A lesson from the Second Law of Thermodynamics you can use in your small business
“Same old, same old.” Have you said that, or used similar words, when you’ve been asked what you have been doing lately? We tend to be creatures of habit. By itself, that’s not bad. If we had to consciously think about every step we took each day, everything we had to do, we would go mad. However, there is a law in physics that I believe applies to human systems, and a small business certainly falls into this category. It’s the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Entropy. Some synonyms for entropy are decline, degradation, and breaking down. The law says that the total entropy of an isolated system always increases over time, or remains constant in ideal cases. This means that the rate of decline of any system left alone will increase over time or at best, its rate of decline will stay the same. The important part of this law is the word “isolated.” In physics, an isolated system isn’t receiving any energy from an outside source. For example, the batteries in our electronic devices entropy (even when they are not in use) so we must periodically replace them or recharge them, i.e. provide new energy from an outside source. Keep your business energized In the same way, we need to add energy to our businesses or they will gradually decline. Let me give you an example that we have all probably seen at one time or another. It’s when the owner of a business gets it up and running and thinks that he or she can walk away and let it run by itself. Invariably, this small business owner gets a rude awakening at some point, realizing that the business is about to tank. The challenge for the small business owner is to provide those infusions of energy that keep the business healthy, growing, and moving forward. One way to approach this is to key on a word that is somewhat the opposite of isolated, and that word is “new.” Almost anytime you add something new to your business, you’re pumping in a kind of energy. Let me start the list of strategies and items that could be new to your business: A new hire. A new product. A new territory. A new building or office. A new machine. New positions/challenges for current team members. This list is far from complete. I have no doubt that you could think of many new initiatives or new items that would give your business an injection of fresh energy. As I’m writing this, the New Year is right around the corner. (Hey, there’s another “new” you can leverage in your business.) However, you should be thinking about adding elements of “newness” to your business all year long. Finally, don’t just take my word for the importance of battling entropy. Here’s another business expert who has something to say on the subject: “I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.” – Elon Musk...
read moreAvoid these ‘graphic’ mistakes on your social media pages
Even fairly good social media marketers often make some very basic mistakes on their social media pages, especially with their cover art. Let’s take a quick tour of some of the most common social media account artistic blunders. Bad photos For many businesses and individuals, using a headshot is a natural strategy on your “home page” on most of the major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and even Periscope. Doing a headshot session with a professional photographer is a small expense that will upgrade your presence tremendously. Don’t settle for images like those below recently grabbed from the social media world. (By the way, the one with the words “Social Media” in it, is part of the name of the person’s company; it got clipped when forced into the little square.) Tip: Whenever you use a headshot that is a profile or partial profile, you want the person to be looking into the page, not away from the center of the page. When the subject is looking into the page you want the visitor to see, the visitor’s eye is naturally drawn in that direction. Bad placement With Twitter, you’re given a large, rectangular cover photo as well as a smaller, square inset that can is most often used for a head shot or personal portrait of some kind. Be sure that each piece of art is tailored specifically to meet the requirements of Twitter – or any other social media platform you’re using. With Twitter, problems arise because the two images overlap. Many small businesses take a piece of existing art and use it as the bigger image and then put in something else in the small inset square. Often the small square blocks out important type on the bigger image, as I’ve illustrated below. Lazy image choices If you’re going to use social media for marketing or customer service, do it right or don’t do it at all. I’ve seen many business sites on Facebook where the second small image is the same or similar to the larger cover art. That looks bad and shows that you didn’t really think about or plan what you wanted to do, and that’s not the impression you want to make on visitors. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and in the social media, your first impression is often visual. Take the time to create graphics and take photos that will wow visitors with your style and...
read moreThis week in small business: The tips you need to finish 2016 strong!
The end of the year and the end of the holiday season is within our sights, so grab an extra handful of practical advice this week from our collection of curated content and finish strong! Leadership, management, and productivity Do you have all 10 free productivity tools in this list by Ivy Guerrero? Can’t beat the price! The Forbes Coaches Council gives us 11 stress management tips for entrepreneurs and certainly ’tis the season when we need to reduce our stress levels. Attention harried parents: Help is on the way – 10 productivity hacks for busy parents, by Pete Cataldo. Marketing and sales I like Chris Abraham’s attitude in this article of his, The More the Messier for Content Marketing SEO Success. We all know how popular TED talks are, so it should be no a surprise that Krystal Covington believes every marketing executive can learn something from giving a TED talk. It can be hard to be noticed above the marketing “noise” so Nicola Brown’s 5 tips for creating a video that stands out should be useful. Victoria Heckstall offers advice on how to get your website SEO-ready for the holidays and the tips really apply to any special season. Are you marketing a book? If so, Chris Syme’s 4 Steps to Selling More Books with Less Social Media will deliver some good insights. And, many apply to other products as well. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Barb Stuckey’s Forbes article talks to three women who have had great entrepreneurial success in the food industry and they encourage other women to follow in their footsteps. Even Millennials will get encouragement from Daniel Richard’s blog on the Virgin website: Confessions of a late-blooming entrepreneur. I suppose the 12 killer qualities of a true entrepreneur in this Blog Talk Radio broadcast apply to both the young and old. Here are six things a fresh-out-of-college kid should expect when signing on with a startup, according to Suzana...
