and approximately 20 years ago some changes began to take place in the industry with the development of “mixed-use centers” (malls attached to office buildings and hotels) and lifestyle centers (outdoor malls that look like a small town old fashioned downtowns).

Today, however, we’re on the brink of another level of evolution in the industry – shopping malls as housing! I recently read a very interesting article in the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) Smartbrief. This article provided an excellent overview of this emerging trend and its’ anticipated evolution over the next several years, the link is attached http://www.housingwire.com/2008/12/29/malls-the-future-of-housing. It’s an interesting idea to consider. Personally, I think it’s a great idea, though I would guess that consumers will still need a number of years to be in agreement with me. What do you think after reading the article? I’d be very interested in your comments.

__________________________________________________________

The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts with over twenty years’ experience in working with small businesses. Linda can be contacted by email at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net. The company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com

eMarketer’s Predictions for 2009 Online Spending

I read a very interesting article today from eMarketer regarding their predictions for 2009 online spending. The article examines trends in various online advertising strategies such as search, video, display, lead generation, and email. It also examines the viability of targeting demographic segments by age and cultural diversity in online advertising. Lastly, it examines online purchasing trends in retail, and expected trends in eCommerce on social networks. Some of the information contained within the reports may surprise you.

For those that are working on final revisions of their 2009 marketing plans, this article can be helpful in guiding you in your decisions regarding your online strategies and budget allocations. For those that have either concluded your planning for 2009 or don’t yet have extensive knowledge on web strategies, this article can serve as a good overview to insure that you have basic knowledge on trends in this channel.

The link to the article follows: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006813

After reading the article, I would be interested in seeing comments from you which identify your thoughts regarding the article’s content and/or any resulting changes you may initiate in your 2009 Marketing Plans as a result of this information.