read more4 keys to get your team moving in the same direction
December 16 is “Cat Herders Day.” I don’t know if this special day was created with small business owners in mind, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Keeping the employees on your team all headed in the same direction can, at times, be a seemingly impossible task. I’ve found that small business owners who have this problem can solve it by making some fairly simple improvements to their leadership style and management goals. Here are four keys required to accomplish that. 1. Goals and priorities If you look up the word “priority” in the dictionary it defines it as “A thing that is regarded as more important than another.” Strictly speaking, you can’t have 10 priorities. That would force you to ask the question, “Which of these is more important than the others?” You can have more goals, but you can still only have one goal that is the most important. If you’re unable to determine the most important goal you want for your organization, you can’t expect your team to all be rowing in the same direction. Therefore, to solve the “herding cats” problem, you need to have a very short list of goals for your team. 2. Communication Once you have your goals, they must be communicated. However, communicating them isn’t accomplished by sending out a memo one day and then moving on. Simplify your messaging and make it a mantra. Model it and mention it. Your employees should be able to recite your goals back to you. Quiz them on it: “What’s the most important thing we’re trying to accomplish this quarter?” If they can’t answer that question, it’s not their fault – it’s your fault! 3. Cooperation Instilling an attitude of cooperation is fundamental to keeping your team members moving in the same direction. Although competition is healthy, it’s critical that your employees remember that they need to be focusing their competitive energies on your business competitors, not internally between one another where it can escalate to internecine conflict. 4. Accountability Holding your employees accountable to your few, clearly defined, and well communicated goals “closes the loop.” Accountability can be informal and formal. It can range from quick conversations in the hallway, to discussions at meetings, to using it as a rating category on reviews. Ask employees what they are doing to further your goals and to assess their own progress. This year, take a few moments on Cat Herders Day to get better organized. Your business will be far more successful if your team resembles the racers at the start of the Indianapolis 500 rather than a herd of loveable – but clearly undisciplined –...
read moreHow the sales dialogue builds relationships, trust, and bottom lines
Brian Tracy says that ultimately all selling is relationship selling and that underscores the importance of the sales dialogue. The hosts of late night talk shows may use monologues to get their shows off to a good start, but it’s the sales dialogue that will serve as the foundation of a successful relationship between a buyer and a seller. To participate in a sales dialogue, it’s important for the salesperson to do much more listening than talking. This is because: Your customer’s problem is more important than what you’re selling, Your customer must be assured that you understand the problem, You must build trust with your customer in order to have your sales pitch met with receptive ears, and You should be able to simply and concisely explain why you have the best solution to your customer’s problem. As easy as this sounds, it can be difficult to do. After all, sales professionals should believe that they have an excellent product or service and they should be eager to share that with people because they know it will make their customers’ lives better. Have you ever met someone for the first time and walked away from your encounter thinking, “Wow, that person seemed to really care about me”? If you have, I’ll guarantee you it was because the person asked questions about you and listened to your answers. If you do that, it puts you in the position to ask follow-up questions, which prove that you’re listening to the person who is doing the talking; follow-up questions “close the loop” of understanding. I have a friend who used to be a newspaper reporter and because of that, he has been trained to ask questions, listen to answers, and ask follow-up questions. This is how he handles most social encounters, but he always notices if the people he’s talking to never ask him a question. He’s explained to me that he expects this because people are their own favorite subjects to talk about. However, he takes special note when someone shows their interest (or curiosity) by asking him questions. With his newspaper training, he’s somewhat more consciously aware of the interest people take in him during conversations. However, we all process this information and store it, even if it is done unconsciously. When you’re meeting new prospects, you only have one chance to make a first impression that shows you’re interested in their concerns and not there to wow them with a sales demonstration or slick spiel. It’s your responsibility to start and lead a sales dialogue: Ask questions, Repeat what is said in your own words to be sure you understand properly, and Ask follow-up questions. Allow your sales dialogue to naturally include your solution to your prospect’s problem. If you start to build the foundation of the relationship first, the relationship will be much stronger in the long run and result in more...
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